BUDGET BEBATE BEGINS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1515, 10 August 1912, Page 6

BUDGET BEBATE BEGINS.

IR. G. W. RUSSELL LEADS THE ATTACK. Cα, %s\JrL% wHI \lHjr a Call aHjji e i SOME- PLAIN SPEAKING BY MR.- FISHER. A QUESTION OF PRIVILEGE.

Matters tools a somewhat unexpected turn in the House of Representatives yesterday aftornoon. Soon after members iissembled the , Hon. R. H. Rhodes (Post-master-General) made a. statement about the rate of interest paid to depositors in •the Post Office Savings Bank. An impression had '"been' created by a'Tecent discussion, ho said, that the Government intended, to Teduces the rate of interest paid to! Post Office depositors. He denied emphatically that anything of the kind was contemplated, and stated that the rate of .interest would remain, exactly as at present. :. A long and stormy discussion followed. The Hon. T. Mackenzie, Mr. Myers, and other .Oppositionists reiterated statements made in the discussion to which. Mr. Rhodes' had referred, that the renewal of an ".£BOO,OOO loan'from the Post Office to the Trensiiry had been made on terms unfavourable to the Post Office. The presumption was that the rate to depositors was'in danger of being reduced, and it was this impression that the Ministry Hit out to correct. They stated Tinequivojally that they had no thought of reducing the depositors' rate, and .they were able to show, further, that while the;? had hot reduced the rate, on Post Office investments, the late Treasurer, Sir Joseph Ward, had done so on moro than one occasion, and that quite recently. The Minister of Finance, in a vigorous 'speech, stated that under the Ward .Administration Jargo sums had been lent by the Post Offico to the Treasury at 3 per cent., and that this had made it necessary to build up a'large Post Office reserve. . .. _ An -unexpected item of -business ■was tho privilege question arising opt of tho Wairau election, petition. The Prime Minister submitted a motion, on the question, which motion was accepted freely by the member for Wairau and by the Hon.-.T. Mackenzie, as" Leader of the Opposition, but there wag' not -the sa'me untaimity amongst other Opposition memoers. An amendment proposed by Air. Scddoß drow vigor- . ous protests from the Government benches. The division on the amendment was purely a party, division,- and it was lost by 39 votes to 23. The Hon. T. Macalthough he had seconded the motion, voted for the amendment. , • The, task .'of opening, the attack on the Budget was entrusted to Mr.'G. W. Russell.- He failed to find any good in the Budget except the parts which he alleged ivero stolen, but his assault was a spasmodic and--ineffective one, which did not appear to impress the House considerably.- . -,- The Hon. 1 , . M. B. Fisher retorted in : iis most vigorous .style. He devoted, some few minutes to a sketch of Mr. Itussell's political career, and then set out to repulse the attacks on the Budget. He argued in offect that the Opposition could blame no one but their own party for "existing ills, and claimed that the Government were, out to remedy most of them. He had somo startling things to tell about interesting files that could not be found, one of wiiich had been "lost in the.Prime Minister's office." There were other irregularities too, which he referred to. Last of all, ho declared that the days of patronage and touting, and the bad methods -which had obtained under past Administrations were over. Tho House rose'at 11.10 p.m.