ADDRESS-INREPLY.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16881, 8 July 1920, Page 7

ADDRESS-IN-REPLY.

YESTERDAY'S DEBATES.

IN LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

(ABRIDGED PUPS? ASSOCIATION- TELEGKAM.) ' y V.'ELLIXGTON, July 7. ! * In the Legislative Council to-daj, the debate on the Address-in-Reply was 0 resumed by | o The Hon. G. J. Garland, who urged h the need for evolving a grading scheme s for teachers, whi:-h would give | J efficiency its duo. With regard to j finance, the country was buoyant enough r to stanu a progressive Public Works ! t policy. I (J This closed the debate, and the Ad- 0 dress-in-Reply was agreed to. j IN TII3 HOUSED c t In the House of Representatives, * the debate on the Address-in-Reply was ■ resumed by r Mr D. G. Sullivan (Avon), whose speech is reported in another column. c Mr G. Mitchell (Wellington South) * opened by remarking that, while he was entirely opposed in principle to the Labour Paity, lie was with them in t regard to some of their sociai aims. Jie i l'eltj however, that if the Labour Party < came into ofiice and went forward on 1 the lines it now advocated, it would ' create far greater evils for tho woi!c- J ing people taan existed to-day. Corn- i ing to the i>peecii lrom tue Throne, , he expressed regret at the absence of a lead on housing, taxation, public | works, and land settlement. Tho ; Minister of Lands, to his mind, had ■ done very weli under tho handicap of l a very bad policy. The worst feature < in the life ox the country was the way : in which land values Had been allowed ] to soar. This, he contended, was ] distinctly unfavourable to tlie returned • soldier, who wa. being put on land bought on the basis of tho inflated j values of produce, and he asked u>;at ' was going to happen to the soldiers , I when the prices, ol produce fell. Ho j quoted a number of properties that ( had been purchased by tue Government from owners who had done nothing to ivin the war, but who had been presented by the Government with a war bonus because had we not won the war, this war-created value would not have existed. The fact was that tho soldiers vvero being penalised by the price they themselves had created. The failure of the Government to break up big estates was to be lamented. Compulsion ,was needeo. It might be said that it was unjust to take one man's land and not another man's, but there •was nothing just about tho war. One man was taken and another left. Therefore it was, perhaps, not possible to be entirely just in settling the soldiers. After urging the need for settling the unused lands of the country, Mr Mitchell passed on to discuss the housing problem, declaring that if Ministers had to live in some of the homes he had visited during the past few weeks, they would be as "lied" as any member of the Labour Party. What was needed was a Minister of Housing with a bold, vigorous policy of house-build-ing, even to tho extent of commandeering the product of the mills, and stopping the export of timber. Mr Mitchell commented on the unequal distribution of wealth, under which the married man with children was being unfairly penalised by the State as against tlie single man, notwithstanding that, children were 1110 greatest asset the country could have. It mattered nothing to him who occupied the Treasury Benches, so long as they things done. They should push the Government on, not retard it, and so far as " the present 'Government was concerned they should, in a sporting phrase, "give them a try at the fence before they said they would not jump." Mr A. Harris (Waitemata) said the i reason the Reform, Party won the last election was that they were a party of tho present and the future rather than a party of the 'past. The Liberals were defeated because of their Leader, firstly in deserting the National Government, and secondly in coquetting with extreme Labour. Mr Massey made it clear that ho would not accept office on the vote of extremo Labour, but Sir Joseph Ward was not so frank, and by adopting a large part of the Labour programme, had caused people to fear that ho was not sincere in Jiis tardy disavowal of his association with the extreme section. The position of ; Labour in the country was disclosed by the fact that they ran 53 candidates, but only secured eight seats. That showed that the bulk of the labour of the Dominion was loyal. Personally, . he had no time for the man who would not sing the National Anthem, or for the man who had no God, no country, and no flag except the Red flag, which " was characteristic of the Labour Party. Speaking of the Islands trip, he cen- ' sured the members of tho Labour Party, who, at Fiji, visited the Indian strik--1 era when requested not to abuse the hospitality of tho Fijian Government, whose guests they were. He regretted I that the Government had recently permitted certain Indian agitators to land in New Zealand, where we had suffi--1 cient agitators. He also quoted views * recentlv expressed by Mr D. G. Sul- ' livan, ALP., at a Labour Conference on ' the subject of a White New Zealand, ' the only inference to be drawn from 1 which was'that some members of the 1 Labour Party were disposed to welcome 1 the Hindoo here as a black brother. Mr ! Harris defended the woollen mihs ' Against the charge of profiteering as ' the cost of production had increased a ! hundred per cent., and most of tho ' mills were working on a profit of not " moro than ten per cent. He found ' fault with the Governments failure to reduce the cost of living,_ and sug- ■ gested taking the duty off timber and s cement to enable people to get houses. ' New Zealand should also have an au- " tive immigration policy, the Dominion 5 bein<r 400,000 short of its requisite num- " hoocL The next few years would bo : the most critical for the Dominion, and r great responsibility rested on the Prnui* 5 Minister and Parliament, but, please [■ God, they would pull through. Mr M. J. (Savage (Auckland West) 5 said the last speaker's advocacy of an * immigration policy was futile, unless 3 the Government provided homes for the 3 people they brought here. To put 3 parties on a proper basis they muat nave proportional representation, and 1 the Labour Party was willing to help j the Government to pass sucli a meai sure , M r Massey: Proportional represen- " tation will not give any party a niajo-

