REFORM ATTACK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 195, 19 August 1930, Page 7

REFORM ATTACK.

HIGHWAYS FINANCE.

OPPOSITION JO CHANGE.

"REPUDIATION" AIXEGSB. LEADEK'S SPEECH IN HOUSE. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.)] WELLINGTON, Monday. The changee in the main highways finance proposed to be made by the Finance Bill were bitterly attacked by the Et. Hon. J. G. Coates, Leader of the Opposition, during the- second reading debate on the measure this afternoon. He intimated that the alterations would be vigorously opposed by the Opposition. Mr. Coates, who spoke with considerable feeling, described the section of the bill in question as a desecration of an honourable arrangement entered into by a previous Government. Anything in the nature of repudiation was a serious matter, but that was the only word he could call to mind.

"The Prime Minister: There is no suggestion of repudiation.

Mr. Coates said that during the Customs Bill the Prime Minister had stated that the Government would stand by honourable agreements, and in connection with, highways an honourable agreement had been made.

The Hon. E. A. Kansom (Minister of Lands): Do you suggest all amendments to Acts are repudiations 2

Mr. Coates: Parliament can. do what it likes, but before it repeals an Act it should at least, know the facts and what arrangements were made, and after that it should decide whether the arrangements should be broken.

Mr. D. G. Sullivan (Avon): Can you give us the facts now?

Mr. Coates: I will give them to you later. 1 '

Shares of Petrol Tax.

He argued that as tie initiative rested with the Government, the responsibility lay at the door of the Government. The section dealing .vith highways was a complete volte face. For the life of him he could not understand why local bodies, which received 8 per cent of , the fourpence petrol tax, should now receive only 5$ per cent. Surely the cities were entitled to the 8 per cent if the bill were passed. Mr. Coates traced the circumstances leading up to the passing of the Main Highways Act and alleged that the Government was now proposing to destroy the arrangements made with the taxpayers.

"It is hard to keep one's temper wjth. ,the honourable gentleman," said Mr. Coates, in reply to an interjection by .the Prime Minister; who followed up this sally with the retort tfiat what in the past tad. been paid by. the general taxpayer "would now be met by a special taxpayer. "Electors' Confirmation." Mr. Coates termed as "a steal" the proposal not to pay the £220,000 for subsidies on rates to local bodies. "That is a matter of sufficient importance," Mr. Ooates declared, "to require confirmation by the electors of this country. A party,of 26 members, or thereabouts, •with the support of the Labour party, are seeking to reverse entirely a piece of legislation that las been on the Statute Book for 40 years. It is unthinkable that a Government should reach out as far as that, or that it should ever cross their minds. They sayit is going to be paid. How? By the user and the ratepayer! It never crossed the minds of the primary producers that they would be diddled out of £220,000. The position is that the ratepayers in the future will be subsidised with their own moneys." Mr. J. McCombs (Lyttelton) t. Who introduced the petrol tax? Mr. Coates: The Reform party. Mr. McCombs: Yes, the same principle. Mr. Coates: No, the principle enunciated in the previous legislation has been that of the user paying, and that all the funds so derived should be for the purpose of making the roads. . The Prime Minister: These funds are for the game purpose, Mr. Coates: The money is now to come from the petrol tax which the user and the farmer himself provides. Previously it came from everybody. The Hon. E. A. Hansom: You threw out the backblock money the other day. Mr. Coates said it seemed that they were reverting to the days of centralised control when the money was passed into the hands of Ministers so that they might splash it about wherever they wished. He declared that the 8 per cent allocation to cities was parsimony, and that it was never worked out by the Prime Minister or the Minister of Lands; it was a typical Departmental "rig-up.?

The Labour View.

Mr. M. J. Savage (Auckland West)' advised the Government to consider some readjustment of the allocation the petrol tax x receipts. He had neve* believed in this tax, but if it had to bf imposed, then the money should be ex« pended where it was most necessary, It was debatable whether the proportion for the cities, compared with the coun< try, was ; equitable. Hβ had found n« great body of opinion against the petroj tax, and he saw nothing in the chargi by the Leader of the Opposition that there had been a breach of agreement, It would be a sorry state of affairs if one Parliament could bind the next. The people voted for a change, thousjh they did not always get what they expected, * The Kef orm Government started thf country on the wrong road in regard i* the petrol tax allocation, and fhte waM being maintained by the presentiGovernj ment. There was room far #?<**%s& opinion regarding its J repeated that the :.&*gr££S&%* well advised to foWOTjust point, should be that such districts, and so taken available for smaH aPf _ Tie ceasing of grants Fund wae another *%£■&?&*-yrrong direction, following tie wrong road originally mapped put.'