Budget Debate Resumed In Parliament

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 289, 5 September 1945, Page 8

Budget Debate Resumed In Parliament

Waterfront Control Commission’s

Cost Criticized

A feature of the financial debate in the House of Representatives yesterday was the maiden speech of Mr. Walls (L., Dunedin North), who was applauded both at the beginning and at the end of his address. Mr. Walls dealt with a variety of subjects, and advanced the claims of Otago fbr more intensive development and the settlement oif returned servicemen. He said the question of the birth rate in New Zealand was a serious one, and that before people could be asked to bring children into the world they must be secured against unemployment/ The other speakers were Mr. Murdoch (N., Marsden), Mr. Meachen (L.. Marlborough), Mr. Holyoake (N., Pahiatua), Mr. Armstrong (L., Napier), and Mr. Sheat (N., Patea). Mr. Murdoch criticized the cost of the Waterfront Control Commission, and said that control of the wharves should be handed over to the harbour boards, which could control them as well if not better, lhe need foi the extension of electricity reticulation to country areas was referred to by Mr. Meachen, who said, he understood the Minister of Works. Mr. Semple, was preparing a scheme which would enable the difference between the revenue and the cost to be met by subsidy. Mr. Sheat criticized the failure of Government speakers to reply to Opposition criticism of the revised estimates of war expenditure. The House rose at 10.30 p.m. till 2.30 p.m. today.

Mr. WALLS (L., Dunedin North), who resumed the debate on the, financial statement, congratulated the Minister ot Works on the magnitude of the tasks carried out' by his department, in particular tlie overhead ramps on highways which were the means of saving, many lives, tie also congratulated him oa his post-war planning and on the work of his department in connexion with the heavy floods iu South Otago. There hail, been mention of relief for the settlers who had lost heavily, but if the causes of the floods were removed, for instance, by clearing the beds of the rivers, there would be no need for this relief. He strongly urged on the Minister the need for development of hydroelectric schemes in Central Otago. It was estimated that 3,000,000 h.p. could be generated from the gorges of the Molyneux River. The valuable lands in this area could produce fruit that could, not be grown in any other part of New Zealand. All that was required was effective irrigation. These parched lands were thirsting for water. Otago Central could be made into one of the richest areas in the country. The climate would be beneficial particularly to returned servicemen, and he urged 'the development of irrigation schemes in Central’ Otago as a rehabilitation measure. Millions of gallons of water were being wasted daily. In Central Otago could be seen dried up land on one side of a road and well watered pastures on the other. By the use of pumps all the flat land in Central Otago could he irrigated. He understood that ap-, proximately SO,OOO acres at Cromwell and Hawea was Crown land and should be ideal for the ’introduction of a rehabilitation scheme. He stressed the need for giving every encouragement to manufacturing industries in this country if the population was to be expanded and full employment ensured. There was enough wool produced to meet all the Dominion’s needs, but it was not exploited properly with the objective of increasing employment. More should be done in regard to the producti'.n of carpets, rugs and footwear. He urged the total prohibition of the imports of boots. It might be necessary in order to ensure better finished articles to bring experts from overseas, but that could be done. Economic secondary industries should be fostered in every way possible. High Civil Expenditure. Mr. MURDOCH (N., Marsden) said one would imagine from the speeches of Government members that the public was quite happy with taxation at a high level and that it should be maintained at that level. He did not think these members understood public opinion any more than the Minister of Finance did. Civil expenditure had reached an extraordinary level, being £72,800,000. or practically double the amount in 1941. The only decrease in the Budget was 20 per cent, on buildings which had still to be erected. That was the only plum the Minister of Finance had to offer, and he expected the public to accept that and be happy. Was it any wonder recent' by-elections showed a marked swing against the Government.? The provision of £20,902 for the costs of running the Waterfront Control Commission with three commissioners at £1325 a year each, and other highlypaid executive officers, lip regarded as a

