PARLIAMENT

Southland Times, Issue 21824, 29 September 1932, Page 6

PARLIAMENT

ADDRESS IN REPLY DEBATE CONTINUED LABOUR LEADER EXPRESSES VIEWS CURRENCY REFORM SOUGHT (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, September 28. The continuance of the Address-in-Reply Debate in the House of Representatives this afternoon proved disappointing to the well-filled galleries, neither the Leader of the Opposition (Mr H. E. Holland) nor the Minister of Lands (the Hon. E. A. Ransom), who occupied the afternoon sitting, proving interesting in the debate. Mr Holland dealt mainly with subjects that have been debated again and again, and a large part of his speech which was an unusually long one, consisted of quotations from authorities on banking and currency. Mi' Ransom’s remarks were mainly in reply to Mr Holland’s no-confidence motion which was moved at the conclusion of his speech. Unemployment Policy Criticized. Mr Holland criticized the Government's unemployment policy and asserted that many hundreds of men had been withdrawn from the staffs of the Railway Department and other public undertakings and put on to unproductive work such as cutting gorse and blackberries. In the meantime through the staffs not being kept up to strength, repair work in the Railway Department was falling behind and the country would eventually lose heavily. Mr Holland estimated that there were no fewer than 120,000 unemployed (counting men, women and boys) in New Zealand at the present time and these people could and should be set to work on undertakings of value to the people of the Dominion. A Labour Government would at once take steps to transfer men from uneconomic to economic undertakings. There was necessity for a vigorous public works policy on projects of value such as main and secondary highways and road access to backblocks. Construction of economic railways should be resumed even if it did involve taking back power that had been given to the Railways Board. It was a ridiculous policy to give a not very capable board the right to say to the Government, “You have no power to enter upon a policy of railway construction unless you get our consent first.” Developing Primary Industries. There was room for higher development of primary industries and in this connection Mr Holland said he regretted that steps had not yet been taken to secure definite trade agreements with other countries in order to increase the market for the Dominion’s exports. The day for tinkering with tariffs was long past. He did not wish to refer in detail to Ottawa until Mr Coates had presented his report, but everyone Must know that great danger was threatening secondary industries. Mr Holland urged greater development of the secondary industries. The Dominion should import no goods that could be produced here in sufficient quantities and on an economic basis. He would not bother with a tariff. He would simply inform overseas countries that New Zealand did not propose to import goods she herself could produce on the lines he had indicated. The Hon. J. G. Coates: Irrespective of cost? Mr Holland: No, because the responsible Government would take steps to prevent abuse of that description. Continuing, Mr Holland said that New Zealand would have to devote more attention to the home market than she had done in the past. The purchasing power of the people should be increased and one step in this direction should be an increase in pensions. Support for Central Bank. Referring to currency reform Mr Holland said that the country’s problem was to distribute the goods that were produced and the fact that people were starving in the midst of plenty proved that the present system of distribution was stupid and inefficient. The true wealth of the country was in what it produced and the Labour Party would support establishing a Central Bank to control currency. The State

could produce money just as the banks could produce it. This would not mean inflation because it would merely be a case of manufacturing credit backed by the wealth produced by the country. He quoted at length from works by banking authorities and said that Russia had her currency regulated by the volume of production. The Labour Party would regulate the price level and would increase currency and credit as production increased. The purchasing power of any country was the purchasing power of the masses and if the earnings of the masses were increased the purchasing power would also increase. Minister’s Reply. Mr Ransom replied to Mr Holland’s reference to railway construction. He said that no one would suggest that the construction of railways of economic value to the Dominion should be stopped. The Railway Board’s recommendations had been actuated by the facts that the projects were not economically sound and unless it could be shown to the satisfaction of the board that the resumption of work would be economically sound, it was not desirable that it should be proceeded with. The Leader of the Opposition had advocated increasing the workers’ purchasing power but the Minister asked how this was to be done along the lines suggested without increasing taxation. The purchasing power of the country was not a matter of currency alone. It depended on the commercial value of the goods the country produced. He was quite in agreement with the view that currency should be brought into line with the value of production and any conference which would achieve this result would be doing a great service to the world. It was plain, however, that the currency problem could not be solved in any one country. Land was the source of wealth of the Dominion, Mr Ransom said, and it was the duty of the Government to do all it cotlid for people on the land. He believed what was being done to bring about more intensive production was the best thing to do at the present time. Ottawa had proved that New Zealand could not stand alone either in trade or currency. Trade within the Empire was a good thing but was not sufficient in itself and other markets would have to be developed. In 1929 foreign imports into New Zealand were valued at nearly £16,000,000 while only between £2,000,000 and £3,000,000 worth of New Zealand goods went to those countries. However, those countries needed. our primary produce and an effort to secure a place in their markets should be made. A Labo.pr snonxbesj Haw does wart fib ftp tb> QWfflia

