SUDDEN SPURT IS MADE BY HOUSE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18889, 12 October 1929, Page 7

SUDDEN SPURT IS MADE BY HOUSE.

REST OF ESTIMATES ARE GIVEN URGENCY (Special to the "Star.”) WELLINGTON. October 11. When the House of Representative# met this morning for its daylight sit* ting the acting-Leader, the Hon T. M* Wilford, moved that urgency be a® corded to the remainder of the Estimates. Though Oppositionists remark* ed that this was a tall order the motion was accepted. Members discussed Post and Telegraph salaries almost the whole day. Late in the afternoon an amendment which formed the basis for their talk was withdrawn by the Leader of the Labour Party and Mr Wilford made the timely announcement that business would be completed by passing the Pensions and Prisons estimates. This stirred legislators to brisk action. They passed the Post and Telegraph vote in a few minutes and then put through the other two classes, practically without discussion, and rose in the daylight till Monday evening. FREE RURAL DELIVERIES SOME DAY. Replying to criticism in connection, with the rural postal deliveries the Postmaster-General, the Hon J. B. Donald, stated in the House that since coming into office he had authorised quite a number of' rural deliveries which had shown a loss. He had done this for the convenience of settlers and was quite prepared to go on doing it, providing the loss was not too heavy, because he believed people in the country should have first consideration. "I hope," said Mr Donald, "that the day will come when we shall have free rural deliveries, but that day has not come yet." TAKING ROUND THE HAT. The Leader of the Labour Party, Mr Holland, moved a £2 reduction in the Post and Telegraph Estimates in the House to-day as an indication that salaries reduced by the "cuts" of the Public Expenditure Adjustment Act should be restored. The matter was argued at great length though inconclusively, and at last the Hon T. M. Wilford put up the point that the carrying of the amendment would not achieve its object, but would simply reduce the Postmaster-General's resources by £2. He was at once reassured by Mr Savage (Auckland West). “I am sure we could get the money in two minutes,'* said the Aucklander with a twinkle in his eyes. “I will go round with the hat, put in my half-crown, and the member for Mid-Canterbury will do the same. That’s a way out of the difficulty. I want to help the Postmaster-General, who is going to lose £2, by showing that members are behind him in wanting to increase salaries."