Political Palaver

NZ Truth, Issue 579, 22 July 1916, Page 8

Political Palaver

Paragraphs Pertaining

(By "X.M.P.")

For yet another week the Falman ? s Finance Bill ha 3 been worming its tortured and torturing way through the House. On Friday, 14th inst., Sir Joseph Ward moved the third reading of the much masticated measure. Ol course, m moving "that the Bill be now read a third time," the Finance Minister pointed to "the Dominion's strong financial position." He didn't stop to explain to members at what a price that present day "strong financial position" was being bought; but "X.M.P." cannot help comparing it to the rich man's heir m the act of sow- i Ing his wild oats, and of the aftermath that is sure to follow. Sir Joseph went on to show that this country, despite Its great indebtedness, from the point of view of its assets, and its' productiveness was not the least of these, was the strongest of any. He particularly emphasised the fact that New Zealand was the safest country m the world to invest m. His actual words were: . From the point of 'view of the . Investor it is one of the safest countries m the world. Which is most encouraging information for the investor. Sir Joseph did not stop to analyse his words. Perhaps he didn't want to. It cannot be that he. didn't know that what one can read into the sentence quoted is more far-reaching than the words themselves. If New Zealand is the safest or "one of the safest" countries to invest m, then it must be a country, despite the hypocritical hoot-hunt-ers' henchmen's howling against the excessive demands of the workers, In which the man with money to invest can get a greater and speedier return on such investments than he ■would m most other lands. And this m face of all our "Socialist" legislation, and Red Fed. agitators, and our, sabotage propagators! Thanks, Sir Joseph, • ■•■--.•::. • The Finance Minister m dealing with the raising of the local war loan, showed that the old parliamentary hand had been at work m drafting the terms upon which such loan would be raised. It will be remembered that In dealing with the question of providing land for' returned soldiers Mr. Massey proposed that the Government should have power to buy land and pay for it, m whole or m part, with debentures bearing interest at five per cent, free from Income tax. At the time the Bill was introduced, members took great exception to the free from income tax provision, and Mr. Massey said his departmental experts said the clause was essential to the success of the measure, and he would; rather withdraw the Bill than drop the clause. Members, however, wero not to be buncoed Into withdrawing their opposition to such an iniqitous proposal an.d persisted to demand Its delution. Next day; the Prime Minister intimated that his "experts" now asBured him that the clause objected to didn't much matter; and he would therefore meet the wishes of the Pousse by dropping it. And now we find this same . unprincipled principle re-introduced In the. proposed local war loan, the only difference being that the interest has been fixed at four-and-a-half, Instead of five, per cent. This ten Vroberto" may be taken as Fat's concession to those who successfully opposed the same proposal when introduced to the Returned Soldiers' Land for Settlement Bill. Tom Wilford, who sat watching tho Finance Minister Uk<> a cat watching a mouse, catechetically criticised Sir Joseph and led that -money magician Into the quagmire of evasion and ineffective elusion. The reason, said Sir Joseph, why the Government could not fix the rate of" Interest at five /per cent, without remission of income tax, was because if It did so. then it would have to permit local bodies* to borrow at six per cent. What about sophistry! It five per cent, would .mean six per cent, m the one case, then 4# per cent, plus remission ot Income tax, which to the large investor Is equnl to another one per cent., at least, ought to mean slx-and-a-halt per cent, m the other. Tom Wilford, when his opportunity, came, told the Houho that ho was not convinced that this proposal to remit income tax came from any other source than the managers of tho banks and other financial institutions. These were the real lnBplrors of the proposal, and for all Sir Joseph had said, he was still of opinion that it was so framed to give the fat-man a better and ever bettering chance of growing richer and ever more rich. He did not believe m men, who had money to burn; being allowed to "take down" the country m thta way. It was worse still if Parliament was going to provide them with easy facilities to do so! ••• . . > Among the members who immediately followed Wilford, McCallum played tho llck-fud : Wilkinson protested against the evident desire of Mr. Wilford to upset the existing state of things [what a calamity l .] and to conflscato money; If this was proposed people would take tholr money out of the banks and bury it In the garden; when the State went to the banks for It It wouldn't bo there, "It Isn't there now!" interjected the pungent Payne, and tho Square Stealers laughed. « • • Cralglo. tho Burnalan from Timaru, pointed to tho growing "free deposits" m tho banks and asked why should not the nation have the uso of that money Instead of -the banks, who made a profit out of it without paying j anything themselves for tho uso of it j Ho declared that, while ho had •oarched for an excuse foe tho Minister of Finance, ho was forced to conclude that thoro was none. Tho whole measure was at fault because it did not possess a scientific foundation. Ho had no patience with thoso who wero clamoring for consideration for tho«e men who had started now bustnoßSCH nhortly boforo or slnco war be- j gran. Such men, ho hold, wore not entitled to special consideration. Tho mon omiUod to spoclal consideration woro tho young men, many of them after years of study, who were Just at the outset of tholr careers when tho war broke out, many of thorn with moat excellent prospects, who had given up all to follow tho Hag. Theao wort! tha men he wished to «co receive whatever special consideration It woo j In tho power of tho CJovwrnmont or j tho country to show, not the men. old »ml young,, who had stayed behind to take advantage of tho conditions created by thts war of making tholr own marble good, financially or otherwise, • * * Dr. Newman questioned tho Government's power to keep down Interest. He waM of opinion that. If tho Government could not (rat the uso of the "frwt deposit*" m tho banks, then the banks ouffh*. to ba made to pay interest on their daily balances. It wan dono In Scotland, why hot In Now Zo&l&nd? Walkftto Young, another Square Dealer, followed Dr. N«wman'n oxnraplo and urged tho doepolllnir ot tho man who ted «on»«thlng to bo despoiled 01, and to 4omsnd6d to know why a tax should

