PRODUCTION CLAIM

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 227, 24 August 1945, Page 6

PRODUCTION CLAIM

MINISTER’S FIGURES

BUDGET DEBATE

(Press Assn.) WELLINGTON, Aug. 24 continuing the iiutlget donate in tile House of Bepresentuiaves' today, tne -Minister of Agriculture (Mr itooerls; Oulul willl dairy production. The Hairy Hoard's ngurcs, lie said, represented only aoouc »u per cent, of tne actual production oi biictoriat. He had figures tailing into account town mint supply and niilK used h.y tne actual producers, UoUi lor themselves and lor tne leeding of calves, and these snowed tnat tne pre-war average per cow was 23/lb butterfat. 'llie average for tne tne war years was iMSiU and this year it was calculated at 2551 b.

Opposition members were always complaining tlmt primary production was at a standstill, hue the sheep population had increased. The position lCgarding breeding cows for beef production Was good, ami although dairy herds liad declined during tne war they cou'id be restored vvitnm a few years.

Mr Boberts went on to discuss the percentage of primary products scut to the forces in the Pacific. He said lie had been interested to learn irom a colleague that the timber used in tile containers lor tnat purpose equalled 2Udd houses, air Boberts said that, while the Government would very much have hlied to have used that timber lor housing, iouu hud to be sent to the troops. Mr \v. Sullivan (Nat., Bay of Plenty) : But it, was not building timber.

The Commissioner of State Forests (Mr Skinner): riltcen million loot of budding timuer goes into containers every year. Mr F. \V. Doidgc (Nat., Tauranga) : Wiiy, when we have pinus insignis and taw a ‘i

Mr Roberts said members of the Opposition did not realise what was involved by war requirements. “SHOCKING WASTE.”

Mr W. J. Po'lson (Nat., Stratford) said the Minister had made a most extraordinary statement. In a country so greatiy m need oi housing 15,0014,01)0 feet of building timber was being exported every year in the form of eases. Mr Poison said he was a timber miller. That was a shocking and senseless waste oi timber. Any reasonably managed mill vvouid never use building timber lor containers. Waste ends, sap timber, and timber that vvouid otherwise bo

wasted were used, if building timber was being used it showed little discretion on the part of either the Minister of Agriculture or the Minister in charge of forests. Mr Poison said the Minister’s figures on dairy production were not only opposed to the .Dairy Board’s figures, but also to tile figures of his own deipartment. The Minister was suggesting that tlie few extra cows used lor town 'supply had increased butterfat production by 1U per cent. The Minister had [boasted about the increase in sheep production at the expense of dairy production at a time when 12,OOU,OOi) bales of wool were [filed up. in 1938 'the value of the wool exported irom New Zealand was £12,000,990 sterling; today it was £22,000,000, and the indifference of the Government to that state of affairs was not understandable. Europe needed wool, but was unable to pay for it, and the British woollen mills were not buying stocks because of the present price. The vvoolgrowers should be told vvliat the future prospects were, but the Minister boasted o! wool production while dairy production declined.

SOCIALISM AND BANKING

Mr Poison, discussing the taking over of the Bank of New Zealand, said many people who were normally opposed to monopolies were prepared to support a State monopoly of banking, of credit and currency, and of thenuse. It was a monopoly which, properly handled, might be suitable for lli.s country, but as far as the Government was concerned it was a method of retaining power —a sort of “Huey Long” method of keeping control and crushing the many private enterprises built up over a period of years. The Government’s proposals- meant that something was being done under the guise of humanitarian legislation while the war gave an opportunity, but it was of a dangerous character, because, unless hanking were handled entirely impersonally by a group of men who were olficers with no nxe whatever to grind, the consequences vvouid be serious. Banking rcquiied to be carried out for the good of the State and for the benefit of the whole community by men who were specialists in their work. If it were handed over to the politicians it vvouid have serious eflccts on the future of all of US, particularly of the next generation of New Zealanders. The debate was interrupted at 1 o’clock.