The Daily News THURSDAY, AUGUST 17, 1933. THE NEXT SESSION.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 August 1933, Page 4

The Daily News

THURSDAY, AUGUST 17, 1933. THE NEXT SESSION.

OFFICES: NEW PLYMOUTH, Currie Street. STRATFORD. Broadway. HAWERA, Hlffh Street.

There is nothing unusual about the decision to open the next Parliamentary session on September 21. The Prime Minister will have returned, and whatever may be the proposals made to him in London, Ottawa or Washington it is quite evident that Parliamentary ratification of any new or altered trade agreements will be necessary. It may, of course, be possible for exporters in the Dominion to come to certain voluntary. arrangements with the authorities in Great Britain under existing agreements that would not require the attention of Parliament. If the forecast made by the acting-Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates is accurate there seems no reason why the new session should last more than a few weeks. As Minister of Finance Mr. Coates considers that tariff revision and further alteration in the rate of exchange will not come before Parliament this year. Tariff revision must await the report' of the inquiry which is now proceeding, a report that is unlikely to be ready when Parliament meets. It may be that the Tariff Commission’s first recommendations will apply to comparatively few items in the general tariff, and that an endeavour will be made to carry them into effect during the coming session if only as an indication to Great Britain that New Zealand is prepared to fulfil the spirit as well as the letter of the Ottawa agreements. On the other hand to demonstrate that determination may require a general overhaul of the tariff, and that is an undertaking that cannot be hurried through Parliament. Mr. Coates has indicated that he will be prepared to present his Budget proposals early in the session, and as they must constitute the most important work of the House the sooner the Estimates are before Parliament the better. Until the financial proposals for the future are known there is sure to be uncertainty, and in the atmosphere of uncertainty the growth of confidence among the producing and trading community is almost impossible. Apart from the Budget a Bill designed to bring New Zealand company law into line with that of England is to be brought down. Such legislation is entirely non-political. It depends for its efficacy upon expert draftsmanship more than anyanything else, and the Bill ought not to occupy any great length of time in becoming law. Reform of company law is admittedly desirable, it has been promised for a considerable period, and it should be well within the scope of the new session’s work. Another measure it is thought will be brought forward is a Bill for the establishment of a central reserve bank. A Bill for this purpose did not receive very warm welcome from the House last session, and in the country there has been considerable, though not always very instructive criticism of the Bill. But the Government’s determination to establish a central reserve bank can be understood. For good or ill the Government has entered the field of banking. The raising of the exchange rate, loan conversion operations, and the need for financing budget deficits by the issue of Treasury bills are cases in point. They have brought the Government into relations with the trading banks which have not always been satisfactory, and have sometimes led to protracted negotiations when promptitude was most desired. Further, if the movement for raising and stabilising internal prices throughout the British Commonwealth of Nations by regulating the volume of currency and credit is to develop the existence of a centralised banking system in each nation seems necessary. Talk of the establishment of a reserve bank being an attempt to “ensnare New Zealand in the

toils of international finance” can be disregarded, as can the statement that it is an attempt to allow the London financiers to dictate industrial conditions within the Dominion. The Government has had the opportunity during the recess of assessing at its real value the criticism of the Bill brought down last session. It is to be hoped that its new proposals will receive consideration unswayed by political party leanings and commensurate with the importance of the matter dealt with. One thing is certain. The electorate is in no humour to see time wasted in the coming session. Be the programme large or small it should be handled expeditiously and with the one desire to see the Dominion benefit from the deliberations of Parliament.