FINANCIAL DEBATE CONTINUED

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 282, 25 August 1944, Page 6

FINANCIAL DEBATE CONTINUED

Addresses In House 01 Representatives ANOTHER SIX SPEAKERS TAKE PART

The iinaucial duhiite was in\<le° Most the subjects discussed day, when another s P eec^cers in the debate, in which 40 t « taken par/ The House rose at 10.30 pan. till 10.30 a.n,. today.

“We simnld do some urgent stockt'lkhi" over our housing position and get r'X <lo vii to the job o£ removing the shocking conditions unjler. wineh many, of our people are living,” said Mr. Corbet (Opposition. Egmont), in the debate on the Financial Statement. After from a report bv a Wellington nurses organization on the stale of housing m Wellington city. Mr. Corbett said that though every right-minded c ‘ ~ ® plot-ed the horrible crime of abortion, some might question whether in cases of ..cute overcrowding it was not.more hi - nmnitarinn to terminate the lite of .n unborn child than expect it to !>e brought up in such conditions ns P rew ’ c !U oJ ™i Housing was in a shocking muddle ami Jhe problem was such that not even rehabilitation could take priority. Mr. Corbett said he was. glad to see in the Budget that the Minister of Finance had paid a tribute to Great Britain for her great stand alone against the rnemy in the darkest hours ot the war. He had done a service to the Dominion hr attempting to inculcate into his inter-nationally-minded' and Communistic colleagues a sense of the'glory of the empire “It was Britain’s moral stature that enabled her to stand bloody but unbowed ” said Mr. Corbett. I believe in the solidarity of the British Empire, which gave us traditions of freedom for the common man.. and we should tei proud Io belong to it.” . , The farming community today acknowledged its debt io the economic secondnrv industries whose employees liau proved that they were second to none in initiative and skill. .^ anu t ac 1 tu s' l ’’l industries were essential for a balanced economy. At the same time the farmeis were not unmindful of their part m the country’s economic life, and all tbey asked for was just treatment. Import Control Policy,

'l’he retention of some form of import control as a permanent policy was ut'KC‘l bv Mr. Coleman (Government. Gisborne). He said he had no. doubt that some ot the import restrictions would be removed, but he hoped there would always be some form of import control. There was a future for the manufacturing industries of this country, and if import control were removed these industries would be d °New'Zealand needed well-man aged secondary industries in addition to its primary industries, said Mr. Coleman. J.he Opposition had claimed that import control was interfering with the liberties of the people, but actually it interfered with only a few. such as commission agents who lived by importing. Hie Government had to think of more than a few people. It had to think of most of the people, and if it could do good for these people bv interfering with a few then it would ,<lo it. If the Government interfered with the liberty or freedom of a few people in the interests of the great mass of the people then it was doing something it should. To give n’cedom from import control to a comparative fen would give to many more the freedom to l>e poor and live in discomfort, insecurity and want. That was not the policy ot this Government. Afforestation Policy. A more active afforestation policy should be followed by the Government, said Mr. Smith (Opposition, Bay ot Islands). It was regrettable that more money had not been voted for that work in the estimates. , Steps essential for the country s economy were arresting the destruction of forests by the milling of immature frees and the replacement of every tree rut so that timber for the future would provided and soil erosion prevented. He complimented the Forestry Departmerit on its policy of selecting mature trees for cutting in its activities in North Auckland forests. There should be a law to stipulate the size of a log that could be cut. There had been amazing results of the experiment of planting native trees at Waitangi. Trees planted in 1940 were now 20ft. high. Mr. Smith also advocated the employment of returned men in forestry nurseries, and said the farmers should be encouraged to plant native trees. They were mainly deterred by the cost of erecting protective fences. By planting native trees our native birds would be provided with food and shelter. Mr. Smith said he was a bit fed up With bearing the Russians being extolled by members on the Government benches at the expense of our own men. “It is time this invidious nonsense was eliminated.” he added. “There is no soldier in the world to equal the British soldier, be lie a Tommy or from any part of the Empire.” Brices For Produce. The Opposition wanted the Government to abdicate and hand over to the farmers, said Mr. Carr (Government, Tnnaru). It wanted the Government to have the consent of the farmers as to the prices for their produce and the disposal of the funds handed over by Britain.. The farmers today.were largely Tories despite what had been done for them by the Government. The farmers were archConservatives, except for the apostles on the Opposition'benches. The farmers only initiated the process of wealthmaking, though the war against insecurity could not be won without them. Every worker in this country made his contribution to wealth production, and the farmer only began the process. The Opposition would like the farmers to govern this country. That happened in the slump, and the Government abdicated, to a farmers’ Government. The equalization fund from Britain belonged to all the people, even if it were to subsidize the prices of our exports, which it was. not. If it were to compensate for higher prices for imported goods from Britain all who had to pay the higher prices should share it. Mr. Carr said that if there were ever ■■mother slump, and the present Government were in power, there would be.no slump in New Zealand even if it were world-wide. There would be a later opportunity to discuss the proposals of the International Monetary Conference. It was vita! that the Government should not abdicate to international money power, but that the sovereignty of the people in money power should be restored. British Bondholders. . A suggestion by Mr. Carr that New Zealand was in the grip of overseas financial interests was repudiated by the Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, by way of interjection. Mr. Carr, who had quoted from a publication in which it was stated that the Empire was bound by debt, said that he had met British bondholders at clubs, and one of them had stated: “You think you own New Zealand. New Zealand belongs to the British bondholders, and I am one of them.” The Prime Minister: You know that is not right. The greatest part of our money is owned in the country. Mr. Carr said that if he had exaggerated he was sorry and withdrew. He commended the policy of the Minister of Finance in domesticating as far ns possible our' overseas debts. A debtor country was a slave to its creditors, and. it depended on its creditors what sort of a deal it received. New Zealand was fortunate in having no doubt such a considerate and generous creditor .as Great Britain. When Mr. Murdoch (Opposition, Marsden), who was the next speaker, referred to the Prime Minister's interjection, Mr. Fraser said that Mr. Carr hod made a good speech which had la’Cn well thought out. Disposal of Produce Funds,

