N.Z. FINANCE BILL

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 15320, 22 August 1923, Page 5

N.Z. FINANCE BILL

FEAR OF INTEREST COSTS,

MR WILFORD’S DOLEFUL PICTURE.

ANOTHER ALL-NIGHT SITTING.

By Telegraph.—Special to Times,

WELLINGTON, Wednesday.

After Christchurch members had occupied all the afternoon on the Waimakiriri scheme, the evening was devoted to serious business.

The Prime Minister, in moving the second reading of the Finance Bill, said it opened no new line of policy, being merely the financial authorisation for the money for the new- Stale Arvanccs Act and public works expenditure. Nevertheless a long debate ensued, and the measure did not reach the committee stage until nearly midnight. The Leader of the Opposition painted a doleful picture of the future, and predicted a fall in prices that would make investors chary of taking up the loans. Russia would, he said, eventually be flooded with American capital, and the secondary industries in the Dominion were not being exploited as they should. He chose the opportunity of urging his Agricultural Bank Bill.

“A hotch-potch measure, such as one might expect in days of panic,” was how Mr J. A. Hanan described the measure. He had consistently found fault with the methods of handling public finances, and deprecated a further increase in the interest bill. “ Idle lamentations of Jeremiah ” was how Hon. W. Nosworthy described Mr Hanan’s outburst. He saw quite a lot of contentment ahead of the people of New Zealand, but he did not see how it was to be brought about by means of the big hydro-electricity schemes in hand unless the palpable method of financing them with loans was continued.

Mr W. A. Veitch (Wanganui) foresaw disaster to exchange if New Zealand borrowed the moneys Mr Massey wanted for State advances and public works.

Mr H. E. Holland (Buller) said the State’s mortgagees would foreclose on us if more borrowing went on. He preferred increasing taxation, on one class of the community, of course, for such ideals of his party as increased pensions. He expressed the opinion that some day the State’s annual Income would be absorbed in paying the interest bill on loans. Mr Massey made a vigorous speech In reply to his critics, and the bill entered the committee stage, and was passed after two Labour amendments had been defeated.