FINANCES OF DOMINION

Taranaki Daily News, 16 August 1929, Page 11

FINANCES OF DOMINION

DISCUSSION OF THE BUDGET land settlement schemes. PROPOSED INCREASE IN PAXES. By Telegraph-—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. debate was resumed in the Hoqse of Representatives to-day by Air G C. Munns, who referred to the statement by Labour members that the present debate was “a sham political battle” between the United Party and Reform. He said the policies of the two parties were diametrically opposed, and he would say candidly that if the Reform Party still adhered to its land policy he would prefer to vote with Labour than with Reform. Persistent interjections from Reform and Labour benches aud an occasional retort by Mr. Munns culminated in the Speaker, after several calls for order, rising and insisting on less interruption. Mr. Munns, in the course of a reference to the increased primage duty, said that after 30 years in business he felt he was in a position to say the increase would not be passed on to the consumer. The man who might be ab.e to pass on this increase was the merchant who, however, was gradually being forced out of business as the result oi the modern trend in the development ot trading conditions. The amount would be too small for the retailer to pass on to the consumer. There had been a chorus of complaint against the proposal for increased land tax, but he considered the people who had not carried their fair burden in the past should not be allowed to continue in that happy state. There was only one duty they could not escape paying, he added, and that was the death duty, and even then their relatives complained that the death duty was too high. Mr. Munns, replying to a reference by Mr. D. Jones last night to an agricultural bias in the education system, said the proposal had been adopted by the party before the Prime Minister had been appointed its leader. It was not intended to force agricultural education on anyone whose inclinations were opposed to such training, but everything would be done to encourage those who had any desire to seek a living on the land. UNITED PARTY’S PLEDGES. Mr. W. E. Barnard said ho hoped the United Party would bo able to carry out its pledges. With the presentation ol the Budget the House was now able to form its judgment as to the proposals of the Government, and one could only hope the Prime Minister had not displayed all his wares. There was nothing in the Budget to indicate that cheap money would be available to workers and settlers. The country was expecting the Prime Minister to make good all his promises, and he for one was trying to exercise patience in order to give Sii’ Joseph Ward a chance before issuing a writ for a breach of contract. The Primo Minister had diagnosed the economic ills of the country but had not yet offered a practical cure. Speaking of land taxation Mr. Barnard said he thought the Government’s proposals would receive the fairly general endorsement of his side of the House and of the country as a whole. The “wool kings” had escaped bearing a fair share of taxation, and it gave him a great deal of satisfaction that the Government had decided to put an end to the policy of giving substantial exemption to a class which was well able to pay its share. There might be genuine cases of hardship, but in such cases the occupier of the land would probably be in a more or less precarious position as lie was, and if ho were a prudent man lie would endeavour to relinquish heavily mortgaged property and take up a holding more in. accordance with the amount of his capital. Mr. Barnard was deeply disappointed in the Government’s decision to increase the primage duty, which would tend to increase the cost of living. He suspected some members of the United Party were a little uncomfortable as the result of this decision, which possibly conflicted with the promises .some candidates may have given their constituents during the election. NO CAUSE FOR TAXATION. Mr. AV. D. Lysnar expressed the view that there was no real cause for the extra taxation which it was proposed to charge the farmers, and that if such a policy were put into effect it would be ruinous to the prosperity of the country generally. He suggested that if. the Government had decided that additional taxation was necessary it should have explored other avenues. For instance, he thought the Bank of New Zealand should be called on to pay more in taxation. There were other sources of revenue that should be investigated before increasing the burden on the land. He did not think tho Government should endeavour to produce a surplus at such a time as the present. It should certainly balance the Budget, but should not impose any more taxation than was actually necessary. It had been stated that the Government desired the additional land tax to achieve two objects —to produce revenue and to break up large estates. Mr. Lysnar considered tho latter to be an admission of weakness. If the Government found it could not .acquire sufficient land' under the present compulsory .provisions of the Act it should present to the House in a straightforward way a plan to increase its powers under the Act. If tho Government wanted gtroy tho value of land it should proceed to place the proposed legislation on tho Statute Book. It would ruin the value of land and it might ruin the Government, too. (Laughter.) Mr. Lysnar vigorously opposed the reduction of the amount of mortgage exemption and asked if it were fair to tax a man on a mortgage he had raised on his property in order to develop the productivity of his land. He would prefer income tax on all farmers on the game terms as other people enjoyed to the present proposals. LETTER OF THE LAW. Air. W. E. Parry said he had hoped Hie new Government intended to administer social legislation in the spirit of the law and not in the letter of the law as had been the practice In the past. The Government had not made tho improvement in this direction ne had expected. He had no doubt the Prime Minister was out for a surplus and he hoped when other members had expressed this view a representative of the Government would have agreed that this

was so and would have defended such a course on the ground that more money was being provided to. enable a more sympathetic interpretation of the social legislation of the country. . Mr. Parry said he was convinced there would never be general prosperity until the purchasing power of the working people was made compatible with a decent standard of civilisation. He had thoroughly investigated the problem of unemployment and ho was satisfied tlie only possible solution consisted of an advanced land settlement policy and determined development of the secondary industries. He had been one of the party who had inspected the pumice lands and he had great faith in the possibility of bringing these areas . into a satisfactory state of productivity. Some of this conutry had been planted in trees, but it should have been kept for farming. There had been references to the necessity for ‘“the right kind of men to be selected to undertake the development of lands. This created a dangerous psychological aspect in that it made many people doubtful as to their own ability to farm land. He outlined the efforts of men straight from the mines who had tackled land in the Matamata district some years ago and had made a striking success on land that had been described as so poor that the settlers would bo faced with starvation. Mi. Parry said the people were expecting increases in old ago pensions and blind pensions, and he hoped the Government was not going to let them down. PUMICE LAND DEVELOPMENT. Mr. A. Harris agreed that there were vast possibilities for the development of pumice lands, and he hoped the Piime Minister would see that settlers there were granted assistance by the State Advances Department. Government aid had been denied these settlers for some years on the ground that the land, was not suitable, and he asked Sir Joseph Ward and the Minister of Lands to reconsider their views as to the quality of these areas, and in particular to arrange for assistance to the settleis fiom the State Advances Department. Mr. Harris, replying to criticisms of tho Reform administration of the soldier settlement scheme, said that while ho admitted there had been failures, as there had been in every walk of life, there had also been many happy results. Tho scheme had been the means oi placing on the land men who had had no experience of farming and of whom many were now well on the way to independence. The Reform Government had had to adopt some suitable means of repatriation, and while in some cases soldier settlements had been costly, it had on tho whole been a valuable step in the progress of the country. Referring to the proposal to write off £8,000,000 from the railway capital account, Mr. Harris said this meant that tho assets had decreased by £8,000,000 or that the national debt had increased by that sum. It was absurd to say the railways should not bo required to pay interest on this money, which had been raised by taxation and had relieved the administration from the necessity for borrowing for railway construction.

Mr. Harris claimed there had been a great change in tho feeling of the country. Optimism that had followed the United Party’s promises of cheap money had been replaced by pessimism, and already there was talk of a change of Government. “The United Party's stock has gone down to zero,” he added. “We no longer hear flamboyant challenges to go to tho country. We now hear sober predictions that tho session will run its full course.”

The House rose at 10.3-0 p.m. till 10.30 a.m. to-morrow’.