FINANCE BILL

Southland Times, Issue 21219, 21 October 1930, Page 7

FINANCE BILL

FIRST READING

MAIN FEATURES OF MEASURE

.LOAN FOR PUBLIC WORKS

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, October 20.

The Finance Bill (No. 2.) which appeared in the House of Representatives this evening, consists of 61 clauses and deals with public revenue and loans, pensions, superannuation and relief funds, swamp drainage, local authorities and public bodies and miscellaneous matters.

The Bill proposes to empower the Minister of Finance to borrow £5,000,000' for the Public Works, including railway construction, additional rolling stock, for open lines, telegraph extension, construction and improvement of roads, construction of irrigtion works, to empower the Minister of Finance to borrow £2,000,000 for electric power works, £1,000,000 for railway improvement under the Authorization Act, 1914, £1,000,000 .for the purpose of the Forestry Act, 1921-22. The Bill also proposes to give the Minister of Finance power to make advances to the Public Trustee, Native Trustee and Government Insurance Commission and to amend the schedule purposes of the Loan Act to enable education boards to acquire lands, buildings and equipment for school dental clinics. The Bill also proposes to extend steamer privileges to wives of South Island members of the General Assembly to steamer tickets for 12 passages instead of 6.

Other matters dealt with are the appointing of an Under-Secretary of Defence, abolition of the time limit with respect to attributablity, death or disablement due to war service, giving authority to local authorities to contribute towards the fund raised for the purpose of endowment of the chair of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Otago and the validating of the payments made to Mr T. D. Pearce on his retirement from the education service. A great many other riiatters of more or less local interest arc dealt with in the Bill. Film Hire Deadlock. When the Finance Bill was introduced the Hon J. G. Coates asked the ActingPrime Minister (the Hon. E. A. Ransom), if any provisions had been made in the Bill concerning the deadlock which had occurred in connection with film hire and if there were provisions to meet requirements under the Unemployment Act. Mr Ransom said that the provisions had been, made to carry unemployment up to March 31 next when a fair amount of money would be available under the levy. He did not consider that it was necessary to provide any money to meet the position regarding film hire tax. The Minister of Defence (then Hon. J. G. Cobbe)/ said that the Bill provided for the appointment of an Under-Secretary of Defence, who could be a civilian member of the service and would control the financial side of the Department. As before the Commandant would be responsible for the training and equipping of the forces. The appointment would not mean a fresh addition to the Civil Service because an officer already in the Civil Service would fill t'he position. -Who was the officer the Department proposed to appoint? the leader of the Labour Party (Mr H. E. Holland) asked. There was no need for secrecy in the matter. The appointee’s name would come out later and it was only fair that it should be known to the House before they discussed the Bill. As far as the film hire tax was concerned he said it was not a deadlock, but a strike. Mr W. E. Barnard (L., Napier): Or is it a lock-out? It was a strike in every sense Of the word, Mr Holland said, and he took it that no foreign concern was going to be allowed to dictate the financial attitude of the country. He hoped that the ActingPrime Minister would keep to the stand he had taken. In reply to Mr Holland, Mr- Cobbe said that he could not say who. the Undersecretary of Defence would be. The Bill was read a first time and the second reading will be taken on Wednesday. SUPPLEMENTARY ESTIMATES APPEARANCE IN HOUSE. SOUTHLAND ITEMS., (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, October 20. The Supplementary Estimates which made their appearance in the House of Representatives to-night, provide for the voting of £123,336 for the Consolidated Fund and £100,429 for the Public Works Fund. Items dealing with Southland are not plentiful, but the following are included: Purchase of recieation reserve at Half Moon Bay, Stewart Island (subject to the donation of' an area by the Presbyterian Church) £215. Halcrow Road, Mvross Bush (£ for £) £75. Laing and McDonald’s Road (£ for £) £75.

Lang Road (£ for £) £5O. , Ryan Road (£ for £) £75. Two Bush Road (£ for £) £lOO. Waihopai stream bridge (£ lor £) £ll

Wilson and McCarthy Road (£ for £) £75.

Woodlands South Road £125 (£ for £) £275.

Horseshoe Bay wharf approaches, Stewart Island, £2OO.

Shaw’s Road to main highway (£ for £) £lOO.

Pebbly Hills Plantation (additional) £5OO.

Other-items of interest in the Estimates are as follows: Funeral expenses to Sir Joseph Ward £650; additional maintenance for Karitane Hospitals £1250; additional subsidies towards salaries of Plunket nurses £5,050; additional by-election expenses £1,220. . , There is also provision for the deletion of £l,OOO from the Main Estimates under the reduction of deer herds, the Supplementary Estimates stating “not now required.” FUNCTIONS OF TREASURY KEEPING OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS. STATEMENT BY MR RANSOM. (Per United Frees Association.) Wellington, October 20. When the Finance Bill (No. 2) was introduced in the House of Representatives this evening, the Hon. E. A. Ransom made a statement to the House on the subject of a clause which was excluded from .last year’s Finance Bill. The clause provided for “defining the funetions of the Treasury with reference to the method of keeping public accounts.” It had been intended to bring down legislation of a' similar character this session, but it had been decided first to obtain the opinion of Sir Otto Niemeyer on the subject. Sir Otto Niemeyer reported inter alia that it was obviously the function of the Treasury as the supreme financial authority to decide in what form public accounts should be kept and this was already recognized in the Treasury regulations. It was,also obviously the function of the Treasury to decide what charges were proper or necessary in respect of depreciation, rent, interest, sinking fund or repayment of debt. It. was equally obvious that the action of the Treasury in exercising such functions was open like any other financial transaction of the Government to the comment and criticism of the auditor. In these circumstances he did not see the precise neces-

sity for the proposed clause, but if there was any doubt on the subject it should be easy to draft a short clause to give effect to the above propositions. Sir Otto Niemeyer had added that it might be that some of the difficulties which appeared to have arisen in New Zealand were due to the unusual arrangement by which large portions of public expenditure were provided by special appropriations and not by annual votes. He was of the opinion that a large number of services, for example, pensions, highways expenditure and subsidies now provided by special appropriations, would more suitably be brought to the annual notice of Parliament by means of votes. It was further desirable to avoid too great a number of minor separate accounts. Too much detail and too great a multiplicity of accounts only defeated the aim of all public accounting which should be to present the public with ’a clear and comprehensible picture of the financial position rather than go into every possible refinement of technical accounting. Mr Ransom stated that it was not proposed to deal, with the matter further during the present'session.