THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 3624, 28 August 1923, Page 25

THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT.

A STRENUOUS TIME. DAIRY CONTROL BILL. NEARING THE END. (Special Correspondent, Otago Witness.) WELLINGTON, August 27. The week has been a very strenuous one in the House of Representatives, Taxation and Finance Bills, a Dairy Control Bill, and a Gaming Bill being the chief features of a mass of legislation that has been submitted to members. There have been late nights and some heated debates, but, on the whole, the House has kept close to business, and the new Speaker has enforced a discipline to which the older members were unaccustomed. The Legislative Council, too, in placing its imprimatur upon the measures passed up from the House, has been dointr an unwonted amount of work. Both the Council and the House sat on Saturday in a strenuous effort to clear their order papers, and it is expected that no great difficulty will be encountered in bringing the session to a close at a reasonable hour on Monday. Licensing Bookmakers. Mr Y. H. Potter on Monday urged the Prime Minister to set up a select committee, in accordance with the petition signed by 85,000 people, to consider the propriety of licensing bookmakers, and to report to the House next session. Mr Massey did not think anything could be gained by setting up a select committee, and, in any case, he hoped the member for Roskill would allow the matter to stand over till next session. The Gold Embargo.

The Chairman of the Goldfields and Mines Committee asked the Prime Minister to lay before the Imperial authorities during his visit to London the injustice occasioned by the gold embargo. The embargo had been lifted nine months earlier in Australia than in New Zealand with the result that during that period Australian gold was soiling at £6 an ounce and New Zealand at £4 3s. Mr Massey said he would be very glad to discuss the matter again with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but he was not very hopeful of making much impression on that gentleman. If it were true, the Minister continued. that the miners of Australia did better by 2&i per cent, than did the miners of the Dominion, then there was a very strong argument for something being done. Neither the New Zealand Government nor New Zealand banks had made as much as a copper out of the embargo.

Right of Appeal, a The petition of tfffe Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants praying for the creation of a permanent Disputes Board was returned to the House by the Railway Committee without any recommendations, the members of the committee regarding the prayer as a matter of policy. Mr H. E. Holland moved that the report be sent back to the committee. The motion was carried on the voices "• Engineers’ Registration. The Engineers’ Registration Bill, making provision for the registration of engineers, was introduced by the Hon. J. G. Coates. It is intended the Bill shall come into force on April 1, 1924. It provides for the establishment of an engineers’ registration board, consisting of six persons, to be appointed by the Minister, three to bo appointed on the recommendation of the Council of the New Zealand Society of Civil Engineers, one of these to be representative of civil engineers, one of electrical engineers, and one of mechanical engineers, the members to be appointed for the term of three years. On payment of the fee anyone is entitled to registration—(l) Who holds some recognised certificate and who satisfies the board that he has not less than three years’ practical experience in engineering. (2) What at the age of 25 has been engaged during a period of not less than six years before the commencement of this Act in the acquisition of practical knowledge or practice to the board’s satisfaction, who makes application within 12 months after the commencement of the Act. (3) Who passes an examination approved by the board, and satisfies it that he has not fewer than three years’ practical experience in engineering. An age and character provision is inserted. The penalty for wrongfully procuring registration is not exceeding £SO for each offence. Imperial Preference. Mr T. M. Wilford inquired what attitude the Prime Minister was going to take up at the Imperial Conference in regard to Empire preference. There was, he said, the question of preference to the farm products of the Dominion and the question of preference to British manufactures. The Leader of the Opposition went on to refer to the taxation imposed by the Home authorities on British manufactures in reduction of the national debt, while New Zealand gave preference to British goods. It must be remembered that the manufacturers of those goods were loaded with excessive taxation which was used for reducing the debt. Britain had reduced her debt by over 400 millions last year, and by oyer 200 millions this year. Most of the taxation on the manufacturers was passed on, in the price of the goods, for which preference was given, and much of it would reach New Zealand in this way. Spade Work. In the course of his reply Mr Massey referred to th decision of the House of Commons in 1917, approving the principle of preference, leaving the extent of it undecided. No preference had been granted to New Zealand or Australia. It had been granted to small colonies like Celyon, ■where tea was grown, and to a country producing sugar. It was quite true that there were several ways of arranging preference other than had been indicated. As far as he was concerned he had already expressed himself in favour of subsidies being granted to shipping by the British and colonial Governments, with the object of placing the Dominion in a better position to meet its competitors in the supply of such things as food stuffs and wool to the British public. Something might be done in reducing income tax on the interest on moneys lent to the dominions, as apart from interest on money lent to foreign countries. It would all help. It was a very delicate subject, and he was not going to increase the difficulties of the British Government by stating plainly what was in bis mind. There was a great deal of spade work to be done.

