MINISTER UNDER FIRE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 133, 2 December 1937, Page 12

MINISTER UNDER FIRE

LIVELY QUESTIONS

ACCUSED OF SHUFFLING

In the course of a brief explanation, the Minister said that the Bill gave power to divide 'the Primary Products Marketing Department into two divisions, the dairy produce export division and the internal marketing division. It also authorised the opening of an internal marketing account in the Reserve Bank and extended the internal marketing operations of. the Government to honey, eggs, and other foodstuffs. „ „ . In reply to the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates (National, Kaipara), the Minister said that the Bill did not take any more power than that already in existence for the export of dairy produce. Mr. Coates: Does it coyer cabbages, and lettuces, and so forth? Mr. Nash:. Vegetables are not mentioned—just other, foodstuffs. Mr. Coates: That is shuffling, if ever there was shuffling. Enter the prince and the king of shufflers! The Chairman of Committees (Mr. E J. Howard): Order! Order! Mr. Coates: Well, I am blocked again but I would like to say a lot more We are entitled to an explanation, a clear explanation. Surely we are not to-be treated as a. lot of children. Let me ask the Minister, is this another step in the complete socialisation of—— ■■_ . Mr J. B. F. Cotterill (Government, Wanganui),: Cabbages! (Laughter.), _ Mr. Coates: Is this the complete and final step in the socialisation of the means of production, exchange, and distribution? We are entitled •. to know. It embraces a very wide policy *nd a very wide, field Why^can't we know? Can you, Mr. : Chairman, imagine an explanation more incomplete arid misleading than the one given by the Minister? A WIDETERM. .

Mr K. J. Holyoake (National, Motueka) said that the term^'other foodstuffs" was very wide. He asked for information in regard to control of the local, marketing of fruit. The Minister: Fruit will come in. Mr. Holyoake: Pip fruit only? The Minister: No. Fruit. ■ _ Mr. Holyoake asked if the Bill covered grading of fruit or would further legislation be necessary. . The Minister: That is not mentioned in this Bill. Provision is made for the orderly marketing of fruit. Mr H. S. S. Kyle (National, Bio carton) asked if the Government intended to enter into competition with the vegetable markets. It had already fixed the price of onions. Was it intended to purchase any of the large fruit markets and was there any provision debarring a private citizen from going into the markets to purchase, say, fruit during the jam-making,sea-S°The Minister: I don't think so. I don't know of any such provision in the Bill. ''■■■'. .. f . Mr Kyle: I know there is great concern among people of Christchurch in that direction. SALE OF MEAT. Mr S. G. Holland (National, Christchurch North) asked if there was any provision to control the sale of meat in shops. , The Minister shook his head. "Is the Government ' going to take control of the whole show?" Mr. Holland inquired. "It seems to me that that is where we are going to get to. He also wanted to know what arrangements 'would be made to meet the position of the suppliers of the foodstuffs if the transactions were not profitable. "I wish the Minister would make it clear whether this is going to be a method of controlling all the produce off the farms in this country," said Mr. W. J. Broadfoot (National, Waitomo). "If so, then the sooner the farmers realise they have been pulled into the net the better. Or is it another method of controlling prices? "May I say that it is not the courtesy usually extended to his Majesty's Opposition," said Mr. Coates, amid cries of "Oh!" from the Government benches. "It is a slight, the dogmatic and, may I say, the overbearing and contemptuous way my questions are treated. What is- the idea? I have been in this House very many years more than the Minister in charge of this Bill and it is the first time I have seen a Minister completely ignore questions asked him in a proper way and requiring a direct answer. Is there something sinister behind it? Mr. W. J. Poison (Nptional, Stratford): This is the latest Moscow idea! „ Mr. Coates: If the Minister refuses to answer, then the people can_ draw their own conclusions, and that is that they are being governed by a Government quite prepared to use steamroller tactics to achieve their objectives, not the ordinary democratic method of giving a clear explanation of the policy they have in view. The Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry): You should be the last man to say that. Mr. Coates: The only interpretation on this side ,of the House is that in J a contemptuous manner the Minister] ignores entirely the rights of the people to an explanation. Onwards and upwards with the brakes off! MARKETING OF FRUIT. Mr. Holyoake again asked for information regarding the marketing of fruit and said the fruitgrowers were convinced the Marketing Department could assist them with grading if it went the right way about it. Mr. Nash said he had. answered