CRITICISM OF BUDGET

Taranaki Daily News, 12 September 1934, Page 9

CRITICISM OF BUDGET

POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT appeal for railway works. STOPPAGE ON THE EAST COAST. « RECONSIDERATION REQUESTED. By Tekgtoph—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. The financial debate was resumed in the House of Representatives to-day by Mr. D. W. Coleman (Lab., Gisborne). He said he was disappointed with the reference in the Budget to railway construction and would like to have seen the Gisborne-Napier railway completed. It seemed that the railway was to be abandoned, continued Mr. Coleman. He thought that if ■ a vote could be taken most members of the House, would vote in favour of its completion. It was a popular thing to-day to blame the Railways Board, but the board had nothing to do with the stoppage of the work on that line. Just on £5,000,000 had been spent on the line, and the Public Works Department engineers stated that its completion would cost £1,800,000. Surely the line was worth that amount. Interest had* to be paid on the amount ex-pended'-whether, a train ran over the line or not. The line, would serve 43,000 people. Ten per cent, of the sheep in the Dominion were in that. district. If the Government had definitely decided not to resume the work he hoped it would not adopt a dog in the manger attitude but would allow private enterprise to take it over. At the same time he considered the line should be finished by the Government and not by private enterprise. Mr. Coleman said better treatment should have been meted out to the unemployed before any wage restorations were made. He criticised the Government for not making the old-age pension increase retrospective, also for not giving the Arbitration Court power to issue a general order increasing wages. CHEERFUL BUDGET. Mr, J. Linklater (Co., Manawatu). congratulated the Minister Of Finance on the optimistic, cheerful Budget he placed before the House, and. said it must be pleasing to all to have a balanced Budget. Every country in .the world had had tremendous, difficulties to face, but few had faced them as New Zealand had. The task had been-unpleasant for all members of the Government, but it had stuck to its task, though it had had some deserters. The high exchange rate had been of great benefit to the farmers, who had to be assisted in some way. He “ could not understand why some members said the farmers had not received benefit from the exchange. Mr. Linklater said the establishment of a mortgage corporation would give investors confidence in land investments. The corporation promised to provide ample security for land investment. Mr. C. A. Wilkinson (Ind,, Egmont) criticised the raising of the exchange rate and said high exchange was bringing about conditions that would be detrimental to all sections of the Dominion. The Government, he considered, should be most careful in taxing British goods or it would be in danger of setting up conditions that would be to New Zealand’s detriment. To-day the world had to fight for its markets, and New Zealand seemed to think its outside markets were of little value. Mr. Wilkinson went on to quote tfie values of goods sent by Britain to foreign .’countries/ and said France and the United States were relatively much better customers Of Britain than’ Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Ho was not a free trader, and wanted fair treatment.for the manufactures, but unless, they could .reach a better balance between exports and imports than at present trouble would follow. TREATMENT OF BORROWERS. Regarding the mortgage corporation, lie: said the State Advances Department and. the present lending institutions had treated their people very sympathetically.- If a man had a case to make he could put it up to the department, but he would have no chance of doing so to a corporation. In that case business would be the essence of the contract. If a man could not pay he would be sold up. Mr. Wilkinson said the Auditor-Gen-eral in his report said the Dominion had lost £1,000,000 in the conversion of its silver. Mr. Coates: The Auditor-General is up a tree; he does not know. what he is saying, and he will say so. Mr. Wilkinson went on to criticise the Government for allowing Australian coins to be circulated in New Zealand, and said all such coins should have been collected and sent back to AuStra- _• lia. New Zealand in its silver conversion had made a desperately bad bargain. Mr. E. F. Healy (Co., Wairau), after congratulating the Minister of Finance on what he termed a “bull’s-eye” Budget, turned to railway construction, particularly the, South' Island main trunk. He said that part of his electorate had no chance of development while that railroad was at a standstill. He wondered whatthe Railways Board could manage; it could not manage even a sawmill, and •it should not be left to the board to say whether the railway should be proceeded with or not. It 'would be in the interests of the country to complete both the South Island main trunk and the Gisborne-Napier line. He hoped that if a reasonable proposition was put to the Government by private enterprise to take over the ChrisichurchPicton line .the Government would not stand in the way. DEFENCE VOTE DEFENDED. Mr. W. P. Endean (Co., Parnell) defended the increase in the defence vote : and said that in the last war New Zea- i land, was defended in the North Sea. If ] war broke out in the Pacific he supposed j she would be defended somewhere in the i vicinity of Singapore. He did not think J the raising of the exchange rate was i contrary to the spirit of the Ottawa Agreement, his understanding being that that question was left open to each Dominion to decide for itself. He considered that with the price of gold about £7 it would pay the Govern- 1 ment to encourage that industry and re- ; lax the restrictions as much as possible, i The tourist industry was another thing ; that should be given every encouragement. He thought the mortgage corpora- ) tion scheme should be given close con- s sideration. He hoped the Government i would give an assurance that there would 1 be no more interference with mortgag- < ors’ relief so that the private investor < could take part in lending on land. He « thought the old-age pension restoration < should have been made retrospective, 1 and he considered that instead of re- i storing the wages cut to civil servants J the Government should have reduced the i taxation under which the whole country I was staggering and taken a big slice off i the unemployment tax. ' Mr. Endean considered the Govern- a ment should bring down legislation to 1 give it power to deal with university 1 professors who made remarks as those 1 made at Auckland recently. 1 Mr. R. McKeen (Lab., Wellington f South) said members on the Government si’de'h'ad evidently b'eeh vleirig with I

