THE BUDGET DEBATE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 221, 21 August 1912, Page 5

THE BUDG ET DEBATE.

INTEREST 1N G DI St' I’ SSI ()N. THE LAND QUESTION. MR. ( RAIGIES AMENDMENT. [PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.; Wellington, Aug. 19. In the House of Representatives this afternoon, Mr. Scott (Otago Central) continued the debate on i the Budget. He said that what was; contained in the Budget would eon-! vince them that the Government; now in power was determined to! bring down progressive legislation. [ The late Government did many good,) things, but they had made many mistakes, and it remained for the present Government to rectify them. They heard last week that the largo landowners were throwing up their) hats because (lie Massey Govern-1 inent was in power. He could inform ' the House that the small farmers. I , artisans and working people gener-1 ally were also throwing up their hats. ! Even the. civil servants threw up their hats when no one was looking. .He applauded the proposal to reform the Legislative Council. also the proposals for local government: reform and the extension of rural Jfeltphones. Referring to mining! ’ nifftters he said be know of good ■ agricultural land worth £BO an acre, which had been destroyed by .slum ing. He thought the Government i should moderate the terms ol water supply for irrigation, and suggested that farmers should be given water for the first two years. If this was ; not done the farmers could not carry on. In conclusion, lie advocated a vigorous system of reafforestation | Mr. Bradney (Auckland West)! pleaded for better administration in, tlic future of the old age pensions) than had been the' ease in the past. I The pension should not be deled out as charity. He dealt with the manner in which prisoners were employed, and suggested putting them to forming roads in the back blocks and making them an allowance for work, a portion of the allowance to go to their wives and children. Referring to the State mines, he held that it was unfair competition for the State mines to -undersell. He believed in the eompetiliic system, lie touched; upon labour matters. When ail the borrowed money was being circulated amongst the working men there; should be no labour unrest. The workers were getting better wagesnow and living in better houses than I ever before. The fact that the Arbi-, tration Act had failed was due en-, lively to the administiation of it. He: dwelt upon what he called the evils of the alien agitator. We opened our ports and allowed the dregs of the Continent i<> come in and mmet the whole politics of the country. They should be made, to produce three certificates of character before being anluraliscd. He would do away with the Upper House. He doubted whether the proposed reform of th' Council would produce the advantages claimed for it. Party feeling would generate if an clectit e Conn- j oil was adopted. Ho would like to, see the land settled by self-respect-! . ring and self-reliant people. who would nut go cap in hand to the Government the moment they mot with; a slight reverse. i Mr. Craigie (Timaru). having re- ; forced to the excess of imports over: exports, and pointed to the danger to the country if this; continued, i hoped that instead of limiting loans | to local bodies to £5OOO the Govern-1 inent would allow even, as much as I £50,000 for nece’-sary public work:. He believed in the abolition of the ; Upper House, as it was unnecessary.; In its place lie would have an advis- \ ory council. He favoured the erec-) tion of workers’ homes in flic court-! try with sufficient land to enable il’e) tenant to provide produce for lum-) self. lie defended the New Zealand, railways, which he contended were; run very well. They should not be ). run as a dividend-earning concern, [ , but should pay interest and working h depreciation, and be sun for the people all the time. On the question <. fj . land settlement he said no country ; • in the world was better adapted for U > the small farmer than New Zea-1 . land. What thev wanted was public (< works and immigration. He inlondeJi ( to divide the House on the land quo:,-; , tion, and moved the following |, amendment : ’That in Hie opium.i < this House the time has arrived), when the national estat e of Hie land p should be rigidly eonsencd, ami); that bereafttr no land of the t’row.i; > shall be alienated otherwise than by) ( way of renewable lease, with period!