A MINISTERIAL REPLY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 120, 17 November 1909, Page 3

A MINISTERIAL REPLY.

The Hon, J. A. Millar followed, and described Mr. Allen's remarks as "the same old stuff ;" "the same old statement that has been cleared up time and time again." Turning to the land question, he pointed out that endowment land if sold now would buy very little land near the cities that was of value for endowment purposes?. EXTRAVAGANCE. In one breath, continued Mr. Millar, the hon. gentleman condemned the Government for extravagance, and in the other for retrenchment. The retrenchments had been carried out on the advice of the offices of tho various departments, and he went on to give further ideas as to how the retrenchment scheme had been carried out so as not to keep on men for whom there was no necessity. The more, they examined the J matter, the more, he said, they would find the justification for what had been done. Replying to an interjection, he said that the work of the Land and Income Tax Department was being carried out more effectually than iv the past under the present head of the | department. WHO ARE THE CLAMANTS? He urged that members had us many rights as they enjoyed before the present Government came into power ; and as to borrowing, contended thut the Opposition was the loudest in clamouring far public works expenditure. That could only be carried out by boriowing or taxation, anrt yet the Opposition tried to make little of the retrenchment proposals of the Government, designed to decJease the cost of administration. Tho retrenchment did not take effect until Ssptember, and its full effect could not yet be gauyed. As to railways, he urged that New Zealand was one of the worst countries in the world from the construction point of view, and that the cost compared favouiably vvith the expenditure in other countries Also, lie urged that the cost of running compared favourably with the running cost in Australia, ana remarked that if we paid the tame rate of pay a.« in New South Wale- we would be paying £33,000 a year less than at piehent. Lafat year the expenditure was increased by the classification scheme, which added £147,000 to the cost of the working, and by the f;>ct that the stock of coal was enormously inn eased, owing to trouble among the coalminere, That

cost another £40,000, but the dcpaitnient now woiked on a supply of sixteen weeks. New Zealand's* average, he contended, was well up to that of other countries, and the fares and freights compared more than favourably with those charged elsewhere. If possible, after the session, he would go to Australia to see the New South Wales and other systems, advocated by the Opposition for the purpose of comparing them iwith our own. As to the superannuation funds, lie contended that it took something like thirty years to discover whether it was actuariully sound or not.