FINANCIAL DEBATE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 30 August 1929, Page 8

FINANCIAL DEBATE.

UNEMPLOYMENT AND INDUSTRY SUGGESTED LAND CLASSIFICATION*.

iliy Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Aug. 27. The financial debate was .resumed in tire House of Representatives to-day by. Mr C. H. Chapman. He said! the ex-Fin-anee Minister, Mr W. D. Stewart, had realised the tendency towards excessive borrowing, but lie bad not substituted any alternative policy. He had not investigated the possibilities of a State Rank or any similar means; of meeting' the situation. Mr Chapman said the reason for the present- faulty distribution of wealth and for the fact that New Zealand haicli at the same- time record production and record unemployment was that . they were following an out-of-date British system. If New Zealand emulated the policy of the present Labour Government in Britain'there would be- a vast improvement in the economic conditions. There wais no tifeed to fear that Britain would lose in prestige as tile result of the accession of the Labour Party to the Treasury benches, evidence having already been provided that the ideals of the Briton were being faithfully uphold by Mr Ramsay MacDonald and Mr Philip Snowden. Mr Chapman quoted figures demonstrating the -seriousness of the unemployment position, and added; that well over £1.000.000 w as’ being spent- annually oil relief works. The question arose whether that money' was being spent wisely or whether it could not have been expended on productive work instead of on merely relief measures. Ho thought the greatest contributory factor in the cause of unemployment was the- fact that nothing had been done to provide other work for those people who had! been. displaced! as the result of the advance of science and invention in the cities and on farm lands. One reason for the drift to the cities- was the use of machinery on the farms. A policy of “back to'the laud” would.'ini prove the position temporarily, but it would not be a, permanent- remedy. Complete reorganisation of industry would be l necessary before the- problem could be solved. The Budget contained no proposals to meet the situation that had notjbeen tried unsuccessfully before. Until a more .satisfactory system of applying capital to the material of the country had been evolved there could be little permanent progress. Mr Chapman asked the Government whether it stood for the continuation of the present policy of granting substantial increases to highly-paid officers in the public service while the eateries of those men on lower scales remained stationary. He further contended; that th© wealth of New Zealand justified additional taxation to provide for increased pensions. He described the primage duty >a.s a most' distasteful method of obtaining revenue, '.and suggested as an alternative arranging the Customs regulations in such a way that, in addition to obtaining revenue, encouragement would be afforded for those col ida ry i n clustrie s.

Mr Chapman believed protection to the motor-body bill ding industry would provide employment for 1000. At the present time it was the policy of the motor industry to import one chassis to every four completed cars brought into the country. He would not suggest that business he disorganised by the insisting on building all bodies m New Zealand, but the ratio of chassis to completed cars imported should he increased. In addition to encouraging the motor-body building industry, an impetus would 1 , he given to. the leather, glass, timber and other .subsidiary industries.

Mr J. T. Hogan said it was incorrect to state that primage duty had to be paid oil wool packs, it had been removed by O'rder-in-Council. Mr Dickie might have stated that while the Reform Party had assisted the wealthy farmers by removing the duty on wool packs, it had not taken the duty off corn sacks, which the poorer people had to purchase. Members itku! criticised the proposals to increase taxation, but was* not. that a reasonable course to adopt when members from a;N sides of the House were asking for increases in the pension system and additional expenditure, in other directions f It wias netv,ssarv to find four millions a year for education, and in that respect the presest Government was faced with a problem, because at the present time toe-cmmtrv was not- getting .reasona,hie value for the money which it was spending in this quarter. The present educati'oma.l system was? not suiticicntly educative. , Mr Hogan considered the work of the State Advances Department since' the present Government had come, into office wiis, sufficient reason to justify its being "given the op.pnrtunity to put its Budget proposals into operation. •He urged the Prime Minister and the Minister of Railways to investigate the position of the railway workshops. He suggested the policy of centralisation should he reopened to give better scope for the employment of hoys trained .in teclniicaJl! colleges throughout the country. He also advocated an improvement in passenger trains on lines other than the main routes, and expressed the opinion that the time had come for a reversion of fares which in some eases

-ere too high. Mr Hogan said lie well com edi the'Vime .Minister's proposals to break up la roe <> states and enable the people to •>;et lira file on the land. He had seen lionises vacated and schools closed in -ui.rts of the .country as the result of land aggregation. and if the ißutteefc proposals resulted in these 'houses behi 14 again occupied and the schools, reopened they would he of great benefit to the country. Mr Hogan isuggcshcd that lanu should lie classified under three, headings: (1) hand suitalble. and required for subdivision ; (2) land now being used for sheep f arming and .suitable for dairvi np;; f;l) hack country land requiring ••upilal and courage. There was not ho same reason 1.0 penalise the man wim hold a. large area, of land which * - iii I required an: enormous amount »l capital and which a small man would not have been willing to tackle, as there

wais to tux the liian who was holding valuable dairying land-. The former had rendered great sendee to his country. He considered; -it- would he unwise to reduce the amount of -mortgage exemption ; it would only add to the number of people .who bad -come off the land in recent years, •It might be advisable to reduce the exemption later, hut if such a stepi were contemplated reas- ' liable notice should be given. It had been suggested that it was the interest- bill and not taxation that was troublesome to the farmer, buit even if that were s,> he- did not think the House would desire to do anything that would increase the number of people leaving the land. If it were oihsolutely necessary to reduce the mortgage exemption at the present time he hoped the Prime Minister would not seek to lower it to less than, two-thirds of the capital value of the land. 'llhe debate was adjourned and the House rose at 10.17 p.m.