PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 228, 26 September 1929, Page 31

PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

notes from the gallery.

TAXATION PROPOSALS

DISCUSSED.

!XO BREACH OP PRIVILEGE. f. " * (By Telegraph. —Parliamentary. Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. i' Practically the whole of to-day's sitting in th° House of Representatives was devoted to a debate on the Government's taxation proposals. The debate is fully reported in another column.' An interestin"' feature of the sitting was the report of" the Privilege Committee on the Atmore-Samuel incident. The committee.' reported that it found -Mr. Atmore's words addressed to Mr. Samuel in the lobby of Parliament Buildings: "I will tell them something about Egypt," did rot.'constitute a breach of privilege. The committee considered that the words had beerl used only in a jocular sense. The House- adopted the report, and let the matter drop without debate. Mr. Murdoch Gets Two Schools. Mr. Murdoch (Marsden) has been advised that Cabinet to-day approved a vote for a new school.building at Whareora near Whangarei. The children of this district have in the past been instructed in the local public hall, and Mr. Murdoch |has: Constantly urged that a school be provided. The Chief Government Whip has also been instrumental, in obtaining from the Government a grant for. a new school at Matakana. Keen Demand for Land. '• "Do you say as Minister of Lands tha,t there is a demand-for land?" asked Mr. Sullivan (Avon) when the Hon. G. W. Forbes was discussing the Taxation Amendment Bill. The Minister replied thai there was an undoubted demand from one end of New Zealand to the other. The demand was not from big landowners, of course, but from farmers' sons and others, looking to get a home for- themselves. The Prime Minister, he contended, had gone to the utmost limit in meeting the hardship question. It was' singular-, that in the final Budget of the' Hon. Downie Stewart it was stated that the graduated land tax was for the purpose of bringing about subdivision, yet. to-day he was claiming this tax should not be used for that purpose. Mr. D.Jones: It should not be doubled. The Big Stick. The Government is endeavouring to put people on the land, stated Mr. Lvsnar, but immediately they got in power they producad the "big ; stick" supertax. He declared that it was total confiscation of land in some cases; and said he would defy the Prime Minister to question it. If he could not question it he',liad no right to go on with the bill. Sir Joseph Ward: I do question it.. Mr; Lysnar suggested that Ministerial speakers might try to answer his contentions "and explain why . there* should be this differential of rating on land. ■ Mr. Forbes (Minister of Lands) replied that the Gisborne member had painted-a black picture, and if things weftj so,bad asih'e said it was surprising that, when "the Government wanted to purchase land such' high prices were asked —sometimes double the Government valuation. _