FARMS AND FINANCE

Grey River Argus, 11 August 1944, Page 6

FARMS AND FINANCE

REHABILITATION ISSUE Speeches on the Budget P.A. WELLINGTON, Aug. 10.. The Budget debate was resumed in the House by Mr. H. T. Morton (Nat. Waitemata) who, referring to rehabilitation said: “A growing number of people are concerned at tne Government’s mis-administration and repudiation of its promises. Few realised what a wealth of committees, boards, etc., are running rehabilitation.” The system was topheavy from the Minister downwards, but a fear was growing that, despite overlaborate organisation, the whole lock, stock and barrel of rehabilitation was being run by the State Advances Corporation, which he said, hau neither a body to be kicked, nor a soul to be damned, being concerned only with the financial side. The Government’s promises and performances in the rehabilitation field were two entirely different things. Men were meeting frustration in housing, land settlement, and Industry. There were fortv industries returned men could not enter without special permission from a Government department. To date, forty-five thousand men had returned from overseas. The Government had now spent £2,561,011 on all forms of rehabilitation. After the last war twenty-seven millions had been spent by 1920 by. the then Government. Returned men had a number of grievances. An interest rate .of 4 1-8 per cent was too high. The Government was too obstinate to lower it. Returned men were being prevented from buying sections by the Land Sales Act. From the operation of that Act the sale of sections should be freed entirely. NO WASTE THIS TIME.

Mr. E. L. Cullen (Govt. Hawke’s Bay), said: “The expenditure of twenty-seven million pounds, of which Mr. Morton has boasted, after the last war, was largely for the purchase of land which to-day was not at all of the quality that returned men wished that they ihad i been placed on. The class of land that was allotted to many of the men after the last war was so bad that numbers of them were compelled, later, to walk off their properties, The present Government was trying, by the selection of the men and by the careful purchase of land, to do better. Mr. Cullen said that there could not be too much delay in land purchase. The Government must soon acquire on a greater scale. Good areas were .available. Mr. Cullen said he admitted there were some anomalies in the Land Sales Act which, possibly, Were causing some delay in the acquisition of land. He would like to see those anomalies amended to facilitate the acquisition of the right kind of land for returned men.

To the end of July, he said, the Government had spent £1,138,209 on land settlement alone, or about three thousand pounds per man so far settled. The majority of those men who have been assisted had ver v little cash resources. Some of them had 1 none at all. Mr. Cullen said that, under the compulsory clauses of the Land Sales Act, only 1,110 acres have so far been taken for soldier settlement. It was far too little. Under the Small Farms Act, however, about sixty thousand acres, representing two hundred units, have'been taken.

Mr. Cullen said that many of the returned men were asking for community farms to be established. Such a project would 1 have to be a large holding. It would be of great advantage to those who did not want the responsibility of their own individual holding. He would be verv pleased to see’ at least .one such undertaking established with a' manager and a representative settlers’ committee to assist in its direction. It would have to be an area of some thousands of acres. Mr. J. T. Watts (Nat. Riccarton), criticised certain aspects of rehabilitation. He said men had been sent from one officer to another for months on end. Others had been told to go anti find work for themselves, although they had been brought back from the Pacific for essential work. There should be more elasticity in the provision of housing for returned men, and also houses for young civilians who wished tn marry, or who had already married. The loans should be .on a more generous scale, and the interest rates should be reduced. He contended that the Land Sales Act was a deterrent factor in housing, and said it should be abolished as far as houses and sections were concerned. AIR FORCE OVER-STAFFED?

Mr. Watts said it was clear, from evidence coming to the notice of all

Opposition members that the Air Force was over-staffed as far as the ground staff was . concerned. Yet men were still being taken in foi ground staff duties. Hon. F. Jones: “A lot are going out, too!” Mr. Watts said: The Air Force is also top-heavy. Every time I travel home the ferry is half full of Air Force officers. He had' been told, by rankers, of wa'ste that was going on. The rankers said they could not refer to it in the Air Force without the risk of victimisation.

CONSCRIPTION QUESTION. Mr A. J. Sutherland (Nat. Hauraki), asked the Prime Minister in the House to-day. “It is the intention of the Government to introduce legislation depriving military defaulters of their civil rights for a period of years, as was done under the Expeditionary Forces Amendment A< Mr I9 BL Atmore (Ind. Nelson) asked the Minister of National SerW.ce whether any editor of a daily or weekly paper other than John Hogan had been directed away from his professional duties to essential . industry. If not. would the Minister explain why special treatment was meted out in Hogan’s case.

FARMERS SHEDDING MORTGAGES, “An overseas visitor to New Zealand might imagine, from the remarks of Opposition members, that the plight of the Dominion’s farmers to-day was desperate,” declared Mr Morgan Williams (Govt., . * poi) resuming the debate in the evening. “Actually they are getting much better returns for their labour since this Government took office.” H's own family, he said, were farming to-day, and they were getting .a better deal than ever he got as a farmer under a Tory Government. Year after year, under the present regime, the farmers were steadily reducing their mortgages, thus indicating the improvement of their financial position. They were getting a reasonable and fair share of the national income. Mr Williams suggested that the lump sum received from Britain was necessary to the maintenance of our stabilisation policy. That argument might have been presented to Britain on our behalf. Mr Williams advocated universal family allowances. He said that the present system led to some men refusing to earn more because by so doing they would lose the allowance. FARMERS’ FREEDOM Mr G. B. Gordon (Nat., Rangitikei) said the Government seemed to go out of its way to antagonise farmers by introducing contentious legislation, by using the emergency of war to further its socialistic programme, and by failing to consult the industry, and thus to bring about national co-operation for the country’s welfare. Was it, perhaps, that forces behind the Government were trying to get control of primary industry? If so, they were trying in vain, for farmers , were determined that, after - the war, they were going to regain freedom to run their own industry. Farmers found that the cost of materials they had to use daily had increased to a great extent in spite of the Government’s claim to have stabilised costs, with the result that the farmers’ income was further reduced every time he had to make replacements. Mr Gordon contended that the meat schedule was against the production of more meat, as prices did not encourage breeding of heavier stock. DOMINION DEBT INCUBAS Mr F. Langstone (Govt., Waimarino) said the greatest problem facing New Zealand to-day was not rehabilitation, or l.qnd settlement, but that of getting out of debt. New Zealand was piling debt upon debt. He believed that most of the debt could be cancelled out through the use of public credit. Thirty-five millions had been spent on housing. The houses had been built and paid for, so there was really no debt, because all that had been done was to transform materials into homes owned by the State. Through the use of public credit, the whole thirty-five millions could be cancelled out, and the internal debt reduced by that amount. The people had paid for everything. Then there were fiftyfive millions in Treasury bills. That was ,a use of public credit. A tremendous amount of purchasing powei had been pumped into circulation, and in the trading bank current accounts had increased from thirty-four millions m 1938 to eighty-seven milj!°ns W fhat - was an increase of fifty-three millions in purchasing power at a time when there w er f fewer goods on the market, and therein tnere was the danger of in wt’ali’X t 0 was io nut all, or a proportion of that surnlus money into the Reserve Bank and freeze it there - a eive The debate was linterrupted fn>. the adjournment at 10.30 Pea 101