FINANCIAL DEBATE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 6269, 24 July 1907, Page 5

FINANCIAL DEBATE

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES THE GOVERNMENT'S PROGRAMME. OPPOSITION CRITICISM. MINISTER OF LANES IN REPLY. The debate on the Financial Statement was commenced, last night in the House ; of Representatives. Mr Massey, loader of the Opposition, said the statement covered a good deal of ground, and included many things which would more properly have been referred to in the Speech from the Throne. He reminded members of the long struggle he had maintained to secure the reform in the auditing of public accounts. It had been opposed by the Government for years, but now there had been a right-about-face, and the proposals had- become law. So, too, with the sinking fund, which the Opposition Rad’advocated for years.. This had now become law. The Opposition had supported the encouragement of thrift by means of national annuities, and the Government had adopted the principle, le hoped this session to see it become law. There was still a reform to push through, that ’of preventing borrowed money being used for maintenance of roads. Advocates of workers 7 ' dwellings would recollect that ho (Mr Massey) moved the proposal as an amendment to the Advances to Settlers Act, and 'that was the reason why it was brought down in the form it now stood on the statute book.

“THE BLACK FLAG OP LEASEHOLD.” “Then I come.to the land question," continued Mr Massey. (Chorus of “Oh's" and laughter.); What a change had come over the spirit of the scene I It was just a year ago since.the Minister of Lands laid his proposals' before Parliament, when the flag, which was now at halfmast, the black flag of leasehold—(laughter) —was hoisted., By including clauses which made the freehold possible, by admitting that the option to purchase should remain in connection with those lands which were not intended to he set apart as endowments, bv admitting that Crown tenants under the lease-in-per-potuity tenure should be given the option to purchase, the Government had,admitted that the . Opposition was right, and that they were wrong. He knew that the conditions attaching to the Tatter proposal were-unjust, unfair, and unworkable—and he believed they were intended to ’ be unworkable —but in face of the facts he had mentioned " he thought no one ‘would dispute that no Parliamentary Opposition over stood in a better position than his Majesty's Opposition to-day. ,A member: Long may they live like it 1 i (Laughter.) . ', Mr Masseyrsaid that small as were their number, they hadTnfluenced the legislation for the country's good in a way ' which was-never done by any other set of men under .similar circumstances. He did not think it would be denied tbat the honours rested with the party which had stood' ,up vfor years for the freehold. , .-■■-? , , A VICTORY CLAIMED,

Speaking ior'himself, he would have preferred lighting out' the issue on last year's -bill, and fighting it out to a finish. There was very little satisfaction in'a victory over an opponent who ran away before the first shot was fired, even though the\ opponent took up another position ,on dinerent ground,. :Xt reminded him of the story "of an American colonel who went out shooting an opossum.. lie found his opossum and pointed the gun at it, but before ho fired the opossum cried "Hold on, colonel, 1/m coming donm;’^'(Laughter.) The Government's proposals bad mystified many people who believed in tfie freehold. About tho endowments, ho ventuied to say-there was not a single man in the House, and there were very few people in the country, who did not understand that the endowment proposals wero.tfie veriest excuiao to enable .the Government to nationalise so many million acres of Crown land of the colony. .They wbuld be of very little use for the purposes for which they were intended, and it would be a-sorry day for this country if education and' old-age pensions were dependent upop. tho rents from . those lands. He contended that there were many instances where Tand endowments proved to be a failure. 'Phis was the case in regard to Otago University, which had to seek Parliamentary assistance in ■ regard to ite endowments. THE OPPOSITION ATTITUDE. Ho did not intend to discuss the proposals im. detail at. that stage, but he would say this, that they would accept the Government proposals so far:; as they went in the direction. which his party had indicated, but not one inch mrtner, and they intended to contend just as strenuously and vigorously for the principles they had, advocated. In connection with t fie land question, the oovurmuent required watching very carefully, on account of the socialistic and single-tax influences in the Cabinet. (Laughter.) These influences were intended to keep a man and bis descendants from ever becoming Independent, politically or otherwise. VVhat the Opposition wanted was. that good settlers should have every incentive to industry, and conditions which made for independence, and on the other hand they wanted to get the State out of the bad bargain it entered into years ago with'the lease-in-perpetuity tenants. The policy of; the Opposition waS simply the option ofv the freehold and closer settlement, without doing an injustice to anyone. When the people of this country brought a little .more political pressure to bear tha. gentlemen sitting on the Treasury benches wopld be ready to swallow tho policy of the ; Opposition as a whole; as ready as they were to swallow part of it the other night. ' ' POSITION OP MINISTERS. Timo was when there .were statesmen at the head of affairs in this country, who laid their proposals before the i>eople, and if they were not acceptable the ministers walked off the platform, as they should have done in this case. When the Minister of Lands made the statement last year, ‘T tell the hon. gentleman honestly, and not in a political sense, that we'ro going to stand by our guus, and will, if necessary, go down with them—and in the twinkling of an eyfi/' he admitted that whilst ho did not believe other parts of the hon. gentleman's speech, that part-appealed to him, and his opinion of the Minister of Lands went up 50 per cent. He thought here, after all, was a foeman worthy of one’s steel, with whom it would be a pleasure to cross swords, a man who would restore the reputation, of his clan; but he was very much disappointed. He (Mr Massey) had expressed tne opinion in tho House that there was only one way to give tho freehold to the man who held a lease-in-perpetuity equitably, and that was at the original value. That statement had been received with a grossly misleading cry by people opposed to the Opposition's proposals, who interpreted them as meaning that they proposed to give away millions of the State's money. He .(Mr Massey) took up this attitude: He was quite willing to have this matter referred to an actuarial valuation. Seeing that the lease was practically for a thousand years, that the improvements belonged to the tenant, and the goodwill to the tenant, he ventured to say that under an actuarial investigation they would get back to the original value. That was tho proper attitude ■of tho State to the tenant of tho Crown under the lease-in-perpetuity.