each other to find suitable words to praise the Budget, but he compared it with Columbus, who when he set out did not know where he was and when he got back did not know where he had been. APPEAL FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. Mrs. McCombs said she was astonished that considering all the appeals that had been made by business men and others that the Government had done nothing for unemployed boys. Tlie Government did not seem to have sufficient imagination to realise that boys and girls were the best asset the Dominion had. The Minister of Education and the Government refused to do anything for boys, but in New South Wales the Government had taken the matter in hand and established seven vocational schools. Even more was being done in England. The Government continued to collect an increasing sum—it must be over £1,000,000 annually from women--yet it was putting unemployed women and girls off with only a few pounds. It was time the Government did something adequate for those women and girls. Teachers had suffered more severely than any other part of the Government service through tire reduction of salaries and the disorganisation of their work, and the fact that a teacher had to shift to gain promotion meant continued unrest in the profession. She pleaded with the Government to do something for returned soldiers who had suffered as the result of war Service, but who were unable to prove that their present condition was due to war service. Mr. McKeen said the Auckland professors desired only to educate the people. What they said after the day’s work was done had nothing to do with the Government. He asked the Government to do something to improve the apprenticeship position. The housing problem was one that should be tackled. There was a definite shortage of houses and two and three families were compelled to live in one house because they could not pay rent. He said the sales tax was most inequitable and unjust. Those who were paying it were persons with small wages. He thought the tax should have been removed. He contended that the Budget should have shown a deficit of £2,967,000; in addition the national debt was piling up year by year. INCREASING NATIONAL DEBT. Mr. McKeen said the national debt when the United Party took office was £251,000,000. It increased by £16,000,000 under the United Government and by £17,000,000 under the Coalition. The Hon. J. G. Cobbe said courageous administration had produced the present satisfactory Budget. The Government was satisfied that a mortgage corporation would have a beneficial effect, especially on those who produced the real wealth of the country. Secondary Industries could be successful only as far as they could suppl? local needs. It was to the primary producers that the Dominion must look. Higher exchange had been of great benefit to the farmers. He doubted if any Act passed in recent years had been of greater benefit than the Mortgages and Tenants’ Relief Act. There was a steadily increasing tendency to settle matters privately, but many left it to the commissions, showing the confidence placed in the commissions. Had it not been for the Act he shuddered to think what would have happened to the farmers.

The debate was interrupted when the House rose at midnight.