FINANCE BILL.

Wairarapa Age, 9 October 1936, Page 5

FINANCE BILL.

APPOINTMENT TO RESERVE BANK. CHALLENGED BY OPPOSITION. LAND COMPENSATION LAW. (By Telegraph—“ The Age” Special.) WELLINGTON, October 8. A feature of the discussion of the Finance Bill to-night was Opposition criticism of the appointment of Mr. Mark Silverstone as a director of the Reserve Bank, as a clause validates his position though he is not British born. The Hon. W. Nash (Minister of Finance) declared that Dunedin City had a reputation for the .soundest finance of any New Zealand city and Mr. Silverstone, chairman of its Finance Committee, had high qualifications in his knowledge of economics and finance. The Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates asked if there not New Zealanders capable of filling the position. The Hon. J. G. Cobbe said he had been informed that Mr. Silverstone spent much time during the war urging men not to enlist. He wished the Government to say whether its appointee was not a Communist, because if so he was a wrecker. There was a lively series of interjections from Labour members, who ridiculed the question. Another section of the debate centred around a clause defining the conditions of awarding compensation for land required for public works, the Hon. R. Semple explaining, in reply to criticism, that the law operative for 46 years was being suddenly changed—that a Court decision over Tawa Flat Deviation landCtpurehases necessitated making the law clear that a landowner was entitled to the value of his land before the State spent large sums on public works. In the Tawa Flat case, the Court awarded £2,100 for land worth £B5O, because the improvement due to the railway was taken in consideration. The debate is proceeding.