PARLIAMENT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1221, 1 September 1911, Page 7

PARLIAMENT.

THE COUNCIL. IMPERIAL PROBLEMS DISCUSSED. THE RECENT CONFERENCE. . The Legislative Counoil met at 2.30 yesterday afternoon. Tho Joint Libraries Comniitteo recommended that for tho future no works of fiction be issued to non-members during the Parliamentary recess. Tho Hon. J. Rigg gave notice of his intention to movo that tho repoTt be disagreed with. The Hon. T. Kelly moved that a copy of the report and evidence taken by the Stato Bank and State Currency Committee of last session be forthwith supplied to members of both Houses of Parliament. •The motion was carriel; IMPERIAL CONFERENCE. The Hon. J. RIGG (Wellington) opened the discussion ou the report' by SirJohn Findlay on tho work nono at tho recent Imperial Conference, the Hon. J. E. Jenkinson having moved at the conclusion of the Attorney-General's remarks that the .Council express its high sense of appreciation of tbo services rendered by the Prime Minister, and the AttorneyGeneral at the conference in the interests of New Zealand. Mr. Rigg remarked on the extent to which tho Council had been taken into the confidence of the Now Zealand representatives at the conference. He Tegretted, however, that they had not yet been informed about the scheme put forward by Now Zealand' for the establishment of an Imperial Council. The delegates, he thought,. were entitled to tho thanks as given in the motion. Apart from the Imperial Council or the Parliament of Defence, they had done excellent work. Referring- to the suggestion that Scotland had been bleeding to death in the loss of her population, Mr. Rigg said New Zealand had not been actually bleeding to death, but she'had'becn bleeding very freely quite recently. Sho had lost thousands- of her , best artisans. Sgme might say . that the cause was, the slowness of land settlement, but'ho believed that tho real'reason was our banking system. The prosperity of the country ha/* been put into the hands of a monopoly. Its • life blood was placed at the discretion.of a group.of. five banks, which did practically what' it liked. We had, he contended, one of the worst bank-, ing'systems that existed anyivhere. This tras the'cause of the exodus from the countrv. The-Hon. H. F. WIGRAM (Canterbury) also spoko at some length on Imperial m'atteTs. The Hon. J. R. SINCLAIR (Otago) thought the need for Imperial unity was os great to-day as ever it was. There must bo unity not only in sentiment but in interest. The land laws of tho Old Country were not good, and a large number of people were driven away. Many would have Ifift anyway, but' the land system had accentuated tho outflow. A •national system of dealing with the land was necessary so as to-bring the land to tho peoplo and the people 'to the land, so that they should reap tho advantage. Great Britain had ccased to produce her food, and her people driven from the land had moved oft to other countries. For a long time, said Mr. Sinclair, the Mother Country had legislated for herself and not for the Empire as a. whole. The speaker proceeded to refer to Germany— the first trading nation of the world. Germany was growing food for nine-tenths of her people lyhilst the Motherland grows only for one-tenth. While Germany sent ,£290,000,000 worth of her domestic exports tt. the competitive markets the Motherland sent .£190,000,000 worth. The trend of feeling at Homo was for home rule for the various divisions. He would express no opinion on this.

Sir' John FINDLAY proceeded to explain at some length the idea of the P,rinta Minister' in putting forward. the scheme' for an Imperial Parliament of Defenoe. It.had been recognised that a change was impending in the ..constitutional/system of the Motherland, that devolution' was in the air which would involve the local autonomy cf the Dominions and the creation of a new Imperial Parliament. Assuming- this, ■ it was thought that the hour was ripe for some scheme of federation embracing all the Dominions and the Motherland. It was intended that the internal defence of the, Dominions should Temain with them locally, but that Imperial defence should be dealt with by the Imperial Parliament. The only authority the proposed Imperial Parliament ■would have would be to control and promote naval defence. The proportion of oiir 'contribution to the Imperial Navy should, he thought, be apportioned definitely, and Sir Joseph Ward proposed that no burden of contribution should be laid on the oversea' Dominions greater than half per capita that laid by the Motherland ■on her own people. The present system, said; Sir John Fiudlay, was little better than going about the Empiro -with a hat and was as''uncertain and unsystematic. The'naval policy must be unified, and this could not be obtained without some organised representation. It had not been suggested that the proposal should bo adopted as it stood, but it was desired that it should be given fair play, and not treated as a farcical suggestion. What was .wanted was a discussion on the matter'to seer if a satisfactory scheme could be ■evolved. They ivere not -'hying to tear •down any system that had worked well, but the contention was that the old- system must give way' to the position as it was to-day. The motion was carried. Council rose at 4.15 p.m., until-Wed-nesday next.