PARLIAMENT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19550, 5 August 1925, Page 7

PARLIAMENT.

YESTERDAY’S PROCEEDINGS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. (Peb United Press Association.) . WELLINGTON, August 4. The House met at 2.30 p.m. JUSTICES OF THE PJSACE. Mr WILFORD gave notice of his intention to introduce iiie Justices of the 1 eaco Amendment Bill. AN EMPOWERING BILL. On the motion of Mr VEITCH, the Wanganui City Council Empowering Bill was introduced and road a hrst time. THE BUDGET DEBATE. Resuming the debate on the Budget, Mr DE LA BERKELLE (Awnrua) discussed the management of _ the State Advances Department, contending that the > department was far in arrears with the demands made upon it, and that it was not meeting the growing requirements of the people, tie urged tho borrowing of more money for loans to settlers, which would be reproductive. On no condition would no agree to further borrowing unless it were to be reproductive. Failing tho Government’s ability to 'borrow for tho purposes of advances, he advocated tho setting up of an agricultural bank such as had boon suggested, with a Ktato guarantee. Iho Farmers’ Union had obtained expert aclvice on this subject, and he urged that tho Government should do the same wit.i a view to probing tho matter to the bottom and seeing what it was worth. On the subject of naval defence, he urged the Government to be liberal in its subsidy (o tho British navy and so remove the reproach which had been hurled against us tliat we were not contributing our fair share towards the navy’s upkeep. Wo wore an island country, and naval defence was vital to us. Let ns, then, do our share towards tho maintenance of tho navy. AFFORESTATION. Mr do la Porrello urged greater activity in tho matter of afforestation. In this matter Southland had been sadly neglected. The Forestry Department received some £IO,OOO by way of royalties annually, but nothing had boon spout there. He asked that this money should be spent where 't was earned, and he would be glad .to seo tho Minister undertake the planting of 20,000 acres in that part of the dominion. THE FISHING INDUSTRY. Speaking of tho fishing industry, he contended that the licenses to capture whales in the Ross Sea dependency should be issued to Now Zealanders as well as to Norwegians. lie also urged closer supervision over the sealing grounds, os he feared a certain amount of illicit trading was going on there. PRODUCTIVITY OP SOUTHLAND. The speaker concluded with a eulogium of the productive qualities of tho Southland province and with a condemnation of party government. What ho wanted was wholesouled team work in ttie affairs of the country. LABOUR MEMBER’S CRITICISM. Mr PARRY (Auckland Central) said ho considered the Budget was a fairly straightforward document so far as the income and outgo of the country were concerned, but it was silent on many points upon which it shquld have been explicit. It was not an inspiring document. It did not give much hope so far as the future was concerned. Our public, private, and municipal indebtedness was heavy—about £540,000,000. Loans to the extent of about £69,500,000 wore falling due at an early date, so that the outlook could hardly be considered bright.'• The cost of living was also steadily rising, .while wages were as steadily declining.. There was also in the Budget the yearly gift to the wealthy friends of the Government in tho form of rebates in taxation, but while these rebates were being given to the rich, burdens were heaped on the people through Customs duties. These wore shown in the Budget to total about £8,000.000, but before imported goods passed into tho hands of the people they were called upon to pay £12.000,000, because the traders’ profits bad to bo considered. Tho Budget also announced that the cost of defence was to bo increased, which was not encouraging. It was no comfort to homeless people to be told there was no more money for housing, while all the time more immigrants were coming to New Zealand and income tax on the wealthy was being reduced. Ho commented upon tho paucity of the amounts which hod been “squeezed’’ out of the Government by way of pensions, and contended that the Workers’ Compensation Act should not be used ns a means of defeating the Pensions Act, which was, in some cases, being done. That was the extent of tho svmpathy shown by the Government to the old people. LAND LEGISLATION. Mr MACPHERSON (Oamaru) said the present session was one which presented a grand opportunity to tho Prime Minister to propound a policy which would appeal to tho people as. a whole. Ho regretted that no attempt was being made to . toko advantage of the land legislation already on the Statute Book or to put into effect a proper land policy. What amazed him was that the Government, which pretended to fce out. to promote land settlement, should not have taken heed of the offer of the Imperial Government to provide money for settling people on the land. Land aggregation was going on in every province in New Zealand. Tho remedy proposed by the Minister would bo ineffective, and was merely a license to the people to go on aggregating. Some big effort to achieve subdivision must be mado again, as largo areas were a menace to the welfare of the country. Sentiment would have to be set aside and the land taken compulsorily it owners would not subdivide it voluntarily. WHEAT GROWING INDUSTRY. Dealing with the question of wheat growing, the speaker said that at the present time the fanners wanted encouragement to induce them to grow wheat instead of utilising the farms for purposes more tempting. He regretted that the Minister had shown so little sympathy with _ the wheat grpwer, because that industry circulated more money than ' any other. We were sending large sums of money to Australia for wheat while wo had unemployed at home. What was wanted was a Government guarantee of a stable price. That would keep our engineering shops making agricultural implements. Our grain stores were empty, and our railways were running idle. The Government should act m lime. So far it had always come in when the season was past. The Minister should take time by tho forelock, because while there was plenty of wheat in Australia tho ' position might be easy, but let there bo a shortage ffiere. then pinch would bo felt here, and we would have to pay through tho nose for any wheat that, came into the country. It was an easy thing to lot the farmers go out of wheat growing, but it was not, so easy to get them back to it when their implements wore rusty and their teams dispersed. Therefore ho asked tho Minister to give immediate consideration (o the offering of a Government guaranteed price for three, or four years, and so put the wheat growing industry upon a sound footing. SIR JOHN LUKE’S VIEWS. Sir JOHN LUKE agreed with the last speaker that tho Government so order affairs that all the wheat required hv New Zealand should be grown in New Zealand, and at a price which would give the fanner a fair return for his labour. He condemned our present, system of com-p.-mv taxation, and then proceeded to advo-v-afe-r 'inter-imperial trade, but did not think tho Empire, should Vie locked up m watertight, compartments, each country devoting itself to one particular line of production or industry. SUPPORT FOR THE NAVY. ; Ho urged liberal support of the British Navy, and he thought that tho High Commissioner should bo endowed with greater [lowers SO that New would bo more directly represented in the Empire policy. He did not think we should interfere too much in Britain’s foreign affairs, but wo should devote our attention to the development of Imperial trade, and wo should have a skilled man in London to co-operate with the High Commissioner in that connection. This, with frequent visits by tho Prime Minister to London, would give ns those elate and intimate relations with tho Mother Country, which wore so necessary to tho maintenance of tho Imperial spirit. So far as the Budget was concerned ho tli ought it had given the greatest s-atis-faetion to all sections of the community. If the country had to borrow ho strongly favoured a policy of raising internal loans, thus keeping tho interest payment within our own eo untry-.