earning and Racing. The Gaming Bill was introduced by Governor-General’s message, and though at this stage it offered no opportunity for discussion, the consideration of the Stamp Duties Bill later on permitted reference to a kindred subject. It was suggested that the taxation on racing stakes would be reduced from 10 per cent, to 5 per cent, lhe Prime Minister stated that the 10 per cent, tax had been accepted by those concerned on the understanding that it should be reviewed at the end of two years, lhe two years, Mr Massey said, were not yet up. Mr Corrigan interjected that the arrangement was now two years and three months old. Mr Massey considered he was entitled to the amount after giving away the fractions. Mr Corrigan thought it was pretty hard that owners should be required to pay the stake tax for three months longer because the Prime Minister had allowed the racing clubs to detain the fractions. Mr Massey: “Well, if I owned some of the horses, I know I would not mind paying the tax_ There will be a clause in the Finance Bill making things easier for the smaller racing clubs.’’ Mr F. J. Rolleston said the motion would result in a loss of £20,000 to the revenue. He thought the 10 per cent, tax might be continued for another six months. The stakes were just double what thou were in 1914. Mr Massey pointed out that the State collected £600,000 from racing mst year. Mr Rolleston contended that over £500,000 of that amount came from dividend and investment taxes. These were not taxes on racing men, but on the general public. J-tie proposal in the Bill was allowed to stand.

Tna Taxing Bill. The annual Land and Income Tax was committed and the Prime Minister moved formal amendments to make it clear that the rate of income tax derivable from company debentures issued prior to the passing of the Bill would continue to be at the rate of 3s 6d in the pound, and on local body debentures 2s fid in the pound. This ensured that the new rate cf 4s 6d in the pound would not be retrospective. The clauses raising the rate to s 6d in the pound has been introduced, Mr Massey said, to do away with the serious anomalies that existed at present. While interest on local body debentures was 2s 6d in the pound these bodies were able to borrow at a much lower rate of interest than could the settlers on the land, who were competing with producers in other parts of the world. The clauses increasing the tax on debentures applied only to future operations.

Opposition Criticism. Mr J. M‘Combs stated local bodies in his district had protested very strongly against the proposal to increase the tax on debentures. He protested against the tax altogether. It was a means of levying on the local bodies for national revenue. r ihe Hon. J. T. Hanan had no sympathy with a proposal to reduce taxation on a man receiving above a certain amount. Mr Wilford declared that when a man in receipt of a certain sum was affected by a higher rate of taxation he formed a company and paid a lower rate of taxation. The Prime Minister said that with a tax of 2s 6d in the pound on debentures local bodies were able to get their money much more easily at a lower rate of interest than was possibly the case with settlers. The effect had been to make it more difficult for men-on the land to obtain money. He wanted people to get rid of the idea that wealthy men could escape from all taxation, except through free-of-income tax debentures. Another View.

Mr F. J. Rolleston pointed out that the words of the schedule to the Bill were not to be taken literally. When they said me tax on debentures was 2s fid in the pound this was not really the case. It was the individual that paid, not the local body, and the individual as a rule paid very much his ordinary rate, the rate, that was, he paid on his ordinary assessible income. If a man had £6OOO invested in debentures at 5 per cent, he had an assessible income of £3OO and paid no income tax at ail. On an accessible income of £IOOO a year he would pay, roughly, at the rate of Is 3d in the pound, and would not be affected by either the new or the old legislation. The man with over £3OOO a year would continue to pay until he reached the maximum rate of 4s fid in the pound and then he would be subject to no further graduation. The man with an income between £6OOO and £IO,OOO would continue to pay 4s 6d in the pound up to £IO,OOO. . Civer that amount he would pay 5s 10d in the pound under the new scheme. Mr Rolleston did not think it would affect local bodies borrowing at all, as the bulk of the people lending money to these bodies had incomes of less than £SOOO. From his own experience he could say that the bulk of the people lending money to local bodies were people of moderate incomes. , Percolating Taxes. During the subsequent discussion the Hon. C. J. Parr said everybody knew that industry was retarded by heavy taxation, a heritage from the war the world over. It was idle to talk of loading taxes at the top with the idea that they would not percolate to the lower strata. The poor man suffered when the rich man was ground by taxation. It was better that the money should go into the pockets of the wageearners than into the Treasury. Mr H. Atmore said that no better means of prompting unemployment could be imagined than that of over-loading capital with taxation. After a number of other members had spoken, and two amendments moved by i.ir Holland, with a view to increasing the land tax in its higher graduations and reducing the debenture tax in its lower, had been rejected, the Bill was reported from Committee with the amendments moved by Mr Massey.

The Finance Bill. The Prime Minister moved the second readme- of the Finance Bill, explaining that the measure initiated no new line of policy, but simply provided financial authorisation for the Public Works expenditure and for the requirements of the Advances to Settlers Office, and dealt with some minor matters. Mr Wilford described the measure as a “Washing-up” Bill in the guise of a Finance Bill. It was quite improper, he said, to include clauses that should have taken their place in the Washing-up Bill. The National Debt ran into £219,000,000, and the further increase contemplated, in view of the fact that there were over £26,000,000 of unexpired authorities, was unwarranted. If to this were added the £8,600,000 authorised by the Bill, they had an enormous total. The financiers of the Old Country no doubt would welcome the Prime Minister, with the vast borrowing power at his disposal,

and it was to be hoped the Dominion would obtain something tangible from his operations. The Hon. A. T. Ngata urged that all moneys accruing from the sale cf Native lands snould be placed to the credit of the Native Lands Settlement Account. There always was the danger that in times of slump the Government would pass validating legislation enabling it to lay, hands upon the property of Maori beneficiaries.

A Hotch-potch. The Hon. J. A. Hanan said the Bill was a hotch-potch, such as might be expected in panic times. It was time for the country to emerge from the easy-going methods of wartime. There was no real parliamentary control of the public expenditure. Before the war the man who talked of borrowing £6,000,000 a year was regarded as insane. To-day, with enormous war burdens the country should be very careful in increasing its interest bill. The letting lose of the money for public works and other purposes would induce a spurious boom, and land prices would rise, while professional and business men would take advantage of the public spirit of extravagance to so adjust their charges that the reduced taxation would prove of little avail. Both Governpient and people should adopt a policy of self-reliance. Stability in trade would not be reached until the rest of the world was more settled. The Dominion’s sound financial position should bo guarded rather than traded upon.

