PARLIAMENT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 245, 13 September 1935, Page 9

PARLIAMENT

TO-DAY’S SITTING. RELIEF RATES OF PAY. | A POINT EXPLAINED. i Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Sept. 13. The House of Representatives met at 10.30 a.m. Mr A. S. Richards asked Minister of Employment (Hon. S. G. Smith) if he would make immediate inquiries as to the reason why different rates of pay are allocated to men living apart from their wives m relief camps. Mr Smith, in reply, said he had inquired into the matter raised and his information was to the effect that the men concerned were at the time of their going to the country living apart from their wives and families and not contributing to . their support. These men went to camp as single men, but in order to assist their wives and families, many of whom were in difficult circumstances, the board had been paying them the proportion allowed in the married men’s allocations for wives and dependent children. The effect of tho board’s practice had been to assist the wives and children in cases where the husbands had been negligent of their obligations. EX-SOLDIERS’ MORTGAGES. Mr W. J- Broadfoot asked the Minister of Finance if soldier settlers’ mortgages were to be transferred to the Mortgage Corporation and would the Minister indicate, if such transfer were proposed, had he the right to recall any security or securities where special circumstances should be extended to an individual. Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, in reply, said it was provided that discharged soldier settlement mortgages shall be transferred to the corporation. There was, however, power to exclude any mortgage or class of mortgages from the transfer or subsequently recall any mortgage. All tho mortgages transferred were administered by the corporation as trustee for the State, which stood any loss involved. It was not proposed to force such a transfer in cases where the soldier settlers preferred to remain on the present basis. LABOUR’S PRICE PLAN. CRITICISED BY MR COBBE. Hon. J. G. Cobbe dealt largely with Labour’s guaranteed price scheme. He said it was quite evident that members of the Labour Party were at sixes and sevens as to how the scheme was to bo financed and carried out. No member on the Government side of the House wished to see the farmer getting sin unpayable price, but they did not wish to see him being bamboozled by promises with no security behind them. Mr Cobbe continued to criticise Labour’s financial proposals. He said they would make unpleasant reading for those with money in the savings bank or in banking institutions if banking were nationalised. It would become a plank in the platform of every political party and would become merely the plaything of politics and an instrument of bribery. _ The present, he said, was not the time to try experiments with currency and so hinder New Zealand’s return to prosperity. LABOUR MEMBER’S ALLEGATION Mr F. Jones said the Government during tho debate had not put forward one part of their policy. The House had had the Governor-General’s address, which was only window dressing, but not one Government member had said what they were going to put forward at the next election. All they had spoken of was guaranteed prices, the printing press and so on. He reviewed the policy of the Government to assist the farmer and said that, nevertheless, according to the Dairy Commission’s report, 50,000 of them were bankrupt. Members of the Opposition believed tho policy of the Labour Party would bring prosperity not only to the farmer, but to every other member of the community.