THE FOURTH DAY

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 49, 26 August 1922, Page 11

THE FOURTH DAY

BUDGET DEBATE PROCEEDS UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM DISCUSSED 7 ' '■''■■ ■■ ~" i . ' • i GOVERNMENT'S LIFE IN THE FUTURE. „ • ' Eight mow speeches ware «m----,tributed to the debate on the Finaii-' cial Statement in the Home of Representatives, yesterday. All side* of the Home were represented. Most of the apeaker* dealt at length with the no-confidence motion, moved on Thursday night by, Mr. H. E. Holland. . *" Mr, J< M'Combs (Lyttelton) said that Mr. 'Holland* amendment could' have been' stated in stronger terms. On the false plea, that there1 was no money in. the Treasury, the Government dismissed 700 or 800 men who were engaged on urgent public works. He agreed with previous speakers that the Budget wa* not a Budget at all in the real sense of th# term. It was a, record! of alleged savings, and the savings would not stand close investigation. The Government expected to have a credit balance at the end of 1923-23 of £4,343,152, so the indictment made by the ImAet of the Labour Party was more thw. justified. Th« Government, by ito policy of dismissal* without just cause, created deliberately an xuiemployiaent problem, with the avowed pin-pone of cutting down wages. The cut in wages of Oml wrnnti was made in: anticipation of a fall in the oast of living. Before that, -however, the Minister of Public Work* got to work. He dismissed men engaged on urgent public works at 16s per d*y, and then re-engaged U» earn* men on the same works at relief rates of 1(* and 12rper day. The plea had been made that a reduction in wages woiud':Tedfuoo the odb% of living. But what -happened tin the case of butter, for instance? No matter how far wages were reduced, butter pro-' ducens stdH demanded the export parity. MEETING UNEMPLOYMENT. Mr. A. Haxria (Wailemata) audit was hard to understand how anybody could accuse "the Government of failing to deal with the unemployed problem. At the present time the Public" Works Department employed 7aOO men, whereas the average number of men employed in normal yeara was in the vicinity of 2000. The Department therefore was finding employment for 5000 men oo what were essentially relief works. Hist much was the Government doing. The unemployment cry was largely * bogey. The Government w«s not afraid, as the Leader of the Labour Party suggested on Wednesday night; No, .Government badierer been more strongly entrenched, so arguments «nch. a* those which had been resorted to carried no weight. The soundness of the policy under which the Government accumulated rsswvm foods: duping the period of unprecedented prosperity had been proved. It showed the feresight of the Financo Minister. The utilisation of a portion of the surplus was sound finance. Had the money not bean ■need for that-purpose the soldiers could not have been provided with land. -He urged an early reduction in taxation^ especially taxation an companies. It was a notorious fact thai extravagance warn iiieepar«l>Te from State administration. He doubted if the country had ever had 10s worth of value for each £1 in the roads and bridge* votes, but the Minister of Public Works, had largely remedied thai by hwdtoabig up the admmutrfttkat - '■'■-. TAXING MUNICIPAL CONCERNS. Mr. M. J. Savage (Auckland West) criticised the recommendation of the Taxation Committee that municipal trading concerns' should pay income tax, on a fixed percentage on the capital. That appeared to him to be a proposal to^ tax the municipal concern whether it-made a profit or not. He could not mo,the justice of it. He wished .the Government, if it contemplated giving effect to this recommendation, to lay whether it would be" willing to pay to the municipalities rates upon the properties owned by. the State. • The municipal trading concern was carried on for the benefit of the whole community, and all profits went to the community. Mr. Hawkeh: "In that locality." Mr. Savage:, "But every locality has the right ,to do the same." The proposal of the Taxation Committee to tax the State insurance or treaty insurances on the same baiis as private insurance companies was a proposal "in favour of the shareholders of the private companies. -. Mr. Savage considered'that unemployment was a serious problem, and not a bogey. There were many works—for example, Arapuni—that could easily be speeded up. .He criticised "the system of what he termed pledging the State's credit for the benefit of the banks. The State's credit was taken by the banks, and was passed round at 4£ per cent, or more.. ■ . .-■•■'/ MORE ABOUT STORES. The Hon. 0. J. Parr (Minister of Education)./stated that the Leader of the Opposition had misquoted the report •of the Auditor-General. Regarding the Department of Health, there wag no justification for the allegations of looseness in the matter of stores. The Stores Department was conducted in a thoroughly businesslike manner. It had abo been alleged that a huge deficiency had been detected in stores of the Education Department. The Leader of the Opposition had drawn on his' imagination in making such a statement. It was unfortunate that political "op-1 . ponents should be «o careless in making statements reflecting upon the honesty of the officers of the Department. He hoped that Mr. Wilford would take an early ' opportunity to withdraw his remarks. Regarding the amendment moved by the Leader of the Labour, Party, he said that the Prime Minister anticipated that the reserve funds at the end of the current financial, year would total £4,347,000 —a substantial reduction from the £7,000,000 in hand, twelve months ago. The, Labour Party proposed that reserve funds now in hand should be used up to relieve the unemployed. Was it not better. statesmanship to visualise the conditions likely to prevail in the years to come and prepare the .way accordingly? Mr/ Savage: "But we are round the corner." :. The. Prime' Minister: "Round the corner, but we have still a long way to go." The Minister of Education stated that the situation regarding unemployment in the JVominion had been greatly exaggerated. The total number of men registered as . unemployed .at the Government offices throughout the Dominion was 1351. He. was glad to say that the position was scarcely any worse than in normal years. He felt sure that a large number of men on the books were unemployable.1 The1 Labour Party would have the country believe that a/ few hundred men out of work created a problem sufficiently serious to justify an onslaught on the country's reserve funds. , : Mr. Parr said he could not understand the Leader of the Labour Party's

