BUDGET DEBATE

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 June 1943, Page 2

BUDGET DEBATE

ISLAND DECENTRALISATION

WELLINGTON, June 11

Continuing the financial debate in the House this afternoon, Mr Sutherland (Hauraki) paid tribute to the work of the Home Guard. He expressed the opinion that the Government should make some statement about its future, now that the menace of invasion was more remote. He urged that tyre retreads should be granted the Home Guardsmen who used their cars for Home Guard purposes. Mr C. Morgan Williams, Government Member for Kaiapoi, advocated corrective measures in Dominion development. He urged a greater degree of co-operation between the For- ' estry and the Lands, Departments. New Zealand, be contended, would have to develop both its forestry and its farming operations on the lines of the methods adopted in Europe, 'where forestry and farming went hand in hand. He said that the forestry workers were provided with small farms on which they had their homes. He defended the Interna] Marketing Department, stating that it had done a very good job in its distribution of eggs. Distribution was ' more equitable than it otherwise 1 would have been. He also said that the Division was not responsible for the shortage of oranges. That was i due to the war. Recently, the Divi- ; sion had imported ten thousand cases Wrom the Islands, and had sold them ut cost. The landed cost was £BOOO, and the Division could easily have made a profit of £12,000, had it been a commercial institution. He stressed the desirability of decentralising some of the Government Departments, ana of transferring some of the State employees to the South Island. The South Island had many advantages, and a worker on a wage was much better off in Christchurch than he was in Wellington. The population of the Dominion w r as becoming badly distributed, and it would certainly be a good thing if soine of the North Island population were transferred to the South Island.

Mr D. C. Kidd (Nat., Waitaki) said he agreed that the Government should seriously consider the question of the transference of some of the industries to the South Island, where there was plenty of hydroelectric power. Mr Williams: And Government Departments, too. Mr Kidd said he agreed with that also. He had been surprised to hear the Minister of Agriculture say that he would be prepared to go on the hustings and defend the action of the .Government in retaining portion of the extra price for wool received from the United Kingdom Government, and paying the woolgrowers in non-transferrable bonds. If the Minister put up as weak an argument in defence of the Government as he had during the debate, then, although Mr Kidd said, he did not profess to be a prophet, he could tell the Minister what was going to happen to him. The Minister was going to get “the order of the boot, first class.” Mr Kidd said that this made it quite apparent that the Government was determined to have its pound of flesh. Although the present Budget had contained no provision for increased taxation, Mr Kidd said, no Minister .of Fiannce in the Dominion’s history had put up such a record as had the present Minister for increasing taxation. From 1935 to 1939, the taxation had increased by over thirteen million pounds, and if the indirect taxation were added, then he would say that New Zealand was the highest-taxed country in the world. Mr. Tirikatene (Govt., Southern Maori), referring to the posthumous award of the V.C. to Second Lieutenant Ngarimu said this award would go down in history, and was a tribute to both pakeha and Maori. He thought it should be an inspiration to the people of New Zealand to heed the Government’s call for contributions to the War Loan, so that material and supplies would be made available to our fighting services. The debate was interrupted by the adjournment and the House rose until 10.20 a.m. on Tuesday.