PARLIAMENT IN SESSION

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 300, 19 September 1928, Page 13

PARLIAMENT IN SESSION

SOLDIER SETTLEMENT AGAIN / r (TREATMENT OF MENTAL DEFECTIVES SCREENING OF BRITISH FILMS A considerable volume of business was handled by the House of Representatives yesterday. The afternoon was taken up with the presentation of a further batch of departmental reports and the reports of * Select Committees.. The principal subject of discussion in the afternoon was discharged. soldier settlement, the Labour Party renewing its charges against the Government and being replied to by the Minister of Lands (Hon. A. D. McLeod) and other speakers. No new ground was traversed. Of the Select Committee reports, the most important was that on the Mental Defectives Bill, the committee recommending that the Bill be allowed to proceed with a number of amendments. In the evening the Kinematograph Films Bill was taken in Committee.

PARTY CAPITAL

SOLDIER SETTLEMENT AGAIN ANOTHER LABOUR EFFORT REBATES AND REVALUATIONS

The proximity of the general elections was again made apparent in the House of Representatives yesterday, when the Lab-our-Socialist Party repeated its attack on the Government’s dealings with regard to soldier settlement. Reform members were not slow to rebuke the Opposition for its further attempt to manufacture party capital out of a result for which all had to shoulder the blame.

The debate arose out of the presentation of the annual report of the Land Department on discharged soldier settlement.

Mr. J. A. Lee (Auckland East) asked whether the Minister intended to make available a return showing the cost to the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Account of each estate purchased by the Government, the name of the vendor, ahd the amount by which the several estates were written down. Such a raturn, ' he said, would clear the air over the charge that the Government had purchased land for closer settlement from its wealthy friends. Mr. R. P. Hudson (Motueka) said that many of the settlers, thanks to their friends and relatives, had purchased the land outright, and he contended that they were just as much entitled to a rebate as the settlers who had been assisted by the Government. A Risk Involved. The Hon. D. Buddo (Kaiapoi) said that many of the settlers did not want any concession from the Government. What they wanted was a, revaluation of their farms, as being unable to sell their holdings they were in an untenable position. “Are they prepared to try to sell?” asked the Minister of Lands (Hon. A. D. McLeod). “Are they prepared to surrender and take the risk of taking the land

up at a cheaper price?” Mr. Buddo: I believe some of them would. Of course, they are carrying a very heavy burden, some of them having been granted no relief whatever. Mr. G. W. Forbes (Hurunui) said he would like to know whether the Minister proposed to bring down any land-legis-lation this session. Mr. M. J. Savage (Auckland West) said it would be interesting to know whether the Government was waiting and hoping that some day the soldiers would be able to meet their liabilities, or whether it was evading the issue. The position had to be faced sooner or later. Why not face it now? he asked. There was no doubt that the Government made a mistake in the first place. Even the Minister of Justice, when a private member. had suggested that the land should have been purchased by bonds. Certainly at the time there was a cry that the soldiers should be placed on the land. , but that was no excuse for the Government departing from common-sense methods. Unless the Revaluation Board did the job Jt set out to do. many more holdings would be sacrificed. Further reductions must be made. Could the Minister assure the House that to-day the soldiers were meeting their instalments? If not, why did he allow the position to go on?

Manufacturing Political Capital. Mr. W. D. Lysnar (Gisborne) said that soldier settlement had cost the coun--Iry a little over £5,000,000. If it had cost double that amount, would it have been too much? The soldiers were pledged to return the money lent to them, and they were meeting their liabilities. He resented the action of certain members of Parliament in making political capital out of soldier settlement. One would think that the Government had paid for the land: it had not, it had only lent the money which was now being returned. It was time that the miserable and paltry attempt that was being made to make party capital out of the question was dropped. “Beside the Point!” The Leader of the Opposition (Mr. H. E. Holland) said they had at least learned that the returned soldiers were placed in most adverse circumstances on account of Reform administration. Mr. Lysnar: You were the cause of it. Mr. Speaker: Order! Mr. Holland: You denounce the Opposition for not asking for more, but as soon as we get up and make a plea we are accused of making party capital. Mr. Lysnar: So you are and you know it. Mr. Holland: I am sure the lion, member is one of the members the Government would be very glad to lose at the forthcoming elections. . . A voice: Surely not! Mr. Lysnar: You would be glad to lose me. (Laughter.) Mr. Holland: No, I would not, except for the fact that a more useful member would come in. Mr. Speaker said he was afraid Mr. Holland was getting away from the point. Mr. Holland: “Yes, Mr. Speaker, but when Mr. Lysnar uses the line of argument he has used this afternoon I would suggest to him that he lose himself altogether.” (Laughter.) The Government, he maintained, should see the error of its ways. Writings off amounted practically to a free gift to wealthy landowners. The Minister of Lands: No. Mr. Holland : We have had statements that wealthy landowners sold the worst of their land to the soldiers and kept the best for themselves. Mr. J. A. Lee: Hear, hear. Air. Holland suggested to Mr. Lysnar that he should use his influence to get the Government to relieve the pressure on the returned soldiers. The most serious indictment of the Government was contained in the speech of Mr. Lysnar. His charge against the Government Mr. Lysnar: Against you. Air. Holland: It was against the Government, and I invite the Minister of Lands to answer it. when he is replying.

