HEARS RUMBLINGS OF DISCONTENT IN REFORM RANKS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17882, 25 June 1926, Page 10

HEARS RUMBLINGS OF DISCONTENT IN REFORM RANKS.

“THE END IS IN SIGHT,’' DECLARES MR H. E. HOLLAND

Per Press Association. WELLINGTON. June 24. " I think the end of the Reform Party is in sight, for I think I can hear rumblings of discontent in its ranks.” So said Mr Holland, Leader of the Opposition, resuming the debate on the Address-in-Reply in the House this afternoon.

H» first intimated that he intended to move an amendment to the motion moved by Mr Tapley last night, and then proceeded to compliment the mover and seconder of the motion on their speeches, which were characterised by great moderation for members of the Reform Party. The GovernorGeneral's speech was remarkable; not so much for what it contained as for what it did not contain. There was no satisfactory information regarding public works long overdue, and the assurance once given that legislation would be introduced assisting the family man was now reduced to a hope that legislation would be brought down. It had been claimed by Air Tapley that the Government had secured a signal victory at last election. but was it such? He quoted figures to show that if the Reform Party had representation in the House in proportion to the votes recorded for its candidates it would only have thirty-five supporters. not fifty-one. Labour would have had twenty, and the Nationalists fifteen. The present position was brought about owing to our unfair system of representation. However he thought the end of the Reform Party was in sight, for he thought he heard rumblings of discontent in its ranks. Hon members: Nonsense. Mr Holland said he took part in the Eden election, where he heard accusations of- graft. An honourable member: There was a woman in the case. Mr Holland: She was not the first woman in Eden. Referring to the fact that the election had resulted in the elevation of the Labour Party to the position of his Majesty's Opposition, he said that was the only logical result of political evolution all over the world, under which the middle r*arty disappeared, and party lines were- consequently better defined today than they had been for years. As Leader of the Opposition, he accused the Government of pretending to be the friends of the farmers, but no sooner did they secure their big majority in the House than they raised the rate of interest to settlers, thus putting an additional burden of £375 on every man who raised £IOOO to build up his farm. If there was need to raise the rate of interest there was certainly no need to raise it by li per cent, but with care and prudence there was no need to raise it at all. Land aggregation prevailed in the Dominion. Everyone admitted that, and everyone knew that while the capital value of our lands had increased by 60 per cent., the mortgage value had increased by 175 per cent during the past fourteen years, yet all the time the Government had been in office they had done nothing about it. Then, although the Reform Party had denounced the Liberal Party for increasing the national debt, they themselves had increased it by sixty-six millions, apart from war indebtedness, until we had reached a position which Mr Tapley described as one of which the country had no reason to be proud. He repeated his protest against the censorship on literature. Books dealing with history, politics, economics and science should never be banned, but if there was to be censorship, it should be equal all round. and literature published in New Zealand denouncing the King and ridiculing Christianity should be stopped, and prosecutions should have followed for offences more grave than that for which a Labour paper was prosecuted. He denounced the Government for its treatment of public servants, who contested seats in Parliament, and said those men should have an opportunity of returning to their old positions at the old salaries. The Prime Minister: We have all that arranged. Mr Holland expressed gratification that this was so, and proceeded to protest against members of the House who had been useful in saving the Government from defeat, being ele\ated to the Legislative Council within two days of the general election. The Prime Minister: They were good appointments. Mr Holland said whatever might be thought on that point the principle was bad, just as making the appointment of High Commissioner a political one was bad. with the result that New Zealand did not get the best mail available. Sir James Parr talked too much for that responsible position. Mr Holland adversely criticised the action of the Government in not giving New Zealand representation on the International Labour Conference at Geneva, and for not letting Parliament or the country know the Government’s views on the subject of the international Protocol and Pact. They seemed to have given Sir Austen Chamberlain a blank cheque, and placed our affairs in the hands of a Government which was dominated by a dangerous personality like Mr Winston Churchill. He insisted that whatever was done in the name of the people, the people should know about it. Before the. Prime Minister went to the Imperial Conference, he should take the House into his confidence, and tell members what his line of action was to be, and New Zealand's delegate should be instructed by Parliament, even if it was necessary to call Parliament together for that purpose. He concluded by moving the following amendment:— That the following words be added to the motion of the hon member for Dunedin North: “But we deem it our duty to represent to your Excellency that your Excellency’s advisers do not possess the confidence of the people of the country, for the following reasons:--“(l) The Government’s action in heavily increasing the rate of interest charged by the State Advances Department to farmers and homebuilders, and their failure to make provision for adequate financial accommodation for the producers of the Dominion. “(2) Their failure to make provision for increasing pensions in order that the recipients shall be provided with a reasonable human standard of comfort. "(3) Their refusal to give effect to the terms cf the. Peace Treaty relating to the industrial representation of New Zealand at the International Labour Conference.

