PARLIAMENT.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 1976, 18 November 1921, Page 6

PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Last Night. The House of Representatives met at 2.30 p.ra. Mr P. Eraser gave notice / of the intention to introduce the Shops and Offices Amendment Bill. 1 # THE WOOL SALES. , Replying to Mr G. Witty, Mr Massey said he regretted no settlement had yet been arrived at which would per-*-mit the Wellington wool sale to proceed. So far, no great harm had been done by the delay, as only about 5000 bales had arrived for sale, and that was only a small proportion of that which usually came to hand. He was, however, hopeful of a speedy and satisfactory settlement of the difficulty that was holding up the sale. DISABLED SOLDIERS. Replying to Mr E. Sullivan, Mr Massey said he had no intention of providing for increased pensions for disabled soldiers, widows and orphans until he had got the expenditure of the country well within its income. He was constantly asked to economise on one hand, and for increased expenditure on the other He could not do both, and he die not propose to increase the expenditure by a penny piece until the revenue balanced the expenditure, which he hoped would not be long delayed. CHRISTMAS DAY. ' Replying to Mr Burnett, Mr Massey said that, as was well known, Christmas Day fell on a Sunday. With that it was not jiroposed to interfere, as was done on a previous occasion. But the Government did propose to introduce a Bill which would make the Tuesday after Boxing Day a general holiday, so that the public would not be deprived of the fiisual quota of holidays. BUDGET DEBATE.

Continuing the debate on the Budget, Mr J. Craigie said that our .expenditure has increased by six millions over previous time?, and we had not yet reached the climax of the depression. He anticipated more difficult times next year, when the national income will have fallen considerably. An orgy of expenditure had set in with the period of high prices for our produce. The Government had not set an example of economy. They had indulged in inexcusable expenditure, and had gone about with a too open hand. This was a time for the exercise of rigid economy. There should be no frills indulged in by launching on big works. The people must be taught to live within their means. After all, adversity was not without its blessing. As a means of economising in the Public Service he advocated the amalgamating of the State lending departments, the receiving of money on deposit by the Advances Office, and the establishment of an insurance office 1« connection with that department, which was handling a great deal of property. Mr Massey: You must have been at the last Cabinet meeting. Mr Craigie remarked that he did not know he was anticipating anything, and he then procecdei;! to say that he saw little benefit in the Government housing scheme. It afforded littld relief, being merely a drop in the bucket. Our defence scheme and, the Department were too elaborate and expensive. All the high colonels should be dispensed with, and cadets and Boy Scouts should be retained as sufficient. The Tourist Department was also too expensive, and ought to be pruned down. There ought to be closer relations between the State and tho Bank of New Zealand. He hoped the Premier would set up the promised committee to go into the whole question of banking, because there was much in, connection with that subject needing ventilation. The Government should have conscript wealth on a graduated scale to the extent of thirty millions during the war That would have been fain and would have considerably relieved the country’s burden. The rebate given on the land tax was wrong. It was a gift to the rich man. To the poor man it meant nothing, and was doubtful if the country could afford the loss. Had it benefited the small farmer, he would have looked upon it more favourably. ' Mr S. G. Smith (Taranaki) deprecated the attempts on the part of Government supporters to characterise the speeches against the Budget as a waste of time. The Budget was surely a fit subject for discussion, and it was not the fault of the Opposition that they were not able to bestow upon it unstinted praise. In his opinion, the Budget was simply a printed chronicle of bluff and expediency. Discussing retrenchment, he asked who was behind this movement. He was afraid that there was a commercial ring in this country who could go to the Premier and demand certain things to be done. There had recently been a deputation of commercial men to and to them the Premier had disclosed more of the country’s business than he had disclosed to the representatives of the people. He blamed the Government for enticing people into the public service and then bringing retrenchment down upon- them. It was at least doubtful if much had been saved by tho hundreds of sackings from the Post and Telegraph Department. It simply threw the burden on the Superannuation Fund, and a huge expense had been incurred in making transfers. The Goverraent was claiming a saving of four millions, but they were creating untold hardship to do it. The Government was to a great extent responsible for the present position, and they should bear it themselves, and not throw it on the workers. He asked that the Government be courageous enough to introduce legislation which would reduce the cost of living to the working man. He deprecated the claims of tho Government that there had been much land settlement outside the soldiers settlements, and he regretted that the tariff afforded so little protection to industries. They had been told that the solution of their difficulties was more production But he was not going back to his district to tell his people to work harder simply for the benefit of tho people who had the ear of the Government. Mr R. W. Smith (Waimarino) com. plimented the Government on its action in importing large quantities of coal at a time when there was a shortage in the Dominion. When coal could not be procured within the Dominion, then it was- tho duty of the Government to get it elsewhere, and he was glad to see the manner in which tho Government had carried out that duty. With regard to the

present financial position, he thought the Premier was unwise in preserving an attitude of false optimism. It

