PARLIAMENT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18453, 14 January 1922, Page 10

PARLIAMENT.

YESTERDAY’S PROCEEDINGS (PesT United Press Association.) i ■ WELLINGTON, January 13. LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL The Legislative Council met at 2.30 p.m. Sir FRANCIS BELL gave notice ot tlie Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Amendment Bill. Sir FRANCIS BELL introduced the Loan Companies Bill, which was read a second time pro forma and relerred to the Statutes Revision Committee. ANIMALS'. PROTECTION BILL. Sir I'itAiNc.iS joiiiji. moveu me second reading of tuo animals Protection and Uame Bill. ■ilie non. W. J. GEDDIS welcomed the Bill, but said the clause which made it an oitence to nave. possession ot the feathers oi a protected Oi.a was a danger to iisnermeu, some ot whose Hies were composed ct bittern feathers. Those flies were imported from England, but fishermen, it accosted, would be unable to prove the pedigree oi tno biro.

Sir THOMAS MACKENZIE referred io the fact that some of the most pernicious birds were in the protected list. He instanced the wax-eye. He would like to see paradise ducks included m the first schedule. •

The . Hon. G. M. THOMSON suggested that the Government should prohibit pigeon shooting matches, and said he would propose au amendment. Sir WALTER BUCHANAN agreed that steps should be taken to protect native gome. He also urged that magpies sdouict bo protected. The regulation regarding opossums /should be considerably altered i-o give mrtrier relief to orchardista worried by opossums.

The Hon. Mr SNODGRASS said that trap shooting. of pigeons' and the coursing oi hares aborild be stopped. ' The Hon. C. H. IZARD feared that the Bill, might make it illegal for private persons to breed native or imported game. The Hon. J. B. GOW supported the remarks of the Hon. Mr Geddis. The Hon. G. J. GARLAND said that a gun license should replace, the ordinary game license. Ho agreed that live pigeon shooting matches should be abolished. , Sir FRANCIS BELL, , in reply, said that personally he thought paradise.ducks should be .in the first schedule. He thought, too, it- was dangerous’ to.-allow an absolutely protected bird; to be removed from its schedule by’ the Government. Replying to Sir Thos. Mackenzie, Sir FRANCIS BELL said that representations had been made to the Government , as tc the desirability of introducing legislation to assist farmers unable co find money to meet interest due. The Government ' had given these careful consideration, but it was not found possible to make the provision required. The question of security was not so important as the question of relief, and the demands which would tcllow any initiation of such a provision would be beyond the possibilities of the Government's finance. The Council rose at 4.25 p.m. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES The. House . met at. 2.30 p.m. LYTTELTON TRAIN MISHAP. Replying to Dr Thacker the Hon. D. H. GUrH-Rli) said- that- an inquiry had been made into the recent - derailing of h oar- • riage .at Lyttelton Wharf, but so far the cause ot tne derailment was unexplainable and was not ascertainable. , The same carriage had. since' been repeatedly run over the same piece ot line at various speeds without mishap, - HARBOUR BOARD RESTAURANTS. Replying to Mr P. Fraser Mr MASSEY said that the Harbours Bill was coming before the House this session and he underetood it contained a proposal enabling harbour boards to establish restaurants tor. j (he , benefit of workers, oh the waterfront. THE ESTIMATES. The. House then. went into Cornmitlee-of-Suppiy to further consider the estimates. The first item taken was the Pensions Department, '£138,002. Mr T. M. WILFORD put in a plea for turther assistance for pensioners. He , though t- v the pensions should bo based on some more elastic scheme, under which everyone in heed couldbe helped by the State which should be in -V position to act unhampered by the rigid statutes. . .He thought the State should act the part of a great parent. He recognised that everyone had the right to live. ■ Mr ,W. E- PARRY moved a reduction of £5 on - the