PARLIAMENT

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 September 1934, Page 4

PARLIAMENT

finance bill speeches, [per press association.] WELLINGTON, September 5. In the House, this afternoon; the Public Petitions Committee, in ■ recommending the petition of an injured relief worker for favourable consideration, recommended that an alteration should be made to the Workers’ Compensation Act in the direction of basing compensation on standard rates of pay instead of relief rates. . ' Mr Jones, in expressing satisfaction with the Committee’s report, suggested the Government should follow tlie Canadian Act under which an injured man received a minimum of £2 10/- a week where the injury entailed more than 10 per cent, disability. He hoped the Minister wou,ld soon bring down the proposed amendments to the Workers’ Compensation Act, as they would make the Act more satisfactory than it was at present. Mr Howard said it was not necessary to amend the Act. The Government had the power to act in the direction recommended if it desired to do so.

The report was tabled. The financial debate was resumed. Mr Mason said he hoped that conflicting interests would be kept out of the Mortgage Corporation. He contended the Corporation should be for the benefit of the borrower to keep interest rates as low as possible. He did not want the Public Trustee, whose aim was to secure the highest posible rate of interest included in it. He expressed regret that the road vote had been reduced, and spoke of the hardships to blackblocks settlers through lack of means of communication. He welcomed the provision of £90,000 for Mental Hospitals, and said it was desirable that people in those places should be suitably housed. He suggested a full 5 per cent, cut should be restored to the civil servants and that the restoration should not be based on the reduced salary. Mr Stuart said it was gratifying to know taxation was being reduced, and civil servants were receiving the restoration of the wage cut. At the same time other sections of the community were as deserving of an increase as the civil servants. He thought taxation on motorists was out of comparison with other sections of the community, and urged that they should be given relief when money was available. He suggested the Government should spend money on building houses for its own employees. He said the wages paid to locomotive engine drivers were inadequate and urged that they should be paid in accordance with the responsibility they carried. Mr W. Nash said although Mr Stupart said the wages of enginedrivers were inadequate he had voted in favour of a reduction in their wages. Mr Nash asked the Minister of Finance to consider again the complete abolition of subsidies. He suggested the Government should make the old age pension restoration retrospective instead of granting a rebate of beer duty. The Government would still be better off by £lO,OOO. He advocated the adoption Cjf the token scheme, which would assure everybody in the country receiving an adequate amount of the goods produced in the country. Nobody would then go short, of the necessities of life.

’ Mr Harris said the cheery tone of tho Budget undoubtedly had a psychological effect the country. The outlook now was much brighter than it was a short time ago. Mr Semple criticised payments made from the Unemployment Fund to land-owners and the Government’s action in refusing to give the workers the right to go to the Arbitration Court. The debate was adjourned.