A MAJORITY OF ONE

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 80, 1 October 1924, Page 5

A MAJORITY OF ONE

The Prime Minister declared •in the House of Representative* after the final division had been taken on the Land and Income Tax (Annual) Bill early this morning that the small taxpayer in New Zealand carried less taxation than the small man in any other country in the world. The Government was looking after him-, and he ■ had • a letter on his table in which a small taxpayer acknowledged that he had to thank the Reform Government for his present satisfactory position. -'I am quite prepared to discuss what the Government has done for the small man during the last ten years," said Mr. Massey. Mr. H. E. Holland (Buller): i'ls that a challenge?" "I am quite willing to do it," repeated the Prune Minister.

Mr. Holland : "We will take you on then."

As for those Liberals -who voted for the Government, I -welcome them," said Mr. Massey.

Mr. F. N. Bartram (Grey Lynn)Buds of a feather flock together " Mr. Massey: "Oh, certainly. I have got the division list figures and the names here, and I am satisfied the Government had a majority." Mr. Wilford: "A majority of one." Mr. Massey: -"Well, one is as good as a thousand in the circumstances." -

AUCKLAND SCHOOLGIRL CASE

Mr. .V. H. Potter (Boskill) has given notice to ask the Minister of Justice whether he will take into consideration the desirability of emending the Police Offences Act to make it an offence punishable by fine or imprisonment for any person or persons to harbour an infant against the wishes of the parent or parents. "In the case of the Auckland schoolgirl, Miss Martin, who left home and absented herself from the Epsom Girls' Grammar School and was secretly hidden from her mother ami friends, no_ redress could be had by the mother owing to the absence of such a provision," says Mr.' * Potter. "It ia reported that under her father's will thegirl referred to will inherit considerable wealth. It is reported that counsel employed against the mother advised the girl and her friends that they were legally helpless."