THE FINANCE BILL

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 206, 31 August 1926, Page 9

THE FINANCE BILL

LARGE BORROWING POWERS.

« SINGING TWO SONGS." SECOND READING CARRIED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Monday. The second reading of the Finance Bill was moved by the Hon. W. Downie Stewart to-night. He said there were no questions of policy in the bill, but as there were still a few amendments to j come he did not ask the House to conj sider it in committee that night. Mr._ H. E. Holland, Leader of the Opposition, said he was not prepared to discuss the bill at length because he was not aware of its coming on. He protested against rushing legislation in the way it was being done. The bill proposed to borrow several millions, but there was no time to go thoroughly into it. It was just possible a charge of reckless borrowing might hold, but he did not wish to go into that point at the moment. What he did wish to urge was that the works for which the money was being borrowed should be pushed on with reasonable energy. Mr. T. K. 43idey (Duiiedin South) quoted from the prospectus of the last loan, which claimed that New Zealand was now largely financing her own loans. To justify this statement the Government had .taken the war years when conditions were altogether abnormal and compulsory loans were being raised. It was therefore an unfair. way" to put the position before the British investor, even though the facts might be correct. The bill contained many clauses putting right irregularities pointed out ■ 'by the Auditor-General, for which: there could be no possible excuse. ■ . ; ■Continuing, he quotefd from the Audi-tor-General's report 'to " show where irregularities' had occurred, and concluded by regretting that in the matter of superannuation no provision had been made for the superannuation of university professors, who were in quite a different position from ordinary teachers. They should be placed in -relatively the same position as stipendiary magistrates, who were placed on a different footing from other members of the public service. The Government, by the bill, proposed to again borrow largely. It was not so much borrowing which laid them open to criticism, but the fact that they were always preaching anti-bor-rowing. Mr. l>. G. Sullivan (Avon) said he quite agreed with Mr. Sidey as to the Government's attitude on borrowing, and it. was time that they had some statement of policy on the subject. How much more did they propose to 'borrow, and when did they propose to adopt the ''go-slow" policy which they were always urging the country to adopt? In the matter of expenditure they were singing two songs. Sir George Hunter (Waipawa) urged the Government to consider some scheme of irrigation for Hawke's Bay, which was suffering from a prolonged dry spell. The Minister, in reply,, said he was not concerned with matters, of, policy. All that he was concerned with was the finding of money to carry out policies agreed to by the Cabinet.. In the same way he could not discuss in detail all the various schemes of superannuation. That was properly the business of the Minister of the Department affected. He predicted loan expenditure would be reduced this year unless rural credits or the Advances Office called for further assistance. If so, that money would not be a burden on the taxpayers, because it was interest-earning, and that was a point members should remember before they stated that the public debt was being increased by eleven millions. With regard to Mr. Sidey's charge that the prospectus of the last loan was misleading, he declared London financiers knew just as well as we did what the position was and they were not likely to be misled. No portion of the last loan was floated in Australia, althoughsubscriptions to it were sent from Aus-' tralia, and it was quite fair to describe it as a New Zealand loan. The Auditor-General's comments on public expenditure were all on unimportant points, and were, in a number of cases, due to under estimating the expenditure. The second reading was carried.