PARLIAMENTARY DAY

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26204, 30 August 1950, Page 6

PARLIAMENTARY DAY

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON. August 29. When the former Minister of Finance. Mr W. Nash, opened the debate on the Financial Statement in the House of Representatives this evening he appeared in the new role of Budget critic. For the last 14 years Mr Nash and his Budgets have been under fire from the Opposition. This time he led the attack on the Minister of Finance (Mr Holland) and his policy. As on Budget night, the public galleries were crowded, and during the first half hour of Mr Nash’s speechabout 30 people were in the main vestibule waiting for seats. Mr Nash spoke for an hour and a half and spent the first 35 minutes defending his policy of using Reserve Bank credit to finance State house building. When he came to the Budget he claimed that the Government was building up reserves so that it would be able to reduce taxation in 1952.

Mr Nash was followed by the first Government speaker in the debate, the Associate Minister of Finance (Mr C. M. Bowden). He referred to the legacy of inflation inherited from the previous Government, and said that because of this the balancing of the Budget was a major achievement.

The House adjourned at 10.20 p.m. The financial debate, which will last about three weeks, will be continued to-morrow evening. Ministerial replies to members’ questions asked last week wil Ibe circulated and discussed in the afternoon.