THE BIG POW WOW

NZ Truth, Issue 882, 21 October 1922, Page 6

THE BIG POW WOW

Pertinent and Impertinent Palaver

TAXATION.

I Wednesday was not a particularly [bright day, for members got busy with a lot of fool questions about chicken feed and wild swans and fencing iron and Other domestic requirements and cut out an hour ox' two over these momentous matters before tackling the Land and Income Tax Amendment Bill, which proposes to lift the supertax from incomes and reduce the Land Tax to 10 per cent., at a cost of nearly £1,000,000 to a country which appears to have money to burn. Members talked away anent the need for taxation reduction, but nobody seemed to have the faintest idea of how it was to be reduced without further taxation to meet the falling revenue due to reduced taxation. However, they, stayed by Bill and the Bill and the Gordian knot was still uncut when the second reading was carried. BREAD OR BED. Such a fuss as there was m the duek 1 yard at the end of the iweek, when ig— ' noring all little matters of immediate interest to the country, seventy members sat down deliberately to discuss the Daylight Baking Bill. The oppor- < tunity drose over a recommendation from tne Committee to which the Bill had been referred that it be not air lowed to proceed. It was a doughy protest, that the supporters of the Bill put m,, and quite lacking m yeast. The gravamen of the objection to the bakers having to rise early and work such unholy hours as^from 4 a.m. to mid-day— -a whole eight hours day — lay m the suggestion that the ■ bread would rise quite as early if the bakers hadn't to. The House gravely discussed this proposition, tout the toast brigade was soon blown out, and the new-breaders for breakfast sat back .with complacent hands folded across their digestions, for the Bill was finally not allowed to proceed, and bakers and, bread will continue to rise early, as usual. , i ! PUSHING THE BARROW. The stale bread having been dumped into the midden of mixed misplacements, the House turned to a more meaty course — though second day meat at that — and cogitated long and earnestly m Committee on the Land and Income Tax Amendment Bill. It dearly loves to talk money, like the old lady who loved to mouth "Mesopotamia," or on the old principle of pushing a hungry nose against the steaming window of shop. It never got past tire window, but resigned itself to accepting at face value — and not for I personal satisfaction — the succulent joints Bill had displayed m the foreI front of his wares. Then it accepted | the Prime Minister's concessions, sat upon squealing Labor as Alice "sat on the dormouse, and put the Bill through Committee amid a whispered prayer of thankfulness, which started with "One day's march nearer home." SCANDALOUS NIGGARDLINESS. Thet Workers' Compensation Bill, which is mainly a consolidating measure, offering only a stone m place of the bread the workers are clamouring for, went through the chaff-cutter of alleged serious consideration, but the wheels of the machine evidently .were not working, for the straw came out as it .went m, and there was not even a resultant of decent chaff. Tom Wilford — let the workers remember — put m a very strong protest against £1 a week being regarded as sufficient compensation for an injured workman's medical expenses, but the Reform Government, which is the dear, dependable, sympathetic friend of the people, stood adamant against any increase. Mothers and wives, as well as sisters, sweethearts and a-unts, would do '.well to remember this scandalous niggardliness at election time. • ~ SLITHERING ALONG. Monday's sitting was neither edifying instructive nor entertaining. Members again- opened" out by getting into clinches with the Government over a lot of -trivialities, such as the delaying of a telegram, country school concerts, the selection of trustees for country libraries, why there Is a "b" 'm both, the number of "misses" m the misrepresentations, mistakes, mismanagement and miserableness of the remiss "Miss-ey" Government, and othe/<fond, foolish and factious fatuities. Then the House once more sat down to its third meal on the Land and Income Tax Amendment Bill, and promptly put it through its final stages, realising that having had it hot, cold and CUlTied, it was time it iwas disposed of, lest it go high. THE LOAVES AND FISHES. Another indication of the imminent dissolution — meaning disbandment, for it is already dissolute enough — of Parliament came this ' week when the Public Works Estimates and Statement were laid upon the table of the House, and though the debate will not be taken until Friday night there was heaps of private bickering and bitterness when it was discovered that Wuf£ ; Wuf£ ,was to be voted £ 100 for a. new ! culvert underneath the footpath opposite to Mrs Smith's, whilst Hind Leg i Hamlet only got a tenner for increas- | ed postal facilities (including the car[riage of "Truth.").- However, there need be no heartburnings over these I little matters as half the votes upon the list will never be expended. Incidentally, if is noticeable that as an evidence of the Reform Government's pre-election economy the proposed appropriations total half a million less than those of last year. Whence the belatedness Of this reformation? TIDYING-UP. The Hquse got down to it well on Wednesday, when quite half a dozen minor Government mnasures were tidied-up and covers nut over the furniture and things m the front room preparatory to the rapidly-approach-ing adjournment. In 'iuct, there is not much left to do now • save the kitchen, the scullery sink and the -passages, before the house can be left comparatively clean for its next occupants, who, however, after all the smoke of the session, will probably, have to' attend to die chimneys before reopening .' the establishment next .year. Among- the matters dealt with were/ 1 Magistrates and cemeteries, companies, compromises and creditors, fences and harbors, and railways and criminal offences. Mr. Mossey, who sticks to the bad habit of making promises, committed himsel.c* to a statement that he wouirt explain the necessity of the Companies Amendment Bill at another time, and it was darkly hinted at. that it was a sop to some of his farmer friends. Further, it was announced that the Railways Amendment Bill ,wag- framed ■to give effect to an agreement that had been arrived at as to the men s wages and conditions and the salary "cut." Some silly asses who apparently overlooked the fact that they had been elected to do as they were told wanted to see the text o"f the compromise before passing the Bill m the dark, but Iron Trail Guthrie was adamant and refused to come out m the open with the desired document on the paradoxical ground that hs "didn't wish to disturb a settled issue." Before rising the House. also put through the Crimes Act, Amendment Bill, which has for its object the -better protection of girls m cases or criminal assault. Meantime "the old uppersiders m the Council are shovelling through the Government truck with a strenuousrtess and speed that more than does credit to their years and their appreciation of-their responsibilities.