Agriculture In Optimistic Mood. “The lamentations of the prophet Jeremiah,” commented the Hon. AY. Nosworthy, following Mr Hanan. “Wo have put our policy before the House in this Bill,” continued tho Minister of Agriculture, “and the purposes of the expenditure are set out quite clearly. Let us remember that the war is over and that vvo have passed through a stage of history since 1914. and roust adjust ourselves to changed conditions and make the best of things. The money expended on the drainage of the Rangitaiki and Hauraki swamps has added £3,000,000 to their value. If the speakers do not want hydro-electric schemes and public works, let them get up and oppose thorn in tho House, but do not let them temporise with the electors of the country by playing at one thing and doing another.” The Prime Minister Replies. In the course of his reply to the criticism of the Bill, Mr Massey vindicated the position of the railways and of the Advances Department. It was necessary to remember, he said, that the large interest bills were a legacy from the past, but the policy of investing only in works that constituted securities would safeguard the country. The sum of £59.000,030 was interest earning, there was £63,119,000 invested in the railways, £29,725,000 in Crown Lands, £38,000,000 in State forests, and the total assets were £195,000,000, not including £18,000.000 invested in the encouragement of industides. So long as the money was invested in reproductive works the finance was sound. The Bill was reported without amendment, read' a third time, and passed. Unexhausted Borrowing Authorities. At the request of Mr T. M Wilford, the Prime Minister laid on the table of the House a statement of unexhausted authorities under_ various Loan Acts as at July 31 last. It showed a total of £30,935,535, including State forests £13,225; State coal minqs, £55,000; Public Works Fund, £1,317,420; Wcllington-Hutt railway and road improvements, £3,303; railway impnoveroents, £55,470; Railways Improvement Authorisation Act, 1914, £1,458,310; Waihou and Ohinemuri rivers improvement, £109,000; electric supply account, £6,506,890; discharged soldiers’ settlement, £903,720; education loansi, £2,126,770; provements, £55,470; Railways Improvesoldiers, £1,000,000; land for settlement discharged soldiers, £1, 500, COO; mining advances, £50,000; Native land settlement, £300,000; swamp land drainage, £130,000; war expensesfi £4,467,360; Naval Defence Act, £299,400; waste lands development, £1,000,000; State advances (to settlers £1,500,000, to workers £750,000. to local authorities £1,000,000), £3,250,000; cold storage advances £149.250; fruit preserving industry, £40,000; housing, £5,464,250; and highways construction, £3,000,000. German Goods.

There was a full House on Wednesday afternoon to greet the presentation of the Committee's report upon the Dairy Produce Export Control Bill, but the formality was delayed for half an hour by a number of questions asked by members without notice. Mr T. M. Wilford wanted to know if the Prime Minister during his visit to England would look into the matter of German goods being landed in the Dominion as British. It had been brought to his notice, the Leader of the Opposition said, that £300,000 worth of goods that were imported to the Dominion last year as British goods were in reality German goods. He believed that his information was correct. He understood that there was a duty of 50 per root, in England on such goods, and it was highly undesirable that we should pay that increase on the goods when shipped here from England. Mr Massey promised to give the matter his attention. If German goods were coming to the Dominion as British goods, the authorities ought to know the facts. He would make inquiries and put himself m a position to deal with the matter. Casual Railway Employees. Mr T. M. Wilford questioned the Minister of Railways in regard to the enforced retirement of casual railway employees. The retiring age probably was fair, he said, to the men who would get a superannuation allowance, but it was a hardship to able men of the same age who had nothing to look forward to when they ceased wfirk. It appeared to him that the regulations had been unfairly construed in regard to men who had 25 or 30 years’ of service, _ but who were not entitled" to superannuation. The Hon. J. G. Coates stated that his own feeling was that so long as a man was fit and well, and could return good service for the money he received, he should have the opportunity of continuing work. It was a very old complaint, but he would look into the matter. Dairy Export Control. It was shortly after 3 o’clock when Sir George Hunter got his opportunity to move, on behalf of the Committee to which it had been referred, that the Dairy Produce Export Control Bill shoidd be allowed to proceed. Mr R. Masters, speaking to the motion, deprecated the manner in which the Bill had been held _ up. The evidence, he said, had been printed eight or ten days before, and yet not a member of the

