CRADLE TO GRAVE VENDETTA

Evening Star, Issue 21232, 13 October 1932, Page 2

CRADLE TO GRAVE VENDETTA

MR HOLLAND ON EXPENDITURE COMMISSION " THE MADHOUSE GOIHG BERSERK" [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, October 12. “ The madhouse going berserk,” was the description given by the Leader of the Opposition to the economies suggested by tile National Expenditure Commission, and in his'speech to-night during the Financial Debate, Mr Holland said the report furnished by the commission was an utterly valueless document to the country. Mr Holland said that the commissioners had attacked the human being from the cradle to the grave. They demanded a reduction of £7,000 in maternity allowances, and had suggested that the tec for a copy of certificate of birth should he increased from 2s (id to ss. Wholesale reductions in the Phmket Society grants were advocated. One did not neecl to stress the wonderful work done by the Plimket Society. The commisioner.s followed the child as it grew, and demanded the total abolition of family allowances. At school they banged the door in the face of the five-year-old, and barred and bolted the door behind the child which had reached fourteen years of age. They sought to make the child pay for the 1 School Journal,’ and objected to country school children being conveyed to school when their homes were distant. They advocated the closing of the smaller primary schools, and wanted to make parents pay an extra £11,500 for dental clinic sendees. They followed the boy and girl from college to university, and advocated reductions in the allowances made to training college students, making it impossible for the children of poor parents to enter the colleges. They demanded a reduction of £69,000 in the annual appropriation for education. “ They even follow the youth and maiden to the altar,” continued Mr Holland, “ with the demand that the revenue be increased by raising the marriage fees. The fee for notice of marriage, it is suggested, should be increased from 2s Gd to ss; the fee on the certificate authorising marriage from £1 to £1 ss; and the fee on a copy of marriage licenses from 2s 6d to ss. They follow the invalid to his sickbed, and demand suspension of subsidies on voluntary bequests to hospital beds. They want to reduce the number of hospital districts, to centralise control of hospitals, and to drive patients out of hospitals at the earliest possible moment. A rigorous system of increased charges to patients is sought, and it is proposed that the fees payable should be assessed while the patient is in hospital, and the patient should be required to pay in full, unless he makes a confessfon of pauperism. “ It is a most amazing document, and the most untruthful that has ever been before this House. They pursue the widow and the orphan, and demand reductions in their pitiable pensions,” he added. “ They demand tribute from the man slowly dying of miner’s phthisis, and from the widow and ofphaus of the victim of that terrible disease. They demand that our pledges to ex-soldiers shall be violated; they demand reductions in old-age pensions, from the old man, bent and broken in the struggle for existence. The aged woman who gave her children to the world in the days of gfeat adventure and great sacrifice is also being compelled to surrender portion of her wholly inadequate pension. “ The total saving of nearly £600,000 is demanded. They carry their demands to the brink of the grave. They demand that the cost of a copy of the certificate of death shall he increased by 100 per cent., and they carry their demands even beyond the grave. Reference is made in the report to a saving of £15,375 on the maintenance of overseas graves. Thus, from the cradle to the grave, they carry on what might he called a vendetta.”