PARLIAMENT

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 2 August 1924, Page 5

PARLIAMENT

THE BUDGET DEBATE. SPEECH BY MR, MASTERS. (BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION.) WELLINGTON, Aug. 1. The debate on the Budget was con-i tinued in the House this afternoon and. to-night. Mr. R. McKeen (Wellington South) argued that, examination of the public accounts disclosed that the Government’s surplus was in reality much larger than .the Budget disclosed. Instead of a million and a half sterling the surplus should have been shown as £2,452,000. Mr. K, S. Williams (Bay of Plenty) appealed for less taxation by way of death duties. He advocated the development of aeroplanes as a means of Dominion delence, and urged the necessity in this connection of finding out exactly what the oil resources of the Dominion really were. He was well aware there was a need for houses in the towns, but he asked the Government not to forget the need for houses for school teachers and nurses in the backblocks. Mr. R. Masters (Stratford) said the Minister for Customs was most unfair m his speech last night when he compared the position of Australia and New Zealand. When depicting the position of Australia he chose the year 1922, which was well known to be a year of drought and slump in the Commonwealth, but when he came to New Zealand he quoted the results of 1924, which was a prosperous year in this country. He did not mention that in i 922 even New Zealand had a deficit of £350,000, and so he dodged and evaded the point raised by the Leader of the .Opposition. The speaker then proceeded to deal with soldier settlements, contending that many estates had been bought which had never been taken up by soldiers and. never would be, (resulting in the inevitable loss of many thousands to the Dominion. Who "had got the money paid for this land Not the soldiers, but the friends of the Government, who were now living in retirement in some of our prosperous suburbs. He found nothing in the Budget to comfort him. There was no reference to a reduction of taxation, no reference to a reduction in customs duties'; there was, in fact, no policy of any kind in the document, because the Government had no policy. What the Government evidently relied on was the reports of commissions. They had commissions on all kinds of subjects and we were promised more. It had been said the Premier, occasionally added by commissions, so we had descended to the position that we had to look to brains outside the House for our political inspirations. The member for Tauranga had said Government by commission was better than no government' at all, and while the present Government was in office that was exactly what we were reduced to —commissions and no government at all. It had been claimed by Reformers that the surplus was due to economies on the part of the Government, but that was not so. The departmental expenditure had (not ‘decreased . by; €1,500,000, as stated in the Budget, hut the annual appropriations had actually increased by £407,000. The Minister for Lands (Hon. A. D. McLeod) protested against the suggestion that the Reform Party, in making purchases of land, were actuated more by a desire to assist the party’s friends than by concern for the soldiers’ welfare, declaring that such a suggestion wa s despicable. The Government had endeavoured to assist the primary industries. A charge had been made that there had been discrimination in making advances for farm purchase purposes, the inference being that partv affiliations were considered, lmt. the Minister denial that any discrimination was ever made. 9 Touching on the Meat Export Control Board, Mr. McLeod said the last two years had shown a more even and high range of prices than any similar period in the history of the "meat industry, and this was the result of the meat board’s work. Touching on special privileges to soldiers in the matter of land settlement, he considered the time had arrived when the continuance of such privileges should be dealt with. There were thousands of young men who were at a disadvantage in getting land because soldiers must be given first con. sideration.

Relerring to the oversea settlement scheme, the Minister said it was unwise to spend several millions in putting on the land men quite unsuited for farm life. It would be better to give the freehold to men able to make the best use of the land than to lease it to men unfitted to make a success of life as settlers.

The debate was continued till 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday.