N.Z. PARLIAMENT.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9590, 24 July 1907, Page 4

N.Z. PARLIAMENT.

. "'■' (Peb Pbess Association.) Wellington, July 23. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. The House met at 2.30 p.m. Mr Field! moved that the second! reading of the • Otaki and! Porirua, Empowering which was on the Order Paper for to-day, be taken on Tuesday of next week. This was agreed to. —Dunedin Suburban! Gas Company.— Mr Arnold' moved the second! reading of til© Dunedin Suburban Gas Company Empowering Bill, which seeks for the company powers to supply gas in- the Oaversliam Ward of Dunedin and 1 some surrounding boroughs. , After a short discussion the second reading was agreed to, and the Bill was Feferred to the Local Bills Committee. —Leave of l Absence.— Three days' leave of absence was- granted, to . Mr Ell owing to sickness in his family. —Costley Training Institution. — The Costley Training Institution Act Amendment Bill (Hon. G. Fowlds) was read a first time. —Letters of ThanksLetters were read by the Speaker from Mrs Kirkbride and Mr Wilfred Hall expressing thanks for kind resolutions passed by the House. ~,.,, The Prime Minister moved that the letters be recorded in the Journals of the House, and this was -agreed to. —Rotorua Town Bill When the report on the Rotorua Town Bill came up for consideration Mr Hemes expressed the hope that the Tourist Department in taking over the township, would be placed in the same position as all other borough councils in the colony. ■He eaidi that the residents of Rotorua were not opposed to'the proposal, but were quite ready to try the experiment. Mr Hemes complained- that 'great delay had occurred in laying down the water, supply and drainage systems, and at the present time a number of houses could not get tho electric light 'supply. He contended that these matters would have beenbetteT managed by private enterprise if the Government had'h'ever had anything to do with Rotorua.' Mr Nagata asked for an assurance from the Prime Minister that the present Village Council of Ohinemutu should be consulted from time to- time in regard to sanitation, liquor, and other matters. The Prime Minister, in replying, said that the Government was always ready to assist the Natives; and there was no objection to the Tourist Department work, ing with the- Native authorities in the direction suggested. The amendments made in committee were agreed to,- and the bill was read a third time and passed._ The House adjourned at 5.30 p.m. —Evening Sitting.— ' On Tesumimg'at 7.30 the galleries were crowded for the opening of the Financial Debate. Mr Massey led off. He said that the Financial Statement contained references to many subjects which might have been more appropriately dealt with in the Speech from the Throne. He asked members to think of -the proposals which had been put forward from his side of the House for the last half dozen years. Take the auditing of public accounts, f ot " instance. In spite of opinions expressed by the Prime Jlihister .that this reform would not prove workable, he had executed a ridit-about- face. The same with sinking funds, and sinking funds were now an accomplished fact. In some instances, similaiily, the Opposition's demands for national annuities had fructified, and although the scheme had, not been passed, there was a possibility that it would find its way on the Statute Book in the near future. Last year £25,000 was voted from the Consolidated Fund for making the Toads of the colony—a measure he had frequently advocated. Referring to the land question, what a change, he said, had come oyer the scene since Mr M'Nab introduced his measure some 12 months ago.- The gentlemen who occupied the Ministerial benches now admitted that he, in advocating the freehold, had been right, and they were wrong. He claimed that small! as the Opposition was in numbers, it had been an influence for good in that House. A Government, like an individual, should be judged by what it- had done. It was proposed in the Bill of last year to strike the landed man in a vital spot. Referring to endowments, .he said they were not wanted for the purpose- for which they were set apart, and would be. of little use to the people of the colony for educational purposes or for paying of old-age pensions. Before going further, we should be guided by past- experience in regard to endowments, and inquiry should te made into the subject of endowments. either by Royal Commission or by a committee of the House. In connection with t-he land question, the Government required watching closely, because of the Socialistic and single tax influence which, intended to keep a man and his dependents from becoming independent. He wanted to give the settler on the land the advantages he ought to have, and, above all', wanted to get the colony rid' of the bad bargain made in connection with the lease in perpetuity years ago. His opinion of the" Minister of Lands when he made his speech last year decfering that the Gocernment would nail the flag to the mast, and go down fighting, went- up 50 per cent.,' but he now suggested to the Minister that the motto for the Government should be " Gang warily on, and be ready to run.," and foT a crest they should utilise a weathercock. There was only one way of giving the holder of a lease in perpetuity -liis. rights, and! he had advocated it many times, and that was to give the leaseholder the right of purchase at the original vailue. He contended that the whole