HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 18217, 3 October 1919, Page 7

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

TmRSVAx, Octobeb 2. AFTERNOON SITTING, i Tho House, met ait 2.30 p-m. FINANCIAL STATEMENT. The. debate on the Budget was resumed. Mr Isitt said that the Budget was no Pandora's box out of which wealth and comfort could be got for the asking, and it was no use the Laboor Party demanding larger pay and shorter hours unless they were prepared to preach thrift and endeavour to estab-' lish character amongst tho people, and so teach them to use the enhanced leisure and wages thus gained to their own advantage and the good of tho country. Mr Harris said that good administration, in conj unction with thrift, was essential if the country was to contiiiuo prosperous. The House adjourned at 5.30 pjn. EVENING SITTING. The House resu&aed at 7.30 p.m. Mr Semple said he regretted that the Budget did not contain practical proposals. Commission after commission iiad reported on the coal and gold mining industries time' af tor time, out their reports had been scheduled and their recommendations neglected. He referred to miners' phthisis and declared that while Mr Isitt had de- , nounced the Labour Party as disloyal, he (Mr Semple) had never heard tnat hon gentleman denounce tho slaughter made by this dread disease. Discussing the coal mining industry, he declined to accept any responsibility for the alleged " go-slow " policy. If the miners were, going slow they no doubt had good reason, but it was their duty, not his, to justify it. He admitted that the Hon W. D. S. MacDonald, when Minister,of Mines, had striven to minimise industrial unrest amongst the miners. He was' one of the few sympathetic men who had been Ministers of Mines. He always had been willing to discuss every grievance, and that was the best way to secure industrial peace. ■The speaker had permanently striven 'to preserve industrial peace. On the subject of profiteering the all-powerful National Government had done nothing when it had the opportunity. He urged the Government to take up some of the Industrial Committee's recommendations, put them into Bills, pass them this session, and so do something of a rational, even revolutionary, nature, so>as to secure production for the use of the people and not for the benefit of a few privileged individuals. Sir John Findlay said that the great trouble ,with much of our social legislation was that it was all designed to meet superficial effects and not root causes. Beneath- the trouble they had with the firemen who upset the running of steamers, beneath the trouble with the coal miners, there was a root cause. These were vital service» to the State, and the method of treating them must be reversed. They had hitherto regarded these businesses as things to be avoided. They must pay for work in proportion to its social value. This might raise the question of cost of production, but their view on the cost of production was under- » going a change, must take the human element into this calculation.

They did not want industries that created mpral and physical wrecks. Until they treated labour as something different from pigiron or a bag of potatoes they never would get industrial peace. Mr Wright criticised the Labour Party's doctrine that the means of production and distribution should be held in the interests of the workers. This lie said meant a doctrine of force, and the party Impede-that in the general smash-up some new heaven would arise out of tho wreck. Mr Ell said that tho Labour Party now ignored the constant efforts o 1 the Liberal Party to improve tho work ing conditions of the nunerß and all other classes of labour. ■ Mr Field (Nelson) said that the ex tremists of tho Labour Party wen largely an alien element, which gav< trouble all over the world. The debate was carried on by Messr Hunter, Poole, Anstey and Glover. At 1.10 a.m. Mr Talbot moved tladjournment of tho debate, and tr House rose until 2.30 p.m.