PARLIAMENT

Southland Times, Issue 19655, 4 October 1922, Page 6

PARLIAMENT

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. (Per United Pr&ss Association.)

WELLINGTON, October 3. The House met at 2.30. PUBLIC DEBT EXTINCTION FUND. In reply to the Hon. J. A Hanan (Inven cargill) MR MASSEY said he was proceed*ing with the proposed Public Debt Extinction Fund scheme. The necessary legislation was now being prepared, and if it was ready before the end of the month it would be introduced this session. He did not care to give any preliminary explanation of the scheme, which was somewhat complicated. DISTRIBUTION OF WAR NEWS. In reply to Mr W. T. Jenniqgs (Waitomo) the J. G. COATES' said he did no.; anticipate any difficulty in notifying distant 1 country places of urgent war news through the Post Office. The Hpuse resumed at 7.30. POST AND TELEGRAPH BILL. The Post and Telegraph Amendment Bill passed the committee stage with an amendment moved by the Minister, altering the constitution of the Promotion Board by substituting the First and Second Assistant Secretaries for the. Chief Inspector and Superintendent of Staff. The MINISTER explained that the Post and Telegraph Association had not been consulted with respect to the proposed change, but in response. to an appeal by Mr Veitch he promised to do *so before the Bill became law. POWER BOARDS BILL In committee on the Electric Power Boards Amendment Bill, the MINISTER said they had got into a very awkward position with regard to Hie supply of power in Canterbury. The Gopernmcnt had the Lake Coleridge supply in hand, but they now had a proposal to develop power from Lake Tekapo, and the Christchurch City Council was bringing an expert from America to report on a supply from the Waimakariri river. Until it was finally decided what was to be done about these two schemes the Government could not go on expending money on. the development of Coleridge. Otherwise they might get into a position where they would be producing more power than they could get a demand for. He hoped the position would become more clear within the next few weeks, but in the meantime the Government must hold its hand with regard to Coleridge.

In sub-section 1 of Clause 2 MR M. J. SAVAGE (Auckland West) moved an amendment, the effect of which was to give the right to elect Power Boards to the electors of constituent districts instead of to ratepayers of the district, In support of his amendment the mover urged that under the Bill a vote was being given to property, which was a retrograde step.

The HON. J. G. COATES, Minister in -charge of the Bill, explained that the voting system was permissive. Where a Board was formed in a borough municipal voting would apply, and in counties the county system would be adopted. In the case of a borough and county deciding to form a combined district the county system, which was by ratepayers, would be the franchise, because in counties there was no roll for electors to vote on. MR W ILFORD said the system in the Bill made for uniformity. MR SAVAGE retorted that- if uniformity meant retrogression then he did not favour uniformity. On a division the amendment was lost by 43 to 14. Clause 6, reducing the maximum number of members of a Board, was, on the motion cf the Minister, struck out. At clause 16 the Minister moved to report progress to give him an opportunity of moving further amendments. This was agreed to. COAL MINES All. In committee on the Coal Mines Amend°ment Bill, the MINISTER moved a new clause providing that on an assignment of a coal mining lease the Minister may require payment of a proportion of the royalty exceeding one shilling per ton. MR HOLLAND objected to the clause because it did not prevent trafficking in royalty. It only provided that the Minister should divide the spoil with other traffickers. The clause was agreed to without discussion. THIRD READINGS. On the House resuming all the Bills which had passed the committee stage were read the third time and passed. AMUSEMENT TAX BILL. The PREMIER moved the second reading of the Amusement Tax Bill, which, he said, was largely a consolidation of the existing law. He was somewhat disappointed with the amount of revenue derived from the tax, whi«h he knew was not a popular tax. They expected to realise £160,000, but they might get £120,000 to £135,000, and so far as he could see it was increasing raiher than decreasing. In any case he expected to get more during the summer than the winter months. He explained that he proposed to add .poultry shows to the exemptions, provided the proceeds were devoted to the objects of the society. He did not like collecting money through an amusement tax, and as soon as he could repeal it he would do so. Discussing the question/of revenue generally, he said he had estimated that for the financial year they would collect £5,800,000. For the first six months they collected just about half that sum, £2,900,000 as a matter of fact, and they had the best six months of the year to come, so that he would be surprised if he did not collect three-quarters of a million more than the estimate. That indicated, that things were improving. Frankly, he disliked the amusement tax, but the Bill t was a liberal one in several respects, as *he estimated that it would be giving away about £25,000.

MR HOLLAND objected to the whole principle of the amusement tax, and said that in committee he would giye tile House an opportunity of repealing it. MR T W. RHODES (Thames) apjiealed for the exemption of Returned Soldiers’ Associations' entertainments from the tax. MR V. H. POTTER (Roskill) asked the Premier to exempt boxing exhibitions from lhe tax. MR W. S. GLENN (Rangitiker) asked for more consideration for football, which gave the country the best advertisement New Zealand ever had. MR SAVAGE contended that the tax was fundamentally unsound, and he hoped the Premier would find some other way of providing revenue. . MR LYSNAR said it was time enough to talk about doing away with this tax when the Minister of Finance said the finances of the country warranted it being taken off. In-reply to Mr E. J. Howard (Christchurch South) the PREMIER, announced that he proposed to exempt swimming clubs. He also stated that he proposed to exempt musical and elocutionary competitions. The PREMIER, in reply to the Debate, said the amusement tax was a war measure necessitated by the z urgency of circumstances, and as" tilings were improving he hoped soon to do without it altogether. In the meantime he was thinking out a scheme of graduated taxation on racing clubs which would relieve them, somewhat, as he knew they were hard pressed. He was also prepared to amend the Bill so as to give the Commissioner greater discretion in making exemptions. The bill was read the second time. The House rose at 11.25 p.m.