-) j cal revaluation of the land.” ) < Mr. Colvin (Buller) seconded tl.e) ] mol ion.. j I Mr. Massey (Prime Minister) m-ki d I whether he was to understand that j j the amendment moved came fro mi the leader of the Opposition, er) whether it had his approval. I Mr. Craigie replied that he moved' the amendment on his own initiative. He did not ask anyone in His party. I Mr. Robertson (Otaki) said lie a;*-; priced of the amendment. They Inid; heard so much about the land que ; i tion that they were justified in dim; <■ cussing it. lii' did no: b<'lie v e ih' i late Government bad been respe ■ r sible for the increase io (lie value- i The ilciise adjourned at *>.3o. i On the House resuming at 7.30< Mr. Robertson eoiitimied his speee!'.. g He urged that ilm land nvaiest tbc;t cities should lie settled more dii.w'v < and made more product e. The e 1 could be no object-mi the ireelio'4 ' tenure if ibe imv-ipier made the be t ' use of the land. Speaking id tl.e t dairying iiidu .trv, he recognised tir’i < land had increased m value became ( the products red im-rcased in value. < High values were maintained by cheap labour. The Speaker interrupted Mr. BoP- ; ertson. remarking ilmt unless t!:e < Premier accepted Hie amendment ,".s t a no-eonlidence motmn speakers t must coniine themselves to the sub- i ject of the amendment, land tenure, i Mr. .Massey. replying to Mr. Bob- ; erston. said be did not accent ti e i amendment as one ol m> conii- t deuce. 1 Mis Wi'ford (Hull) welcomed ti e <' .•’mcnWm m. Il would set!!.- Hm ’■ qm-st of i < usi■la > St I ami treebo’d. > anil allow the House to get nil witiiif a- more important mutter, the sett 1 .-' i inent of the land. ‘'

f Mr. Laurenson (Lyttelton) said he would stick to the leasehold principle. even though it cost him his Mr. Pearce (Patea) held that the freehold was the best way to settle the land and make it productive. Mr. Russell (Avon) staid that when Mr. Craigie moved to limit the tenure to the leasehold he must expect to find some of the Liberals against him, and had lie attempted to affirm the principle of the reservation of one-half of the land he would have had some support. ) Air. Davey (Christchurch East) j was astonished at the speech of Air. I Russell. T have heard a good deal ; of twisting and turning.” he said. I “but that takes the cake.” He reigretted that Mr. Russell had gone ) back on his leasehold convictions. After Air. Ell (Christchurch East) and Air. R. Holland (R'tglan) had referred to university endowments, the amendment was put and lost by 52 I to 1-1. ) The following is the division list : , NOES. AYES. ! Allen Colvin 1 Anderson Craigie Atmore Davey Bell EH J. Bollard Forbes IE Bollard Hanan Bradney Hindmarsb Brown Isitt Buchanan Laurenson ) Buddo Parata Buick Robertson Buxton Seddon Campbell Sidcy Carroll Veitch Clark Coates Escott Fisher Fraser Glover Guthrie Hanis Herdman Herries Hine Lang Lee McCallum MacDonald R. McKenzie Mander Massey Newman Ngata . -. Noswort hy - Okey 'Pearce Poland - - . Pomare Reed ! R. H. Rhodes : T. Rhodes > Russell i Scott .-•f/yi's.d.ij ' Statb.am Sykes ■ G. M. Thomson Ward Wilford Wilson ' WittiYoung ISITT ON TRAITORS. All-. Hitt (Christchurch North) continued the x general debate on the Budget. He “aid it was on’y through those traitors who had ! turned from the Liberal side and supported Air. Massey that the present Government occupied the Treasury benches. The Government, when in Opposition, did nothing to further the interests of the country, but had held the chariot back. He proceeded to relate what the Liberal Government had done. Liberalism and Toryism, he said, would not mix. Air. Alassey’s party would never give this country progressive Liberalism. He was convinced that the large landholders were represented by the Government of to-day. The breaking up of the huge estates adjacent to the railways and roads would do more than settling the back blocks. As to the graduated land tax, he described that as homoeopathic. The Goi crnnient dared not bring down any practical proposal. On the subject of the defence system he said the compulsory clause was a relic of nmdiaeial times. It wts as illiberal and narrow in character as could be. Dr. Buck said the present was the; first Budget he could not criticise. ! He urged the cheapening of the tele-; phone charges for country settlers 1 at the earliest possible moment; The* only way to find out the true value i of the land was to ascertain the true value of the land for cash. The value of the improvements could then be liken off. Nobody knew where he was in regard to valuations now. Thme was no such thing as unearned ) increment. He could not congiaHi- j late the Government on the appoint-i nient of High Commissioner. He had not been rewarded for faithful i services. He had thrown everyone i he had been connected with over-) board. I The debate was adjourned, and the! House rose at 11.20. i FATUOUS. ' [SV TELEGRAPH SPECIAL.] j Wellington, Aug. 21. j It is difficult to imagine that any ' member of any party could have conceived, in the wildest flights of h’s imagination, a more fatuous, a mor-.’ absurd resolution than that wuhi which Mr. Craigie. Alayor oi‘ an.L member for Timaru. essayed i-m--difficult task of arresting the progress of the Budget debate, and nt the same time assuring his constituents that he is true to his leasehold i-imviet ions. The fact that he wa C so paljiabiy turned down by leading members i f Ids part's govs to sho'v. if any ju-oi.f w.-m wanted, tint li;disorganised cc-iiditicn <f ibe Onpesitmn Im icavlicd a stage that can only be characterised as chaotic. Mr. Uiidgie prc-pic-i'd mi amendmeiii ivbseli rmdi r riitam conditio;’iwiihi be. but is net. a want of eoniidenci rm.-! ion. Air. Wiltcrd. a pot cotial h .-’.-Ue i.f the Opposition, sar trey don't care twopence nbc:it i entire; what thev want is settlement. Air. G. IV. Kush. ll .-ihl i.e pet ent ial leader of the Opposition inet toe bold on the subject, and b taken t>> task by Mr. Davey and inemTwrs if tin' Opposition on a <i tint <.f li-s ('lusiveness when face i v. ith il>f nei-es -ily of enr<>!!inii him si'f wiH: :i pti’iv Laving a defmiie policy ml tilt' subject <:f t I’llll »•«'. 1” ' more f;u-t that Mr. Cr".!'Ui''s iniiti.-v: was passed ent by 52 to 1-1 shows ■

’ how seriously the House regarded the issue, and what degree of irnport- ; anee it attached to Hie challenge ' thrown down by the member for .' Timaru. i The point, however, of rhe division i, is not to be found there. The whole -1 incident goes to show that leaderless ) ami disintegrated the Opposition : ) has. to use a colloqualism. "gone *o i) pieces.” However much Air. :) Craigie or Air. Laurenson or Air. •; Anybodyelse may desire to throw themselves into the deadly brea-Ii ). of the leasehold, they should have . •: realised that success in party warfare 11 can only be attained by solidarity ; . that the slightest sign of disruption -, is sufficient to bring up against them 1: all the opposition forces with a i strength increased tenfold by reason ); merely of that, disruption, and that -’the only means to ultimate success ' j is a combined and impenetrable front 1} agreed upon as a whole to the plan )of campaign, however they may : i differ in opinion as to details. Jf the Opposition would for one I moment look back and see the means by which the ex-Opposition has gained the Treasury benches they would igo in for different tactics. For twenty one v cars the opponents ?i Ballance, and Seddon. and AVard | said, and kept on saying, one thing j and one thing only; “You are wrong”- in season and out e,i sem-cm they kept on repeating the same tune. The various Governments said that the cry would scon become wornout, but (he result proved that: only by insistence can you persuade, and the end jiisiificd the means. The i Massey Government is in power by • virtue of the votes of members, v which is undeniable, and the disorwhieh i- undeniable and the disorganised Opjpositimi gives proof of then utter disorganisation by allowing an authorised pm ale member to mow what would otherwise' be a inottmi of want of confidence on the land question, but which without the imprimatur of the leader of the' Opposition, who does not. exist, is laughed to scorn by the leader of the Government. (Surely fatuity could go no further. SEUTARIANISAJ AND POLITICS. WHO’S TO BLAME? I in- Till. ECU Aim- SI'ECIA!..] Wellington. Aug. 21. In the course of his speech on the Budget yesterdav. Mr. R. Scott (Central Otago) referred tn attempts made to raise seetamn feeling during the last election. Where such a thing had taken place, he said, the followers' of the late Government were to blame. The Government candidate in his electorate was taken round the iitrict by Catholic priests. He did net have a Presbyterian clergyman < r any other person to take him round. He fought Hie battle on his own account and regretted cxceedingr, that sectarian matter had been spoken of in connection with Sir , Joseph Ward’s name, because '•nr . Joseph was a man for whom he had I 1 the highest respect. He repelled j that be regretted these quest’ous .Iliad been introduced into the elbe- . ifion, and he felt, it very much at J the time, so much so that he haa 'made up h : s mind to make refcrcn- e [ I to the matter in the House.