PARLIAMENT

Evening Star, Issue 22774, 8 October 1937, Page 13

PARLIAMENT

BUDGET DEBATE UNFINISHED TWO CAUSTIC CRITICS LABOUR TAKING GAMBLER'S RISK [Pee United Press Associate ».] WELLINGTON, October 7. The House met at 2.30 p.nj. The Minister of Public 1 Works, Mr Semple, replying to an urgent question by Mr T. D. Burnett, said the Public Works Department had no immediate intention of proceeding with the damming of Lake Tekapo for hydroelectric purposes, and he did not think it would be necessary to consider such a work for 10 or 12 years. Mr Denham in an urgent question asked the Prime Minister if there was a possibility of the Government taking steps to provide an adequate shijppmg service between the South Island and Australia, and was there a possibility of continuing the summer service- between - the South Island and Australia for the whole year. Mr Savage, in reply, stated that he would be glad to have inquiries made to see what was involved in the question, and to see if the summer service could be continued throughout the entire year. PUBLIC CREDIT EXPLAINED. The debate on _ the Budget was resumed by the Minister of Lands, Mr Langstone, who dealt with the Government’s attitude towards the use of public credit. ■ The basis of public credit, he said, comprised' all the goods and things in existence in onr ordinary, workaday world. In the Dominion to-day most of it was held in private hands. He went on to deal with the difference between monetary and national credits, and stated that the banks were using public credits to-day. Could they not be used just as well and as efficiently by the State? He hoped to see the day when the Government had full control of the public credit. There was much to he done in New Zealand after almost 100 years of misrule; Labour had accepted office,. and was faced with the.task of clearing up the. . mess left.it by past Governments. They could not do it in one short session or Parliament. The Government intended to place New Zealand on the highroad to success and prosperity. Dealing with saving, the Minister stated that the only method of intelligent saving was intelligent spending, and he • assured them : that people could face' the. future with every confidence in the Labour Government. TAXATION LIMITS. . v Sir Alfred Ransom stated that Mr Latigatone had said the only way of intelligent saving was intelligent spending. Was there a single father in that House who had taught such a policy to his children? Was that the level of intelligence of the Minister of Lands and the Minister of Finance. He had been led to believe the standard of intelligence "of "the Minister of Finance was of. a - much higher order than that. Mr Langstone had also said that the Government in one short session had not been able to undo, what had been done, in 100 years of misrule What an indictment of this. fine Dominion, which had been built up by our pioneers. The Opposition was proud of this Dominion, - but the same apparently did not apply to the Government. He criticised Mr Langstone for not uttering a single word in the course of his speech on the land settlement policy of the Government. Was it the Government’s intention to produce a land settlement policy just before the next election as an inducement for its return to office ? Sir Alfred went on to criticise the E resent taxation. policy, stating that e was not surprised to see the savings bank deposits increasing, because the people had little inducement to use their money in other avenues in view of stich taxation as the Government was levying. If the Government had spent the money which it. had expended on' unemployment relief on the development of waste lards and increasing production, it would have been of greater benefit to the country. •He- supported the . Government’s housing policy," but said it must be. conducted in such a' manner that it would not raise the cost of house-build-ing to the private individual. He re- ‘ gretted that there was no provision under the present: scheme for private ownership of the houses which the Government was building, and he considered that. every person who rented ■a Government house should eventually be given an opportunity of owning that dwelling. Referring to a statement in the House by Dr M‘Mill an recently that he would like to see the Press of the country Stateowned, Sir Alfred asked them to imagine- what would happen if the Press •were politically and not partisanowned. We would then soon have;a Ministry of Publicity and every editorial would have to be passed by that department before it could he published, as was the case in two countries which had recently been visited by the Ministers of Finance and Labour. How would .the' Labour Government like to ■ee this Government under a dictatorship? he asked. BUDGET CAUSED STOCK ADVANCES. Mr M‘Combs, referring to the operations of the private banks, said that if-these were State-owned, they would be managed in such a manner as to bring the greatest good to the greatest number of the community. With regard to Sir A. Ransom's contention that Labour member* were not proud of the Dominion, he said Labour members were proud of the progress-which had been made in New Zealand in spite of past Governments. Sir Alfred, he said, had twisted round Dr M'Millan’s suggestion for a State-owned Press. What Dr M'Millan had meant was that the Press of the

