HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVII, Issue 156, 4 July 1913, Page 2

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

The House met at 2.30 p.m

DEFENCE ACT.

Replying to a question by Mr Isitt, The Hon. Mr ALLEN said that he proposed to set up a committee to go into the whole question of religious and other objections to comply with the Defence Act. ADDRESS-IN-REPLY.

"'The Hon. Mr FRASER resumed the i debate on the Address-in-Reply. In , reply to Mr MacDona^d he quoted figures showing the expenditure on the jNfarth Island lines up to Marehi ! 31st, which he claimed was quite ade- < quate. On no single occasion had, he | said, there been not enough money to , -carry out the works authorised. What he now said was that he. refused to commit himself to new expenditure , until he knew what funds were avail- , able. Ke was pursuing a prudent course,' and he proposed to continue -to do so. He thought that there ought to be a more rigid inspection of public works. He favored the small contract system as against the cooperative. He was prepared to assist i the workers by providing tools on small payments which would be deducted from the wages. i Mr G. W. RUSSELL (Avon) contended that the Government had yet to acquire the confidence, of the country. On the election figures the Government was in a minority of 114,009, The Speech was the poorest ever put before the country. The policy did not differ from the Liberals except in j the matters of the Public Service Act, the freehold tenure, and the Upper,* House reform. Everything else the , Government had condemned when in Opposition. He enumerated instances where the Government had not fill- , filled its election pledges. He declared that political favor in the pub- i lie service was as rife as ever. The . I/iberals were accused of putting poli- J tioal rejects into the Council, but j four out of five of the recent appointments were gentlemen rejected at the j polls. The Government failed to re- j cognise or. acknowledge Sir Joseph i Ward's services in the gift of the war- J ship. Economy had not been observed, but the 'Government had spent £50,000 less this year on roads and bridges than was spent last year, and the money had gone on automatic telephones. The Hon. Mr ALLEN, in reply to Mr Russell, said that the time had come when the Opposition would have to say whether they were in favor of .short-dated debentures or long-dated loans. The short-dated debentures were in the hands of speculators who would not convert them, and they would have to be raised again, repeating all the costs and expenses incidental to raising. Such a process was ruinous to the finance of the country.. The underwriter was entitled to make a profit out of the raising of the recent loan, because there was rib way of evading him.. The, money had i,o be got, and he was glad that the underwriters made a profit. He was also glad that they unloaded on to legitimate investors a fair share of the loan within two months. He compared other countries' loans with New Zealand figures, in favor of the latter. The Government was Liberal. It was in power because' it' had the country behind it. He defended the Legislative Council appointments. He said that local government • would be adequately dealt with in due course. Aggregation of land had been going on during the administration of the late Government, and not one acre had been aggregated under the present Government's legislation. On the contrary it had brought down effective 'legislation regarding the holdings. Referring to the Dreadnought he admitted that they had criticised the gift, only because of the manner in which it was given. He emphatically denied the misleading •statements made regarding the exneditionary force. Such a force must be voluntary. Full particulars of the offer would he placed before the House in the defence report. The House could^ rest assured that it had been committed to nothing. He was not in a position to disclose all the facts of the million loan to the House, but he would do so to the Public Accounts Committee: but he would say that the loan was long-dated and the most successful raised for the Dominion in recent years. He warmly defended the Government against the r-liarges of maladministration in the Grey election. The Hon. Mr BUDDO commented on the professedly non-borrowing Government borrowing £3,600,000 in

three months. He considered that the Hon.. Mr Allen's attitude on the expeditionary force question was much more high-handed than Sir Joseph Ward's suggestion to the Imperial Government that=jfew Zealand, may contribute a Dreadnought >;-iowards the Empire defence. JEJe g^e any suggestion that political influ^njee had pervaded the $Yard , Government's administration^of the'rpiiblicf. service an absolute denial. Touchingon defence' matters he said that our volunteer system was a failure, and the system languished because it was behind the times. That was why the Ward Government had brought forward the present system, and he stood by the present Act. He strongly opposed any expeditionary force, as bein f . quite impracticable. Mr G. M. THOMSON (Dunedin North) said that the Speech was in marked contrast to speeches put into the Governors hands in previous years. There was an absence of high faluting language. It was businesslike, and made no impossible promises. He regretted to see, however, that no reference was made in the Speech to the great question of education, and he was sorry that.the Minister did not intend to do anything in that direction this year. The expeditionary' force spoken of by the Minister was to be purely voluntary, and we had to be in a position to properly equip them if ever we should be called upon to send them out. He advocated the placing of all Government scientific departments under one head, who would be known as the Minister-in-Charge ■of Scientific Affairs. Science had' a most important place in our industries, especially in agriculture, and the time would come when the Agricultural Department would want remodelling. At the present time it was an Augean stable, which wanted clearing out. Mr G. W. FORBES (Hurunui) moved the adjournment at 4.25 p.m., and the House rose.