Mr Savage said lie was not concerned with party majority. Proportional lepicsentation would give.eacu pariy tue representation tuey were entitled to, and that was all they were concerned about. It had been said that proportional representation had buried tiio Labour Party in Australia. He denied that. They had preferential voting, not propoitional representation, in Australia, and it would be well if members would learn something about tae difference between tuese two systems. Proceeding, Mr Savage blamed tho Government for giving the people cheap butter at tho expense of the people by helping tho farmers out of the Consolidated i'und, which was simply taking monev out of one pocket and putting it into another, then preiending that we were all the richer for itdifference between the Labour I aity and the other parties in the House \\as that the former had a clcar dehni o policy, but if the other parties had polic.cs they were not apparent. There certainly was none in the GovernoiGeneral's Speech. The Laboui 1 ar > wanted a proper system of representation, preservation of national enuo ments, closer land settlement, and careful finance, and in this connexion h

agreed with the Leader of the Opposition that a commission on the cu r rency question was necessary. Our financial problems had to be faced, otherwise the whole fabric would come tumbling down about cur cars. ihe supporters of the Government said the remedy was more production. He agreed, but they said these who were now producing should produce more His idea was that those who had not yet produced anything should make a , start. Our pension system should 1)0 by right, not by charity. At present it was an insult. It should be based on citizenship. To-day it was based on the poverty of tire receiver, winch he resented. The Asiatic problem was so big that it could not be settled by erecting forts at Auckland and "Wellington. It was not a question for Parliamentarians, but for scientists. ft rnuld not employ force to keep Asiatics or their goods out; wc could only do it on a basis arrived by scientists of the rations concerned, and that was a fact which the House must realise. He would vote to put the Government out. If they did not succeed in that, then perhaps it would be found that the ''extremists" might be able to provide some suggestions which would render the legislation of tho Government more useful. , Mr V. H. Potter (Ro.'kill) contended that extreme Labour had come into the House on a minority vote, and did not truly represent the people of t-ie Dominion. They talked about education, but he had never known one or the extremists take a personal interest in the education of his own children, either in the Schools of Minea, which was open to them, or in inc primary schools. Education was the worst possible thing for extreme because their appeal could only be made from the soap box to the uneducated class. He defended the action of the Government in sending an armed force to Fiji. He claimed that, as the House was a British assembly, no one who was not of proven loyalty should be qualified to occupy a_ seat in it. No one who had been convicted of sedition should ovev be allowed to sit in the New Zealand Parliament. If the Labour Party wanted to get on the Ministerial Benches those benches would liavc to be made of fcrro-concrete, foi nothing else would last long enough. Their best and only chance of "etting_ on to the benches was to get tnc permission of tue Sergeant-at-Arms to occupv thein during the recess Mr W. A. Veitch (Wanganm) said he looked upon the amendment as a mere party move. He believed tho people were sick of party politics, and ho was in the House to do what he could to break down tho party system. From party politics they came down to personal politics, as proved by the question whether a candidate was a Masseyito, a' Wardite, or a Hollandite. He was out to do away with the "party boss," Of which he Avas satisfied the people desired to be quit. Though not- enamoured of tho amendment, it did not follow that he was enamoured of the Massey Government, which, in his opinion, was inert. This was proved by the want of interest shown m tho coal industry. There was an enormous quantity of undeveloped coal _in the Dominion, yet side by side witli this fact there was a grave shortage of coal, which was at the root of a great many of our industrial difficulties and industrial unrest. The housing of the miners had been sadly neglected, and though power had been taken to compel the coal companies to build houses, not a single company had been called upon to build a single house. To him this suggested that the Government was not in earnest about houses for miners. ' Our industries were also being hampered by the ncglect of the Government to revise the Customs tariff, yet when this matter was brought before the Minister he replied that°' : no one was being hurt by anonia.lies in the tariff." If such a man had been Minister of Defence during the war, he would have sent men to the front armed with stone axes. His neglect contrasted strongly with the vigilance in Australia, where their tariff supported their industries in every direction. The general management of the railways, which had forced a strike upon the men, was condemned, and Mr Veitch held that it was one of the greatest sins of the Government that they took no notice of the men s demands until they went out on strike. Now the men b were taught that the way to secure justine waS at the point of the bayonet, which he deeply regretted, jas it was a poor return for the loyalty shown by the men of this service in the past. 1 The debate was adjourned. f The House rose at 11.30 p.m.