"DESPERATE MINISTER."

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 94, 22 April 1931, Page 8

"DESPERATE MINISTER."

FINANCE BIUL CRITICISED. i MR. SAVAGE WANTS EXPLANATIONS. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. "A collection of odds and ends and shreds and patches, brought together by a desperate Finance Minister on the hunt' for revenue, but anxious at the same time to give the appearance of not having increased taxation unnecessarily." Such was the description applied to the Finance Bill by Mr. M. J. Savage (Labour, Auckland West) in the House to-night. He asked to what extent debt redemption would suffer as the result of the proposed utilisation of reparation moneys, and contended that the section dealing with the Post Office Account involved a raid on the profits of the whole of the Department. Last financial year £1,000,000 was taken from that Department for interest renewals, replacement and savings bank profits. The bill proposed to take whatever was left. Mr. Savage sought explanations also for the reduction in the grant to the Greymouth Harbour Board, the alteration in the maintenance of the Samoa!) police force, the cut for acclimatisation societies, the alteration regarding the foreign imprest account and the object of the clause prohibiting the importation of coined silver. lie aiso asked whether the clause dealing with superannuation meant that for the purpose of computing salary for superannuation purposes the Government contemplated further reducing the amount payable to contributors. The reduction in mater- I nity payments under the National Pro- | \ident Fund indicated, he said, the lie- j ginning of the end of that fund, and! the proposed alteration concerning family | allowances was an attempt to minimise! its benefits. He contended that the • Arbitration Court should still be allowed, by fixing a minimum wage, to aim at providing sufficient for the maintenance of the average family, without taking any family allowance into account. Such allowances should be paid only to families in excess of the average.