YESTERDAY IN HOUSE

Chronicle (Levin), 3 September 1949, Page 5

YESTERDAY IN HOUSE

Press Association)

— : Chryslers, Education And Land Seitlement

* (Per

WELLINGTON, Sept. 2. One had only to see in Christchurch when the races were on the beautiful Chryslers and uniforiued chauifeurs and hoiiourable gentlemen who -sit, in the Government front benclies, with honlburg hats and striped. trousers, to reaiise tlie waste that was going on, said Mr. J. R. llanan (Nat., Invercargill) in the Ilouse of Representatives this morning wlien the Budget debate was continued. , The Minister of lnternal Affairs (Mr. Parry) : 1 don't- believe-that. i Mr. Hanau said Hiat not so long ago a Labour Party bazaar was held in Invercrgill. The Minister of Finance atteiuled and went in a specially chartered plane. Onlv 6U people attended the bazaar. That sort of thing was going on- in the country when an example should be set by leading people away from extravagance. . "It seeps down through tlie connnunity and has a bacl intluence on the body politic, " said Mr. Ilanan. Mr. Nash: The member knows that the Minister did many other things down there. He would inake no apology for riding occasionally in a Chrysler car, said the Alinister of Lands (Mr. Skinner) in the House of Representatives this afternoon when the Budget debate was continued. He said the purchase by the Government of a number of cars ot that mahe was most economical, and while he was carrying out the business of the country he expected to ride in a good car and would. do so despite the siliy vapourings of some Opposition members. Mr. Skinner said the Government would go just as - far in land settlement as the resources of- the country would allow, The land settlement programme for twelve months to June, 1950, was now in various stages ot development and an area of over 800,000 acres was involved which xvould be sufiieient for 2360 single unit farms. It would take more than two years to complete the settlement programme, but in the first year operations would include 1126 miles of new fencing and renewal and the repair of 419 miles of existing fences; 24,497 acres would have to be cropped and sewn to feed stock and 12,437 acres put down in grass, lvith a further 31,398 acres to be j brought under cultivation and 15,770 acres to be surface sown. A total of i 159 contract units would be employed to enable that work to be done, and that would be a considerable drain on industry. "I feel we can go as far a's can reaosdnably be expected if we are to preserye the cardinal principies for- tae maintenance and expansion of production," said the Minister, "but if we take too much machinery aild labour from industry production will be re- • duced. " ' Mr. Skinner said that the year's programme also involved the building of 110 dams, 32 reservoirs, 43 wells, 125 bores, 211 pumps and ten ranls, and the layihg of 191 miles of water piping for water reticulatiou purposes. To give eft'oct to the programme more than ZOUO nicii would be required; 519 houses, 228 cowsheds, 268 impiement sheds and 55 woolsheds would have to be built. Another 800 to 900 building tradesmen would be required to put up the necessary buildings and a further 100 to 175 tradesmen to earry out renovations to existing buildings on the blocks of land, The Minister said that the cardinal points in the land settlement poiiey shbuld be the maintenance of maximum production, maintenance of soil fertii- | ity, and maintenance of maximum rural , population. " We afe moving just as j fast as we can, keeping in mind the maintenance of our primary pi'oduction, ' ' said the Minister. Mr. Skinner said that' a total of 92 properties had been acquired under part II of the Soldier Settlement and Land Saies Act, and those lands had providea

356 farms. The Lands Department had acquired 1,000,000 acres of land which would make 2400 farms. A total of 1500 farms had already been allocated ana about 900 were still in course of de' velopment. Mr. M. H. Oram (Nat. — Manawatu) said probably no farmer, and certainiy no farmers' organisation, desired th& present law requiring farmlands to be sold at 1942 values to continue, Farmers did not enjoy security of tenure; pressure was being brought to bear in all direetions to aequire as much land as possible. The currency had depreciated, costs had risen, and farmers had a just claim for an increase in the price of their land, Mr. Oram said the Government would go to the country this year declarmg that the only way to reduce taxation was by cutting the social services or oy retrenching public servants. The Prime Minister, working on the -psychology oi fear as he had done in the past, would allege that those were the very things the National Party would do. Mr. Hoiland, however, had given an undertaxing that neither of those things would be done bv the National Party and tax cuts would be made within the limits required by honouring those pledges. The promotion of efficient administration would enable substantial taxation cuts to be made. The Opposition did not, however, moan that people would be lcept on when there were 110 jobs for them. As controls were gradualiy., abolished departments, sub-departments and individuals would — ! Mr. Connolly: DisappearlMr. Oram; They will become surplus , to the establishment. Mr. Oram said every civil servant could be assured of retaining suitabie and wellpaid emplovmont. The' President of the Public Service Association (Mr. Lewin) had recently spQken of public servants ap a depressed class. Mr. M. Mooban: FTe gets ne'arly £1000 a year, so he should be! Mr. Oram said the , Public Service Journal had descrihed the position oi public servants as that of mendicants I at a di.sadvantage ia xelation to tk© tvorkers generally. I Hon. F. Jondfc: Tke koiiourable mern- • ber knows it is ndt t'rue, * 9

the public administration presented, 8 seene of unbelievable confusion. - - Mr. Oram said M11. Lewih had said Mr. Jones: He helped to make it so. Mr Oram said every public servant wished to work for an organisation, [n which he could take a pride, and the National Party would seek to . give bini just that. Education and Religious Instruction Uriti cising the current ediicationai trends, Mr Oram said ha thpught it had been wrong to divoree education entiroIv from religious instruction, There had been a Welcome change in recent years, but it had not gone far enough. Religious instruction in scljools must be by agreement of all the parties coneerned. The trend toward the "play way" in education had also gone too far. Children should not be «$ncouraged to avoid all that was difficult. He considered that the intermediate schools after showing promise had not made the pr5gress expected of them and he thought an investigation should be made of tha! aspect in education, More schools in rural areas were needed. 1 "The Yellow Perii" Mr M, Moohan (Lab-PetoUe) said the bost insurance for the people ot New Zealand was the return of the Labour Government because as sure a night followed day there would be in dustrial ehaos if the National Party beeame the Government and followed the roud it was now t'ravelling, The question of the population 0. New Zealand was one whieh needed i thorough examination, aird as time went | on Asian countries with huge inc-rease!-rin populations and low standards oi living would out of she'er despair atrtim jdown and take New Zealand which b )]970 would have a population of oi'ilv 3,000,000 at the presept rate of increase1. Mr Moohan said civil servants today , enioyed freedorn and political libeft.y and" working conditions • iricoin|inralin better than thpy did befora habuu;. took office. , ' IThe Houee adjourned at- 5.30 ^atii 2.30 oa,.Tuefldax» -