FINANCE MINISTER IN REPLY. The Leader of the Opposition was followed by the Hon Downie Stewart, who said that while Mr Holland was fund of accusing the Reform Party of

being a minority party he himself owed his position as leader of the Opposition, not. to his own strength, but to the weakness of the National Party. He fluked,a win. The fact was that while the Reform Party at last election coni tested five seats fewer than at the prei vious election, they received 17,222 ! more votes, while the Labour party, ; contesting eleven seats more, secured ; only 32,000 additional votes. Mr Holland was fond of boasting that the Labour Party was making great progress in New Zealand, but he sat at i the head of fewer supporters in this ■ House than in the last, and so long as I he progressed .in that direction he (the j speaker) had no objection. Mr Stewart then proceeded to defend the censorship of literature which, he J said, had existed in New Zealand for sixty years, and no objection had been ; taken to it until Mr Holland wanted to flood the country with Russian literature advocating violence. He describied the procedure in censoring books, I which was done by a board and was prefectly fair in its operation. Anyone had a right to go before the board and make representations with regard to any book and it could be done in public if desired. He was quite prepared to publish a list of banned books, so long as it was clearly understood that i any book not on the list was not necessarily free to come in. It was wrong to assert that working class literature was being banned. All they wanted to stop were books advocating violence and propaganda dangerous to the public interest, but there was always the right of appeal to a board. A similar class of censorship existed in many other countries, all of which could set up their own standard. As to the cases of alleged discrimination raised by Air Holland, he could only suppose that the publications referred to did not offend against the law, otherwise prosecutions would certainly have followed. As to the charge that New Zealand Labour was not represented at the International Labour Conferences, he found that we were entitled to send four delegates, each of whom could take two experts, and it would become a very expensive matter. The Government was giving the League of Nations every support, but it was now costing us some £IO.OOO annually, and we might well hesitate to increase that sum. We were represented at present by the British delegates. The questions discussed were generally outside New Zealand ambit, and while the Dominion was so remote he doubted the wisdom of altering our present system of representation, especially in view of the great difficulty in selecting New Zealand representatives to go to Geneva. While Mr Holland rated the Government for not increasing housing accommodation he chided them for increasing the national debt. How could they have great social movements without added expenditure. The Family Allowance Bill, which Mr Holland said was not coming down, was actually drawn but was waiting for some figures from the census returns before the final clauses could be drawn. He defended the recent appointments to the Legislative Council on the ground that the men sent had rendered great services to the country and were richly deserving of the honour conferred upon them. Party services had nothing to do with their elevation. SCIENCE IN AGRICULTURE. The Hon D. Buddo stressed the importance of scientific research in connection with the agricultural industry. For this purpose he advocated the raising of Lincoln College to the status of the principal college of the Dominion. as it was best qualified to confer degrees and would save the taxpayer a very large sum of money annually. The Hon O. J. Hawken said the House had the usual motion of no confidence in the Government, and it was quite evident that the leader of the Opposition was hard put to it to find reasons for assailing the Government. He had accused them of not increasing pensions, but evidently did not know that the Minister of Pensions had in hand a Rill which would do much to solve this problem, which he admitted was now one of the recognised functions of the Government. Farmers’ finance had been referred to by Mr Holland. but it was well known that the Government had sent a commission to inquire into this question. He advised members to await the return of that commission before they attacked the Government. Long dated loans were what farmers wanted, and they could not be expected to progress without them, therefore while the Government might, not be able to say this session what measure of relief they would be able to give there was no doubt relief would be given, and that in the best possible way and on the best possible terms. THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. Touching the question of the agricultural college Mr Hawken said it was well known that the farming community was not as well educated as other sections of the people, and there was no reason why they' should not be, therefore the Government had definitely decided to set up one college of university standard. Lincoln College was excellent in its way, but it was not in the centre of agricultural New Zealand, and the Government had decided that the college to be set up was to be in the North Island. Ideas on agriculture in New Zealand were changing and he had no doubt there would be ample employment for the graduates turned out, who would be wanted for instructional work all over the Dominion. This college would necessitate no little expenditure. It probably would cost £50.000 to purchase a farm and £IOO,OOO for buildings, and from £15,000 to , £20,000 on staff and the college would ! be administered by a council which 1 would keep it abreast of the times. Referring to the value of research work, he spoke of the good work done by J Lincoln College in investigating diseases of wheat, and instanced that the discovery of a natural enemy of the woolly aphis in apples had saved Nelson province £IO,OOO per annum. There was no branch of education which would pay better than farm education, and it would enable our farmers to make a better living with less effort. We were in a position in New Zealand to found an agricultural college which would be a credit to the whole Do-

