UNDER FIRE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 223, 20 September 1935, Page 8

UNDER FIRE.

BUDGET PROPOSALS.

LABOUR PARTYS' ATTACK. COPING WITH DEPRESSION. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. When he initiated the Opposition discussion of the Financial Statement Mr. Walter Nash (Labour, Hutt) said that the Minister of Finance (Mr. Coates) had opened by suggesting that there had been a substantial improvement in the general situation, and that conditions were better, with a trend definitely upward. There was some evidence to support that, but no one who carefully examined the record of the Government during the past five years would suggest that the Government was in any way responsible, for there would not have been the necessity for half the upward climb that New Zealand had to make had the present Government not been operating in the past live years. (Labour "Hear, hears!") The other point the Minister made, said the speaker, was that living depended upffn prices for goods sent overseas, and went on to say that a spirit of optimism was prevailing in Britain. Mr. Nash suggested that the Minister did not see 5000 of the 2,000,000 unemployed in Britain, and his spirit of optimism came from associating with people in comfortable conditions, and not the millions of people who were living on from 15/ to £1 a week. Referring to the meat negotiations, Mr. Nash said the Minister probably carried out the negotiations as well as anyone could have done, and he found that millions of people in Britain wanted goods produced in New Zealand, and could not get them. The Minister had to avel 12,000 miles to find out that the trouble was not over-production but under-consumption. Mr. Coates: I never said that. Mr. Nash said that the Government sent out a Press message stating that the Prime Minister had stated that the trouble with the world was underconsumption. Mr. Forbes: Anything wrong with that? Mr. Nash: No, but- it has taken you five years to find that out. Now, when you're going into the wilderness, you state that the trouble of the world is under-consumption. When it saw the price-level falling the course the Government ought to have pursued was to produce more in New Zealand of goods needed here. Instead the Government cut down the demand for goods, and in the past five years the loss of purchasing power due to the Government's deflationary policy aggregated £110,000,000. The Government's policy of reducing wages and salaries frightened everybody and they tightened up, with the result that things were made worse. The unemployment tax was described by Mr. Nash as the most iniquitous tax ever levied in the Dominion, it being a flat tax irrespective of the size of income. Ho concluded his speech by saying that people now knew the Labour ]>arty"and knew its policy and they felt that it would carry out whatever it pledged itself to carry out.

Mr. Hamilton Replies. The member for Hutt had given the Government no credit for bringing the country back into an improved condition, said the Postmaster-General. Mr. Hamilton, in his reply to Mr. Nash. Everything bad was blamed on the Government and everything good the Labour party took credit for. The Government was entitled to credit where it was due. Mr. R. Semple (Labour, Wellington East): Tell us when it is due. Mr. W. E. Parry (Labour, Auckland Central): Seventy thousand unemployed ! Mr. Hamilton said the member for Hutt had quoted Great Britain and said there was no optimism there with so many unemployed. Britain was getting out of her difficulties, and New Zealand was following closely. If the Government had not taken the steps that it had the position in the Dominion might have been much worse. The Government would go to the election and tell the people what it had done over the difficult period and it would criticise the Labour party.

A Voice: And get beaten. Mr. Hamilton said if the Government got a hiding, well and good, but he did not think that would happen. The public would realise what the Government had had to contend with and would give credit to those who had brought the country through the difficult time better than had been the experience with most other countries. "I congratulate the Minister of Finance on the Budget," continued Mr. Hamilton. "It has been well received throughout the country as giving a ray of hope that has not been evident for some time."

If "Wages Were Increased. Mr. D. G. Sullivan (Labour, Avon) said the Minister of Employment had stated that if relief workers' wages were increased by 10/ a week it would bring them to within GO per cent of the wages of other workers. Mr. Smith: I never said that. Mr. Sullivan said he had seen that statement all over the country and if it was substantially correct it meant that 50.000 relief workers and probably 50,000 others workers were receiving less than £3 a week. Guaranteed prices were designed to give a fair return to the farmer and a fair wage to the worker, which would enable each to purchase the results of the labour of the other. He alleged that increaseJn unemployment closely followed reduction in wages. He criticised the Government for reducing the unemployment tax and said it was a scandal that local bodies should have to go on collecting to assist those in need. Labour Party Socialism. Mr. W. J. Poison (Government, Stratford) said that while he did not always agree with what the Government had done, he would be a great deal less than fair if he did not recognise the assistance the Government had given the farming community directly and indirectly. The House had the policy of the Labour party, which they themselves admitted frankly and freely was' nothing more or less than Socialism. Mr. Poison contended that the raising of the exchange had increased the spending power of the people and had benefited all sections of the community. Guaranteed prices would be a calamity to the nation, they would give no incentive to the farmer to alter his product according to the demand, and they would greatly prejudice New Zealand's produce in her principal market.