TOWN v. COUNTRY. The whole policy of the Government had .been to set town against country and

country against town, to benefit th© town , at tno expense of the country. (“No.** “No,"} Let him remind tnem of the limitation proposals of last year. If these Had been agreed to, the securities m tno cities and towns would have remained gilt-edged, whilst the securities in the country would have been considerably aep.eoiauja. in regard to adviinces to workers .in the country, was It . uuc a tact that nearly tn© wnoi© of th© uoveramout party ■ xoaowecl tne premier uiio the ioouy, ana refused to the working man in me country th© same concessions taut were now granted Co workers in the .towns? Under th© system of , giaauaLcd taxation proposed, business premises in the city would bo exempt, and instead the homestead in the country wua taxed. Ti’ho tendency on the part oi tne government to make th© man tu tno countiy carry iho heavy load was not to be wondered at when they considered the personnel of the Governmentmere was not a member of th© Government able to sympathise with the man on tho land. The Colonial Secretary, non. Dr Findlay, hud issued a pampmet tnat might be called “A. Plea for bociuUsm.'* It was supposed to be a reply to Mr Massey, nr Findlay did not deny that ho was a Socialist by any

means, out defined Socialism as assistance given by the Stale to the individual. The h’abian Society, which was supposed to be an authority, defined the object of Socialism tie “doing away with private property in land and private ownership of capital*" -What a confusion between the two interpretations. It would be impossible to that the policy of the Government was Socialistic, in view bf'the fact that last “year's -bill proposed to mako private ownership of land impossible over a huge area.' Thaf was the very essence of SocialismLAND NATIONALISATIONUnder the Land for Settlements Actth* lands of this country were being'nationalised at the rate of .£500,000 a year,'and the Government hod already - nationalised .£5,000,000 worth of land in this way. Tlie Opposition supported the land for settlement policy, not in the direction of nationalising the land, but .in the direction making for closer settlement. The whole drift of the Colonial Secre* tary's remarks went to show that the prosperity of this color.y was due to the Socialistic policy of the Government, but what of the prosperity due to the refrigerating..machine, and our exports? Jt was due to individual effort that wo were so prosperous, and not to the Government, whose policy was to rob their follow-men of their birthright. The Government's tariff ,'proposals contained anomalies that would startle the people in many cases, for by these proposals the wealthy man escaped and the poor man paid. Ho could not understand the principle ujjon which the tariff had been framed —it was neither frectrade nor protection, but framed in* the ‘ interest# of people who happened to have’ 1 influence with the Governmentof the day* (Applause.) ; r .a.v-’