THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1932. THE LEGISLATIVE PROGRAMME.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21578, 25 February 1932, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1932. THE LEGISLATIVE PROGRAMME.

The Speech which the GovernorGeneral delivered yesterday afternoon at the opening of Parliament was not communicative respecting the details of the business that is to be submitted during the special session that has been summoned “owing to the abnormal economic and financial position.” Yet it said all that was necessary. The Government, having received from the electors a mandate to devise such measures as are dictated by expediency, is taking an early opportunity of seeking parliamentary approval of its proposals. It does not possess the “ unfettered authority,” which the Speech says it sought from the, electors. Under our constitutional system it cannot enjoy “ unfettered authority.” Its authority must be subject to the overriding authority of Parliament. Except in so far, however, as its proposals require the endorsement of the legislature in order that effect may be given to them it has certainly received from the constituencies “ carte blanche ” to meet the extraordinary conditions that exist by the means which it considers most likely to prove in the interest of the Dominion. The conditions under which the appeal was made to the country have not improved. On the contrary, they have been made increasingly difficult through the continued decline in the public finances, as the result of which it is frankly admitted in the Governor-General’s Speech that a deficit in the public accounts for the current year is “ unavoidable.” In these circumstances, which constitute a reflection of the trade depression that prevails in New Zealand in common with the rest of the world, the Government is placed in the unpleasant position that fresh reductions in the public expenditure of a drastic nature must be made by it. The Governor-General’s Speech includes in this connection a direct reference to the expenditure on public works, a curtailment of which has already been begun. Since borrowed money provides the funds that are employed in the expenditure on public works, and since there is no likelihood of the Government being able to raise a loan at the present time, it is obvious that the programme of public works must be virtually suspended. To such an extent is the pursuance of a public works policy dependent upon borrowed moneys that a considerable portion of the salaries of the officials of the Public Works Department has, in actual practice, been charged against loan account. It is impossible, therefore, to escape the conclusion

that, while this department cannot be abolished, it is about to suffer heavy blows from the economy axe. The special method by which its operations have been financed renders it specially vulnerable at the present time. The reductions in expenditure must extend, however, to most of the State departments, particularly, it may be assumed, to the Education Department, but apparently the Government intends to await the preliminary recommendations of the Economy Commission, which is to make an interim report next week, before it decides upon the other forms of retrenchment that are to be adopted. An improvement in the method under which unemployment relief is granted is promised in one of the measures, that are to be introduced. It will be necessary that additional funds shall be placed art the disposal of the Unemployment Board, and an uneasy feeling prevails that the taxation that will be imposed with this end in view will press heavily upon that section of the community on which the burden of income taxation already falls severely. If public apprehensiveness on this poinrt should turn out to be well founded, it will be highly necessary that there should be a genuine improvement in the method of unemployment nelief and that the moneys provided for the purpose should not be squandered in payments for useless work of the kind upon which the unemployed are to a large extent engaged at the present time. The Government’s proposals for amending the Arbitration Act are to be brought down this session and the Labour Party has, without knowing what will precisely be involved in them, • declared that it will offer strenuous resistance to them. Another legislative proposal will provide for an' amendment of the Mortgagors Relief Act. While there will be much that will be contentious in the programme for the session, it may be hoped that the provisional trade treaty with Canada which, together with a trade treaty with Belgium, will be submitted for ratification, will be found to be of such a character as will win general acceptance.