BUDGET DEBATE.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18141, 2 August 1924, Page 16

BUDGET DEBATE.

YESTERDAY'S SPEAKERS. (ABRIDGED F3ESS ASSOCIATION SZroET.) WELLINGTON, August 1. In the House of Representatives this afternoon, the debate on the Financial Statement was resimcd by ."Mr W. R. ilcKeen (Wellington South), who said the Minister of Customs 'had last night completely demolished the arguments of the Lender of the Opposition in his criticism of the Budget, but he (Mr McKecn) had an r.rgume7'.t which he wished to submit to the Minister, and to which he wished him tr. reply. An examination of the public accounts disclosed that the Government's surplus was in reality much larger than the Budget disclosed. Instead of a million and a-half, the surplus should have been shown as £2,352.000. The reasen why it was not so shown was perfectly obvious. At the time when the surplus was announced the whole of the Public Servic? w;is seething with discontent.. They desired to have the euis restored, and the Government was afraid that if they disclosed a surplus of over two millions, the agitation for the restoration of the cuts would become so clamant that, it could not. lie resisted.

Mr K. S. Williams (Bay of Plenty) first referred to the question of death duties. He said £1,4.m,655 had been collected from this source. He did not consider that- the manner in which the Government treated money'collected as death duties was financially sound.: It was ail capital, and if-it was necessary _th;it such money should be taken out of capital, it would be r- under finance to apply it. towards the reduction of the national debt. It was a moot point whether it was wise to take so much money out of estates in a young country. Many of these estates had been built up from nothing by people in' industries, and there was a danger of ,the Dominion losing these industries. It was sounder finance, to work on the income-tax rather than to J take so much out of death duties. Mr Williams advocated the development of aeroplanes as a means of defence, which w6uld necessitate an: exact survey of the oil resources of the Dominion. He reminded the Labour Party that they were not the only party in the House which was tliere to consider the interests of the whole of the people, and they should not assume a virtue which they aid not have. Mr B. Masters (Stratford) said the Minister of Customs was most unfair in his speech last night when he compared the position of Australia and New Zealand. When .depicting the position of Australia lie chose the year 1922, which was well known to be a year of drought and slump in the Common.wealth. But whpn he came to New Zealand he quoted the results of 1924, which was a prosperous year in this country. He did not mention that iii 1922 even New Zealand had a deficit of £350,000, and so he dodged and evaded the point Taised by the Leader of tha Opposition in his criticism jf the Budget.- He found nothing in the Budget to comfort him. There was nO policy of any kind in the document, because the Government had no policy. There had been economies in some Departments which had been most illjudged., . One of the least justified of these was the reduction in the Agricultural Department. This should be the strongest Department in New Zealand. At present it lacked enterprise; it lacked spirit; it lacked vim and life, because it was starved. Competition, severe competition, was coming from the Argentine, and if ,we were to retain our position on the London the Agricultural Department must be kept right up to date. The Hon. A. D. MeLeod defended the purchase of the Beparoa Estate for soldier settlement (which had been criticised by Mr Masters). He said he believed that eventually the loss on this estate would be very small. He protested against the suggestion that the Reform Party in making purchases of land were actuated more by a desire to assist the party's friends than by concern for the soldiers'.welfare. Such a suggestion was a despicable one. If he (the Minister) had been inclined to "search for instances of dubious purchases, he might refer to a purchase 'of land' made in the Hntt Valley by the Liberal Government some years ago, which had cost the country £120,000. But anyone was liable to make mistakes,, and he would not descend to imputing doubtful/motives when mistakes; occurred. -"The Government had endeavoured to assist the primary industries. Complaint had been made by Mr Sidey that the national debt had not been reduced because the interest bill showed no reduction, but the Minister pointed out that this reduction was •not correct, as in recent years money had been much dearer and loans ■ cost more, so that even with the total debt reduced, the interest bill was on the old level. The charge had been made that there had been discrimination in making advances for farm purchase purposes, the inference being that party interests were considered. The Minister denied that any discrimination was ever made. Touching on meat export control, Mr MeLeod said that the last two years had shown a mo.-e even and a higher range of prices than any similar period in the history of the meat industry,, and this was the result of the Meat Board's work. Touching on special privileges to soldiers in the matter of land-settlement, he said he considered that the time had arrived when !the continuance of such privileges should be dealt with. There were thousands of young men who had grown up since the war, and they were at a.disadvantage in getting land because ex-soldiers must be given first consideration. Be ferring to the oversea settlement scheme, the Minister said it would be unwise to spend several millions in put- | ting on the land men who were quite unsuited for farm life. It would be I better to give the freehold to men who | were able to make the best use of land j than to lease it to men who were not { fitted to make a success of life- as j settlers.

Mr F. N. Bartram (Grey Lvnn) criticised the work and administration of the Health Department. He complained of the delay in publishing the finding of the Kelvin Hospital Commission, one of the most important in the recent history of the Dominion. He contended that the Commission had been very generous in its findings so far as the hospital and the staff were concerned, and condemned severely what he described as the Health Department's lethargy in connexion with the matter.- Apparently the Department could not he stimulated to action until a number of lives were lost. The Labour Party for years had stressed the undue mortality among mothers in New Zealand of recent years. , A damning feature of the incident was the Minister's admission that the Health Department was starved as part of the Government's economy policy. The moral to be noted was that private maternity hospitals must go, and the medical and hospital services must be socialised. Mr A. Han-is (Waitemata) controverted the suggestion that the Health Authorities were apathetic regarding the deaths of mothers, and declared that Mr Bertram's criticism was unfair. Regarding housing, New Zealand had done more than any other countrv

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to provide homes for the people. Mr Harris JUcussed the question of Imperial Preference, saying that while Britain's trade was increasing, it was unfortunate that it was not incra-.sJng with the Dominions. He thougM while Preference would uenefit the Dominions, it would not materially assist Britain. The debate was adjourned,'and the House rose at 10.45 p.m. till 230 p.m. on Tuesday.