A determined but unsuccessful ellort to drmv from the Minister of Finance a hint of the Government's intentions concerning the proportion of the funds of the. London produce agreement to he paid to the farmers was made by Mr. Murdoch. The farming comruiluity and the country, ho said, were intended use of the funds handed oyer to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance through the generosity of Great Britnili. Some years ago the Minister ot Finance had made a statement to the effect that the farmers would get every penny of the funds received from the produce they exiwHc'l. !'“t the

Government would control the luuds overseas. . ~ , . in Mr. Richards (Government, Roskill) v A sound statement. Mr. Murdoch: I am very suspicious about that statement. Will anybody on the Government side say what the Government’s intentions really are. No reply from the Ministerial.benches being forthcoming, Mr. Murdoch said the dairy industry wanted 2d. per lb. extra for butterfat, and money received under the agreement above that to go into the Dairy Industry Account. Tiie Minister in Charge of Stabilization. Mr. Sullivan: Will .the honourable gentleman be satisfied if it goes into the stabilization account? Mr. Murdoch replied that money over and above the 2d. definitely was part ot the payment due to the farmers. He wanted to know whether the I rime Minister would stand up to his statement to the recent farmers’ conference in Wellington that the Government stood firm y by its stabilization policy. Also he would ask the Prime Minister for a full and detailed statement of. the subsidy list, since he had stated that so many millions had been paid out in subsidies, and how much of the London money was to bo used to offset against the prices the farmers were to get from overseas. Referring to the stabilization policy. Mr. Murdoch said there was evidence that it had broken down. Apparently it was being applied in some directions but not in others. ' . The Minister of Marine, Mr. 0 Brien . Stabilization never meant that anyone should live underneath a living standard The Prime Minister had said that stabilization was necessary in order to prevent inflation, yet the Government itself, through its use of the Reserve Bank, was responsible for the fact that credit from the bank now totalled about £30,000.000, whereas, in 1935 when the Government took office it was only £275,000. Mr. Richards: We havet used it for building houses. Mr. Murdoch said he was curious about the present personnel of the Stabilization Commission. Some members of it had left and had not been replaced. He knew that a regulation had been issued to provide that one man could act as the commission: The Government would not deny that. The people of the Dominion, who included the farmers, only wanted fair play in stabilization. Criticism of Press.

In his opinion the Government had been letting the Press off too lightly, said Mr. Hackett . (Government, Grey Lynn) when referring to recent Opposiiton criticism of the censorship. “If it ware left to my discretion —I don’t want it to be thought that I am speaking for the Government —I would take over the Press of the country,” said Mr. Hackett. “If my vote would do it that would be done as soon as possible. The Press is a public utility and should not be left in the hands of little Hitlers.” Mr. Hackett quoted what Mr. Stanley Baldwin had written about the Press and Lord Beaverbrook. He said he could not subscribe to the view that any newspaper should be the mouthpiece of any one man. Was it any wonder, he asked, that.the. people who owned the Press had nothing in common with Labour. Mr. Hackett quoted the shares held by an Auckland paper in a number of insurance and trading concerns. Could we expect these papers to say anything favourable about the Labour Government. The Government should attack these people where it hurt most—in the pockets. There had been occasions when the Press Association had refused to take and send out Ministerial statements which were in reply to attacks made on the Government, said Mr. Hackett. Yet the Press would allow statements to get into the papers—some of them made .from time to time by National Party speakers—which they knew to be false.• Mr. T. C. Webb (Opposition, Kaipara): Will you say that outside the House? Mr. Hackett asked whether the Press had told the people that the Opposition members in the House had acquiesced in the decision to remodel Bellamy’s. Yet the member for Hamilton had caused a statement to appear in the Hamilton paper that the Opposition had not acquiesced. The speaker “also quoted instances of letters being published, and claimed that the editor should have caused a footnote to be inserted explaining the true position.