PARLIAMENT

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 28, 27 October 1932, Page 10

PARLIAMENT

Debate on the Budget SEVEN MORE SPEAKERS Legislative Programme A MEMBER’S COMPLAINT (By Our Parliamentary Representative) The Budget debate in the House of Representatives still lingers on with no immediate signs of coming to an end. Seven more speakers took part yesterday, but the sting appears t« have gone out of the debate, and members are now showing a certain amount of anxiety to make some real progress with legislation. Since the debate opened on October 6 there have been 36 speakers, and there are still several who wish to be heard, so that it may not be possible to pass on to other work before next week. No contribution of real merit was made yesterday, most of the speakers being content to tread more or less well-worn paths of criticism of the findings of the National. Expenditure Commission. Many speakers have set out upon a discussion of the Budget Itself within the last few minutes of their speeches, so that it would seem the contents of the Financial Statement have assumed secondary importance. In spite of the continued touchiness of many members concerning the criticisms of Parliament’s slow gait. Mr. C. A. Wilkinson,. Independent member for Egmont, joined with the critics yesterday when he complained of the fact that no legislation had been passed so far. Many members are becoming sceptical of the chances of the session finishing before Christmas,' as the Prime Minister originally hoped. Only about seven weeks remain, for the House will adjourn some time before the holidays, and within that time all the legislation which the Government hopes to put through musti be dealt with. Some of the measures will not have an easy passage, so that once the Budget debate is out of the way there will be real need for haste if Parliament is to avoid meeting after the new year. The House rose shortly before 11.30 p.m. until 2.30 p.m. to-day, when the Budget debate will be resumed. BALLOT OF EMPLOYERS A Third Arbitration Bill A secret ballot of employers, in order to ascertain the opinions of all concerned before an industrial award is cancelled under the legislation of last session, is the principal provision in the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act Amendment Bill (No. 3) which was introduced in the House'yesterday on the motion of Mr. R. McKeen (Lab., Wellington South). Mr. McKeen said he thought the Minister of Labour would agree that there were many anomalies in the present Act The main purpose of the Bill was to amend section 7 of the Act which provided that where , the parties to a dispute failed to reach agreement, the award in question was cancelled after one month’s notice being given to the clerk of awards by the Conciliation Commissioner. The Bill provided that before an award was cancelled a ballot of employers should be taken. The Bill was accorded a first reading. CLOSING OF POST OFFICE The proposal to close the Wellington North Post Office at Tinakori Road and the present Molesworth Street office, whose work will be combined in ah. office in another part of Molesworth Street; was commented on by Mr. C. H. Chapman (Lab., Wellington North) in the House yesterday. Mr. Chapman asked the PostmasterGeneral, Hon. A. Hamilton, whether he would reconsider the proposal concerning the Tinakori Road office. He said it served the convenience of a large number of residents over a wide area and it was centrally situated. CHEAPER MONEY NEEDED Comparison With Australia FIBST STEP TO RECOVERY. The need for cheaper money in New Zealand before there could be any real niovedoward recovery, was emphasised bv Mr. C. A. Wilkinson (Ind., Egmont), when speaking during the Budget debate in the House yesterday. Dealing with Anaxial questions, Mr. Wilkinson complained of the high Tate of interest in New Zealand. He said deposit rates were lower in Australia than in New Zealand. Eighteen months ago, the Australian banks paid 4J per cent, for deposits. To-day the rate was 2i per cent., as compared with 3 per cent, in New Zealand. People in New Zealand were led to believe that Australia provided a shocking example of a country “making a mess of things,” but money was to be had there at a lower rate than in New Zealand. The Dominion Government had paid up to 5J per cent, for money borrowed from the banks in the form of Treasury bills. In Australia, the same type of short-dated loan could be secured at 4 per cent., and this was to be reduced shortly to 3 per cent- One had to ask why the New Zealand Government had to pay 2J per cent, more for its 1.0.U.’s than the Commonwealth. The price of money to-day was strangling the country. If things were to be set right, interest rates would have to be brought down. Rents were bound up with this question, and until it was tackled no real move could be made toward recovery.. State Advances Loan. Reference was made by Mr. Wilkinson to the statement made by Mr. W. E. Barnard (Lab., Napier), the previous evening, in connection with the loans of public funds for the financing of the construction of the Masonic Hotel at Napier. The House, said Mr.

