Mr. Speaker . . . ! Session Queries and Asides

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 732, 3 August 1929, Page 1

Mr. Speaker . . . ! Session Queries and Asides

(THU SUN'S Parliamentary KeportmrJ

WELLINGTON. Friday

Apart from the momentous Budget evening and the short discussion which followed it, the week in Parliament has been very quiet after the rather brisk business of the week before. Members seem to have lost their energy, and this afternoon was devoted to a sedate discussion on the new Standing Orders. Work on the clauses went slowly, and now the orders will not be considered until after the financial debate, which begins on Tuesday next Labour members are girding up their loins in preparation for the financial debate, and can be seen earnestly delving into old Hansards and Statutes, and generally working up a hymn of hate against the Government. * » * Among many of the Labour men there is a feeling of commiseration for the Leader of the Opposition, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, because of the reading of the Vaile letter and its reply by the Prime Minister, tfce Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph Ward, and the Minister of Justice, the Hon. T. M. Wilford, respectively. It is more than likely that the letter and its treatment will come in for criticism from, the cross-benches. * » » Conscript Inefficiency There have been few bright moments in the debates, and members have trusted to the well-worn paths of political platitude. They had their annual corroboree on the Compulsory Military Service Repeal Bill, and little that was new was said. One thing struck the listener, and that was the hearing Mr. H. M. Rushworth (Bay of Islands) received when he spoke of war and the ineptitude of conscripts as he found them. There was silence in the Chamber as his pleasantly-modulated voice told in spare. Incisive sentences his opinion of compulsory training. A more suitable timetable for tlio mail train running from Dunedin to Christchurch on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays was sought by Mr. J. A. Macpherson (Oamaru) in a notice of question to the Minister of Railways, the Hon. W. B. Taverner. He asked that the dispatch of the mail train be delayed until approximately the same time the through express from Invercargill to Lyttelton now leaves Dunedin on the other three days of the week. * * * That Primage Impost Members have settled straight down to question the Prime Minister on subjects relating to his Budget proposals. This afternoon Mr. J. Bitchener (Waitaki) gave notice to ask the Prime Minister if he would make provision for exemption from the extra primage duty proposed on all goods landing for local contractors who had entered into contracts on the basis of the 1 per cent, primage duty. He said that lately many contractors had entered into contracts on the basis of the then existing costs, and sow might be seriously embarrassed fi iancially. • • * Unimproved Land-Tax Mr. W. E. Barnard (Napier) referred to the direct taxation proposals, in asking the Minister whether the provisions of section 51 of the Land and Income Tax Act, 1923. providing for the imposition of 50 per cent, additional land-tax upon unimproved land, as defined in the same section, had been consistently enforced, or whether the section had been allowed to become entirely inoperative. • * # Sayings of the Week “The only army we have—apart from the Salvation Army—is the Territorial one.”—Mr. F. Waite (Clutha). * * * . . Field-Marshal Sir William Robertson, a greater authority than the member for Gisborne, Mr. W. D. Lysnar,” said Mr. R. Semple (Wellington East). A murmur from Mr. P. Fraser (Wellington Central): Surely not! • * * A new version of Biblical history from Mr. R. Semple: When Christ left that wonderful message to the world, . hou shalt not kill.” * • * “It’s a wonder the member for Gisborne doesn’t erect a monument to himself and get on top of it and say, ‘I alone am loyal—to myself—first—second —Mr. W. J. Jordan (Manukau). • • * “Someone mentioned the Marquess of Queensbury—l didn’t know cha gentleman very well—but I say it’s not playing cricket.”—Mr. E. J. Howard (Christchurch South). ♦ * * The members of the Labour Party are fond of quotation, most of them, and the favourite author of Mr. W. J. Jordan (Manukau), when speaking on bis Compulsory Military Service Repeal Bill, was William Shakespeare, and the most-quoted play was “Henry V.” Mr. Jordan would stop and say that he would “dip in the Avon” again and out would come an apposite verse or two.