minion. Mr Hawken admitted that there were large areas of waste lands which must be brought into profit, but it | would be absurd to put immigrants on

such land. Immigrants should first look for a billet at four or five pounds per week until they had gained the necessary experience. With regard to i afforestation, he welcomed the work which afforestation companies would do. That work, he felt confident, would be valuable. At the same time the State must not curtail its operations, and no money it could expend would be more usefully spent than in planting trees. OTHER SPEAKERS. Mr Savage devoted a considerable portion of his opening remarks to incidents connected with the Eden by'election, suggesting that the Reform Party spent so much money on advertising that they must have had considerable difficulty in keeping their expenditure within the legal limit. He maintained that even if New Zealand was leading the world in Labour legislation that was no reason why* our delegates should not meet Labour delegates from other countries of the world. Such intercourse could only - do good. The Minister of Customs need not alarm himself about the ability of workers to select delegates to take part in these International Labour conferences at Geneva, and the Labour Party knew how to be loy-al to their delegates. With regard to farmers’ finance, he warned farmers and others not to take too seriously the proposal of the Bank of New Zealand to find finance for farmers, because the probability was that the bank would only do so much as they chose to do. They should not rely too much on the Bank of New Zealand doing very much m a direction they had always refused to go. A co-operative bank, backed by the credit of the State, would be more serviceable, but it must be understood they* would have in that endeavour the opposition of private banks. Any legislation extending the powers of the banks to compete with State departments should be carefully scrutinised. He advocated an increase in pensions because of the reduced purchasing power of money. He also declared in favour of a universal pension taken from the Consolidated Fund, just as the Government now said they were going to take family allowances from that fund, as the principle was the same. In conclusion, he condemned the Government for raising the rate of interest on settlers, for not raising pensions and for not permitting New Zealand to be represented at the Labour Conference at Geneva. Those were reasons for expressing no confidence in the Government, which was in power on a minority vote of the people. Mr Lysnar declared that one clamant need of the country was liberal finance for farmers. For that reason he welcomed the proposals of the Bank of New Zealand. If other banks came in it still would leave ample scope for a State agricultural bank. The remainder of the speech was devoted to a denunciation of meat trusts and the Meat Board, which, he said, had done as much harm to farmers as trusts had. He had written to the Prime Minister asking him to have Mr D. Jones, M.P., chairman of the board, removed from that position because he had acted in an arbitrary and not a judicial manner in the conduct of the board's busiMr Bar tram attacked the Government immigration policy, declaring that people were being brought out under false pretences, and the High Commissioners were a party to this misrepresentation. Sir Thomas Mackenzie and Sir James Allen had misrepresented conditions in this country, and now that Sir James Parr was on the job he shuddered to think what the result would be. The debate was adjourned on the motion of Mr J. S. Dickson (Parnell) and the House rose at 11.15 p.m.