Wilkinson, should raise its voice in protest against the use of public moneys for a venture of the kind. Not one settler in New Zealand could borrow £1 from the State Advances Office, and yet that department had advanced £21,000 on first mortgage. The State Advances Office had been instituted to assist settlers. “It is time members raised their voices in protest against the expenditure of public moneys in this fashion, . declared Mr. Wilkinson- “In doing what it has done the State Advances Office has prostituted its use, and .1 hope a similar thing will not happen again.” ' Mr. Wilkinson said that Parliament had been in session for over a month, but so far no legislation had been passed. In his opinion a good deal of the criticism levelled at Parliament in respect to its conduct, of the country’s business was justified. It was time members applied themselves in a businesslike, way to the conduct of public business. If they went along at the present pace it would be impossible to complete by Christmas the business they had been called together to transact. Three weeks before Parliament met the Prime Minister was reported in the newspapers as having stated that no consideration had then been given to the legislative proposals for the present session. It was the duty of Cabinet during the recess to consider every legislative measure it intended to place before Parliament, and these should be ready when members assembled. There had been too much waste of time so far. . - FINANCIAL POLICY The fear that New Zealand would be reduced to the status of a Crown Colony as far as its financial policy was concerned was expressed by Mr. A. S. Richards (Lab., Roskill) during the Budget debate in the House yesterday. He declared that the. proposed banking and currency reform would place New Zealanders under the direct control of London, and for this reason he objected to the changes in the banking law which the Government Intended to effect this session. NOT ENOUGH TALKING Member Defends Parliament Members of Parliament spoke not too much but too little, declared Mr. J. Hargest (Govt., Invercargill) when speaking during the Budget debate in the House yesterday. As a new member of the House, said Mr. Hargest, he had been perturbed by statements in the Press, and particularly by the Wellington papers, urging members of Parliament to be silent. He himself had come from his electorate to try to take his part in guiding the affairs of the country, and there was no other way to do that than by expressing his opinions freely on the different subjects that came before the House. Having spoken, a member of the House had to vote; and it was his duty to accept some of the responsibility for the legislation passed, although he niight not in every case agree with it. . “Our most important single task, added Mr. Hargest, “is the wise expenditure of the moneys collected by the State. I have been much impressed by the lack of responsibility shown by some members of the House when the Imprest Supply Bill was brought down. We spent the whole of the afternoon on a tedious and unfruitful discussion of unemployment, and when we reached the most important part of the debate—the granting of supply —we granted it at the rate of millions a minute and no one said a word.. I am sure the country would, appreciate seeing members using their powers and rights to speak on such an extremely important matter as this. An examination of past debates which I have made during the last two weekends has shown, I think, that members of this House have spoken not too much but too little.” Later Mr. Hargest said he did not wonder that the repute of Parliament suffered when in times such as the present all members could do was to hark back to the/misdeeds of past Governments. It-Was no good, he submitted, for members to come into the House after years had passed and say “I told you so.” Quoting the case of the member for Wellington East (Mr. R. Semple) and Arapuni, Mr. Hargest said it wgs a significant fact that Mr. Semple’s voice had not been raised in protest when the work was authorised, nor when it was being carried out. TRADE WITH JAPAN Definite Agreements Advocated “The money-lender is the cause of the trouble throughout the world,” said Mr. W. J. Jordan (Lab., Manukau), when speaking during the Budget Debate in the House last evening. No attempt, he said, had been made to reduce the interest on the National Debt. Mr. Jordan said that men, women and children were unable to obtain the necessaries of life. A state of national emergency should be declared. East year New Zealand’s trade with Japan was £30,000 to the bad. Surely that difficulty could be overcome by trade agreements, for as a result of them men would be employed. This country could well trade with the East or any other country, provided those countries took the equivalent in value of the goods used by New Zealand and sent to the Dominion the goods it selected. New Zealand could carry a larger population than it possessed at present. It was time the Government took into consideration the welfare of the people and investigated the possibility of opening up new avenues of trade and industry. DETAILS OF LAW CASES Restriction of Publication The Judicial Proceedings (Regulation of Reports) Bill was read a second time pro forma in the House yesterday on the motion of Mr. P. Fraser (Lab., Wellington Central) and referred to the Statutes Revision Committee. The measure is practically the same as a Bill introduced by Mr. Fraser last year. It then passed the House, but was rejected by the Legislative Council. It provides that no indecent particulars or medical details shall be published in reporting court proceedings, and that only the names and addresses of parties and witnesses, submissions on any point of law, a concise statement of charges, defence and counter-charges and the summing-up of the judge, together with the findings of the jury, shall be published when reporting actions for divorce. A similar law has been in operation