House had been allowed to see it. The Government either wished to force the Bill through during the dying hours of the session or to have it killed in some way that would leave the blame with the Opposition. He was going to give the Government no excuse for blaming him. Mr Masters reviewed the deliberations of the original conference of dairy farmers held in Wellington in regard to the matter. The Taranaki province was represented by six gentlemen at that conference. _What was their position? Mr Masters quoted several of them as supporting the Bill while the suppliers of their factory had opposed the Bill. The proposal had been thoroughly thrashed out in Taranaki, yet there was 42 factories against it and only 19 for it. Taranaki was the only province that had been properly informed and educated on tlnis subject, and it was the province most emphatically opposed to the Bill. An Indignant Retort. The Hon. W. Nos worthy, the Minister of Agriculture, stigmatised the speech of the member for Stratford as the “dirtiest attack’’ upon any Government he had heard during his 15 years’ experience. Mr Nosworthy appealed to the Leader of the Opposition to confirm the good faith he had kept in connection with the Bill. He had cnsulted that gentleman as to the arrangements for bringing the measure down, and had informed him it would make its appearanoe that day. After doing all this he w'as accused of employing discreditable tactics in delaying the production of the report and evidence. The Minister then proceeded to reiterate his belief that the Bill was wanted by an overwhelming majority of the dairy farmers, and that it would be beneficial to them in every way. Suggested Compromise. After Mr G. W. Forbes had reiterated much of what Mr Masters had said, and professed his belief that a majority of the dairy farmers did not want the Bill, the Prime Minister, in the hope, as he put it, of shortening the debate, said that, so far as he was concerned, he would have no objection to the principle of compulsion embodied in the Bill being submitted to the dairy farmers themselves before it became law. At the same time he made it perfectly clear that the Bill was in charge of the Minister of Agriculture, and that the responsibility for any amendment rested with that gentleman. From this out the speakers on both sides confined their remarks to a few obvious remarks, the Opposition showing no inclination to talk the motion out, and when the Hon. J. A. Hanan sat down, two or three minutes before the dinner adjournment, the chairman of the committee, Sir George Hunter, was given his opportunity to lay the report upon the table. The Gaming Bill. The measure which the Prime Minister had described as a Racing Bill under the guise of a Gaming Bill made its appearance at the evening sitting of the House, Mr R. F. Bollard, the new Minister of Internal Affairs, moving the second reading of the measure. The main purpose of the Bill is to authorise the issue of 12 additional racing totalisator permits- and 19 additional trotting permits. Mr Bollard having, with his nice sense of humour, remarked that the Bill was “not very contentious,” proceeded to explain its clauses concisely and clearly. Mr Wilford followed the Minister, reminding the friends of the Bill that the best way to help it through was to talk as little as possible, and setting them a concrete example by stopping at that. Another All-night Sitting. But the opponents of the Bill and some of its friends were not to be guided by the advice of the Leader of the Opposition. Most of the speeches were merely timekillers, but some of them were useful in other respects and eminently sane. The Minister of Customs, the Hon. W. Downie Stewart, Mr Bollard’s predecessor in office, said that when he was in charge of racing he found that the racing authorities were making their own rules. There were complaints regarding the exclusion from the course of a man who had purged an offence perhaps ten years ago. The racing authorities were quite agreeable, however, to meet such a case. The New Zealand racecourses were kept cleaner than those of any other country. In the case of the man cited by Mr Holland, the man had in two or three years been convicted of two charges of forgery and uttering, two of theft, and of being a rogue and a vagabond. The racing authorities should be allowed to keep the courses clean, and it would be time for others to interfere when they failed. He was quite ready to help in making any machinery to avoid injustice, but one had to be careful in listening to claims of unjust treatment. TUI Daylight. And so the talk ran on, in spite of Mr Wilford’s exhortation, tiil nearly 7 o’clock in the morning. By that time the Bill had passed its second reading and got into committee, but further progress in an exhausted House seemed impossible. A conference between the parties was suggested by the Prime Minister, and with that among the possibilities of the future the House adjourned. Public Works. The Public Works Statement and the Public Works Estimates were produced on Thursday afternoon, and set down for discussion on Saturday. A number of Bills, inoludiug the Native Washing-up Bill, also reached the House. On the motion of Mr L. M. Isitt the Christchurch Electric Power and Loan Empowering Bill was withdrawn. Dairy Control Again. After tile disposal of minor business the debate on the second reading of the Dairy Produce Export Control Bill was opened. Sir John Luke regretted that the Government was proceeding with the Bill, and feared it was “heading towards possible disaster.” The Hon. W. Nosworthy said that the Bill was based on the Meat Export Control Bill, which, so for as it had been applied, had proved a great success; and he believed that a similar success would attend the present Bill. Replying to the Hon. J. A. Hanan, the Minister said that the issue put to the suppliers would be “Bill or no Bill.” To knock the compulsion out of the Bill would be to make it a mere scrap of paper, he added, and to pass it without the compulsory clauses would be a mere waste of time. There was no intention of cutting adrift from the people who did business in London so long as they gave our producers fair play. In the contracts exemption clause, he would move an amendment, making the limit of the date of exemption July 1, 1925, again, instead of October 1, 1923. Mr Masters Protests. “I am satisfied from the statement the Minister has just made,” said Mr Masters,

