THE FINAL SESSION

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 203, 28 August 1935, Page 6

THE FINAL SESSION

The session which opens to-morrow is likely to be unusually short, perhaps little more than half the length to which Parliament has been accustomed in recent years. It begins late, and cannot extend much beyond the end of October in view of the general election. Whatever surprises there are for the country should be mainly in the Budget, and are expected to be pleasant. Tax revenue is rising ahead of expenditure, and the rise is supported by the upward pressure of recovery. Already the Government knows its position for several months of the year, .and the task of budgeting should be reduced to forecasting the position for little more than six months. This should be the last of New Zealand's late Budgets, and Parliament should consider breaking away from the habit of meeting in the winter, though it must be remembered that the circumstances this year were exceptional. The House should be convened not later than April, and the Budget should be presented within a few weeks of the opening of the financial year as in Britain. Everyone is looking for some relief in taxes. Concessions should be made in the sales tax, which is bearing heavily on business and on the mass of the people through its effect on the cost of living; and the wages and income taxes should be reduced. Civil servants are due for a further restoration of salary cuts, and this would probably mean a retrospective increase as from the beginning of April. Local government reform, which has been promised and shelved several times over the past four years, is as urgent as ever, but — cynical thought—it is hopeless to expect the Government to face a question so bristling with difficulties when ah election is just ahead. Electoral reform is another need. If the Government has any intention of acting it is concealing its plans, but is doubtless watching the growing complications in many electorates. The Labour Party ceased to take any interest in this question some time ago, and is content with the present system of first past the post; it of course sees a prospect of gaining seats in a campaign of vote-spl'tting. The system obviously cannot favour Loth Labour and the Government at the same time, and the Government is likely to be reminded pointedly of this by those of its supporters who find their positions endangered.