“A BARREN DOCUMENT.” Mr MUNRO (Dunedin North) said the Budget wae one of the most barren documents over produced in the dominion, and did not entitle the Minister to the fulsome praise which had boon lavished upon his financial acumen by (ho press of the dominion. As a matter of fact the Minister had little to do with the Budget, which was the work of the Treasury officials. The speaker was proceeding to discuss the Auditor-General’s report on the Government stores when the House adjourned at 5.50 p.m. THE EVENING SESSION. Continuing the debate after the dinner adjournment Mr MUNRO quoted lengthily from statistics to prove that the cost of living was rising, and that the basic wage of £3 17s fixed by the Arbitration Court, was inadequate to meet the reasonable requirements of the workers. The opinion was steadily -growing that the Arbitration Court was purely the mouthpiece of the employers. If a revolution came in this country it would not be because it was incited by the Labour Party, but because of the injustice under which the workers were suffering. MINISTER ANSWERS CRITICISM. The Hon. A. D. M'LEOD said that the Labour Party was constantly railing against the Customs duties, but never once had it suggested how those duties could be safely reduced. It also declaimed against the wealthy classes in New Zealand, ignoring the fact that wealth was more evenly distributed in New Zealand than in any other country in the world, and that the condition of the workers hero was better than in any other country.’ Much had been made tof the Auditor-General’s report, hut every item- discussed was explainable. It was not always practicable to carry out the 'strict letter of the law. If he had dona so there would not have been a singio soldier settler on his land who was a month overdue with his rent. He would bo compelled to sell him up. The Auditorgeneral had not yet adopted a proper system of audit. The stores in his department were mostly in the hands of surveyors, and he knew of no system of audit which would account for everything used. In a survey camp, if the surveyors took a tin of kerosene into the Urewera Country, were they supposed to return the tin to show that the kerosene had been used? A complaint had been made that the Valuation Department had not been used in purchasing land for soldier settlements. That was not r,o. Local information was used and every effort was made to get the fullest information regarding all the land in question. Nothing was purchased without the fullest investigation. Charges of permitting aggregation in land had been levelled against the Government. No one was more against aggregation than ho, but ho was not aware where this aggregation was. Indeed, it was very difficult to say what was aggregation. It had been said in proof Of aggregation that schools were being closed. That was no proof, as in many districts schools were closed because old people continued to occupy the farms while the younger generation sought land elsewhere. His proposal to increase conveyance duties might no*, bo a complete remedy, but his idea was than when landowners sold their land they would sell it in as small areas as possible. Ho denied that the Government was run by the big sheep farmers. There were fewer than £OO men in New Zealand who owned more than 6000 sheep, and all he could say was that if 500 people could run (he Government they were very clover people. There was room for a difference of opinion about an agricultural bank. If the State guaianteed such a bank the State must retain a considerable share of the control. Personally, he thought that, with slight modifications, the Advances Department could be made to meet all the requirements. A good deal had also been said about fettling pumice lands under the British overseas settlement scheme. Personally he not been able yet to find out what this settlement scheme was, and much fuller Information was required, as it appeared to him at present it would be folly to put British immigrants on pumice lands to solve the problem which the best farmers in the dominion knew nothing about. Linked up with the question of pumice lands was that of cheap fertilisers. One of the dangers in front of that industry was the fact that large sums of capital were being sunk in buildings and machinery, and they were rapidly getting Into the position in which the freezing industry was In too many costly buildings. This required careful watching, because it must be remembered that whatever the cost of production was it must be borne by the industry.

In concluding, the Minister said the Reform Tarty had been accused of unfairly organising while tho fusion negotiations were in progress. It was quite (rue, as had been stated by the secretary of their organisation, that organising hud closed, but there was ample justification for what had been done. As late as February 4 last Mr Teitch, chairman of the Liberal Organisation, speaking in the south, said he would have nothing to do with union with the Reform Party, and on .Tune 10 last, speaking at the monument of the late Mr It. J. Seddon, Mr Wilford, leader of the Liberal Party, referred to the Hon. K. H'Kenzie as one of the stalwarts who, with Mr Seddon, fought the Conservatives ns represented by the Reform Party. Expressions such as these justified the Reform Party in assuming that there was no sincere desire for fusion, and its only option was to organise. MR BUDDO’S OBJECTIONS. The Hon. D. BL'HDO said his objection to the Budget was that there was no light and leading in it. It got them nowhere. It was barren of nil ideas for the future, and this is an age remarkable for development. The debate was adjourned on the motion of Mr M'LBNNAN (Franklin), and the House rose at 10.25 p.m. till 2.30 p.m. tomorrow.