FINANCIAL DEBATE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 197, 20 August 1931, Page 13

FINANCIAL DEBATE.

Members’ Views on the Budget. YESTERDAY’S SPEECHES. (Special to the “Star.”) WELLINGTON, August 19. [ The Budget debate was resumed in : the House to-day by Mr Burnett (Re- < form, Temuka), who said that the ’ State, with the best of intentions, was making a big mistake in postponing payment of interest and rates, as the system was striking a blow at the busi--1 ness morality of the community. There should instead be a readjustment of rents and interest on the basis of the reduced prices for primary produce. If that were done there would be a reduction of from 33 to 50 per cent in rentals, and money would not be so hopelessly lost as it was under the system of postponements. The State would, as an outcome of the depression, have to insist on compulsory thrift, so that reserves could be built up. Mr Howard (Labour, Christchurch South) said that the Labour Party had been accused of keeping the Government in office for eighteen months. He said that the Labour Party had supported the Government until it had departed from the policy on which it had been elected. The Labour Party supported measures, not men, and would have supported Reform if its policy was equal to that of Sir Joseph Ward. The latter saw a half-developed country which he would have provided with trunk railways, roads and more land settlement. He had proposed to borrow seventy millions on which the annual interest bill would have been £4,200,000. That Government, which the Labour Party supported, had vision, but it was bitterly opposed by Reform. Then the old leader died and his policy was changed. Now the country was raising two millions annually for the unem- , ployed, with 50,000 half-starved workers and their families in the Dominion. Labour withdrew its support when the policy of the Chambers of Commerce was adopted. Reform supported the , Government because it took twelve millions from the workers in wage reductions. “We have nationalised unemployment and made it a State industry, spending two millions, mostly on useless work,” said Mr Howard. The Fusion Offer. Having got the country into this mess the United Party asked Reform to join them. The rank and file of the United Party could not really understand this desire. No suggestion was made for a National Government, for it was a straight-out Tory Government to dish Labour and stop it from doing things which Labour, even during a period of depression, was doing on the Christchurch City Council. The Labour majority had reduced rates by 10 'per cent, also electricity charges and restored the cut in wages while maintaining 1400 men on relief work. Mr Howard concluded with suggestions for developing New Zealand, enumerating the possibilities of tung oil, timber milling in the Taupo district, and opening up East Coast lands by completing the Gisborne-Napier railway. There was country along the South Island main trunk in Marlborough capable of subdivision for close settlement The Government must not starve the agricultural colleges. Even under the present difficulties magnificent work was being done, but owing to shortness of funds Lincoln College could not take all the students offering.

Wheat Duties.' Mr Wilkinson (Independent, Egmont) stated that the education expenditure of four millions was more than the country could afford. He questioned whether full value was obtained. He was surprised that in regard to the flour and wheat duties the Labour Party could see nothing except the wheat producers. They were not concerned about the consumers, who paid the price. Mr Martin (Labour, Raglan) ; Look up your division lists. Mr Wilkinson asked where butter producers or wool growers came in for help when exporting products at less than cost price. Despite the southern farmers’ enormous protection they were not supplying the country’s wheat requirements, as evidenced by the large importations of wheat and flour, valued at over £500,000 annually. Why should forty-six mills be permitted to run in New Zealand, taking the highest possible profit? He would give the wheatgrower a reasonable price, but he objected to the pyramiding of profits which resulted in bread selling at 6ld

a loaf in London being retailed in Wei- ] lington at Is Id. 1 A Duty Necessary. Replying to Mr Wilkinson’s criticism 1 that the cruisers of the New Zealand * squadron were expensive and ineffective, the Hon J. G. Cobbe, Minister of ‘ Defence, said those vessels were the ‘ correct type for the South Pacific, and 1 one had only to look at the map to 1 seen the necessity for patrolling these waters. On the wheat duty question, * Mr Cobbe said that while he did not 1 support high duties he recognised that 1 a small duty was necessary, otherwise ) thousands of growers in the S»'uth Is- 4 land would go out of business. He con- 1 sidered the present duty too high. J (Hear, hear.) Considerable quantities 1 of wheat were grown in the North Is- 1 land, and the yield was bigger than e was produced anywhere in the South. 1 A member: It is not very good J wheat. Mr Cobbe defended the Budget and s commended the Prime Minister’s policy . of facing the facts and placing his cards on the table. The Government had been criticised for not minting its own silver and copper coinage, but the difficulty was in getting silver into circulation. ( Australia began minting its own coins about twenty years ago, but all the { silver was not in circulation yet. Labour members had compained that 1 the cost of living was going up, but price tickets in city shop windows furnished definite evidence that the re- < verse was the case. He denied that Sir Otto Niemeyer had come to New Zea-

land as a dictator. He had come to tender certain advice asked for by the Government, and he considered there was every justification for bringing the expert to the Dominion. Mr Samuel (Reform, Thames) declared that the war debt burden was forcing a crisis all over the world. If the teeming millions of the East could regain their purchasing power through the stabilisation of silver there would be a way out. Civilisation ultimately would be forced into an international agreement for mutual cancellation of war debts. The grave nature of New Zealand’s crisis made the formation of a National Government vital, and he suggested that Mr Forbes should issue a concrete invitation to all parties in the House to join in some such Gov- * ernment or, failing that, form a committee which would deal with the posi- ; tion on the basis of equality of sacrifice and enable the whole House to ' speak with one united voice. The House adjourned until 2.30 p.m. to-morrow.