policy of the Government had been to set town against country, in order I to benefit towns. Under the Workers! Homes Act of last year, people had the right to acquire the freehold at the original value, and yet this was denied the settler on land. He added that the provision made under the Advances to Workers Act for workers in cities was denied to country workers." He argued that the land tax paid by the man in the country was altogether out of proportion- to the income tax, and the man m .the country,' reclaiming his land from bush and swamp, was carrying the heavy end of the log, for the benefit of the owner of business premises in cities. Persona fly he was willing to grant the same concessions to the man in the city as to the man in the country. Referring to the Attorney-General's speech ait Balmeiston South, which he described as a reply to Mr Massey, he contended that Mr Findlay's speech was a defence of Sociailism, and it would be impossible to- deny that the policy of the .Government was Socialism. Speaking on the tariff, he advised lion. membeTS to look closely into it. and they would find anomalies which made for the benefit of the wealthy man, and made it harder for the working man. He characterised the motor car as the rich man's toy. yet it was,now admitted free, whilst the' bicycle, largely used by workers, was taxed 20 'per cent. He quoted a number of' statistics d<?a'ling with duties levied en boots and shoes generally used by Working people, and'which ted had 'the dutv increased, whereas duty on boots used by wealthier classes had been .reduced. Lace had been reduced, whilst the duty on eanvas had been increased.. No one would, denv that, billiard . tables' were a lusufv:- yet- the duty on these was reduced from 25 to 20 per cent. If they took the dutv off sugar, then they would injure Auckland refineries, as the sugar would be .refined in Queensland and -Fiji bv black labor. Even the duty on tea hit at the working man, who was unable to uurehase in greater quantities than 51b packets. Dairy machinery was mostly made in Sweden and America, and in creating a" preferential tariff on dairy machinery they were -(practically taxing the dairv, industry, which was one of the most in- the colony, 10 peT cent. He could see - ho ■ attempt made to stop the importation of shoddy, and contended that all clothing material, should be .ticketed' to show whether it wr.s nuufo of wool or cotton, or made of materials that had! been previouslv used'. He knew of no other article-iii which so much dishonesty, was practised as. that-'of shodjdy. -Dealing- with the finances,-he eulogised the articles recentlv appearing -the in the Evening Post -as showing thafS people were .able to look hfrc.ith the surface. A number-of items, he argued, .were charged to the Public' Works' Fund which should be charged io revenue-' He > deprecated! .expenditure levied on the ornamentation- of public buiWines; In-many cases' the -four corners of'the earth had been searched for items for this purpose: He'contended'that we' should "be content with less palatial" and imposing edifices for public buildings. In conclusion, he argued* that the two most important matters for'the bem-iSt'of this colonv were fixity of tenure for.the. man on the laud;andcUieer communication witli the OldComitTV. The Government had. attacked the first and neglected the second. The Hon. 'Mr'M'Nab accused-the Leader

of the Opposition of having misrepresented! in his speech at Auckland the matter, of tie payment of the Chairman of Committees. He had made'it understood; that the paying•- £350, ■ whereas the'only extra sum was £SO. He ■ ■ also accused Mr Massey of having, ;at Stratford, made misrepresentations-regard-ing the' Otago University endowments. The Government had: brought down pro-; posais which would compel large -land-, owners to dispose of their estates, -which would thus 'be tbrown'open to closer settle-, ment.' "Mr Massey had spoken of his (Mr M'Nab's) visit to Auckland,' yet if there was one thing that people of that portion; of the colony were agreed on it was that holding vast.areas of land was iniquitous. Last year's' bin .contemplated granting the freehold to all leases in pereptuity, and .the only difference in this year's bill was that in place of putting the whole people of the colony hi the position of competing laud- it. was limited now. to the occupier of. the land, and that was- the somersault which the Opposition accused the -Government of. He felt that if the original clause had been carried the effect would have been that no one could compete with the occupier at auction, and: the result would have been that the leaseholder would have obtained the freehold of his land at very little more than what was known as the original value. 