Dominion should be perfectly free from party control. Sir Alfred bad also stated that this Government was destroying the credit of this country. Nothing was further from the truth; in fact, New Zealand stocks had increased in value on all the principal markets of the world since the present Budget had been published. In 1911, Mr M'Combs said, the Opposition had promised to bring in invalidity pensions, but had left it for the Labour Party to make that promise good some 26 years later. He quoted a series of returns to show that production in tho secondary industries had increased despite the curtailment of hours of work due to the introduction of the 40-hour week. He questioned the ability of the members of the Opposition as businessmen, and asked where was a single member of the Opposition who had made a real success of his business. Mr Poison rose to a point of order, contending that there was a plain inference in IMr M'Combs’s statement that the members of the Opposition were not successful in their private business. Mr M'Combs: I did not say there was one member who was unsnccessTho Speaker: Honourable members are prevented by the rules of tho House from discussing the private business of other members in tho course of debate in tho House. I am afraid the honourable member has strayed into forbidden grounds, and had better leave the subject alone. Mr M'Combs was again called to order shortly afterwards for a reference to the intelligence or the member for Stratford. ... Mr M'Combs stated that before the present Government came into power 13 per cent, of the adult population of the Dominion had 43 per cent, of the national income. The indications now were that, as a result of higher wages, the distribution of income had altered considerably. When the final figures were available it would be shown that the - nation’s money had been spread among the people. WOULD ACCEPT CHALLENGE. Mr Wilkinson asked whether it was part of tho Labour Party’s policy to take over the trading banks of the Dominion. The trading banks were serving a very useful purpose in keeping a check on the Government. They had served the public faithfully for 80 or 90 years, and he hoped the Government would not take control of them. He criticised the Government’s institution of the 40-hour week, stating that it had not been able to introduce it in the Police Department, one of the greatest departments of State. If it could, not,, adhere to the 40-hour week - itself, it was unfair .to expect private industry to observe it. "New Zealand’s taxation, continued Mr Wilkinson, was too high. Britain’s per capita taxation, lie said, with all her expensive defence commitments, etc;, was not as High as that of this Dominion. The Government was carrying on with a gambler’s risk and was living right up to its income. Moreover, he added, it showed no disposition to give any relief from taxation, and was showing a bias in this direction against a certain class of people —namely, , people who had a certain amount of means. Yet the Government intended to use the people’s savings for : expenditure on public works. The Government’s guaranteed price was- resented by a great number of farmers, and he suggested that a referendum should be held among farmers to see if they favoured its cohtinuhtion. When guaranteed prices were first suggested the ■ farmers had not been told that the Government was also going to take control of the marketing of their produce. In fact, the Government had commandeered their produce, and he' wished to take exception to this procedure. The Government’s payment of £650,000 over the realisation for butter and cheese only meant £l3 for the dairy farmer, and would not meet his extra costs. Mr Wilkinson also criticised railway administration, stating that if the present losses continued we would soon have to be subsidising the railways to keep them running. Parliament, he said, had no control over expenditure on public works, which should. be subjected to the very close scrutiny of a select committee of the House, and he added that some very funny things were happening under the Government’s price fixation scheme for petrol, mentioning the discrepancy in prices in various Taranaki towns.

Dealing with defence matters, he said New Zealand could do more to assist the completion of the Singapore base, which was of vital importance in the defence of this Dominion. He urged that the Minister of Defence should .visit Singapore to inspect the base, and said Ministers of the Government should make themselves acquainted with the position in the Far East without delay. The Prime Minister, he said, had said the Opposition only needed to name the day for an election. . That was a definite challenge which the Leader of the Opposition should have accepted. Mr Anderton said ho could prove that the prosperity of the Dominion to-day was to a great extent due to the administration of the Labour Government, and he pointed out that tho lot of the workers had been greatly improved since the present Administration had come into office. He congratulated the Minister of Broadcasting on the efficiency of both the. broadcasting and the commercial stations, and, in reply to Mr Holland, said the boot trade of Anckand was busy and bad increased, the number of its empoyees consideraby. The Government had done much for the secondary industries, and it was to these we had to look for the absorption of our unemployed. He was surprised the Opposition should condemn the Government for its taxation. It was a principle that they themselves had carried out. So long as the people of this country could consume the goods they produced, so long would the country remain prosperous, and it was the Government’s duty to see that this continued.

INFLATION UNDER NEW NAME. Mr Cobbe said that when the Prime Minister had replied to the Leader of the Opposition in the Budget debate last week he had made no reference to the Budget, which, said Mr Cobbe, was no laughing matter, as the burden of it would have to be borne by the unfortunate taxpayer. The Government was assuming that the high price of our produce in the oversea markets was due to its own legislation, and he contended that it was also improving the standards of the incompetent mdn at the expense of the competent one. Another of its predilections was to assume credit for legislation which had been introduced by past Governments. He asked where the reckless extravagance of the Government would end. It was certainly hot a very pleasant prospect for our children to have to meet huge interest charges as the result of our own expenditure to-day. He contended that the Prime Minister’s intention to use- the public credit to a greater extent merely meant inflation under another name—an extremely dangerous policy for a pioneer country. The debate was interrupted by the adjournment at 10.30 p.jn.