NOTES FROM PARLIAMENT

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15033, 2 September 1922, Page 5

NOTES FROM PARLIAMENT

FALLING PRiJfcS. A MINISTERIAL STATEMENT. ADVICE TO LOCAL BODIES. (By Telegraph.—Special to Times.) WELLINGTON, Friday. Some information about prices reaching normal was given by the' Minister of Public Works. He had experienced instances where road metal' was quoted at £2 a 1 yard delivered on the roadside and spread. Last year quotations came down to 11s 4d, now the contract price for the same metal was 4s 9d. Sfx months ago it was estimated that the cost of the new telephone exchange in Dunedin would be £20,000, but tenders caUeT recently resulted in a contract being let for £10,900. Rails which cost £l7 a ton in 1921 were now £ll 17s, and sleepers 6s 5d instead of 10s. Electrical transformers from 1500 to 3000 kilowatts cost 17s per kil, m 1912, but the cost went to 78s, and Was now 21s. He therefore felt justified in his former advice to local bodies to wait till prices dropped. Anybody could spend money, but lie wished to get value. Education Legislation.

Information as to Hie intentions of the. Government regarding education legislation this session was sought in the House o-f Representatives yesterday by Mr T. K. Sidcy (Dunedin South). He wished to know if ij, were intended to alter the law to affect the control of secondary education, and also if any provision would be made with reference to the proposed junior high schools. The Minister of Education (the Hon. CwJ. Parr) said that lie was unable to say positively lhat there would he no Education Bill this session, buL liis present' impression was that there were no matters requiring legislation. Hours of Nurses.

Answering a question by Mr R. A. Wright (Wellington Suburbs) in the House of Representatives yesterday, tile Minister of Health (the Hon. G. J. Parr) said that, lie was informed that the hours of nurses ’in Slate maternity hospitals were rather long, 'from six in the morning to nine o’clock at nighL in some cases, hut every day the nurses were off duty for live or six hours, and' as far as possible they were given a day off eacli week, it was impossible to deal with the exigencies of maternity work in any oilier way. Controlling the Markets.

The need for better marketing facilities if the full value of increased production were to he obtained was emphasised by Mr A. Hamilton (Wallace) in the House of Representatives yesterday. He congratulated the Government upon its inauguration of the Meat Board, which he believed had already resulted in much more being brought back to New Zealand than would otherwise have been done. Something of the . same kind was necessary jn the dairying industry. Only that day there had been a deputation to the Prime Minister upon those lines. To meet combinations'of traders they must have combinations of sellers.