THE BUDGET.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 1 August 1924, Page 6

THE BUDGET.

DEBATE CONTINUED. INCREASE IN EXPORTS. NOT SO VERY GREAT. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT WELLINGTON, July 31. The debate on the Budget was continued in the House of Representatives this afternoon, and to-night. Mr C. E. MacMillan (Tauranga) congratulated the Government on the prosperity of the country. The decrease in the values of our products would create serious trouble; that trouble was practically certain to eventuate, and the Government had to determine who was to suffer the loss. To-day, owing to the boom and not to the slump, many working fanners were on such high-priced lands that they could scarcely make a living. The drop in prices of our commodities meant that a man must go out altogether and would become one of the great army of unemployed!, which, however, did not exist in New Zealand. Under our bankruptcy law a bankrupt, he said, was entitled to retain £25 worth of furniture, but that was not sufficient, and he thought farmers who through misfortune became bankrupt should be allowed to retain £2O worth of stock.' He did not think that was excessive, considering what it cost to stock a farm.

Mr W. E. Parry (Auckland Central) said that in 1904 our exports .were valued at £14,748,000, with a purchasing power of £13,826,000; in 1914 our exports were valued at £26,000.000, with a. purchasing power of £24,000,000; while in 1924 .our exports were worth £52,000,000, with a purchasing power of £35,000,000.. This showed an increase in. purchasing power of £lO,100,000 in the first ten year period and of £11,000.000 in the second year period, and these figures demonstrated that the increase in exports, as measured by their purchasing power, was not so very large after all, and he concluded that the people who were producing wealth were not receiving it. Mr W. D. Lysnar (Gisborne) said the Government should exercise the greatest economy in connection with public works unless the works were of the strictest urgency. Mr S. G. Smith (Taranaki) said that although the debate had been in progress for two days it was noteworthy that no member of the Reform Party had endeavoured to defend, excuse, or apologise for the absence of policy in the Budget. The Leader of the Opposition had ruthlessly exposed the inaccuracies and contradictions of the Budget, and there had been practically no reply to his clear line of argument, except from the Minister for Education, who had invited the Liberals to go over to Reform to “stop the tide of Socialism.” What form of Socialism did he wish to stop? Was it the State railways, the State telegraphs, and the State insurance, for these were forms of Socialism, that he wished to stop ? If so he would receive a pretty warm reception from the people of this country. He condemned the setting up of the Meat Board as an expensive excrescence* because there was nothing the board had done that could not have been done by the Agricultural Department, assisted by the Council of Agriculture. All that the hoard appeared to he doing was sending its members on trips to the Old Country. Criticising the suggestion of the member for Egmont that* third-class land should be planted with trees, Mr Smith deprecated sending people away into high and slipping, country when there was between Wa.nganui and Hawera some of the finest agricultural country in the world held in large blocks. That was where people should be settled, but there was no suggestion of that sort of thing in the Budget. Dealing with the Budget itself, he said its most striking feature was that it concealed the actual financial position of the country. It was not true, as alleged, that the good credit of New Zealand was due to the personal popularity of the Premier. The fact was that the financiers of the Old Country were more alive to what was going on in this country than the average citizen was, and thev knew we had fertile soil and a fine climate and industrious people, and it was because of these things that our credit was high. It was an insult to the producers of the Dominion; to suggest that our excellent credit was due in any way to the Premier.

The debate was adjourned at 10.30 p.m., when the House rose till 2.30 p.m. to-morrow.