PARLIAMENT

Southland Times, Issue 20538, 14 July 1928, Page 8

PARLIAMENT

ADDRESS-IX-REPLY LABOUR AMENDMENT DEFEATED CONCLUSION OF DEBATE (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, July 13. The House of Representatives met at 2.30 ! p.m. Mr. R. P. Hudson (Motueka) gave notice of intention to move an amendment . to the Religious Exercises in Schools Bill, i Mr. P. Fraser gave notice of intention to 1 introduce the Right to Work Bill. Replying to Mr. W. 8. Glenn, the Minister of Health said he had not yet received a report of the committee set up to inquire , into the question of T.B. When the report I came to hand he would peruse it and in j due course it would probably be laid before j the House. CABLE AXD WIRELESS. Replying to Mr. P. Fraser who asked, (11, whether New Zealand as a member of the Pacific Cable Board was represented at | the recent Imperial Wireless and Cable | Conference; (2), whether if the New Zea- | land Government was so represented its | representative acted under instructions from 1 Cabinet; (3>, whether the Government supports the reported recommendations of the conference; (4», whether the Prime Minister can inform the House what the nature of j the reported recommendations are; (51, ' whether there is a danger that the Pacific | Cable Board on which the British and Dominions Governments are represented will be replaced by a private commercial : concern; (6i, whether in the event of the rumoured merger between the wireless and | cable interests taking place and provision will be made for safeguarding the interests ’ of the general public, will the Governments j of the various British Dominions and the British Gov eminent have adequate control of the new commercial concern; (71, what ' arrangements are contemplated in regard | to the financial interests of the Dominion . in the present Pacific Cable concern? The Prime Minister (the Right Hon. J. ; G. Coates' said the question of Imperial communications and the amalgamation ot ' the services or possibly an arrangement between the cable and wireless services had been under consideration at the conference » in London at which the various Governments concerned were represented. The report of the conference had only reached him • this week and he had had information to- * day that further information was on the j way. Mr. Coates said he had not studied I the report and that he would not be able to do so until final information was received from Great Britain. When he had full information he would make a statement in the matter. EDUCATION. Mr. H. Atmore (Nelson) gave notice that he intends to ask the Minister of Education whether in any Education Amendment Act which may be introduced he will embody the following clause:—Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the principal Act or in any direction given by the board if accredited persons approved by the Minister desire to give moral and religious instruct ion of a voluntary nature in school buildings, the ordinary opening hour of the I school shall be postponed or the ordinary ■ closing hour in the afternoon shall be ad ' vanced on one day in each week as agreed j upon for not more than half an hour in , order to enable instruction to be conveniently given, provided no alteration shall be made in the opening or closing hours which would reduce the number of hours to be devoted on that day to secular instruction to less than a minimum of four hours fixed by the principal Act. Mr. Atmore explained that this proposal had been approved by the Education Committee which last year had considered the Religious Exercises in Schools Bill. ADDRESS IN REPLY. The debate on the Address-in-Reply was resumed by Mr. J. R. Hamilton (Awarua > who said the House and country were indebted to Mr. C. E. McMillan. the member for Tauranga, for the part he played in securing a reduction in the prices of fertilizers. Farmers were in a much better position than ever before since dairy companies were now able to get fertilizers at the same price as merchants and let settlers have them at cost price. It was pleasant to know that the economic position of the Dominion had greatly improved. Since the House met last year the Opposition had been touring the country denouncing the Government because of the recent depression, but now the title had turned they were not prepared to give the Government any credit. He considered that if the Government was blamec for the depression they should receive i redit for prosperity. The Opposition said the Government should be turned out of office because they failed to settle the lane problem. The fact was that much land in New Zealand had been bought at too high a price to make the recent prices for produce payable. Now that the prices of produce had risen, landowners were in a better position and he believed if they held on 1 >ng enough, values would adjust themselves and there would be no need to sell or leave their farms. He did not believe people were leaving the land to the extent stated. His knowledge of the South Island led him to say there were practically no vacant farms and his fellow-members for the North Island told him much the same condition prevailed there. There was little or no Crown land available for settlement so that a “bold comprehensive policy’’ of settlement of Crown Lands was out of the question, nor would revaluation of land serve any good purpose. The Opposition was very anxious about the farmer to-day because it was election year, but what had they done to assist farmers during the period of depression? They had gone to the Arbitration Court and asked for increases of wages in many branches of farm work. He agreed with the dairy control policy and he always gave the Labour Party credit for their support of that policy whish was essential to protect settlers against the aggression of the middleman who was making large profits out of New Zealand dairy produce. His opinion was that the absence of complete dairy control was costing the farmer of New Zealand a penny per pound on the whole of their dairy produce so that farmers were not getting the benefit of their fight with the merchants on the question of free marketing. AMENDMENT DEFEATED. This .speech closed the debate on the amendment moved by the Leader of the Opposition and at 3.47 a division was taken when the amendment was defeated by 48 to 14, the Labour Party and Mr H. Atmore alone voting for the amendment. The debate on the main question was -arried on by Mr T. Forsyth (Wellington East!, who gave general approval to the Government policy. Mr W R. McKeen criticized what he called the “sheer hypocrisy” of the National Party, who throughout the country had denounced the Government, but when they had an opportunity of proving the sincerity of their criticism they walked into the division lobby and voted for the Government. They condemned wheat-growing. Land settlement, land aggregation and unemployment were all discussed by the speaker, who arrived at conclusions detrimental to the Government and was proceeding on similar lines when the House adjourned at 5.30. EVENING SESSION. When the House resumed at 7.30 the debate was continued by the Hon. R. A. Wright, who said it was correct that the Government had raised the rate of interest on workers’ loans but it was not true to say that it was done at the instigation of the banks. The interest was raised because when they raised £5,000,000 for lending to settlers and others they had to pay 5i per cent, interest and would it be sound business to lend money out at a