the country areas was necessary. He understood that the Minister of Public Works, Mr. Semple, contemplated some arrangement whereby the Government would subsidize the difference between the cost of reticulation and the return front the prospective consumers to euable power to be extended to sparsely populated districts. The Kaikoura district was half way between Blenheim and Christchurch and . had no power, the settlers having to use petrol or diesel engines for their milking machines. He wanted to see reticulation extended to that district and to other rural districts. Power was a boon to the farmers and every effort should be made to give them the advantage of it. Blenheim had power from the Cobh River scheme, but Pieton had a “tin-pot” steam ’plant for lighting purposes only. There were far too many power boards, and they could almost be done without altogether. The carried out through the hydro-electric branch of the Public Works Department. tralization. Mr. ALGIE (N., Hemuera) : More cenCriticism of Free Enterprise. Mr. HOLYOAKE (N., Pahiatua) said criticism of free enterprise had been freely indulged in during the debate by Government members, and severe obstacles to that free enterprise had been created by the Government, which had set out to undermine the economic structure of the country as it existed under free enterprise. The Government had been keen to boast of its social legislation, but there was a vast difference between social and socialist legislation. It was as well to recall that from the beginning of this century social legislation had been introduced by successive Governments in this country. When the present Government came into office there were 14 different benefits on the Statute Book, and the increased prosperity that had ruled throughout the world had enabled it to increase those benefits. On numerous occasions Labour members'had asserted that the Opposition, if it became the Government, would not operate the Social Security benefits. Despite constant denials of the assertion they went on trying to frighten pensioners into retaining them in office. It was necessary once again to nail this canard. There was the grossly untrue statement made by the Prime Minister in Christchurch last weekend. Following a point of order raised by the Acting-Leader of the House, Mr. Nash. Mr. SPEAKER ruled that it was out of order for one member to accuse another of saying untrue things either inside or outside the House. Mr. HOLYOAKE withdrew the expression. He would say that the Prime Minister had made a statement in Christchurch that was deliberately misleading and deliberately incorrect. It was a most reprehensible statement. The National Party had already made it clear that when it became the Government it intended to continue all those benefits and planned to extend them, particularly assistance to mothers in the home, tn the prevention of sickness, and in the physical and moral training of the youth of the country. Record of Socialism.

gross wastegfff'public money.- "'Jbc. control of the wharves ’Should' be banded back to the harbour boards, who could run them a« well, if not. better. He was pleased to see that, the Minister bad seen the error of his ways in urging the people to spend their way to prosperity and was now encouraging people to save in order to ensure that prosperity. Government members were asserting that the Opposition wished to have all controls lifted immediately. Nobody said that. The Opposition policy was that all controls which militated against the welfare and well being of the community, which hampered business and restricted trade." should be eliminated. One such was the Industrial Efficiency Act. The ■Minister of Industries and Commerce had given as the object of the Act the eliminating of cut-throat competition, the law of the jungle and the survival of tlie fittest. and the substitution of a more orderly industrial life. Mr. RICHARDS (L.. Roskell) : What is wrong with that? Mr. MURDOCH said the Act was achieving what the Minister set out to eliminate. It was hampering trade, had created restrictions, had led to monopolies and could not be claimed to be a success.

" Wherever business was of a free, competitive nature it should be left to private enterprise or co-operative enterprise to run it. State trading should be used only as a check to monopolies and to encourage new industries and new markets, but State Socialism meant monopolies. What was the record of "the present Government in its policy of socializing the means of production, distribution and exchange? Under the cumbersome machinery of the Soldiers’ Settlement and Land Sales Act, the Government bad actually acquired fewer*.than 200 farms. If the Act were to be a help to returned servicemen it was worthy- of support,_ but he wondered, if Labour were retained in office, and all returned men were settled, whether this measure would disappear, or whether the Government would retain it as an instrument to socialize the laud. The State had entered into the coal-mining, timber-milling and housebuilding industries. He was not saying the Slate should not help in building homes, but it was making it more ami more difficult for people to build their own homes. Then the Industrial Efficiency Act conferred tremendous [lowers on the Bureau of Industry, thereby establishing a virtual State monopoly. The keynote of socialistic legislation was monopoly. The National Party stood for competition. Under the socialization ot the means of distribution the Government had exercised control of every wbeei of transport. The Minister of Transport had established a virtual dictatorship. There was no appeal from his decisions. Immediately the Government look office it socialized the Reserve Bank, and in 1938 it hud secured a monopoly control of the sterling exchange. Now. it proposed compulsorily to acquire the privately-held shares of the Batik of New Zealand. All this was indicative of the extent to which the Government was creating a monopolist totalitarian State. He submitted that the proper function of the State was to check monopolies, encourage new industries and markets, and to leave economic enterprises to the spur of free competition or co-operative organizations. No system was perfect, and the weakness in the free enterprise system which should be corrected was that, it tended to centralize a great deal of wealth and power. But that was not just a weakness of Socialism. It was a certainty, causing all rower to be centred in a few hands. Socialism as expounded in this country had also accent uuted_ class hatred and bitterness. The National Party offered a return to sane government. and would weld the people into one people. Mr. ARMSTRONG (L. Napier) said that in bis opinion the present Budget was one of the finest financial statements ever presented to the House. The primary producers had broken all records of production during the war, and tint could not have been achieved without ill*' long, strenuous hours worked by the workers on the farms. No Government had (lone more than Labour to promote New Zealand industries There had not been one word of thunks from the Opposition to Ministers of the Crown for their direction of the war effort. New Zealand had achieved raeords in production both from the farms mid the factories. and at a time when 175.<K>0 mon ami women were out of production ami serving in the armed forces. At that time 75,000 people in New Zealand were engaged solely in production for war purposes. Mr SHEAT. (N., Patea/sriid he agreed with the member for Marlborough that electric power should be extended to country areas, and that ’he rest of the country, which had enjoyed this privilege over a long period should help to pay for it. This expi'.-ion of ideeirnpower would he],, a ct-eul deal toward attracting population bad to the conn try and assisting in production. At the same time he opposed tb:> suggestion of the elimination of power boards and the centralization of this control. If industry were Io be carried on most, efficiently

