PARLIAMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 July 1922, Page 5

PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE RESUMES TO-DAY. ADDRESS-IN-REPLY DEBATE. A WEEK OF SPEECHES. (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) Wellington, July 3. The Legislative Council and the House of Representatives will both meet to-morrow afternoon. The council will not have much work to do until the Lower Chamber has completed the Addreas-in-Reply debate and it probably will adjourn for a few days. The Address-in-Reply is to be moved in the House to-morrow evening by Mr. D. Jones (Kaiapoi). Mr. Clutha Mackenzie (Auckland East) will second the motion and then the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Wilford) wifi have his opportunity to move the amendment of «whieh he has given notice- There seems to be very little doubt that this debate will extend into next week. Many,of the members have indicated their wish to speak, and the Prime Minister’s habit is to permit the House to keep early hours at the beginning of a session. The Leader of the Opposition has not indicated the form of his amendment. Probably he will include in it some reference to finance. A want-of-eon-fidence motion is not a serious affair in the present state of parties, but it has the effect of delaying the presentation of reports and .papers, and other business that the Governmeut may have ready for the House. When such a matter has been .placed before the House, it is required ’by constitutional practice to take precedence of all other business. The rule applies even when, as in the present case, the eventual defeat of the hostile amendment is a foregone conclusion. This will be a week of speeches in the House. Ministers have had notice of one or two deputations for this week, but it appears at the moment that financial stringency has discouraged the electorates from asking for things- The deputation habit has been embarrassing to Ministers in recent years. The people of the’ various districts have not been content to put their claims before their local members and leave the members to deal with the Ministers. They have preferred to send deputations to the Ministers. The consequence has been that during sessions much of the time of members of the Cabinet has been given to visitors who wished to make sure that every detail of their business received the personal attention of Ministers of the Crown. That may be good democracy, but it is rather hard on the men who are trying to attend to the important affairs of the country. The Prime Minister does not expect to be able to present the Financial Statement to the House for five or six weeks yet. Members are interested in Mr. Massey’s promise that he will try on this occasion to present the public accounts in more detail than has been the custom in the .past. Most of New Zealand’s politicians do not profess to know much about public finance, but the few who have given attention to the subject have complained that the accounts lack detail. This year’s estimates are sure to be trimmed almost to the boneMinisters have indicated as much already.