BUDGET DEBATE

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 16 August 1929, Page 6

BUDGET DEBATE

ANOTHER NIGHT’S SITTING. LAND AND TAXATION. DIFFERENT METHODS DISCUSSED (By Telegraph—Press Association.; WELLINGTON, Aug. 15. The financial debate was resumed in the House of Representatives to-day by Mr. IG. C. Munns. who referred to the [statement by Labour members that the present debate was “a isliam political battle” between the United Party and Reform. He said the policies ox the two parties were diametrically opposed, and he would say candidly that if the Reform Party still adhered to its land policy he would prefer to vote with Labour than with Reform.

Persistent interjections from Reform and Labour benches and an occasional retort by Mr. Minins culminated in the •Speaker, after several ealls for order, rising and insisting on less interruption.

Mr. Manns, in the course of a reference to the increased primage duty, said that after 30 years in business lie felt he was in a position to say the increase would not be passed on to the consumer. The man who might be able to pass on this increase was the merchant who, however, was gradually being forced out of business as the result of the modern trend in tho development of trading conditions. The amount would be too- small for the retailer to pass on to the consumer. There had been a chorus of complaint against the proposal for increased land tax, but he considered the people who had not carried their fair burden in the past should not be allowed to continue in that happy state. There was only one duty they could not escape paying, lie added, and that was the death duty, and even then their relatives complained that the death duty was too high. Mr. Munns, replying to a reference by Mr. D Jones last night to an agricultural bias in the education system, said the proposal had been adopted by the party before the Prime Minister had been appointed its leader. It was not intended to force agricultural education on anyone whose inclinations were opposed to such training, but everything would be done to encourage those who had any desire to seek a living on the land

A LABOUR VIEWPOINT. Mr. \V. E. Barnard said lie hopeu the United Party would be able to carry out its pledges. With the presentation of the Budget the .House was now able to form its judgment as to the proposals of the Government, and one could only iiope the Prime Minister bad not displayed all his ware-;. There was nothing in the Budget to indicate that cheap money would be available to workers and settiers. The country was expecting the Prime Minister to make good all his promises, and lie tor one was trying to exercise patience in order to give Sir Joseph Bard a chance before issuing a writ for breach of contract. The Prime Minister had diagnosed the economic ills of the country, but had not yet offered a practical cure. Speaking of land taxation, Mr. Barnard said he thought the Government’s proposals would receive the fairly general endorsement of his side ol the House and of the country as a whole. The “wool kings” had escaped bearing a fair share of taxation, and it gave him a great deal of satisfaction that the Government, had decided to put an end to the policy of giving substantial exemption to a class which was we 11 able to pa\ its share. There might In* genuine cases of hardship, but in such cases the occupier ol tho land would probably be in a more or less precarious position as he was, and if be were a prudent man lie would endeavour to relinquish heavily mortgaged property and take up a holdingmore in accordance with the amount ol his capital. Mr Barnard was deeply disappointed in the Government’s decision to increase the primage duty, which would tend to increase the cost of living. Fie suspected some members of the United I’arty were a little uncomfortable as the result of this decision, which possibly conflicted with the promises oonu* candidates may have given their constituents during the election.

OTHER R EVENUE SOURCES. Air. YY. D. Ly.snar expressed tiie view that there was no real cause lor the extra taxation which it was proposed to charge the farmers, and that if smh a policy were put into effect it would be ruinous to the prosperity of the country generally. He suggested that if the Government had decided that additional taxation was necessary it should have explored other avenues Lor instance, he thought the Bank of Now Zealand should be called on to pay more in taxation. There were other sources of revenue that should be investigated before increasing the burden on the land. He did not think the Government should endeavour to produce a surplus at such a time as the present. It should certainly balance the Budget, but should not impose any more taxation than, was actually necessary. It had been stated that the Government desired the additional land tax to achieve two objects—to procure revenue and to break up large estates. Mr. Lysnar considered the latter to be an admission of weakness. II the Government found it could not acquire sufficient land under the present compulsory provision of the Act it should present to the House in a straightforward way a plan to increase its powers under the Act. If the Government wanted to destroy the value of land it should proceed to place the proposed legislation on the Statute Book. It would ruin the value of land and it might ruin the Government. too.

Mr. Lysnar vigorously opposed the reduction of the amount of mortgage 'exemption and asked if if wore fair to tax tt man on a mortgage be had raised on bis property in order to develop the productivity of bis land. He would prefer income tax on all farmers on the same terms as other people enjoyed to the present proposals. SOCIAL LEGISLATION. Mr. \Y. E. Barry said be had hoped the now Government intended to administer social legislation in the spirit of the law ami not in the letter of the law as Intel been the practice in tin* past. The Government had not made the improvement in this direction he had expected. He had no doubt tin* Prime Minister was out for tt surplus and lit* hoped when other members had expressed this view a representative of the G.r> veil'll me nt w]ottld have agreed that this was so and would have defended such a course on the ground

that more money was being proi ided to enable a more sympathetic interpretation of the social legislation ot the country. Mr. Parry said he was convinced there would never be general prosperity until the purchasing power of the working people was made compatible with a decent standard of civilisation. He had thoroughly investigated the problem of unemployment and he was satisfied the only possible solution consisted of an advanced land settlement policy and determined development of the secondary industries. He had been one of the party who had inspected the pumice lands and he had great faith in the possibility of bringing these areas into a satisfactory state of productivity. Some of this country had been planted in trees, but it should have been kept for farming.

There had been references to the necessity for ‘‘the right kind of men” to be selected to undertake the development of lands. This create.l a dangerous psychological aspect in that it made many people doubtful as in ilieir own ability to farm lam! He outlined the efforts of men .straight from the mines who had tackled land in the Matamata district some years ago and had made a striking succes on land that bad been described as so poor that the settlers would be faced with starvation. Mr. Parry said the people were expecting increases in old age pensions and blind pensions, and he hoped the Government was not going to let them down. SPEAKER ON BEHALF OF REFORM.

Mr. A. Harris agreed that there were vast possibilities for the development of pumlic lands, and In Imped | the Prime Minister w ould see Unit I settlers there were granted assistance by the State Advances Department. Government aid had been denied these 'settlers for some years on the ground that the land was not suitable, and he asked >Sir Joseph Ward and the Minister of Lands to reconsider their views as to the quality of these areas, and in particular to arrange for assistance to settlers from the State Advances Department. Mr. Harris, replying to criticisms of the lie form administration of the soldier settlement scheme, said that while ilic admitted there had been failures, as there had been m every walk of life, there had also been many happy results. The scheme lmd been Lite means of placing on the land men who had had no experience of farming and of whom many were now well on the way to independence. The Reform Government had had to adopt some suitable means of repatriation, and while in some cases soldier settlements had been costly, it had on the whole been a valuable step in the progress of the country.

Referring to the proposal to write off £8,000,000 from the railway capital account, Air. Harris said this meant that the assets had decreased by £B.000,000 or that the national debt had increased by that sum. It was absurd to .say the railways should not be required to pay interest on this money, which had been raised by taxation and had relieved the administration from the necessity for borrowing for railway construction.

Mr. Harris claimed there had been a great change in the feeling of the ,country. Optimism that had followed the United Party’s promises of cheap monev lutd been replaced by pessimism, already there was talk of a change of Government. “The United Party’s stock has gone down to zero.” he added. ""We no longer hear flamboyant challenges to go to the country. We now bear sober predictions that the session will run its full course.”

The House rose at 10..‘10 p.tn. till 10.30 a.m. to-morrow.