woyld have been better if he had told the people plainly what the position \vas. Mr Massey: I have always done so. Mr Smith: And yet you objected to the farmers referring to it! Mr Massey: I objected to their running the country down, and I would do it again! Continuing, Mr Smith said he did not think the position had been fully disclosed. The fact was that things were "bluer” than ever, and from what he knew, he could not share the Premier's optimism. Tariff retrenchment and the marketing of primary products' were dealt with on the lines of previous opposition critics, the speaker contending that nothing but complete reconstruction of the country would put it right. Mr O. Hawken contended that during the past nine years there had been 27,382 subdivisions of land, which he thought was a very excellent record indeed —a better record than had been achieved by any previous Government. The prosecution of such a policy was the one thing which would get us out of our difliculties. It would make this Dominion what it should be —a country of small freeholders. Proceeding, he claimed that th® housing scheme of the Government had been much more successful than was generally supposed. Over eight millions had been expended by the Government on housing, and if there was any fault, to find in this connection, it was that the Government used the money of the Advances to Settlers Department for housing, thus diverting money from the settlers to the building of houses Moreover, most of this money was being spent in the towns, where only half the population was located, and it seemed to him that no houses were being built by private enterprise. The Government was doing all the building, and would soon overtake the requirements. Coming to the Budget, he said the policy was to tax wealth. The late Mr Seddon favoured taxation on a basis of wealth, paying one part, and the people at large three parts. Sir Joseph Ward favoured taxation on the basis of wealth, paying one part, or 6/8 in the f, and the people two parts, or 13/4 in the f. But this Budget based its taxation on wealth paying two parts and the people one part. It had been said tfiat the Government was the friend of the rich man, but it was rather hard on the rich man to have such a friend. He claimed that the Government was more the friend of the poor man than ever a Liberal party had been, and the Premier was the best friend the poor man eYer had in New, Zealand. Mr P. Masters, in discussing soldier settlement, said though it was not reasonable to expect every soldier to succeed, the Government was not altogether free from blame for some of the failures that had taken place. Some of the country was not suitable for inexperienced men, and the financial rest-ictions imposed upon them were unduly hard. The soldiers’ operations and their prospects were considerably hampered thereby. The Hon. D Guthrie: The conditions are not hard. They are only the usual ones required under such circumstances. Continuing, Mr Masters declared that * the soldiers were also being handicapped by the incompetency of Government officers, who purchased their stock. He then proceeded to put in a plea for the soldiers settled in the backblocks of Taranaki, contending that these men had more right to decent roads than people in the settled districts had a right to the railways running parallel with the road. He favoured moderate protection for industries, but condemned taxation on necessaries such as kerosene, which was the light of the backblocks settlers. The taxes on tea and tobacco were also denounced, but the worst tax of all was that on infants’ foods, which hitherto came in free. The Government’s financial position was evidently so bad that it was trying to catch the poor kid from the day he was born. They were making an attack on the cradle, yet.at the same time they were making concessions to the rich landowner in the shape of a rebate on the land tax. Mr J. Kellett contended that the Government were, on the showing of the member for Egmont (Mr Hawken) relying on the Liberal Government’s measure (Advances to Settlers) for the means to carry out the housing scheme. At the same time the Government had spent nothing like £8,000,000 on houses. The trouble was that the Government had no real scheme, and cxcep.t for the architect, there was not a practical man connected with it. The houses erected at iliramar were an object lesson in incompetency. The tariff brought down was a farmers’ tariff. It promised nothing for the townsman, and inasmuch as it gave no protection to industries, It would result in considerable unemployment, because industries would not be able to employ them. What was the use of agitating for cheap power for our factories, when there were going to be no factories?

Mr P. Fraser defended the coal miners from the charge of ‘‘go slow” made against them by the member for Waimarino. There had, he said, been no slacking in the industry of the miners, as the production per man since 1914 proved. Only those who understood coal-mining should criticise the miners, because the production of coal was greatly determined by the class of coal being hewn and the places from which it was being extracted. • Since 1914, seventy-three miners had been killed in the mines of New Zealand, most of these deaths being due to the tragedy at Hunntly—■ a tragedy due to the formation of a bogus union, which smashed every precaution necessary to the preservation of human life, and the graves of those men on the banks of the Waikato River should be a warning to members like the representative of Waimarino, who unthinkingly criticised the coal miners. The speaker deprecated indiscriminate retrenchment. He favoured State enterprises, and claimed that the right to work was the right of every man. Was the Government, then, content to let 3000 men go without work, and women and children live in sorrow and misery? Unfortunately, unemployment was being used by the Government as a lever to reduce wages. Mr W. T. Jennings questioned whether we were getting the right class of Immigrants from Britain. From what he saw in England we were not in every instance, and he suggested the need of greater precautions, such as Canada exercised. Land aggregation was going on in the country, and is, bools were being closed. This, he maintained, in spite of what tho Premier said. A reciprocal tariff should be arranged with Australia, and something should be done to better the conditions under which our produce was sold. He was sorry to say the greed which existed in New Zealand had created a prejudice against our produce, and one 1A« Manchester

firm had told him they were no longer going to rely on New Zealand butter, but were going to Belgium for it. He concluded by urging the Government to do something to dissipate the ignorance which prevailed in Am* erica concerning New Zealand, winch to Americans always appeared to be part of Australia. The adjournment of the debate was moved by Sir William Herries, and the House rose at 11.25 p.m.