THE END IN SIGHT.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 38, 13 August 1910, Page 9

THE END IN SIGHT.

LAST STAGES OF BUDGET DEBATE. YESTERDAY'S SPEECHES. Three weeks have been consumed in the longest Financial Debate of recent years, and the end is in sight at) last. The Hon. A. T. Ngata's speech was interrupted by the adjournment at 9.30 last night for the Auckland trip, and the discussion will end on Tuesday evening. IN DEFENCE OF HAWKES BAY. After The Post went to press yesterday the debate was resumed by Mr. A. Dillon (Hawkes Bay). He contended that Mr. Brown's remarks about Hawkes Bay (on Thursday night) had been based on "electioneering notes" supplied to him when he was conducting his campaign at the last general election. A number of estates had been cut up during the past- few years. He attributed the emigration from Ireland in recent yea*3 to th« inability of the Irish to get a piece of freehold in their own country. BEET SUGAR. Mr. H. J. Greenslade (Waikato) commented on the Budget's reference to the establishment of a sugar-beet industry in New Zealand. lie believed that if it waa decided to start such an industry the Maoris would be found very useful as producers. ,It had been suggested also that prison labour should be employed, and he saw no reason why prisoners should nob be engaged. A member : "There is plenty of free labour." Mr. Greenslade replied that the farmers in the north were apathetic. He believed that ground could be cultivated in the Waikato for sugar beet at a profit of £7, or even £10 an acre. The Government should make the necessary bonus as large as possible, for he thought it would be impossible to raise the requisite capital in New Zealand. TAMMANY ISM. Mr. W. T. Jennings (Taumarunui) remarked that the only subject not touched during the debate was aeroplanes. Regarding charges of "Tammanyism" raised by Mr. Massey and Mr. Hine, Mr. Jennings mentioned a number of estates sold at high prices to the Government by "gentlemen associated with the Opposition party." He complained thai * his own electorats had been starved for the benefit of Opposition districts. TPIE LAND QUESTION. Regarding his attitude on the subject of the land question, the speaker expressed himself in favour of the freehold so long as there was restriction of area, and a sufficient* system of taxation. The l.i.p. system, for bush and swamp lands was not a good system ; if such Crown leaseholder wanted to obtain the freehold of his land he shouud pay the extra 1 per cent. As to the endowment lands, he said there were some areas- ir Taranaki so covered with weeds that no one could be found to occupy them free of rent for a period of years. Incidentally he remarked on the fact that two Commissioners of Crown Lands had told him that they were forbidden to give information to members of Parliament, although the "biggest loafer in the land" had only to make enquiries at the Lands Offices and he could find out anything he wanted. Under the present system under which transfers are so freely allowed, he contended that deserving men were unable to get land, which, on the other hand, was easily obtainable by men who only wanted land for speculative purposes. Further, workers oi\ the North Island Main Trunk railway works had not been given a sufficient opportunity to obtahi the land set aside by the Department to enable them to settle on the land. DEFENCE. ( Mr. E. H. Clark (Chalmers) urged equity of sacrifice" in any plans for the defence of New Zealand. He advocated the extension of the freehold tenure, and pleaded for the establishment of an experimental farm in the South Island. He hoped that when the Government was 1 considering a Land Bill it would not forget that the prices, which a farmer got for his produce, were not determined by the cost of production here but by the tone of the Britibh market. MINISTER FOR PUBLIC WORKS. The Hon. R. M'Kenzie spoke after the dinner adjournment. No attack, ho said, had been made on the departments that he controlled (Mines and Public Works), apd, therefore, he could legitimately come to the conclusion that those departments had been satisfactorily administered. The returns from the Roads Department showed that the votes had been over spent to the extent of £37,000. During the coming year 135 miles of new railway would be opened, and in that connection he remarked, thai such an extension would necessarily add considerably to the expenditure on the railway vote. Speaking more generally the Minister controverted the suggestion that big votes for roads and bridges, and expenditure thereon, synchronised with the advent oi general elections, and adduced figures to show that more money was voted during non-election years than during election years. > The voto for roads in mining districts was, he urged, an inconsiderable factor. OPPOSITION AND GOVERNMENT VOTES. In the erection of public buildings, he went on to say there was no discrimination between electorates represented by the Government members and the Opposition. Thy ,vould ail recognise, he fjaid, that a lull measure of assistance had been given to the mining industry, and he felt confident that greater progress than in the past would be made during the coming year. He concluded with a reference to water-power (re- j ported separately) THE -SILENT MEMBER. Mr. C. A. Hardy (Selwyn) said that if the Government brought down a reasonable Land Bill and stuck to it the Opposition would give them a good run. j Ho was not quite certain that the Opposition would put them out of power, but he believed they would. Ho contended that there was a suggestion of "Tammanyism" in the employment of an outside architect for designs Tor a ] public building at Christchurch. The staff of the Government Architects' Department was sufficient foi such purposes. THE HON. A. T. NGATA. The Hon. A. T. Ngata contended tliat the Opposition, had wasted more time during the Financial Debate than. Government members. Mr. Hardy's speech roado the sixty-eighth one of the debate, and most of the members had taken up their full hour. He knew one private opinion of the Leader of the Opposition — that tine prosperity of the country had been his greatest opponent. During the financial depression of last year, Mr. Mrvssey had seen his chance to cross the floor of the House. If the Government had been as suspicious as I the Opposition, it could have said that I the unemployment agitation, had been

engineered by the Opposition. The irony of ttoe prestait situation was that the recovery of New Zealand had put Mi 1 . Maasey as fair away from the Treasury Benches as he had been in, say, 1906. The Opposition would never occupy the Treasury Benches as a Conservative Party. If there was to b© a revolution it would come from within the Liberal ranks, and there would always be a Liberal regime. Trained Maori nurses would gradually replace the medical men subsidised to attend Maoris, continued Sir. Ngata. He quoted from a speech made by Mr. Herries in 1903, in which that member declared that the ultimate solution of the native difficulty would be in an intermingling of the two races, the development of a new Maori- Anglo Saxon —"a white race with a. slight dash of the best coloured race in the world.'" Mr. Ngata commented that Mr. Herries had just anticipated him by six years, for last year Mr. Ngata had submitted similar views to the Young Maori Party. The Minister admitted that some opinions, which were^ entitled to respect, were that a fusion would not be desirable, because the two races had differences too marked to make a successful blend. In' 1901, Mr. Massey had contended that Maoris should have sufficient reservations of la-nd. Later on the Leader of the Opposition had held that practically every Maori should have a piece of land, and that there should be an area of inalienable native land. Sir. Massey's contention now was that there should be the same laws as to propea-ty and other matters between the two races, as far as practicable. Mr. Massey had practdea-ny asked for one law • for all New Ze-alandeTs. There had be'en an attempt to maike out that Messrs. Carroll and Ngata had been working on lines to establish a colour line, *a line of racial demarcation in New Zealand, Dut he could say that there was no law on the Statute-Book differentia-ting between the Maori and the pakeha- as such. There was no difference between tine laws as they applied to the Maori and pakeha as such. Mr. Herries, keen student of history as he was, had failed to notice that fact. He had allowed political colour to cloud his vision. On the motion of Mr. Ngata the debate was adjourned till 7.30 p.m. next Tuesday.