MANY EMPTY BENCHES

Taranaki Daily News, 28 October 1935, Page 4

MANY EMPTY BENCHES

HASTE TO END SESSION SCANT CONSIDERATION OF BILLS. THOUGHTS TURNED TO ELECTION. CHANGED PERSONNEL EXPECTED. (By Telegraph.—Special Reporter). ’. Wellington, Last Night. After a session undistinguished by any very important legislation or any very interesting features the present Parliament adjourned to-day for the last time. When another Parliament is called it will probably contain a changed personnel. There may be a reorganised Government and a somewhat different alignment of parties is regarded as a distinct possibility. For members of Parliament and for politically-minded elements in' the community all interest now centres on the general election and on the results of polling day on November 27. The session has dragged on for nine weeks, in spite of a general desire for an early dissolution, and at least eight of those weeks have been taken up in talk, most of it decidedly of an elec- . tioneering flavour. The Government, with a slender legislative programme, has been somewhat lax in getting its business through and it was not until the last week was well advanced that most of its legislation appeared in the House. The last two days have seen a constant stream of relatively unimportant Bills and a jaded House sitting late into the night has watched its progression with a hopeless and -melancholy feeling of ineptitude.

The Government has been careful not to hurry members and it has been sparing with its motions for urgency but to an observer it has appeared rather ridiculous that the great bulk of sessional legislation should pass through Parliament at tire last moment with a very minimum of consideration and after so many weeks have been wasted in comparatively valueless debates.

TALK MORE THAN EXAMINATION.

It is fairly certain that some of the latest legislation of the session, particularly that dealing with housing suveys, the establishment of a board of control of the tobacco growing industry and the enforcement of the League of Nations sanctions by New Zealand against Italy, if introduced earlier, would have provoked discussion and some salutary criticism, but the manner in which it has rushed through in the last, two days has given some credence to the view that Parliament cares more for talk than for closely examining Bills added to the Statute Book.

The Government cannot, however, take all the blame for this hurried procedure. Most of the legislation of the last few days has been held up by the law draftsman and the Government printing office and some of it has been built up only after long conferences, held during the session with interested parties. And the Labouy Party has not shown any noticeable desire to steady the progress of the House. It is true that halfhearted complaints were made during the recent avalanche of Government Bills but it is also true that Labour members preferred to enlarge on electioneering points concerned with minor matters rather than to debate fully the measures which might be deemed to justify careful consideration. ' . On Friday night in' the House when Bills were passing without a voice raised in query or opposition there was only, a handful of Labour members in thetr seats. Others had left by boat and train for their various electorates, eager to. begin their campaigning and careless of what might come up for consideration during the .doubtful closing hours of the session. . ; HUSTINGS FOR BENCHES. ' The Government members, however, were just as conspicuous by their absence. The whole House has displayed marked haste to bring the session to an. end and to exchange the benches for the hustings. It is difficult to find among the many small Bills passed during the session any of outstanding, importance. Most of them have' been machinery amendments to existing statutes, designed in a great part to facilitate administration and to meet the requirements of departmental officers; ; . / / •■■/ Perhaps the most important measure, certainly the most important from a constitutional point of view, was the League of Nations Sanctions . (Enforcement in New Zealand) Bill introduced during the week and passed at the same sitting. The Prime Minister, Mr. G, W. Forbes, explained in his opening speech that any economic sanctions applied by New Zealand at the request of the League would have no great significance, but the very fact that the Dominion is taking part m an international effort for world peace and preservation of the system of collective security is not without importance. Other measures of interest include two Finance Bills passed by the House, one fulfilling the promises of the Budget in salary and pensions increases and the other introducing a number of miscellaneous amendments to existing statutes. The Minister of Finance, Mr. J. G. Coates, possibly anticipating criticism of the. form of this measure, said that he was afraid it would not be altogether acceptable to those who insisted that amendments to existing Acts should appear separately and in their proper context. .

Actually the Bill contained several clauses amending the Unemployment Act. One gives authority to the Unemployment Board to make’grants or loans for assisting unskilled workers to pursue courses of vocational training and provision is made for the appointment of instructors and the establishment of training centres. Another clause makes more elastic the stipulation that relief works must be of a strictly' 4 developmental nature while a third gives authority for the payment of sustenance rates to registered unemployed who may do occasional work for brief periods daily. All men employed on relief works are to be exempt from the payment of wages tax.