20 HOURS’ SITTING.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 708, 8 March 1933, Page 8

20 HOURS’ SITTING.

Finance Bill Occupies Time of Parliament. TWO CONCESSIONS MADE. ("Star" Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, March S. After an all-night sitting to discuss the fourth Finance Bill of the session, the measure had not passed all stages when the House rose at 6.30, the adjournment. being until 2.30 this afternoon, when a batch of further clauses will be brought down. Only two concessions were made by Mr Coates. The first was in response to a suggestion from Mr A. D. M’Leod that the proposal to impose an annual license fee on nurses and midwives should be withdrawn, a course which Mr Coates agreed to follow. The other concession related to trolley buses, Mr Coates finally offering to reduce the scale of fees by 40 per cent, instead °f 20 per cent, as originally set out in the Bill. In order to do this the schedule of the Bill was not considered in committee this morning, but will be amended and dealt with this afternoon. Labour Opposition. The principal opposition to the Bill came from the Labour benches, oppo.sition members taking exception to the endeavour to push a composite measure of this nature through the House at one sitting. They also protested against medical practitioners and nurses having to pay annual license fees, but the Hon J. A. Young (Minister of Health) declared that the Medical Council had agreed to the imposition of the fee. Apart from two small incidents, the debate was of a quiet nature; in fact, for several hours there was not a quorum in the House, although attention was not called to this, and when the second reading debate came to an end Mr Coates was sleeping and missed his right of reply. Only Division. The second reading, which commenced at 7.30 p.m., was carried at 4.15 a.m. on the voices, and the only division during the whole night came on an amendment to the clause imposing an annual license fee on medical practitioners. This was rejected by 32 votes to 17, the division being purely on party lines. It was on this subject and the taxation of trolley buses that the discussion centred, there being hardly a word of comment on the other clauses. Actually the House sat for twenty hours, the sitting having been continuous since 10.30 yesterday morning. Hypothecation of Securities.

An important clause in the Bill deals with the hypothecation of discharged soldier settlers’ securities. Under the existing authority the Minister of Finance was empowered to transfer to the Consolidated Fund out of the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Account an amount not exceeding £10.000,000, representing the former revenue surplus, and in order to provide cash for the transactions the Minister was further empowered to hypothecate mortgage securities in the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Account. The Bank of New Zealand and the National Bank agreed to lend on the security of a deed of hypothecation, but required that there should be a permanent appropriation of the moneys needed to pay the interest and principal in the same way as there is a permanent appropriation for interest of other Government loans. The request of the banks seemed to the Government to be a reasonable one, said Mr Coates in explaining the clause, and an undertaking was given to introduce legislation to give effect to it. Moneys had been advanced and the present clause was to carry out the undertaking. The clause further provides that any payments of interest made in the first place out of the Consolidated Fund and subsequently recouped to the fund out of future moneys in the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Account shall not have the effect of lowering the limit of the Minister’s borrowing powers. The transferred moneys will not be part of the public debt under the 1925 Repayment Act. Hospital Boards’ Overdrafts. The powers of Hospital Boards to borrow on overdraft during the current financial year are extended to permit overdrafts to the extent of one-fourth of the estimated contributions by local authorities, together with one-fourth of the estimated amount receivable by way of subsidy on such contributions. At the end of the last financial year, owing to heavy calls made on the finances of hospital boards for charitable aid and unemployment relief, legislation was passed validating the excess overdrafts for the year ended March 31, 1932, which were limited to one-fourth of the estimated contribu- i tions from local authorities, together with one-fourth of the subsidy for the year then ended. In some cases, however, the boards had not been able to place their finance on a satisfactory basis and others have found themselves in difficulties. It is anticipated that the aggregate of excess overdrafts at the end of the current financial year will be lower than the corresponding figure last year, indicating that the boards as a whole are making reasonable efforts to stabilise their finances. Miscellaneous Provisions. There are several miscellaneous provisions of importance in the Bill. Existing Government securities bear- , ing interest at 4 per cent and under —securities not affected by the conversion operations—are exempted from the 10 per cent stamp duty imposed by the National Expenditure Adjustment Act, 1932. Local bodies, building societies, incorporated societies and religious and charitable institutions are brought within the provisions of the Unclaimed Moneys Act. The terms of the Mortgagors Relief Act are extended to apply to mortgages operative, though not executed, before April 17, 1931. Money or damages successfully claimed in Court by an infant or person of unsound mind and which is administered by the Public Trustee, may now be invested elsewhere apart from the Common Fund of the Public Trust Office. Increase in the capital of a rural credit association by allotment of additional shares to a member of the association is authorised. Ru?al Intermediate Credit Boards are empowered to extend the time for repayment of advances. At present the period of advances is limited to five years.