PARLIAMENT.

Mataura Ensign, 3 July 1914, Page 2

PARLIAMENT.

LEGISLATIVE COUNC3L. lIY ELKCTJiIC Tl:j,K(;i>al'H UOI'YBIIIHT. FEB UNITED* PHFIBB ASSOCIATION WELLINGTON, July 2. The Council met at 2.30 p.m. ' | MEMBERS' RKTLRKM EXT. A message from the Governor was re-r-f'i'Vfd to the effect that Hons. J. 1W (Wellington) and J. K. .]<?;,kinson (WoP Inigton), jiatl retired through effluxion of time. LAND AGENTS BILL. The Land Agents Bill was road a second! time, pro forma, and/ referred to the Statutes Revision Committee. MASTER, AND APPRENTICES. Hon. F. H. D. Bell (Leader of the Council) moved the second l reading of the Master and Apprentices Act Am-end'ment Bill. He warmly repudiated the suggestion that ;he Government- wished- to introduce child sla-vevv. It .wanted to give city hoys. from England an opportunity to start a, now life m a new dominion.Hon. C. H. Mills (Wellington) said that he would do all lie could to assist a system which would, encourage the immigration of ho-vs. Lads of 15 or 1G years of ago needed some restraint. ■ Hon. J. Ban- (Canterbury) said that .Laibor had watched tli-o movement to see that there was- not any sinister attempt to flood the country with cheap labor. ' Hon. J. T. Paul (Otago) said lie l was pi'fpared to help to put" through, the Bui, which was carefully drawn u,p. -Sir Wm. Hall-Jones found nothing m the measure to take exception to. 4i tvi> '', olles (Otago) approved of tiie Bill, and congratulated the Minister >n atteniipting to get hoys. Hon. W. C. F. Carncross (Taranaki) said that the Bill was a good one. They wanted boys for country work. ADJOURNMENT, Hie Council adjourned at 5 p.m. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. The House met at 2.30 p.m. PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION. Mr W. A. Veitch (Wa-nganui) introC i i-ni . Proportional Representation and Effective Voting Bill. He explained that I lie Government was committed to the principle of proportional; representation- in the Legislative Council, and if it was good enough for that body wlw did it not apply it to the popular Chamber, unless it was afraid of it? Mr J. McCombs (Lyttelton) on rising to make -his maiden speech received «t cordial reception. He said he wa.nted to see all restrictions removed from the just representation of Labor and the House elected on a- basis that would secure not majority representation but majority rule. He quoted the figures of last eleJt'on to show that the Massey party had 367,000 votes polled against it and only 130.000 in its favor. It was, therefore, in a minority in the country. The House should be a true reflection of the minds of the people—a m:n;ature of t-he people-—and for that reason it should pass the Bill introduced bv Mr Veitch. The Bill was read a first time. NAPIER. HARBOR. BOARD BILL. • The Napier Harbor Board Empowering and Loan Bill (Mr H. M. Campbell, Hawke's Bay) was read a first time. PUBLIC DEBT EXTINCTION. The Minister for Finance (Hon. Jas. Allen) laid on the table a return shovving the operations of the Public Debt Extinction Act of 1910. Mr .G. W. Russell (Avon) congratulated the House and the country upon the satisfactory working of the Act. The Prime ' Minister and Minister for Finance had ridiculed the Act when it was passed, and had described it as a farce. The Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. W. F. Massey) contended that the Act was not the magnificent thing that the member for Avon made out. He proceeded to describe the seizure of the' sinking funds under the Act, and the best that could be said for it was that it was do : ng no harm. Sir Joseoh Ward (Leader of the Opposition) defended the Act, and said that he did -not believe that when the people understood the many benefits of this legislation they would' ever -permit its repeal. The financial position of the country had never deserved the scathing criticism levelled against it by the : party in power. The real difficulty of the present Government in. the matter of finance was the falling off in the deposits in the Post Office Savings Banks. Mr Allen had £1,400,000 less to work on than he (Sir Joseph Ward) had, and ! no financier could do as well with that ' amount less to work on as one who had it to operate with. Instead of honestly acknowledging the real source of - the difficulty ho sought to cast all the " blame on him. !

Hon. .T. Allen said that ho took the full responsibility for the issue of the, prospectus issued in London. He did' not agree now that the surpluses enumerated in that prbapectus were true surpluses, inasmuch as the cash sales for land 'were included in them, and that was not soundi finance. Ho quoted 'Hansard' to ehow that Sir Joseph Ward was not always in favor of the sinking fund, and ho also 1 argued that if it was a® Sir Joseph Ward stated, he had that £1,400,000 less to work on, tha.il was a complete explanation why he was not able to lend settlers ,iU the money they wanted, and on the top of that he had to discharge commitments left by his predecessors. ADDRESS-IN-REPLY. The' debate oh the Address-iiirßoply was resumed by Mr J. A. Young (Waikato) who reviewed the circumstances which led to tho Massey Tarty coming into power. He defended the action of those inomibers who were elected to support iSiil Joseph Ward, 'but who voted against tho Mackenzie Ministry, as the question of supporting that Cabinet was never 'before the country. He traversed the speech delivered by Sir Joseph Ward at Hamilton, and generally sup■ported the policy of the Government. THE 'EVENING SESSION. The.House resumed at 7.30 p.m. Referring to finance, Mr T. K. Sidey (Dunedin South) said that the Consolidated Fund was the real barometer of the country's prosperity. It was in a splendid position when the Government cam© into power—a sterling testimony to the careful administration of the : Liberals—and the Government .liad | never dared criticise that fund. All •its criticism had been levelled against the Public Works Fund in its relation to the Consolidated Fund. He claimed that the Liberals were not the first to i apply the proceeds of land sales to the Consolidated Fund and taking credit, for them in surpluses. He quoted the opinion of Hon. John Ballance in favor; of the system and defied the Minister to prove that had 1 any other system been in vogue it would have made any difference to the Liberal surpluses. Mr F. Mancler (Marsden) justified the borrowing policy of the Government as necessary for the development of' the country. In a- growing country an increase of expenditure was inevitable and tha' was tho best reply to those who critic: "d the administration of the. Government. Tho 'graduated tax had been increased and another turn of the screw would lie given if necessary later on. Large landowners were reading Alio .

signs oi tli(i times and cutting ui) their holdings and dist ributitig them among smaller (settlers. Tin- laud loan had been liberalised Ivy the (iovenimenc and a great step forward had been; taken in the matter of opening up the gum lands of the North for fruitgrowing purposes. Mr J. Payne (Grey Lynn") sait! that the feeling in the country undoubtedly showed that the Massey Government had notion to unit. He attacked the methods of the Government as a disgrace to tile political life of that party, and said! that a leader with a long and honorable record could not be dejxjsed without resort to such dishonest methods as those adopted ibv the Reform Party. All that had been said about the Liberals was proved false to the last stile. Mr H. -J.'H. iDkey (Taranaki) contended that the -presence of the- Government that- night showed the feeling of the people. Mr -Massey liad 1 110 fear of notice to quit. To increase the screw of the land tax would affect small settlers, wli'o werei tlie Ibackbone of the country. The Government's land policywas the most liberal ever enjoyed by the country. 'ADJOURNMENT. The dcibate wn« adjourned on the notice of Mr A. E. Glover (Auckland Central), and the llou.se rose at 11.12 p.m.