'He. had ■ no recollection of any other Governmenthaving come down so soon with its policy. measures, and it could not be said .they; were going on with the Financial Statemerit without a knowledge of the Govern-, ment's policy proposals. The Minister went on to .set out those proposals—the graduated land tax as set out in the bill. and the effect it would have, and also to show how it differed from last yeaTS bilß. He'believed its'effect would be to provide; vast areas for the landless people of. the colony. Referring to land for settlements, lands, whilst a good deal could be said i* favor of the 66 veais' lease, he thought; there was no reason why- the shorter lease., should not'be brought about. The Go-. vernment proposed- to dispose of these; lands under a 33 years' renewable lease,, and he would be pleased to receive; any suggestions that would make this tenure, more attractive. - Referring to endowments, he said the proposals were not quite so comprehensive as - before they came back from committee. The endowment proposals originally covered areas of something like 16,800,000 acres, much-of: which was in the North Island. The al- , terations that had been made meant that the 16,800,000 acres had been reduced to nine million acres, and these were distributed over various portions of the colony where there were Crown lands. To the extent that they had abandoned the 17 million acres of last year for the nine million of this year's bill, the Opposition declared the Government had abandoned its-policy. These lands would be disposed of under the' provisions of the Land Act, under which they had been disposed of previously, unless, in the opinion of the Land Board, they were suitable for colser settlement, when they would be disposed of under the optional system. He maintained- that so long as the colony had to borrow money for the purchase of estates they should only disposed of land under lease in perpetuity. He considered the Leader ■of the Opposition had not dealt with the Ministry fairly in stating that itwas not doing as much for the country settler as for the dweller in -the- town. Personally, he had a great deal of sympathy with the country settler. . Referring to the charge of Socialism which Mr Massey had levelled at the Government, 'he pointed out that the fanner, who Mr Maescv complained had been so much neglected, had undoubtedly been assisted by that same Socialisf, and if the same Tesults could only be obtained by the adoption of similar measures used to better the position of the mr.n on the land, then this Government would adopt them. Further, whatever ■ they might call that power which assisted the resources of the country, and helped to place the products of the colony in the best market of the world,. that power should be utilised and carried out, no matter what Government occupied the Treasury benches. Mr Massey had claimed the proposals of the Government as his own, and he hoped that the Leader of the Opposition would follow the Ministry into the lobby, and assist in placing the proposals on the Statute Book. . Mr Massey, in explanation, denied having misrepresented the case of the Deputy Chairman's salaries. He had explained when making the statement that when a, member was appointed Deputy Chairman his salary as member of the House ceased. , Mr James Allen took up the debate after supper. He accused the Minister of Lands of changing front since last year. He was new to the game. Last year he came down with what he described as a most carefully-prepared Land Bill. Where was. Sir ■ Allen traversed much, of the the Minister had made so many changes of front that he did not know where he was that Bill to-day? The fact was that ground' covered by Mr Massey. Referring to the superannuation funds, he argued that they were not sound, and should be made so. A sum of £17,000 a year was required to make the teachers' superannuation fund sound. In regard to railway superannuation, he asserted that nothing was known about it, but if it was right to place the civil service superannuation fund on a sound basis, it was right to place the police, teachers, and railway servants' superannuation funds on a sound basis also. They had been promised a Local Government Bill foT many. years, and when they got it could they consider that votes on roads and bridges were likely be placed on a satisfactory basis. In investigating the railway expenditure what had astonished him most was the enormous increase in the charges for fuel and wateT. In 1887 the charge for fuel and water was 3.36 d per train mileage. In 1897 the rate had increased to 3.45 d, and in 1907 to 7.39 d. He considered that the cost of fuel was heavier than it ought to be, and they should derive more from the railways than they were doing. Dealing with the tariff, he uTged that it was altogether wrong to tax electrical-machinery, which, as far as : he knew, could not be made in the colony. The impost of a shilling in the.pound on raw cotton would also seriously interfere with trade. Cotton was used in connection with wool in making a cheap material that would compete with shoddy. He agreed with the Prime ' Minister in the matter of the naval subsidy, but urged that steps should be taken in the direction of providing defence for our harbors. Mr Wilford said the speech of the last member was a speech acquiescing in the land proposals of the Government, but re- : gretting that they had been altered. He admitted that the Government's landpro- . posals of last year had been modified, but ' as a freeholder he considered they did not go far enough. Though a freeholder, he did not Tegard the freehold as • the only advantage to the colony and the settler. He regarded the leasehold as the stepping- . stone to the freehold. There were 128,000 persons (individuals and companies) who had in New Zealand £161,777,788 worth of land He disagreed with the Government in starting the graduated land tax at- £40,000. It should have started at £20,000. and if the Government amended the' proposal it would be. supported by many members on that side of the House. He congratulated the Minister on the absentee proposals, and on making' the endowment area nine million acres. The House adjourned-at 11.55 p.m. on the motion of Mr Kidd.- t