“that we have been fooled.” The previous day, the member for Stratford added, the opponents of the measure had refrained from talking' the Bill out, as they easily ctouid have done, because the Prime Minister had told them that lie was in favour of a plebiscite of the farmers being taken before the bill was put into operation. The Minister: I have not said “No” to it. Mr Masters; No, but the Minister has got as near to it without actually saying it as it is possible to do. Mr Masters added that he would not block the Bill if he were definitely assured that the farmers would have an opportunity of saying whether or not they wanted it before it was brought into operation. He was extremely disappointed in the action of the Prime Minister, and of the Minister of Agriculture. A Plebiscite. After the dinner adjournment the Hon. W. Nosworthy offered that, if the House cut out tlie words inserted by the Agricultural and Stock Committee, providing that the nine producers’ representatives on the ,board should be elected by “direct vote” of the producers, and extend the agency contracts limit to those made before July 1, 1923, instead of October 1, 1922, he would move the insertion of a new clause, ghing the farmers a plebiscite on the Bill as indicated by the Prime Minister the day before. He had, he stated, consulted Mr Massey on the matter during the adjournment. As to the direct election of the producers’ representatives, he understood that the dairy associations and supplier* considered that the mode of election originally agreed upon would be 'less expensive and more satisfactory. Adjournment. The discussion went on steadily for another three hours or so, and ultimately the Bill got into committee. At 1.30 a.m. Mr T. M. Wilford protested against further progress being attempted. Many members had had no real rest for twenty-four hours, and were quite unfitted to continue working. Mr H. Holland joined in the protest, and shortly after 2 a.m. the committee having passed the short title of the Bill, progress was reported, and the House adjourned. Finally Passed. When the House resumed at 1.30 on Friday, an hour earlier than usual, it at once went into committee on the Dairy Produce Export Control Bill. A number of amendments were proposed, and one proposing that no one rejected at the ballot for members of the board should subsequently be appointed by the Government was carried cm a divison by 40 to 32. The Government accepted the recommendation of tha Committee that the members of the board should be elected directly by the producers, and confirmed its undertaking to submit the Bill to to a vote of the suppliers before bringing it into operat on. The Leader of the Opposition also obtained from the Prime Minister a promise that the local price of butter would not exceed the London parity price. The 811 was reported to the House, read a third time, and passed. Estimates. The Railway and Education Estimates followed upon the passage of the Dairy Bill, and being adopted without prolonged discussion the House adjourned at 2.30 till noon. Beginning of the End. Mr Massey was in the House for an hour or so before leaving on his flying visit to his own home, from which he will return or. Monday. He answered a number of questions put to him by members, chiefly referring to legislation that had to be held over, but declined firmly and good humouredly to commit himself to any further work during the expiring session. The business done during the afternoon was mainly of a routine character, and aroused little interest on an exhausted House.