Mr Ransom said that the securing of new markets would not interfere with the Ottawa agreements because the dominions had no right to expect that Great Britain would, or could, always absorb the whole of what the dominions could produce. When the House resumed for the evening sitting Mr Ransom dealt with what had been done in the settlement of land but confined himself to giving details regarding l the Ngakuru settlement. Mr W. E. Parry (L., Auckland Central) supported the views expressed by the Leader of the Opposition on the subject of currency. He asked what objection could be raised to the issue of one pound for every one pound’s worth of goods produced in the country. The Hon. Adam Hamilton: You are speaking of a self-contained country. Mr Parry: I am speaking of New Zealand as it is to-day. Continuing, Mr Parry said that the position throughout the world was there was plenty of everything except money. There was an abundance of goods of all kinds and the remedy could only be found by providing people with money to buy goods. Portfolio of Education. Mr H. S'. S. Kyle (C., Riccarton) condemned the action of the Government in giving the education portfolio to a member of the Upper House. He declared that so long as a system existed which permitted this there would be no true democracy in the Dominion. He had been asked in Christchurch what he would do if a vote were taken on the subject and had declared that he would be willing to stand by his convictions and “vote him out.” He criticized the renewal of contracts for school text books. The department should have its own copyright, and should have books printed by public tender, he said. What business firm would renew a contract on a falling market? he asked. If the Minister tried that principle in business he would soon be out of business. Mr W., Nash (L, Hutt) said that while he did not wish to belittle the difficulties the Government had to face, he believed the Prime Minister had done more than any other individual to destroy confidence in the country’s finances. He was satisfied that the country could be carried on without waiting for conditions to improve overseas. “We live on goods, not on money,” he said and added, “we need more control instead of less control. We should not trade in a haphazard way.” Continuing, he discussed the currency question and said that the Government should have converted the whole of the internal debt as soon as the economic storm broke. That, and increased payments to workers, would go a long way to correcting the troubles of the Dominion.

World Solution Necessary. The Hon. A. D. McLeod (C., Wairarapa) said that some world solution of the monetary problem must be found, otherwise civilization would be in danger of collapsing. A cure could not be found in a small country like New Zealand. He quoted figures to show the fall in the value of exportable primary products from New Zealand. Despite the increase in volume the total drop over three years was £27,000,000 of which £28,000,000 related to wool, meat and dairy products. He asked how any local handling of currency could meet that position. Mr J. A. Lee (L., Grey Lynn) said that there was no hope of a rise In prices .in New Zealand while the spending power of the people of Britain continued to shrink, but one of the first essentials to economic recovery in the Dominion was a fixed price in teims of New Zealand currency for the produce of farms. Mr W. A. Bodkin, (C., Central Otago) said that the days of high tariff walls for the protection of the Dominion manufactures was gone and if the manufacturers were to survive they would have to scrap their antiquated machinery and modernize their factories. He claimed that the best method of doing away with unemployment was to settle men on small farms because the men in the best position to-day were those on small areas which were not overcapitalized. The debate was continued by the Rev. C. L. Carr (L., Timaru), until 11.30 p.m., when Mr A. J. Murdoch (C., Marsden), moved the adjournment CURRENCY BILL MEASURE INTRODUCED. STABILIZING PRICE LEVELS. (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, September 27. Before the main business of the day was commenced in the House of Representatives this afternoon Mr C. A. Wilkinson (1., Egmont), gave notice of his intention to introduce the Silver and

Copper Coinage Bill. The Currency Bill was introduced and read a first time. Mr H. G. R. Mason (L., Auckland Suburbs), in moving for leave to introduce the Currency Bill, said that the object of the measure was to stabilize price levels in New Zealand and generally stabilize currency. Mr Mason said that we could do one of two things. We might stabilize the purchasing power of our money or we might stabilize foreign exchange. The Bill would endeavour to raise prices to the level at which they were in recent years of prosperity. The Bill was introduced and read a first time. The Prime Minister’s motion extending the hours of sitting until midnight was carried, Mr Forbes stating that it might not be necessary to sit on Friday evenings in the meantime UPPER HOUSE DEBATE VALUE OF OTTAWA CONFERENCE. “OBJECT LESSON TO ALL NATIONS.” (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, September 28. Most of the afternoon in the Legislative Council to-day was devoted to the debate on the Address-in-Reply which was opened by the Hon. J. Trevethick, the seconder being the Hon. G. J. Smith who was the only other speaker before the adjournment. The main topic touched upon by Mr Trevethick was that of the Ottawa Conference which he said had proved an object lesson to all nations. That there would be consternation in many countries was conceivable but he ventured the opinion that the agreements come to would strengthen the relationship between England and her dominions. The manner in which difficult and heart-breaking problems had been tackled by the statesmen in conference at Ottawa was an inspiration to the Parliaments of the Empire. It was the duty of the Government of this country to honour and ratify the agreements signed at Ottawa by its representatives. Mr Trevethick made a plea for a policy of Empire first and contended that not only should tariffs be lowered against England but at the same time there should be a corresponding increase in duties on foreign imports. He deplored “the devastating dumping system” of the Soviet Government and declared that sooner or later the problem would have to be tackled. He had not the slightest doubt that the Russian commercial menace would one day attack New Zealand if it were not watched closely. Admiration of the manner in which the Coalition Government was carrying oairt Hfi vary difficult task was ex-

pressed by Mr Smith. The job the Government had been called upon to perform was not a pleasant one, but it was doing it extraordinarily well. The Prime Minister had never hesitated to do his duty irrespective of whether his actions were popular or not. The same could be said of the other members of the Government. In view of the fact that there was complete harmony in the Coalition camp Mr Sriiith suggested that steps should be taken to bring about a fusion of the two parties composing the Coalition. At the present time both parties were keeping their respective organizations going and this, he thought, was not in the best interests of the Government or the coimtry.