NO CONFIDENCE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 881, 29 July 1910, Page 7

NO CONFIDENCE.

THE AMENDMENT REJECTED. BY A SMALL MARGIN. ■ BUDGET FURTHER DISCUSSED. A BIG DRAINAGE SCHEME. In the House yesterday the Rangitaiki Land Drainage Bill (Sir Joseph Ward) and several local Bills were read a first .time. The debate on Mr. Massey's notonfidence amendment on the land question was then continued, and the amend-menf'-was lost, early, in the evening, by tho close margin of 41 votes to 31. • The debate on the Financial Statement was continued," and the House rose at 11.10 BILLS TO BE INTRODUCED. When the sittings of the House were resumed yesterday, the Hon. J. A. Millai (Minister for Labour) gave notice of his intention to ask leave to introiuce the following measures:— Shops and Offices Act Amendment Bill. Inspection of Machinery Act Am'end- • pienl Bill Kauri- Gum Industry Bill. The-' Napier Municipal. Theatre and -.Bnildings, Bill, and Napier Recreation Gronnd, and Sir Donald M'Lean Memorial:. Park Bill were introduced by Mr. .Vigor Brown, member for Napier, and jead.a first time. WHAKATANE COUNTY DRAINAGE BILL. . The Whakatane County Drainage Bill Tas received by Governor's Message. The PJiIME MINISTER, in answer to e. question, explained that the Bill was for the purpose of acquiring corl&in lands •with a view to their drainage on a comprehensive scale. The local authorities who had been authorised to carry out thb*- drainage had found themselves in financial difficulties, and were unable to repay the loan. Application had been made to the Government by Mr. Ma'cdonald, member for the district, to see if the Government conld repay the loan or if.; an advance could be made from , the State Guaranteed Advances Department. The position was complicated, and if ; the. Government had paid the loan the settlers "would not have.been enabled to'.'carry' out what was required. The Tinder-Secretary for Lands had visited the. district, and it had been agreed that the Government should carry out the work of drainage. The Government ■wanted to help the Drainage Board, and have a considerable amount of land for further settlement out of which Mey ex* pected. to reimburse themselves for the ■whole of the work. '

Mr.' T. E. TAYLOR (Christchurch Korth) said that there was a: tremendous , lot of speculation in Whakatane swamp lands,. and he hoped, that tho .Government would be able to give the House their positive assurance later' that the money of tho colony was not going to bo used to create laud' yalnes for groups of speculators. The Waiau Bridge, which was being constructed "by the Government in;. North Canterbury, would create: huge fortunes for three, or "four large "landowners in the Amur! County.7 Before a pound.was spent on that bridge the Government should have resumed every aero, of. land within co-eo of tho improvement. T>!.Hon.-E. MTCenzie: It is ; a railway bridge. Mr. Taylor: That makes it all the ■worse.. The line should not have been allowed to-go a mile , further north'until those areas' were resumed by tho Crown. Mr. MACDONALD (Bay of Plenty) said the.swamp lands were about ninety thousand acres in area.,-. There were many Crownr.tenants on the land who had spent . much money during.the past ten years endeavouring to drain the land. Mr. HERMES (Tauranga) denied that ■ there was any more speculation in this than in any other land. . He argued that this was a work of colonial importance, and ;one that' should, on account of tho pecular difficulties involved, be undertaken by the State. . ,

Mr. TAYLOR said that large areas of these lands had been offered to people in the: south during ; the past; , twelve months, and a good, many sales had been made. • ... -..■'.,

Sir Joseph Ward: Not of this land which is being drained. Mr. MASSEY said' that speculators would not be tho gainers by the proposed ■works.

The Hon. E. M'KENZIE said that there was little land suitable for close settlement in that portion of North Canterbury to -trhich Mr. Taylor had alluded. In connection with the Bill, it was proposed to load tho land affected with the cost-of .interest and sinking fund. The land .in. question would make some of the finest dairying lang , in the Dominion. Sir JOSEPH WARD said the ! measure was.not going to benefit, speculators. It was entirely duo to the fact that the settlers who had borrowed money for., this work were unable to. carry on and wero on'the Terge of ruin. The Bill • proposed ■ that the State should take over their assets and liabilities. The Bill provided for a loan, over tho properties on; whioh the settlers would pay 'principal and interest. The expenditure involved was fifty thousand pounds. • . The Bill was read a first time, and sot down for second reading on next sitting day. . . . NO=CONF!DEHGE MOTION. FURTHER SPEECHES. THE LAND QUESTION DISCUSSED. - The debate on Mr. Massey's '"no-confi- . dence" amendment on the land question was then continued. Hγ. SCOTT (Tuapeka) remarked upon the apparent disinclination of tho Government supporters . to debate the amend- <, ment. -Ho believed thoroughly and firmly in every proposal in tho amendment. Inose who used tho laud should have the right to say under what tenure they should hold it. ,He strongly advocated a more progressive land policy than, tho government had yet given them. There was no use saying the leasehold, was equal to the freehold. Tho freeholders in tho House were the men who were on the land and working it. The leaseholders, on the other hand, were mainly tho oity mon who had.nothing to do with the land. Ihe Government should provide means for reading ] anc l before putting it up to ballot. Tho co-operative system had been nn appalling failure in his district.

