ADDRESS-IN-REPLY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 1065, 11 July 1917, Page 3

ADDRESS-IN-REPLY.

THE DEBATE CONTINUED. ALIENS IN IDLENESS. COST OF LIVING QUESTION. ; [From Our Own Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, Julv 10. The Address-in-Reply debate was continued in the House of Represen- ! iiilives (his afternoon, Ihe first I speaker being Dr. A K. Newman (Wellington East). Dr. Newman said the House could not stand for the conscription of married men without malum* proI vision for adequate allowances and I pensions. As regards ilio question lof aliens, he desired to know why I the 500 aliens interned in camps in New Zealand should not be sent to i work, instead of being a burden on i the taxpayer. The people were tired j of the neglect of this alien question, i These aliens were living in luxury. and having a good time. People iof alien birth were also securing good billets, and snapping up the best land in the absence of New Zcalanders at the war. The cost | of living also required the attention | of the Government. If the matter of food control were taken in hand properly and firmly, the high prices would be more tolerably regulated. | How was it that somebody in London was being allowed to make a profit of £1 lfi/- pnr land) from New Zealand? He deplored the shipping merger between the Union Company and the P. and 0. Company. The whole export trade was passing into the hands of a few foreign directors. The Dominion had to face the fact of the necessity for owning the oversea shipping lines. II was no use for farmers to put up £5,000,000. The only way to pet rid of the stranglehold on this country by shipping rin.es and meat trusts was for the Government to take a hand in the game. He urged the adoption of a plan of thorough organisation of the country in order to prepare for a loop war. So far it had been a policy of drift. Mr J. C. Thomson (Wallace), said that experience Jiad .justified the experiment of a coalition administration. It was a time for politics without party, and criticism without cant. So far the Government's policy for this session had not been enunciated, but probably it would follow the line of least resistance. He suggested to the Prime Minister that ■the Board of Trade should issue a weekly bulletin. Personally he was a believer in the State ownership of shipping, and certainly there was no reason why the State should not be a partner in the running of the ships of the Companies trading with New Zealand. He understood that the Government would have some proposals to make leading in that direction. The raising of the freight on wool meant that £8Ml.00() would be taken out of the pockets of the producers of this country—a sum sufficient to pay five per cent, interest on £17,000,000. He stressed the importance of forestry.