PARLIAMENT Four New Members Speak In Address-In-Reply Debate

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27634, 15 April 1955, Page 14

PARLIAMENT Four New Members Speak In Address-In-Reply Debate

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter)

WELLINGTON, April 14.

“Haven’t we all?” asked the Minister •f Railways (Mr J. K. McAlpine) when Mr G. A. Walsh (Government, Tauranga) rose to a point of order in the House of Representatives today and complained that he had been misrepresented by Mr H. Watt (Opposition, Onehunga), who had been critical of the Government. Mr McAlpine’s commentary was the brightest in a dull day of thrust and parry in the Address-in-Reply debate. Of the 11 speakers four new members made their debut. They were Mr W. A. Fox (Opposition, Miramar), Mr T. P. Murray (Government, Stratford), Mr W. J. Scott (Government, Rodney), and Mr N. J. King (Opposition, Waiteinata). Mr Fox’s speech was in line with Federation of Labour thinking. He complained that wages for workers had not increased in line with the rise in prices. As a country member Mr Murray dealt only with farming topics, and Mr King asked that security be given the primary producers, who faced uncertainty. Mr Scott discussed the problems of his electorate, the boundary of which is three miles from the centre of Auckland. The House was in a solemn mood until Mr M. Moohan (Opposition, Petonel made his speech, in which he ridiculed the Government’s housing programme and later criticised the Police Commission report and the pronosed appointment of the Minister of Works as chairman of the National Roads Board. Mr Moohan’s speech was the most aggressive so far in the debate. The first speaker today, Mr H. Watt (Opposition, Onehunga), as reported by the Press Association, said that over the last 20 years New Zealand had been having an industrial revolution, and its secondary industries were just as important to the country’s economy as its primary industries. “The people of New Zealand are not as well housed now as in 1949,” he said. “For each 100.000 people in 1949, 835 houses wefe built. Last year for each 100,000 iheye were 805 houses built.” The’Government, he said, should review the. income limit imposed on would-be tenants of State houses. The present limit of £7lO was not right, he said. The Minister of Forests (Mr G. W. SSfttttW said that an area of 1300,000 acres not suitable for grasslands could be developed for forests in New Zealand. That area would be one and a half times as great as the total forest reserves at present. Today New Zealand’s consumption of timber was in the proportion of one-third exotic to two-thirds indigenous, but because of the depletion of indigenous supplies he would not be happy until the proportions were reversed. Mr F. L. A. Gotz (Government. Manukau) said there had been delay in filling local bodies’ debentures recently because certain parts of the investing public had expected an increase the interest rate. Now that this had proved incorrect, more money would.be available for investment, he said. a; ; Socialism” The’?bBtting-up of a local bodies’ loans oixanisation would be unadulterated socialism,” he added. “Local bodies should see that this is not the first step to losing their individuality. If the Government were to find the meßev for local bodies, it should also be able to have a major say in how the money was spent,” he said. It was unhealthy for New Zealand, he said, that too many persons were willing to take as much pay as possible for doing as little work as possible. The theft of time by New Zee - land workers was very considerable Some persons were working a nominal 40 hours a week, but were actually doing nearer 30. said Mr Gotz. Me. H.. G. R. Mason (Opposition. Waitakere) said that the Government did not appear to have much confidence in itself when it was setting up a monetary commission. But was the purpose of the commission to coinbat Social Credit? he asked. The Government’s inflationary borrowings from the trading banks and the setting-up of the monetary commission demonstrated that it had no policy plan. There was a great shortage of money for local authorities to carry out their development work, and he considered that a system of priorities should be instituted. Mr W. A. Fox (Opposition, Miramar), who was making his maiden speech, said that if overseas prices kept falling it was obvious that some of the farms bought last year and in 1955 could never show an economic return. “It is no use having a false opr timism or relying on a pious hope that we get higher prices for our exports. To many of the people this prosperity is a phony one” said Mr Fox. New Zealand’s prosperity was based on workers doing much overtime or having more than one bread-winner in the family. Where there was only one bread-winner, the amount coming into the household was, in many cases, hardly sufficient to buy the bare necessaries of life, he said.