THE IDEAL TENURE. I ,-Mr. PEAECE (Patea) said it was evident that Government supporters had no confidence in the land policy of the Government, because they were afraid to get up and. defend it. As a small farmer, who started- with ft leasehold, ho said lie was a .strong believer in the freehold, which . was the ideal tenure for , any country in the world. In France and Belgium, where that tenure wasin force, the productiveness was exceedingly largo. There was ouly ono tenure that would satisfy the man on the land, and that was the freehold. He quoted a speech by Sir Joseph Ward, who stated that nine-teiuhs of the leaseholders had gone round against the tenure under which they had gone on the land. Ho spoke at some length on this subject, and said that, some , ot the Crown lands left were bo rough that no man would take them up. on tho leasehold tonure. He complained very bitterly of the inadequate value for improvements on rough leasehold land. The idle bush lands in the North Island should,be settled at once. Dealing with the scheme for tho extinction of the publib debt, Mr. Pearce declared that the amount in New Zealand was over £76 p Pr capita—a higher amount than in any other country in tho world. When ho returned from London the Prime Minister stated that he had obtained the last loan ,at'.3J per cent, without brokerage and disjcount. This statement was to condone hia

act in going Home and closing the doors of Parliament for three montns. In the Budget, however, tlio Prime Minister stated that tho loan was obtained at £08, and that it was underwritten, so that instead of tho cost being 3J per cent., it would be found to have- cost 3J per cent. Then again, when tho Prime Minister introduced the State Advances Bill he stated that he would bo ahlo to obtain cheap money from England for the purposes of the scheme. In the Budget, however, Sir Joseph stated that he had not gone on to tho London market for the money, but had got a largo sum through tho Post Office.' The fact was that tlio Prime Minister had not been able to get the money so cheaply as he had prophesied. In conclusion, Mr. Pearce stated that ho had no confidence in the Government's Native land policy. The "taihoa" policy-was still in existence. He believed that the Government should have purchased a lot of Native land along the route prior to tho construction of tho North Island Main, Trunk line. Owing to the enterprise of the white people, tho Natives were now able to sell their lands and timber at greatly increased values.

A LAW-BREAKING GOVERNMENT. Mr. WEIGHT (Wellington South) said that he had made two pledges to his constituents which bore on tho motion. Ihe first was to the effect that he would vote against the Government on any want-oi-oonfidenco motion. Then, again, he had stated that ho was in favour, of the unsold Crown lands being Jet out on the ■leasehold principle. As the Government was no longer a leaseholder Government , he had no doubt how he should cast his vote. One- good reason for a change of Government was that the present parly, had been in power too long. Were they to reign for ever? Did it not matter wnether they forsook their principles? Another, reason why he was , opposed to the present Government was that Ministers were neglecting their administrative duties. Then, again, he found that the doctrine of the Ministers was not "do as we do," hut "do as we tell you." There was a by-law in Wellington that no person should erect a wooden building within a given area. But the Government made additions to tho present Parliamentary Buildings in wood in defiance of the by-law. Ho would give other instances. The Government had land in his constituency for-the purposes of workers' homes. If private individuals had oweud the land, they would have to make the streets 66ft., but the Government had only put in streets 40ft. wide. Some time ago the City Council extinguished a firo in a Postal Department building at the corner of Featherston Street and Panama Street. The cost of extinguishing tho fire was dCG7; but the Government would , not admit liability to the council, although it had donated £50 to the fire brigade. Dissatisfaction in Public Service. That there was great dissatisfaction in the public service, could not be disputed. This was. due in great measure .to the fact that Ministers were not able to devote sufficient time to their Departments. He would like to mention a particular case. Two young fellows desired to enter tho Publio Service, but there was a defect in connection with their passing of the necessary examination. One of the lads got into the service because he had an M.P. behind him, but the other, who was not able to bring influence to bear, did not get.appointed. Sir Joseph: Is that the case you mentioned last year?

Mr. AVright: Yes. . . : Sir Joseph: Well; it is not a fact. Mr. Wright: I shall go into the facts again.

VIEWS OF MR. MACDONALD. Mr. MACDONALD (Bay of Plenty) declared that during its term, of- office.:the present Administration had been very active in tho way of land Settlement. The lease-in-perpetuity. system'" -had;r .in ins opinion, done more (hail anything else 'to break down land monopoly. Tμ rate of settlement would be slower if it depended on'a 'System'" under which'furtherlands were purchased as a result of the nroceeds of the sale of lands now held under lease from the-Crown. Ho would like to remind critics rf the Native land policy that the Government was this year opening up ho fewer than 465,000 acres of such land. Some of the members had spoken disparagingly of the cooperative system, but he could say that as far as his district was concerned the system" had been a. fcreat success. The proposal of the Government to give'settlers, in the backblocks greater telegraphic and telephonic facilities met with his hearty approval. As regards the Native . Townships Bill and the Native Rating Bill he stated that they would receive general support. It had long been felt that lessees in Native townships .should be given either the freehold or much longer leases. Hβ did not favour Mr. JTassej-'s proposal to sell the national endowment and replace it by endowments adjacent to cities. His chief objection to it was that suburban lands would cost more than their worth for years to coriie. THE DIVISION. A NARROW GOVERNMENT MAJORITY. Upon a division the amendment was rejected by 41 votes to 31 votes, the voting being as under:— . For Amendment (31). Allen Jennings Anderson Lang Bollard ~ Malcolm Buchanan Mander Buick Massey Dillon Nosworthy Dive Okey Duncan, J. Pearce Field Phillipps Fisher . ■■ Rhodes Fraser Ross Guthrie Scott Hardy Thomson, G. SI. ' Hcrdman Thomson, J. C. Herries . AVright Hine , Against Amondnient (41). Arnold Macdonald Brown M'henzie, Hon. R. Buddo Mackenzie, Hon. T. Buxton- Millar Carroll Myers Clark Ngata Colvin Parata. Craigio '■. Poland Davey P°olo Duncan, Hon. T. Rangihiroa Ell Keed,,. Forbes Russell Fowlds . .fceddon Glover Smith Ornhani fetallworthy Sreenslado Steward Hall Taylor, E. H. Hanan Taylor, T. E. Hogg Ward Laurenson . Witty Lawry