be demanded m the case of land-de-bentures and not m the case of war debentures. It was not only illogical, it was unjust • • ♦ After the two Labor members, Walker and Payne* had "spoke" their pieces, Mr. Wright rose to inform the House of the sensitiveness of capital. He didn't know much about banking("That's evident," from the Labor benches.) but he was certain that if the people who owned those twenty millions of free deposits were to go and ask for their money "to-morrow morning: they would get it, every penny! and another! • *.■•■'■■• Then Jamsle McCombs, the Labor lightweight, from Lyttelton, got agoing and very soon he showed that the ignorance of economics general among Prohibitionists has, like all rules, its exception. He sarcastically referred to the Bill as a colossal BUI. ' "X.M.P." expected to hear him designate it as a colossal failure, but he left that to be inferred, and m about ten or fifteen minutes he gave a speech which was crammed, rammed and jammed with forceful facts, emphasised by vouched-for fignires that left the special pleading of the supporters of the Bill without a tatter to hide the nakedness of their arguments. His figures m relation to the cost of living showed the hollowness of the claim put forth by apologists for the Government that it really had done something for the people m the way of keeping down prices. There was nothing spectacular about his address, but it was one of those speeches that tell, and the outstanding facts of which men carry away with them m spite of themselves. .■•'.•-••#■ • Pretty Pearce, of Patea, followed and he set out to'Bhow that the Finance Minister and the officers of his department could not calculate correctly and he demonstrated to his own satisfaction that a tax which Sir Joseph said would yield £ 97,000, would m reality bring m £1,069,416. ' Really, Sir Joseph must pray "save me from my friends." Can it be that the Wizard of Finance is to be pulled from his pedestal, not by a representative of the proletarian plugs, but by Square Deal Pearce from Patea? j ■ # ■ i•■ • . . • "Putty" Webb then treated the House to a pithy and pointed outburst, a little incoherent and hysterical at times, but, nevertheless, well-worth having been delivered. The member for Grey spoke somewhat rashly but his rashness did credit to his heart, if not to his head, m that it was -the outcome of deep feeling and intense earnestness, and not a few members of the House deserved the castigation he gave them and the .class they represent and barrack for. The ,would-be v ironical Isitt referred to Pat's speech as a conglomeration of "silly conceit and arrogance," and made it a tag on which to hang a bitter attack on the Labor men m the House. • • • Owing to several of the Ministers being confined to their homes ill, the House did not meet till Tuesday evening. The chief incident of the sitting was the suspension of Payne, which Is dealt with m another part of this issue. "X.M.P." would have liked to have dealt 'fully with the juggling of Sir Joseph Ward m reply to Mr. Wilford, and to have exposed fully how the artful one twisted the statements of the member for Hutt out of all resembalance to their original meaning. WiU ford's remarks concerning the putting back into the bill the^orlginal clause dealing with the taxation of gold mine profits were heartily endorsed by the gathering m the public gallery, despite Sir Joseph's assurance that the gold mine owners had asked that it be put back though at the time they were aware that its deletion would benelit them 'to the extent of thousands" of pounds. The suggestion that gold mining companies were public phllantrophlsts was more than Mr. Wilford, and a few others could "bolt at one bit." ,'. ■ _ i