PARLIAMENT

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 208, 17 August 1927, Page 6

PARLIAMENT

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES BUDGET DEBATE CONTINUES. Wellington, Aug. 16. The debate on the Financial Statement was resumed in the House of Representatives to-day by Mr J. R. Hamilton (Awarua), who devoted a great deal of his speech to land matters. Land values, he contended, must depend on the price of produce from the land. New Zealand could only obtain world parity prices and was doing so ill some respects, but he complained that our butter was not getting within 20s per cwt. of Danish, which experts agreed was no better than the New Zealand product- Some people advocated cutting up large estates, but he pointed out that this in many cases was due to fallacious ideas. Critics complained of borrowing, yet those critics might be found at the same time holding out their hands for loan moneys. Mr Hamilton said almost all dairy factories in New Zealand were on a co-operative basis and the logical corollary was co-operative marketing, which had proved beneficial in the apple and honey industries. He thought expenditure on irrigation should be investigated, as it is not giving commensurate value. The Forestry Department needed a shake up, as its repressive royalty charges were stifling sawmilling operations.

Mr W. J. Jordan (Manukau) commenting on Mr Hamilton's complaints of burdens on the farming industry, said the blame lay with banking institutions, which were taking so much of New Zealand's earnings in interest and other charges imposed on its economic operations. He . declared that conditions under the present Government were growing increasingly lamentable. In Wellington a clergyman was appealing for clothes for men working for the Government on relief jobs. Another clerygman in Auckland had written him (Mr. Jordan) that they were “still going strong.” They were snowed in with appeals for relief and had served 30,000 soup meals in a week, and all this was happening in New Zealand. ISSUE OF BONDS URGED. Mr T. W. Rhodes (Thames) urged the issue of bonds for the rural credit system and the provision of more funds for the State Advances Department to enable the farm industry to be developed. Secondary industries should also receive encouragement. Referring especially to .the Onakaka ironworks, he hoped efforts would be made to get these going on a paying basis. If this could not be done it would be better to close down to let men’s energies be devoted in other and more profitable directions. He made an appeal for the development of the New Zealand flax industry. He stressed the need for investigating the possibilities of utilising the waste from flax in the manufacture of motor spirit. The fibre might also be used in the manufacture of artificial silk. Referring to main highways, he said the system was a good one, but some districts were not receiving a fair proportion of the money raised for reading. Mr R. W. Smith (Waimarino) pointed out that while the national debt was mounting up the country’s earning power was not showing any appreciable increase. Too great a proportion of expenditure in the past had been an non-productive works. Expenditure on public works, declared Mr. Smith, had been reckless and produced no useful results. He would be glad to see the Government setting up a board to supervise local body borrowing and see that the ratepayers received some value for the money raised. Touching on unemployment, Mr. Smith contended that it was degrading to the country that it should permit a position to arise in which contributions should be received from Chinamen towards the provision of relief work for unemployed white men. COMPETITION ADMITTED. The Hon. K. S. Williams said the competition of main highways with the railways must be admitted, but the people required these roads and there was no doubt they had come to stay. J he Local Bodies Loans Board was, he felt, likely to do a great deal of good, but there was no standard system that could be adopted for road-making, the conditions varied so in the different districts. The Government was doing all it could to use New Zealand timber in its works, but it was not always practicable to obtain suitable timber. Touching on farmers’ financial difficulties, he pointed out that the genesis of the trouble was to be found in thb large extra amount of freezing works space called for in the early days of the war. The sooner a great portion of this was written off the better. The country had over £26.000,00 invested in motor vehicles. If even £6,000,000 of that had been spent on topdressing in the last few years, the farmers would be in a much better position. There were also £12,000.000 and £13,000.000 more charged against the land in the shape of local body loans. Motor vehicles were useful but he considered a great many motor car owners used them wastefully for pleasure when their time could be more usefully employed on their farms or in their businessesAs' to deteriorated lands, the Only way to deal with this problem was to let it be occupied in large areas until brought into workable condition, when it might be useful in smaller areas. Again at present over 10,000 men were employed on public works, but how far could the department go in taking on new men? It was necessary to safeguard the permanent men in the department. Expenditure on various public buildings was being kept down to the lowest possible level in view of the conditions prevailing to-day. SINGAPORE BASE . Mr. E. J. Howard (Christchurch South) said he desired first to deal with the extraordinary speech they had heard from Mr T. M. Wilford (Hutt) on the subject of Singapore, and declared that he intended to ‘‘blow it kite high” Mr Howard said it seemed to him the member lor Hutt had jumped the claim of tile leader of the Opposition by getting in his Singapore speech in this debate, when he knew the Prime Minister had promised to give a day for discussion of this subject. He suggested that Mr. Wilford had worked off one of the most enter-

taining hoaxes known for years on both Parliament and the press. Mr. Wilford had stated that the Singapore base must be built hurriedly, because Japan was building cruisers rapidly. Mr. Wilford had spoken of secret clashes of Japan’s 21 demands on China in 1916, but these all appeared in a book on Chinese affairs (‘‘Fight for the Cause”), written by Putnam Veale. The member for Hutt had not told the House lie was quoting from the book when he said Japan s demands were more significant than those made by Austria on Serbia in 1914. Japan had done all she could to bring about friendliness with British people and Singapore was a menace to them. The six points in Japans' treaty with China mentioned by Mr. Wilford as secret were not secret at all. Mr, Wilford was putting over the House a stale story as new. He (Mr Wilford) was not giving this information to the world for the first time; it had been known to every man and woman who took the trouble to inform themselves upon the subject, and so ill-informed was the press of the Dominion that only one paper in the country had discovered that Mr. Wilford's new story was an old one.

Discussing the Budget, Mr Howard said we were borrowing to pay our just debts, but the amount on the estimates for public buildings was not too large, at least, not the £500,UOO for school buildings. Mr T. D. Burnett (I'emuka) discussing the high pastoral country in the South Island, which he described as the great asset of the State, which he also said had been bungled and blundered with until the last few years and the Dominion was suffering because of the depreciated carrying capacity as a result of this neglect. The improved tenure instituted by the present Govern, ment had, however, brought about a new spirit of hope amongst the settlers, who were rapidly improving their position. The adjournment of the debate was moved by Mr. F. N. Bartram (Grey Lynn), and the House rose at 11.25 p.m. until 2.30 p.m- to-morrow.