first item of the vote, the salary of the Commissioner, us an indication that the Government should provide adequate pensions for the blind. The Hon, ,G. J. ANDERSON said that so soon as the Government could provide pensions tor the blind it would do so. Ho was going into the whole matter during the recess. Mr Massey was proceeding to show how the Government had increased the pensions and w hat it. proposed to do when he was ruled out of order by the Chairman, who explained that members -.wore ; only entitled to discuss pxalters of administration, not matters of policy. On a division the amendment was lost by 32 _ votes to 28. The discussion was proceeding when the. House adjourned, at 5.30 p.m. Evening session. The House resumed at 7.30 p.m. ’ The pensions vote was passed. -• • The Mines Department, £54,783, was the next vote Taken. . Dr ■ NEWMAN questioned whether the vote for, prospective works did any good. Year after year, he said, we spend largo sums, but we never find anything. He urged greater concentration on the develop: merit of natural gas arid oil. Mr. S. G." SMlTH.'(Taranaki) said the Minister was'heartily co-operating with the enthusiasts in Taraqaki who still had faith in the oil ventures ill that province. He advocated the Minister re-opening negotiations with the Anglo-Persian Company so as to get the benefit of their world-wide experience applied to Taranaki. Messrs W. H. FIELD and T. W. RHODES (Thames) strongly advocated more liberal assistance to prospecting, whjqh, he said, would repay all the moriey spent. Sir J. P.’ LUKE put in a word for mqre earliest development of Taranaki ironsarid and-Para-para iron ore,' ' The Hon. G. J. ANDERSON defended the work of the prospector's, which, ho : said, was most valuable to the country. > Mr H. HOLLAND protested against the vote of £651 paid in connection with expenses .incurred by Mr T. 0. Bishop while studying mining methods and appliances outside New Zealand.. He explained that while Mr Bishop was acting as inspecting engineer of the metal mines for the Mines Department he was sent abroad to gain experience at the country’s expense. Hardly hud ho returned when lie left the public service and joined the staff of the Coal Owners’ Association, and he was , now the most bitter opponent, the miners had. He did not blame Mr Bishop so much, though he evidently failed to realise his /moral obligation to the country, but he did blame the department for not making proper arrangement with Mr Bishop to remain in the service for a reasonable time after his return. As a protest against what had happened he 'moved to the total vole by £l. On a ’ division the vote was sustained by 42 votes to 13. A vote was passed for the Department of Internal Affairs, £416,738. MR T. M. WILFORD protested against the duplication of the management of the fishing industry in New Zealand. At present three Ministers had control of the different phases of the industry, which, he said was absurd. He urged the consolidation of the authority. MR F. F. HOCKLY urged that when the Minister was' allocating the totalisator permits he should do so on the basis of the report of the Racing Commission, so that certain small clubs might have justice done them. MR PARRY asked the Minister to put into force those portions of the report dealing with the precautions and recommendations to preserve the lives and limbs of jockeys. MR T. M. WILFORD asked if the Government Jiad .decided to abandon .the proposed National War Memorial, as only £IOO was voted this-year, or was this one of the reported economies made by the Government? MR MASSEY said it was not. In reply, the HON. W. D. STEWART said that.certain proposals were being made which he hoped would put the control of the fishing industry , oq a more satisfactory footing. With regard to the National War Memorial, it of course was impossible lo go on with it at present. That was the reason for the small vote this year. With regard to racing permits, he did not think ho could give effect to the recommendation of the Racing Commission without flying in the face of the House, But he would' look: into, the whole, position and would sea what could bo done.

