Parliament

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 204, 12 August 1927, Page 6

Parliament

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES BUDGET DEBATE DRAGS ON. Wellington. August 11 Mr W. E. Parry (Auckland Central). resuming the debate on the Budget in the House of Representatives this afternoon, accused the Government of departing from their traditional policy in connection with loans. Money was tight and it was impossible to extract funds from the Government to build houses, though the House was prepared to back up the Government in that connection. Yet the Government was able to lend the Broadcasting Company £15,000 on second mortgage, and that for no better reason than that some of the company’s directors were strong supporters of the Government. The speaker referred to the various difficulties of the country at the present time, and stressed their seriousness. We were called upon by the Govern nient to be content and wait for a revival of trade for the restoration of prosperity. He asked for some real reasoning from the Government benches in respect of the problems the country was faced with. if Parliament then considered the recommendations of a committee the Government would be doing something of real service to the Dominion. Mr E. Walter (Stratford) said anyone who thought New Zealand way goina to get through its present trouble without considerable difficulty was very optimistic indeed Thev would have to get back to where the pioneers stood. If thev spent £‘9,000.000 more than thev received then they could not expect anv othei result than that with wmeh thev were faced to-dav. The Budget had been called a crood business Budget, and he thought they could not look for any greater compliment. The Minister of Finance had picked his way carefully and lie did not think an one could accuse the Minister ol “rushing the fences,” He had been amongst soldier settlers a fair deal of late, and he found thev were rapidly becoming more and more satisfied. They recognised the help which the Minister of Lands had given them. PESSIMISM NOT JUSTIFIED. The Hon. D. Buddo (Kaiapoi) admitted that the outlook was not promising and there was much unemployment, but he did not think the pessimism of some members was justified. The country had been led

into greater public works expenditure than was warranted, and This expenditure had used up monev which might have been employed in helpin'’’ primary producers Mr A. X M. Samuel (Oliinemuri) devoted his speech to a justification of the Minister of Interna] Affairs in granting a racing permit to the Waikato Hunt for Labour Dav next. Mr Samuel contended that hunt club* should have representation on the New Zealand Racing Conference. The Waikato Hunt Club’s date. Labour Dav. was the only one that the conference h«.| attempted to interfere with. Mr Samuel concluded with the hope that the Racing Conference would bow to the decision of the Minister and treat the Waikato Hunt Club in a spirit of fairness and justice. NATIONALIST LEADER'S COMMENTS. Mr G. W. Forbes (Leader of the Nationalist party) regretted the absence from the Financial Satement of reference to many matters requiring to be dealt with. Farmers’ finance and assistance to secondary industries. also th© licensing question, were left as they had been for years, and the Government’s election promises remained largely unfulfilled The Government certainly had borrowed skilfully and spent more money than anv other Government that New Zealand ever had. It had also handled the land purchase ones tion in a manner that many people appreciated. The Minister had stressed the need for economy and a committee was endeavouring to curtail departmental expenditure. Mr Forbes said past attempts of this kind had been fruitless. The taxpayer. however, said Mr Forbes felt there was a good deal of waste in departmental administration, and he would like to see an independent committee set up to exercise a healthy curbing effect upon expenditure. which was crowing so that it threatened to become a serious drain upon the country’s resources. In considering expenditure on railway extension, it was to-dav unnecessary to study closelv the effect of motor transport, which had changed the transportation problems completely horn what thev were before Hie motor-car eanie into use. Many people felt that too much monev was being spent on public works in view of the country’s position. Taxation was pressing heavily on industries, and a reduebon was anxiously awaited by the people who worked for ‘something to help lessen th” cost oi living Air Forbes urged that company taxation should he revised Referring to control hoards lor produce. Mr Forbes said the farmers had believed (ho hoards would handle produce to Hie host advantage. but he believed a mistake was (Continued on Next Column).

(Continued from Previous Column), made in introducing compulsion, the effect of which on dairy produce had certainly been unfortunate. Mr Forbes criticised the action of rhe banks in advancing the rate of interest in spite of the fact that a profitable year had been experienced, and declared that the Government should have done something to prevent interest charges being increased. WEAK DISCUSSION. The Hon. R. A. Wright. Minister of Education, said the Budget debate was half-way through and ;t had been a decidedly weak discussion. The weakness was due to the fact that there was no fault to find with the Government which had no loose ends or openings liable to attack. Mr Wright said Mr Forbes had referred in a sarcastic manner io the Government’s land purchases for soldiers, implying that ■> mu «

dered money to do so. but the Government oi the time m d to buy land, even at high prices, because people were insisting upon the provision of land for soldiers. Customs revenue had been cited, but there was no suggestion put forward as to what items might be reduced. Expendiure on administration services could not he reduced, but he would like to see borrowing lessened. The education vote could not be cut down, as each year about 22,000 fresh children were coming forward, requiring about 30 new schools. As to taxation, it seemed heavy, but compared with other countries it was not. L'he Prime Minister had stated that Hie Dominion was turning the corner, and exception had hecn taken to this statement, because some iconic thought this should have been done already. The fact simply was that after the loss of £70,000.000 expenditure on the war it was a long corner to turn, hut we were getting round it all right. Mr R McKeen (Wellington South) argued that at nresent indirect taxation in New Zealand was relatively higher than direct taxation, with .Hie result that the workers were paving disproportionately to other classes. Revision of the tariff would onlv intensify this nosition. because the policy of the Government was to raise revenue by a process of indirect taxation. A committee of the House could have made a more equitable revision of the tariff than the Royal Commission employed bv the Government.

The adjournment of the debate was moved by Str C. E. Mnclenimii fTaliranga) and the House rose at II 13 p.ni, till 2.31) p.in. to-morrow.