In recent years the ?>linister of Supply had been the chief buyer for his department, and he had made several bad buys. For instance, some thousands of dozens saucepans were purchased which were no good. They were useable on gas stoves only and were useless for electric'stoves. One thousand dozen of them cost about £lO,OOO. There had also been a. loss on the purchase of mattress ticking. The amount was no doubt passed on through the War Expenses Account to the public. The sooner wc got back to ordinary methods of trade tlie better for merchants and for the country generally, and the time was now right for that change. We now had £67.000,(MX) in sterling funds and the Government should implement its promises of fostering trade with Britain by allocating a large proportion of those sterling funds to enable New Zealand to buy goixls which Britain had to offer.

Housing should be tackled in a systematic manner, instead of the haphazard way operating at present. The country districts were not golfing their fair share of houses. It had been reported recently that the Government proposed to send an ambassador to Paris, and if appeared to him that the Minister of Mines, Mr. Webb, who was to go to the International Labour Organization Conference in France, was going to Paris on a “sort of tryout,” and that if he succeeded in captivating the charms of the Paris people he would be appointed. Hardwoods from Australia. Mr. MEACHEN (L.. ■Marlborough) said that taxation bad net stopped anyone participating in the good things "’f life. The money had been spent wisely and well, and the people had received the benefit. The Government had been criticized for having brought control to industry, but. the Board of Trade Act introduced in 1919 probably contained the widest, possible power ever brought into being. So far as the controls brought iu by the present Government were concerned there was very little room for complaint when they were compared with those provided for in the Board of Trade Act. The deal between Australia and New Zealand involving the exchange of softwoods and hardwoods had been criticized by Mr. Broadfoot (N. Waitomo), but we were in a sorry plight for hardwood supplies, and had not had sufficient for sleepers for the last, two and a half inil-’s of the South Island Main Trunk railway. The deal between the two countries was a fair one. A tremendous quantity of hardwood was required by this country. No country had got through the war period in such a streamlined milliner .as had New Zealand and with so little inconvenience to the people The reticulation of electric power to

it could only be by local control, which was in the best position to deal with interruptions in the power. Features o’ the Budget debate were the studious avoidance by Government members of any detailed examination of it, and their failure to. justify or even discuss the revised estimates brought down bv the Minister of Finance. Those figures had been torn to shreds by Opposition speakers, yet no Government speakers had seen fit to reply. Another feature was the failure ot the Budget to disclose the broad outlines of Government plans for the post-war period. They had been told that the Government did have plans, that it had a 10-year plan in connexion with hydro-electricity, but surely those plans should be revealed. What was O.N'.D. doing? Had it produced any plan? What were the regional councils' doing? All these were matters on which the country should have some information.

'rhe country should have some statement from the Government on lend-lease in light of the. recent, statement that the United States did not expect a settlement of leud-lease in dollars, but expected co-operation from the countries which had participated in lend-lease in fostering i>ost-war trade and the lowering of tariffs. That, was the interpretation he put on I‘resident Truman’s statement, aud he would like a statement, from the Government whether it had entered into any commitments witli the United States to lower tlie barriers against United States trade with this Country. If it had. then he wished to know whether the Government intended to open the door in a similai fashion to goods from the United Kingdom. The public should have this information because they bad relieatedly been told that the Government intended to maintain those trade barriers, particularly the import control policy. It was interesting to recall that when the import control policy was itrfreduced the Government had then said it was to be a temporary measure and the public was led to bejieve that it would, be modified as circumstances altered. . Now the Government intended to maintain import control as a permanent part of its policy. He believed i’ was the duty of the House to do all possible to assist Great Britain to recover her trade. lie Imped the policy of the country would not be dominated in the years ahead by the narrow, selfish attitude of so-called insulation. Such an altitude should be dead, btq he was afraid it was coming to life again. He also urged a close examination of (he monetary policy of the Government, which had been one of large-scale inflation, and which was a grave danger to the economic and financial stability of the country The debate was interrupted bv I lie adjournment