in Great Britain since about 1926, and a measure containing similar provisions was passed in Queensland recently. _____ SCHOOL BOOKS CONTRACT Request for Investigation An appeal to the Prime Minister to set up a tribunal to inquire into the letting of the school books contract in order to allay the bad feeling which he said existed throughout the country was made in the House last night by Mr. H. S. S. Kyle (Govt., Riccarton). “I now come to the question of school books,” he said toward the end of his speech in the Budget debate. A Member: What, again? Mr. Kyle: Yes, again. I want to protest against the letting of the school books contract in the way. It was done. The Minister said to himself. “I am in a safe place and I can extend the contract for another four years.” I want to know why the Government did not give the House an opportunity to discuss the recommendation of the National Expenditure Commission on this subject. I have been twitted that I have been taking a walk with one of the printers of New Zealand, but except for one in this House I don’t know any. Mr. A. M. Samuel (Govt., Thames) : ■Well, what are you going to do about it all? . , Mr. Kyle: I would ask what is the honourable member for Thames going to do about it. I represent not the printers but the school- committees and education boards of the Dominion, and I appeal to the Prime Minister —I am sure not in vain—to set up a committee of inquiry or tribunal to take the whole evidence on the letting of the contract and allay the bad feeling ‘ that now exists through the country. FROM GLASGOW SLUMS Member Praises New Land Frankly confessing that he came from the slums of Glasgow, Mr. D. McDougall (Govt., Mataura), took members into his confidence during the Budget debate in the House last evening, and told them how he “praised his Maker every morning that he had come to Jjfew Zealand.” Mr. McDougall's short disgression into what he termed the story of his clan, was prompted by remarks made the previous evening by Mr. J. A. Lee (Lab., Grey Lynn), who had spent much time upon the conditions existing in England, and which had been suffered by the people who came to the colonies in the early days.

Mr. McDougall said he had left Glasgow when he was young, adding: “A bov who is born into the environment we had in parts of Glasgow, and is able to grow up and make ‘a do’ of it, shun'evil, and cling to that which is good,'deserves some credit.” On the south side of the Clyde, he added, his family had been the tenants of a laird named McLean. “And a McLean is about as bad as—” Mr. F. Langstone (Lab., Waimarino): A McLeod! (Loud laughter.) "I praise my Maker every morning that I came to New Zealand,” Mr. McDougall said. “But coming out 50 or 60 years ago was very different from what it is to-day. If you came out in one of Paddy Henderson’s wind-jam-mers with pork. and pea soup all the way out, and pea soup that would run up four flights of stairs, you would know all about it.” (Loud laughter.) “I got away from it.” he added, referring to his emigration. “And it was a good job I did get away from it; if I had stopped there I would have been dancing on the end of a rope before now.”. At this stage Mr. McDougall entertained the House with a few verses of Scottish poetry, in which he figured the ill-deeds of the lairds, and he asked how anyone with a spark of independence could submit to the type of characters depicted. With a word of regret that Mr. Lee had not sung a song to the House the previous evening, so that he could have sung one in reply, he passed to other subjects. SOUND HOSPITAL SYSTEM Member’s Plea for Retention The opinion that the criticism levelled at Parliament was ill-founded was expressed by Mr. C. H. Chapman (Lab., Wellington North), when speaking during the Budget debate in,the House last evening. There was, he said, . a gratifying absence of graft in Parliament and local-body administration. Discussing hospital matters, Mr. Chapman said New Zealand’s hospital system was far ahead of those in Great Britain and Australia. In the Dominion they had built up a system which was efficient, as well as one they could be proud of. Nothing should be done to. injure the efficiency of their hospitals. If the recommendations of the National Expenditure Commission were given effect to, the present efficiency of their hospitals would be lessened. There was no reason why all the school books required in the Dominion, as well as the electoral rolls, should not be printed by the, Government Printing Office. The office should be given the opportunity of doing all the printing the Government required. , DENTAL CLINIC COSTS The Government has at present no intention of carrying out the recommendation of the National Expenditure Commission that dental clinic committees should be charged £lOO for each nurse. This statement was made in the House yesterday by the Minister of Health, Hon. J. A. Young, in reply to Mr. F. Jones (Lab., Dunedin South), who said that the present charge was £3O a nurse, and that any increase would mean the closing of many clinics.