POLITICAL NOTES

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 151, 27 June 1914, Page 8

POLITICAL NOTES

" GILT-EDGED SECURITIES." High, finance reigned for a while in the discussion of "gilt-edged securities" in the House of Representatives last evening. The subject was introduced by Sir Joseph Ward, who protested against tile description by Ministers of the Crown of these Imperial guarantee debentures as only to be used in times of financial crisis. The Prime Minister interjected, " Quite right." Sir Joseph maintained on the contrary that these gilt-edged securities were simply for the purpose of enabling temporary advances to be made and raised while loans were being raised. It was merely a matter of financial business—not a. matter of emergency at all. They never had had a time of financial crisis in London in connection with the affairs of New Zealand. The Prime Minister pointed out that Treasury Bills were available for ordinary j>urposes. ,Sir Joseph Ward : Only available in London. Mr. Massey maintained that these Imperial debentures were only for use in time' of emergency, and there had been something of the kind already in the history of New Zealand, and the debentures were then hypothecated. The matter was then dropped for the time, the 'Leader of the Opposition signifying his intention of returning to the subject at a more convenient opportunity. LICENSING BILL. When the Imprest Supply Bill came down in the House yesterday afternoon, Sir Joseph Ward asked when it was intended to deliver the Financial Statement. He asked that because the Prime Minister had. told a deputation that an opportunity would be given to discuss the Licensing Bill between the end of the Address-in-Eeply debate and the debate on the Financial Statement. ■ The Prime Minister intimated that he anticipated a period of something like three weeks between the two events", and that_ period he proposed -to devote to consideration of the Licensing Bill. , A LOCAL PROTEST, i An* 'alleged injustice to a local body was brought under the notice of the House by the Leader of the Opposition last evening in the treatment of the Borough Council of Whahgarei . by the State Guaranteed Advances to I^ocal Bodies Board. Sir Joseph said he had been informed that ,the borough applied for and was granted in 1911 a loan of £19,200 by the State Department, with interest at 3^ per cent. ■ and a, sinking fund of 11, making a total of £4 17s 6d pel' cent. Arrangements were made for instalments, and two instalments of £4000 each were paid at the per cent, of interest named. The balance left wasj £11.200, and in February. 1913, the Borough Council was advised that Mie interest had been raised to 4£ per cent. This variation was a breach of the original agreement, and the Borough Council took legal action to test the case. When the case was first mentioned before the Court, Sir Joseph said that his information was to the effect that, on the application of the Solicitor-Generali the matter was adjourned for fourteen days. In the interval some clause was inserted in the Act obscurely in Parliament, which absolved the Superintendent of the Advances Board from any liability for breach of contract with a local body. He did not think it was a •very fair treatment of a local body. SCENIC RESERVES. A reduction in the sum of £1400 foi the purchase of lands for scenic reserves, announced in Parliament last evening, drew sortie enquiry from the Leader of the Opposition. There appeared to be a certain happy satisfaction on the part of certain members in having got scenic reserves, yet others had got nothing. He wanted to know oil what system scenic reserves were obtained. The Prime Minister said that in the case of Crown lands the matter was brought under the notice of the chairman of the Scenic Reserves Board when there was any recommendation to set aside any area, for purposes of a scenic reserve. The chairman got a report from the Department, and if that report was favourable, then the land was set aside for a scenic reserve. If some local body came along and asked the Government to purchase an area- of privately-owned land, and was willing to contribute half of the purcha-se money required, the Government would find the other half. In the case of Waikare-Moana, where there was no possibility of any local body contributing, the Government found the whole e'um required to compensate the Native owners^ In no case did the Government consider for a moment the politics,nf the member of the district in which it was sought to create a scenic reserve. CLOSER SETTLEMENT. The Government has always claimed to have made a notable advance in the open* ing up and subdivision of land for settlement—a claim scouted by the Opposition, which has insisted that the increase in the Graduated Land Tax has had no effect on the breaking up of large estates. The Prime Minister announced in ths House last night that at an early date he would\pvoduce a return showing the development that had taken place in about the two years ended 31st March, 1914. During that period there had been subdivided and settled in New Zealand over one and a half million acres of land. There had been no such settlement in the history of New Zealand in the pask | 'I believe," said Mr. Massey, "that this is due in a very large measure to the increase in graduated land tax." In reply to a question : "Are there any large pastoral areas 1 ?" the Prime Minister said he did not belive that there were many large pastoral areas included. The land was really the subdivision of considerable farms into smaller dairy farms. In Hawkes Bay "alone 35,000 acres liad been so subdivided in the period into farms averaging about 120 acres. LIQUOR, COFFEE AND CIGARETTES During the year ended 31st March last the adult male population of New Zealand consumed 876.751 gallons of spirits, costing £1 19s 8d per head ; " smoked 2,365.844 pounds of tobacco, costing £1 3s 5d per head; and spent 13s per head on cigars, cigarettes, and snuff. The consumption of spirits and tobacco shows a slight 'reduction, but ciga/rs, etc., evidence an increase of npoi'ly sixpence a head. On wine the adult male and female population spent Is o^d per head (a penny decrease from 1912), and 9^d per head on beer (a decrease of a iarthing). Every man, woman, and child in the Dominion is statistically credited with having consumed a penny three-farthings' worth of coffee, cocoa, and chicory. The consumption of New Zealand-brewed beer during the year amounted to 13 gallons per head. AN OLD PRECEDENT. In its reference to the Legislative Council the Governor's Speech the following passage occurs: — "Inasmuch as the proposed change in the Constitution has been postponed by the Legislative Council until the session immediately preceding a general election, my Advisers, following the constitutional precedent of the Act by which the < abolition of the* provinces was effected in the year 1875, now propose that the Legislative Council Act shall become law during the present session, but that its commencement shall be postponed until after the session of Parliament to be held in the year 1915.' The Abolition of Provinces Act became

Jaw on 12th October, 1875. Those sections which prohibited the superintendent of a province from entering into any fresh contract or from calling the Provincial Council together came into operation at once, but the remaining provisions abolishing the provinces _ and bringing the general administration of the colony under one central legislative body did not, by express stipulation, come into operation until the end of the following session—the first session of the Sixth Parliament.