ADDRESS-IN-REPLY

Evening Star, Issue 18021, 15 July 1922, Page 8

ADDRESS-IN-REPLY

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. The Hon. W. H. Triggs, continuing the Address-in-Reply debate yesterday afternoon, defended the Defence Department against charges of extravagance. He urged the building of fresh-air schools, and spoke with hope of the Washington Conference, which at least had given respite to the • nations. New Zealand’s clear duty was to stand by the Old Country on matters of naval defence. ' The Hon. H. L. Michel defended the cut in the Civil Service bonuses as one means of reducing taxation. He hoped that the Government would never adopt Proportional Representation, which lent itself to the forming of unholy alliances. Ho thought that preference to unionists should be retained, hut unionists should give efficient labor in return. The Hon. W. Snodgrass defended the High Commissioner against the attacks of disappointed farmer's ■ who had _ not secured as much as they would have liked for their butter, and congratulated the Government on the success of repatriation. Sir William Fraser praised the work of the Repatriation Committees in assisting men to occupations. There had been wonderful results in the repayment of repatriation loans. Dr Collins, replying to the debate, expressed .pleasure at the vi-oroua action proposed by the Minister of Health to cope with venereal disease. He urged that they should endeavor to eliminate the disease before the country more populous and the disease more difficult to check. The Address-in-Eeply was agreed to, and the Council adjourned at 4.30. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, LABOR’S NO-CONFIDEiNCE MOTION. Mr .Holland resumed the Address-in-Reply debate in the House yesterday afternoon. Referring to the statements regarding loyalty of Labor, lie said this was a matter requiring definition. When Labor had protested against profiteering and oilier abuses it was termed disloyal,, yet often those who denounced Labor were guilty' of robbery and other crimes against the people. He contended that Labor, by an intense desire to preserve all that was best in the country’s traditions, and to further the welfare of the people as far as possible, had proved itself the most loyal party in the House. He expressed the opinion that the House should give a mandate to the Arbitration Court to restore the bonus taken away by the cut in the case of the lower-paid ranks of public servants. He challenged the Prime Minister to state the particulars of remissions to land and income tax payers. While the Government gave remissions on these taxes, it increased the Customs. Referring to the difficulties of farmers, he contended that these were not due to the cost of rural labor, but to the high prices of land and consequent heavy interest charges on mortgages. He quoted instances of farmers who faced ruin through high interest charges. The present system of traffic in land must be abolished before the fanners’ difficult condition could be ameliorated. Since 1914 incomes had increased by £35,000,000, and to, the payers of income tax remissions were made while public servants were being asked to accept cuts in salary. The value of primary and secondary products in New Zealand had doubled in recent years, and in 1920 the value added to raw materials by the labor of each worker was £92, of which labor absorbed £6O 10s. Dealing with foreign policy, Mr Holland criticised the practice of sending a representative from New Zealand who was not an elected representative of the people. The Labor Party of New Zealand had no intention of keeping out peoples from' Great Britain, but it did object to the manner in which the immigrants were being enticed to come hero while unemployment was so prevalent. There should be permanent work at standard wages, with decent housing for all immigrants on arrival without displacing people already here. Mr Holland contended that'the Government . had departed from its promise to give the Public Service fall civil and political righto by refusing to allow it to become affiliated with the Alliance of Labor. He moved an amendment to the Ad dress-in-R eply That in view of the cost of living being now at the same level as when the last wages bonus was wanted, legislation should be introduced! restoring the bonus to the public servants; that the elate of the public finances was such that no excuse existed for reducing public servants’ salaries, and that as increased revenue was necessary, then .the Government was not justified in remitting the land and income taxes; and further that the Government failed to fulfil its promise to confer full political and civil rights on the Public Service, and by its failure to provide adequate representation of New Zealand at Washington and Genoa Conferences forfeited confidence of the House and the country.

-Air Munro (Dunedin North), in.seconding the motion, urged that the worker should receive the fullest payment for his labor, as the reduction in wages reacted on trade all round. The conditions which brought about the Government’s decision to cub the Public Service wages and caused' reductions in other workers’ pay were duo to the Government’s own shorfccomings > by permitting profiteering and speculation, especially-.in land, and other abuses.

Mr V. H. Potter (Roskill), speaking at the evening sitting, denounced the Bolshevik tendencies of the extreme Labor Party, whose doctrines were poisoning the minds of youths, particularly the younger members of the Post and Telegraph Department. These people were a dangerous element in society, and the Government would have to deal drastically with them in the public interest. Nil’ E. J. Howard (Christchurch South) approved of the work done by the Washington Conference, a most admirable feature of which was not so much the reduction of armaments, hut the fact that it set the world thinking of peace. The Labor political platform was not Bolshevik, and the party had nothing in common with the Bolsheviks, except that they both stood for Socialism. At the same time ho considered l there was nothing for Russia to do when the crisis came other than what she did. The Russians had to work out their own salvation, and wo must let them do it in their way. In answer to charges of disloyalty levelled against the Labor Party, he quoted from a speech recently delivered to member's by Mr Sastri (a member of the Privy Council and of the Council of Lidia), and declared that if that speech had been delivered by a working man, who had not gifts of language and oratory, but who called a spade a spade, it would have at least meant a police prosecution for him. The Labor Party in New Zealand felt the same sense of grievance which Mr Sastri declared would, if not removed, destroy the Empire. So far as he could, remember, the workers had not received anything from the Reform Party that would remove, their grievances. The Minister of Education (the Hon. C. ,T. Parr) eaid the whole of the Opposition were loud in their assertions against the Government, but small in proot; as, for instance, the statement that since 1912 departmental expenditure had grown from seven to fifteen millions. An examination showed that two of his departments were responsible for two and a-half millions of this increase. He invited the House to say where he could economise in education. The salaries alone in that department amounted to £2,264,404. In face of the large sums spent on education, they were not large enough to satisfy teachers, boards, or committees. Economies h-d been brought to a fine point in connection with education, and he was unable to indicate where further savings could be made. How idle then were charges of waste and extravagance made against the Government! Only in the education of people lies safety, and so far as money would enable him to do so/Tie would give the best and broadest education possible, for he considered education was the-cornerstone of the State. In the Departments of Health and Hospitals there

had also been large expenditure. Some of it ho might be able to save, but it must be remembered that they had greatly increased the work of the departments. They had instituted many new departments, all of which meant increased salaries, and ho felt certain the House would not Consent to scrap these activities, and no charge of extravagance could stand against these increases. Coming to Mr Holland’s amendment, he maintained that R was ridiculous to contend that the Civil servants’ bonuses could ho returned. Disagreeable as the cut might be, there was unfortunately no other way by which expenditure could bo brought within the limits of the revenue. New Zealand was not singular in this respect, for every country in the world 1 was facing similar problems. As a means of increasing revenue, taxation was impossible, lor neither Customs nor the land and income tax could he increased to the extent necessary to give the money required ns a means of adjusting our finances. Labor suggested the confiscation of interest on the War Debt, which meant ruination to thousands of people who had invested their small savings in war loans. Such confiscation would bo such a breach of faith as would utterly destroy the reputation of the country in the financial world. Ho defended the practice of saluting the Flag now observed in schools, and denied that it resulted in machine-made loyalty. His proposal to establish junior nigh schools was, ho said, not a concession to wealth, but was intended to promote an aristocracy of brains, and the worker’s child would have the same opportunity as the rich man’s child. The adjournment of the dcliato was moved by Mr W. K. Tarry, and the House rose till 2.30 p.m. next Tuesday.