BUDGET DEBATE

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 5, 5 July 1940, Page 9

BUDGET DEBATE

POINTS DISCUSSED

BACK-BENCHERS' DAY

The Budget debate was continued in the House of Representatives today by back-bench members and a variety of topics were discussed.

The debate was resumed by the Hon. J. G. Cobbe (National, Manawatu), who discussed the position of the farmers. Hard-working farmers and others, he said, were to be compelled to pay extra taxation on the. pretence that all of it was needed for war purposes. Much of it was to be used to pay high wages to men on work that was not absolutely necessary at the present time.

Mr. Morgan Williams (Government, Kaiapoi) said one of the troubles in New Zealand was that the country's] economy was one-sided. The Government had done much to remedy that and he believed secondary industries would advance rapidly. The production of goods in New Zealand was greater than ever before. Economy in New Zealand was so one-sided that the amount of war production was limited. ilt was limited to foodstuffs and wool, and with the Continental markets closed to us the problem, was going !.o be how to dispose of all the wool available to Britain. There was no need for any increase in. the production of wool. "We must continue to build up local industry," said Mr. Williams, "and the best way to do that is to maintain the purchasing power of the people of New Zealand, because New Zealand is our market." He agreed with the suggestion that there should be a tax on assets, as outlined by the member for Christchurch North. There were difficulties in the way of this, and the I biggest difficulty was that there were no means of determining what people's assets were. Taxation was based on income which was wrong, as any one who had capital not producing interest paid no taxation on it. Mr. Jull (National. Waipawa) said he would like to say in fairness to the Government that it was going into the war fully determined, boots and all, as long as the war effort did not clash with the rules and regulations of the Federation of Labour or the waterside workers, or did not put any man out of a job. Outside those qualifications he thought the Government was for the war first, second, and all the time. He thought that Ministers should take a look at themselves occasionally in respect to some of the statements that were being made. The Minister of Marine, he contended, had made it clear last night that one of the greatest fears of the Government was unemployment. The Government was far more afraid of that than it was of the enemy. (Proceeding.)