r Mr. D. Jones (Ellesmere) said that the allegations of the Labour Party were not against the Government but against the officers of the Lands Department. The charge was that the land purchase officers and the valuers were corrupt. Mr. Speaker: Order. The honourable member is out of order. Mr. Jones: The inference from the statements of the Opposition is that these men were corrupt. Mr. J. A. Lee rose to a point of order, stating that he had not said anything against the officers and he had not heard anyone else say so. Mr. Speaker said that Mr. Jones must accept the assurance of members that there was no charge against the officers. Mr. Holland: I made none. Mr. Jones argued that the charge must necessarily involve the Department as part of the Government, and the inference to be drawn was that the Government was guilty of corruption. . Mr. Holland: Not corruption but ineptitude. , , , Mr. Speaker again stated that the assurance must be accepted that there was no suggestion of corruption. Administration Beyond Praise. Mr. Jones went on to say that there were many cases where returned soldiers had not paid a penny rent, and even then had failed. How could it be said of such cases that the price of the land was the cause of the trouble? The manner in which Mr. McLeod, as Minister of Lands, hud dealt with the soldier settlement problem, was beyond praise. That was not only his own view, but that of other members, and it was common knowledge that the Opposition recognised the fact also. It suited them, however, to make the statements they bad in an effort to obtain a party advantage at the elections. Minister’s Reply. The Minister, in reply, said that he agreed that the discussion, as on other occasions, was largely for political purposes. He did not blame the Opposition for that, for were the Reform Party on those benches, they would doubtless, follow similar tactics. In Australia he had seen parties of various schools of thought doing the same thing. He had taken the trouble to ptocure the soldier-settlement reports of Australia, and if there was a sin in not revealing the whole of the facts, that sin belonged to the Labour Party across the water. Mr, McLeod said he believed the people

were satisfied with what had been done in remedying the position of the soldier settlers. He had searched all the files, and he could assert definitely that nothing had been done, all through the settlement scheme, which would cause shame. Mistakes had been made, undoubtedly, but they were honest errors. The Minister admitted to Mr. D. G. Sullivan (Avon) that lie had said that land had been purchased at too high a price, but he knew that the Government had been forced into it, and the Opposition had to take its share of the blame. The Opposition were not concerned about the soldiers, but with party politics and the advantages they could obtain. What had Mr Atmore ever done for the soldiers?

the Minister asked. Mr. Atmore: Criticised your foolish purposes. In Position to Make Good. ' The Minister said that many of the soldiers had paid for all their improvements, but they could not carry on owing to the high price they had paid. The Government had now placed the men in a position where they could make good. Reference had been made to the postponements of rents, and the question had been asked why the amounts were not written off. There was no doubt that if payment had always been demanded on the spot, then half the land now under cultivation in New Zealand would not be producing. The settlers had had to find financial accommodation. A section of the people were being invited not to pay their debts to the Crown, and the Opposition was a party to that incitement. Mr J. A. Lee: You urged it yourself. The Minister: Before the lands were written down. I understand the soldiers on the land, and I know the great majority of them are satisfied with the reductions which have been made, and the treatment accorded to them. But they say that if the “leadswinger" across the road is going to get a still further reduction, they are going to obtain one, too.

Revaluations. “It is impossible to keep on revaluing the land, because we will get into still further trouble,” the Minister continued. “The civilian land was revalued to the soldier, and again the soldier’s land was revalued to the civilian.” Mr. Buddo: But take off the soldiers liability. , , The Minister: The land was revalued to the figure at which the soldier could make a do of it. We have got to have earnest endeavour to farm the sections. The Minister added that a great deal of the losses on soldier settlement was in respect of interest which ho said Mr. Holland had once defined as being something for nothing. The report was tabled, ELECTRICAL WIRING AMENDMENTS TO BILL Several amendments have been made to the Electrical Wiremen’s Registration Amendment Bill by the Labour Bills Committee of the House of Representatives. The proposal to allow apprentices and improvers to do electrical wiring work without supervision, has been struck out, and the clauses relating to the registration of otherwise unqualified wiremen have been tightened up. The Bill, as introduced, proposed to extend registration to a certain class of persons, not qualified for registration under the principal Act, who would be allowed to carry out limited classes of electrical wiring work. The alterations made by the Committee are that such applicants before being registered, must satisfy the Registration Board that they have been engaged in the class of work affected for at least three years before the application for registration was made. Where registration is granted for maintenance work only, the work, the Committee suggests. is to be carried out only in cases of emergency due to break down, and within twenty four hours it must be inspected and tested by a registered wireman, or the holder of a provisional license.