eloquence on the question of defence. Did he object to a contribution to the [Navy of Great Britain? Mr. Holland: "I object to the expenditure of thousands of pounds on the upkeep of an obsolete ship. ' The Minister :. "You are dodging the issue. You are unsound on the matter of. defence." Mr. Holland : "You are all sound." "CALLOUS AND HEARTLESS." Mr. D. G. Sullivan (Avon) said it was callous and heartless of the Government to' allow unemployment hardships to continue when it had a large' surplus. The Acting-Minister of Finance had created' alarm by stating there- was no money for. public • work* though at the time there was 74 millions available. The Hiley scheme which had beep definitely promised by the Prime Minister would have made provision for the unemployed ■in Christchurch: Mr. Sullivan contended that the Government had -placed legislation on the Statute Book which, if it (were'effective, would prevent the workiers from getting more for their labour than a bare living, no matter how prosperons the .country might be. Mr. T. W. Rhodes (Thames)1 suggested that'unemployment was due to the excessive taxation' on < companies. The Leader of the Labour-Par^y; in moving his amendment, had not offered any alternative to the Government's present policy. " It was absurd for the Labour Party to propose any increase in taxation. Such » proposition showed lack of thought. The watchword of the Budget was. economy, and economy must be practised as well as preached. He supported the Government's policy of immigration so long as the immigrants were carefully selected. New Zealand's greatest seed was increased population in order that the burden on the people of the. country to-day should be relieved. He urged the' Minister of Education to concentrate on the improvement of facilities in the back country. The cities he thought were fairly well served to^ay. CONFISOATION-BY THE GOVERN- •';; " ..,i MENT. . .'■ ' '„'■ ' ■ Mr. J. W. Monro (Danedin North) said the Labour Party had moved the amendment for the purpose of focusing the attention of the country on the fact that the Government was not so hard up as it made out at the-time the Government ' engineered an unemployment problem. There was talk about confiscation, but the Government was the worst con-: fiscator there was; it was confiscating the homes and the standard of living of the working, paopje. The Government had done .for the unemployed not, the best it could; but the best it intended. The Minister of Education said the number of registered unemployed was small. That was because .the: men were tired of going to the Government, There were men who had left Government work* because they were not making as much as it cost them. ■■■.•■. ;. ' • ■.- '■■ V • - .•■■ :'-. The Son. C. J. Parr: "Doe* it cost a man £3 a week?]* , . ' Mr. Munro :. "Does a m»n get paid. tor wet and dry days! I have known men to"hay« only two days' work a :week." , . , • .' . ; '• ■ ■ .■-.•■ Mr. Munro said yean ago Labour was the only party to have State shipping on ite platform; but the Government would. be compelled to adopt that; the farmers were crying, out for it now. He doubted if it were'not too late—if some of the shipping combines were not_ too strong' ■for. the Government. He paid a tribute to the loyalty of the Civil servants, ; but fie warned the Government that it could not expect healthy payable -undertakings if it further reduced their salaries. The 'Labour Party had achieved its-purpose by drawing pubUc attention.to the; urge, "amount of money which the Government had in reserve. •'.'.'•".■ .■■ . , The debate w«s adjourned on the motion of Mr. T. D. Burnett,, and the .House roee at ,11.10 p.m. ■';<■••