Housing Problem JPwas useless to speak of prosperity u£til all the people were decently -housed, he said. “How many young people can get a house in Wellington based on present costs?” he asked. “Unless they get financial assistance it’s almost impossible. But are young couples to wait till they have saved £1000? Love doesn’t wait for a bank balance,” he said. Mr Fox slid that high rents were among the factors that prohibited young persons frc. > saving, but one way in which the Government could help to reduce housing costs was to lower interest rates to 3 per cent. The only way to overcome the housing shortage within a given time was to concentrate labour and materials and to eliminate all unnecessary building, he said.

Mr T. T. Murray (Government, Stratford), in his maiden speech, called for the bringing back into production of idle land. “Experts have told us that New Zealand’s population in 20 years will ba 2-600,000. We will find no trouble, at all in feeding this extra million, but can we feed the population and keep up the same ratio of exports. That means we will have to increase our production by 50 per cent,” said Mr Murray. One way of increasing production was to encourage people back to the land, and the best methods of doing this were by supplying power, allweather roads into the back country, new schools, and better services, said Mr Murray. Mr N. J. King (Opposition, Waitemata), in his maiden speech, said that no group in the community was more co-operative than the farmer, but farmers, more than any other section of the community, were vulnerable to competition and falling overseas prices There had been a lack of foresight in not providing the farmer with a guaranteed price for his exports. Discussing the problems of maintaining world peace, Mr King said that a much greater discovery than the hydrogen or cobalt bomb was the vaccine for poliomyelitis, which would be of more lasting benefit to humanity. Mr King Baid problem of maintaining world peace might be »yved in one way if the first targets attack were the Houses of Parlianaant, jid in another if the profit were taken out of war. Mr W. 3. Scott (Government, Rodmaking hie maiden speech, said tbara were many public works in his y* that deserved a higher priority •man a new international airport lor \ Auckland Whaanapai airport could serve the needs at Auckland for years « without taking teeming land “a luxury airport,well aware that Whenuapai condemned by some experts, it is safe enough for the to use it is safe enough for ’ he said. Moohan (Opposition, Petone) ’MKL that the Government's policy had

brought about discontent in the Police Force, and the bill forced through the House last session did nothing to restore the position. The provisions of the bill for the appointment of assistant commissioners had not been operated, and now there was a commission of three. One had charge of half the force, another was in charge of the other half, and the third —the Commissioner of Police — had no vote whatever. The bill itself was an indictment of the Government, and the position of the commisisoners was illegal, because the appointments had not been endorsed by Parliament. Mr Moohan said that since the Government had been in office the country’s roads had deteriorated year after year. The Minister of Works had evaded responsibility and had set up a roads board in which politics, the Minister had said, would have no say. The board was supplied with £14,000,000 to spend. But after pressure the Government was obliged to admit that the spending of public money should have the sanction’ of Parliament. “Now the chairman of the board has been sacked, and the Minister has appomted himself chairman,” said Mr Moohan. “Like the police bill, it’s illegal.” The Minister of Works (Mr W. S. Goosman): What’s illegal Mr Moohan: The Minister being chairman of the board. Mr Goosman: The Minister is going to be chairman, but hasn’t been appointed yet. Mr Moohan said that the incompetence of the Government could be judged by the fact that in five years it had set up six Royal Commissions, 12 commissions of inquiry, and numerous investigating boards, committees, and conferences. The net result had been “frustration, despair, and complete hopelessness,” said Mr Moohan. Financial Policy The monetary commission had been set up even though the Minister of Finance (Mr J. T. Watts) had recently declared that the Government’s financial policy was already laid down and he intended to carry it out. Of what use would the commission be? asked Mr Moohan. He criticised the visits of departmental officials overseas to recruit staff for the services, and said that office machinery two other highlypaid officials were seeking overseas could be readily obtained in Wellington. Mr H. Johnstone (Government, Raglan) called for an intensification of the national anti-drowning campaign. In the five and a half months of this summer 107 persons had been drowned, compared with 113 killed in road accidents in the same period, he said. “Much has been done by the Internal Affairs Department and the Education Department and by lifesaving and swimming organisations, but much more oould be done.” he said. “Almost 90 pgr cent, of the annual drowning could be prevented,” said Mr Johnstone. “Motor-cyclists have become used to the idea now of wearing crash helmets, and people using boats or going into the water should use life jackets,” he said. The debate was interrupted by the adjournment, but before the House rose the Prime Minister (Mr Holland) said that arrangements had been made to enable members to attend any Anzac Day engagements they had. The House would adjourn on the Friday evening before Anzac Day and resume the following Wednesday afternoon. The Address-in-Reply debate will be continued tomorrow.