lower rate of interest than that which the Government had to pay for it. To increase the rate of interest w T as the only alternative and that fact was commonly known but even at 5f per cent. Government money was cheaper than any other money so that it was absurd to say that the rise was in any way influenced by the banks. As a matter of fact it was the Lending Board which told the Government that the interest rates must be raised, not banks, and the Government did it because it did not pay to lend at lower rates than they were paying. The Government had been censured because they “were trying to keep people on the land.” Surely that was to the credit of the Government in that they were extending the hand of friendly help to settlers who had been passing through an extreme crisis. The Labour Party had blamed the Government because there was a deficit in our railway returns. That might be so but such deficits were not peculiar to New Zealand for in Queensland the “white headed boy of the Labour Party” had the largest deficit of all countries of which they had returns. The fact was that the railway deficits were due to economic causes. For such causes the Government should not be blamed. Mr. H. E. Holland said: The charge is that the deficits are not shown in the accounts in such a way that they could be traced. Mr Coates: That is imagination, not a charge. Continuing, Mr Wright commented on the allegedly false statements issued by the United Party and declared that the party which had resort to such methods would not get anywhere. The Opposition was fond of declaring the Government had borrowed too much but not one of them would say definitely that the money should not be spent on this work or that. They liked to talk in generalities and instead of settling down to facts they preferred to say, “Look at this wicked Government and how it has borrowed too much.” The Government was not responsible for the unemployed problem which was world wide. That fact proved that no one in the world was able to solve the problem. Why then should the Government be blamed in not doing what no one else had been able to do. The Government was not justified in paying award rates on relief works, otherwise the men would never seek work elsewhere and the State would have large numbers of men permanently on its hands. Summing up, he likened the Opposition to Joseph’s coat of many colours, none of which harmonized and the want of harmony would prevent the opposing parties doing any harm to the Government at the next election. Mr. J. A. Nash said the experience of the past year had shown that the Government managed the affairs of the country with care and wisdom and it was comforting to know there was no danger of New Zealand drifting into the deplorable condition of some of the States in Australia under Labour governments. Mr F. Waite, mover of the motion, briefly replied. A motion that a respectful address be presented to his Excellency was adopted without a division and the House rose at 9.30 till 2.30 on Tuesday.