FINANCIAL STATEMENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17083, 15 August 1917, Page 5

FINANCIAL STATEMENT

DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT. (Pee United Pbess Association.) WELLINGTON, August 14. Mr Wilkinson resumed tho debate on tho Budget to-night. Ho said the outstanding features of tho Budget were the substantial incroase in the National Debt and . the record surplus, both of which wore the result of war conditions. He took exception to the proposal to enforce contributions to tho war loan, being certain that they would create hardship. It was a power greater than Parliament should give to any Government, and ho hoped it would be blocked. He proceeded to analyse the taxation proposals of the Budget, particularly as they aifect the small farmers whose farms are mortgaged, his conclusion being that the small form was being heavily taxed and the large estates being let off comparatively lightly, ivhich was in inverse ratio to what it should be. Tliis would ilrivo people off the land mid concentrate them in the towns. The town conditions were easier than those in the country, and consequently there was no inducement to stay on the larms where there were plenty of hard work and small profits. Tho conscription of wealth in the shape of capital was impossible. What was most needed was encouragement to produce as much as possible, and the principle governing our taxation should be that we should tax tho spending and not the earning of money. Hornsby said the first great principle laid down by both leaders when the Nation J Cabinet took office was a reduction in the cost of living, but no reduction had taken place. It was no answer to say that things were dearer in Australia where the Government interfered. We had an abundance of food m the dominion, but tho people could not get it except by the grace of profiteers, and st was time tho people realised tho fact. When the Minister of Agriculture went to Australia to buy wheat there were men in the dominion holding on to wheat, with the result that both bread and flour were dearer than they had any right to be, and he wanted to know what the Board of Trade was doing about it. Butter was selling at Is 8d per pound, but he knew that a large quantity of first-class butter was for sale at Is per pound. Mr Massey interjected that if that were so the Government would, fcike the lot at that price.

Mr Hornsby declared that he was prepared to bring the bargain off, but he wanted to know what the Board of Trad© was doing about that. It was asleep and snoring Ho commented on the action of tho woollen companies in raising the price of yarn, out of which comforts for soldiers wt-ro made by devoted women. They paid big dividends,_ but when tho operatives usked for an increase in wages they were denounced as disloyal to com© at such a time and make such a demand. He described the operations of the Meat Trust, 011 tho Prime Minister said two years ago that he had his eye, but what Jiad betn dono? Nothing. Why had tho powers of the Commercial Trusts Act not been invoked to cope with this menace to tho people's interests?

Mr Witty congratulated 'the Minister of Fmanco upon the production of a Budget which had given such general satisfaction. The main question was the adjustment of taxation, and so far fis ho could see there was little to complain of in this respect, tho proposals of the Minister being conspicuously fair. If there was a fault it lay in the fact that the land tax was not sufficiently drastic on large estates, while the land | speculator got off practically free. He suggested that the remaining 9,000,000 acres of Crown lands be set aside as an endowment for widows and orphans, and he would like to see 1,000,000 acres of Native' land purchased and set aside as an endowment for Maori soldiers, who had proved as brave as any pakeha on the field of battle. He favoured an increased amusement tax, but strongly opposea this class of taxation being imposed on racing clubs, which last year contributed £251,436 to the public revenue. He chided the Government for having made no preparation for returning soldiers. If 10.000 men returned to-morrow it would be impossible to place them. There was a proposal to employ them on public works, but not a single industry had been started. The cost of living was soaring higher and hiarher, while the stores were full of meat and butter. The Government had failed io control wheat, and it had failed to regulate the supply of butter. In not a single article could the Government show that it had been able to reduce the price. It was time the Government did something to show what' it was made of. He did not object to the new duty on tea because that wsfe going to increase pensions, but he wished to point out that great waste was going on in almost every Government department. Ho specially commented on tho item of £328 spent on a trip to Hanmer when the Minister of Internal Affairs invited his friends to go there to see him in a top hat and hear him make a speech. This was most unwarrantable expenditure at a time when economy was so much needed. He complained that tlie names of tenderers for munitions and supplies were not published, that war expenditure was £1,900,000 per month, and that so little consideration was shown to returned soldiers, who were expected to travel in a second-class railway carriage. No provision wus made to. help soldiers to pay the loading on their insurance premiums. Want, of uniformity in medical examinations was the next ground of complaint, and the speaker demanded that every rejected man in tho First Division should be re-examined before the Second Division .was called up. He disapproved of the suggestion to send boys of 19 years to tho front. Mr Massey said there never was any such suggestion. Mr Witty said there was a feeler such as should not have been made. He urged the Government to try to do the best it could for everyone, and if it did that the people would have causo to bless it. » The debate was adjourned on the motion of Air Mander, and tho House rose at 11 p.m.