In reply to Mr R. M'Callum MIR MASSES said he could hot at present disclose the retrenchment proposals of the Government. . Mr J. HORN asked the Government to take some immediate steps to reinstate the fallen cairn erected to the memory of Sir John M'Kenzie. Mr W. A. VEITCH criticised the Public Service Commissioners, who, he said, were not doing the, work they should be doing—viz., co-ordinating the departments which at present were vvastefully duplicated. Mr G. MITCHELL criticised the manner in which retrenchment was being carried out. Old public servants with large families who had been good public servants but were unfit for anything else were being discharged while young men and girls without responsibility wore being retained. He did not think the commissioners had the least consideration for the returned soldiers. Messrs WILFORD and WRIGHT mentioned several oases in which they claimed hardship had been imposed by the Public Service Commissioners. : The Hon. W. D. STEWART defended the Public Service Commissioners. Ho said they were all men of long experience, and if they did not know how to secure efficiency in the public service then no one could. He was looking into cases of hardship with a view to making dismissal from the public service as little harmful as possible Retrenchment was an extremely difficult task and there was always .room for difference of opinion as to who should go out, but they did not want to go back to the old days of political patronage. Mr G. WITTY: It is worse than ever. Dr NEWMAN said it' was all very well for the Minister to, defend the Publio Service Commissioners, but the remained that there was a great deal-of inhumanity in the way the commissioners had carried out the retrenchment scheme.Sir J. P. LUKE said he was pledged to support the Public Service Commissioners, but after what he had seen it might be necessary for him to revise hie pledges. Messrs J. M. DICKSON (Chalmers), D. G. SULLIVAN. G. WITTY, W. H. FIELD, and F. N. BARTRAM all deprecated the manner in which the retrenchment of the public service was being Carried out by the Public Service Commissioners. , During the discussion Mr WRIGHT,'-in referring to certain dismissals from the Public Service, stated that these dismissals were due to the religious opinions held by these public servants. This statement was strongly commented on by Messrs FRASER AND HOLLAND, who declared that the charges should either be proved or withdrawn. ■ Later on Mr MASSEY said that no one in the .Public Service in New Zealand would be persecuted because of his or her religious vietts, and if. Sir Wright would supply him with the names of the people concerned and the particulars of the/ dismissals he would, have a proper inquiry made into the whole matter. His opinion was that Mr Wright, did not tnake. any statement he . did i pot believe to be true, but he (Mr Massey) thought, Mr Wright had been misled. In any case, if lion were given him an inquiry would be held. ... Mr WRIGHT: I will give you the'names. Mr HOLLAND: Will you set up a par-, liamentary committee to hold an inquiry? - Mr MASSEY: No. V) r e do not want politics to come into questions like these.. , Mr HOLLAND: Will you pet up a Royal Commission? Mr MASSEY: I will not be cross-ques-tioned by the hon. gentleman. Continuing, Mr Massey said that the inquiry, would be held by a man in whom everyone would have confidence, but before he could go that far he must have the --facts on which Mr Wright made the changes, and the. matter would have to be considered by Cabinet. ■ „ ' Discussing retrenchment generally, Mr MASSEY said that a considerable number of publio servants had been dismissed, and more would have to go because during the war the departments became overstaffed under circumstances -for which no one was to blame. In such cases it was impossible to avoid hardship. If they were to attempt to avoid that hardship by keeping the public servants on,: then it meant that salaries would have to bo reduced all round by onethird. Mr MITCHELL spoke in support of his views previously expressed, > and moved that the vote be reduced by £5 as an indication that the administration of the Public Service Commissioners is unsatisfactory. The amendment was supported by Messrs E KELLETT. VEITCH, and P. FRASER, but on a division it was lost by 34 votes to 1.9. Mr HOLLAND raised the question of the amount of Government printing done outside the-Government Printing Office. Mr MASSEY stated, that Cabinet had decided for the future that nd Government printing is to he, done outside the Government Printing Office' unless the Minister in charge of the printing office is satisfied that it cannot be conveniently done by the Government. The printing vote was passed. The Mental Hospitals and Health Departments. £469.’660. was the next vote taken. The vote was passed. The House rose at 0.12 am. till 7.30’ p.m. on Monday. IMMIGRATION ANT) UNEMPLOYMENT. TO THE EDITOE. Sir, — A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and the little knowledge the Hon. Mr Nosworthy has '. about the unemployment question does more harm than good. It is very nice for him to talk about able-bodied men and the jobs waiting to be filled, by them. He has a nice little position’ himself and gets well paid for .it, but if he ever had need to tramp from one end of the island to the other looking for the job that never is found, maybe, he would not; talk such utter nonsense., In reply to a question by Mr E. J. Howard with reference to i the fact . that a large number of immigrants are due to arrive soon,' Mr Nosworthy stated that be did not believe that able-bodied men. willing to work at ahy job offering, need remain out of employment. The men are willing to work at any job, but where are the jobs? Instead of improving, things are getting worse every day. One has only need to walk along the town any morning and he , will see men, strong, husky, willing holding up lamp-posts, because it is all till® can find to do. You can see them in largo numbers ecanning the Otago Daily Times on the board -putsido your office from early morn to mid-day. You can also see them waiting for the evening paper—not to read about the Disarmament Conference, but to. .see. what jobs there are. Such are'instances of men eager” tq .get something to do, no matter what ft is’ T honestly believe that there is not n tonin' in this town who is not willing to work—if he had'a job; In spite of this, Mr Nosworthy says that no man need remain out of employment. After all, Mr Nosworthy is only a fair example of the men running the affairs of this country. Running them, not to prosperity, but to min. He expects 3000 irami-' grants in New Zealand by April. Well, heaven help us when May comes! It will be only a couple more thousand looking for jobs—that’s all. Mr Nosworthy frays that they are all coming to jobs. They might be iihd they might not lie;—l have my doubts.Still, we of the “out-of-works”, can only wait until the old sun shines down on ..New Zealand againwhen every eon-of-a-guh has a good job, when New Zealand has a new and more competent Parliament and when the good times optimists love to talk about arrive. Let us hope! that all this happens in 1922 —not when we are all dead —I am, e t c . Jobless Joe. g TE> _X s ce that 3000 immigrants are due in New Zealand shortly. I cannot see the justice of our returned soldiers walking for eight and 10 months about the streets looking for work, while these immigrants are. found places and guaranteed employment. The men who have “done their bit” for their country should! have first place—not get work and be loft in it for a while and then retrenchment is started to let the immigrants in. It is pitiable to see the despondency of those looking for work. It is bad enough now without letting any more immigrants in. A number of those who have come out are very dissatisfied and wish to get back to the Old Country. Let us all wake up now in the different centres and promote petitions to Parliament to defer immigration if not altogether to stop it.—l am, etc ’ Interested.