FINANCIAL DEBATE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1519, 15 August 1912, Page 6

FINANCIAL DEBATE.

, MR. ELL,IS SURPRISED. DEFENDS LATE GOVERNMENT. Tho financial debate was resumed after the dinner adjournment. ?' ELL tCliristclmrch South) confessed that in reading, the Budget he had iound a great deal that pleased him -{hear, hoarj-aiid a great deal that surpnsad him. It surprised him because it was so unlike tli.e statements lie had heard from the Government pirtv when they were in Opposition.- The Into Government had justifiod their existence every day they sat on the Treasury Benches, and it was only by a process of political slander und misrepresentation that the present Government had, got into power. Discussing proposals in' Iho budget he soiight to show that certain members of the Government party had expressed opinions contrary to them. The policy which tho party in power had sard was doing the- country harm, had now been taken up by them, lie regretted that he found no reference in tie Budget to a reform foreshadowed by Sir Joseph Ward awl Mr. Myers—the carriage on the railways of children under-five years or age free, and of children under the uge of 12 years at a qiiarter of the usual rates. He maintained in spite, of Mr. Cγ. 31. Thomson that tho Stato Co.nl Department (had been u success in Christclnireh; it had reduced Win co.it of cciil to tho consumer by (is. per ton, and it hod compelled tho Westport Coal Company to open retail depots in tho principal toVns. Ho stated also that the Prime Minister »aa hacked down" in his land policy. He had once declared for the sale of national endowment land, and now the Budget stated that this land was not going to bo interfered with. Mr. Massey had also opposed tho. establishment of tho State Advances Department. A complete dhange had come over tho political opinions of certain members of the Ministry. Ho commonded the. tariff, reforms of the late Government, aa shown by tho amounts.by which they had red'need the burden of Customs .taxation falling on the masses eif the peoirie. The Liberal party had in fact left not one article of toqd taxed, except those, siich as biscuits, taxed for tho purpose of protecting local industry. Ho thought that the duties on other necessaries should be. still further reduced. He assured the House that if the Government brought forward proposals which would make for the improvement of the condition of tho people, he would support them. . Not. would ho indulge in any capdious criticism. (Hear, hear.)

POLICY REVIEWED. NEW MEMBER'S APPRECIATION. Mr C. B. STATHAM (Diuiedin Central) fsud that Mr.'Ell 'had iWvcd dwply into Hansard to prove that ceraim member of the Ministry had in the cpmse of twenty yeai« or so changed their opinions. Surely tin's was merely a proof that they had moved mtli the times. Mr. Ell had claimed credit for tariff reform. For years now members of his party hnd been saying, '•We Vβ taken Wi° duty off kerosene.'" In twenty-one years .the' Government had also taken, the duty off carbonate of soda and almonds and raisins. (Laughter.) Mr. Ell: It saved the taxbaver <£SOO,OOO a year. .. . ' Mr. Stathftin retorted that not inueh of this was taken oif tho working ma.n, who did not live on almonds and raisins,'nhd that sort of thing. Ho complimented the Minister for Finance on his Budget. lie (Mr. Sfclrham) claimed to have some knowledge of accounts, and the Budget evidenced a do=ire on the Minister's part to give the Uoibu und the country an honest account of the country's iilt'airs. One weakness there was in tho sinking hum i-yttem for tho repayment; of loans. There was onn inherent weakness iu the jy-jlem, however, in (hat uny iiil.iiro impocuuious Government might take the fnn.ls and n,t. the wli'olc lot of I hem. 1.1 i..> hinds should.be vc.-lod in such a. way us to be out of the rt-ath of anv future JJoY.or.nm.eiit; if t.hia were it would

miitorially improve, tho credit of the Dominion, lie imlieed from the Budget that loans falling due in the. next seven vears amounted' to ,K:i,17«,178. Mr. Russell: Thai's only a scarecrow. Mr. Kttilhfim: I presume it is a statement of fact, lie believed (hat tho Government were serious in their intention to improve tin- tariff, lint they could not do it this session. Mr. lius-t'll: Taihoa policy. Mr. Stathnui: Jt may be a'tiiihoa policy, but the past Government took a great while without doing it although they talked iv lot about it. Xuw they ask llii.s Government, which has only been in office a few weeks-tog» o» with it at once. Jfe commented upon the fact that engineering students had to leave the Dominion, and the iron industry generally was languishing. One firm ju Otago used to send out .£'20,(100 worth of machinery per annum to Victoria, but after the. protectivo tariff they could only do .£IOOO worth of business in the year. Eventually they. had. to send over lo'Victnrin ,and sot up a factory there. In regard to defence, ho thought that a man should bo quite willing to fight for his home ami his wife, and if he ha<l no wife, for his sweetheart. (Laughter and "Hear, hears.") As to close settlement, they would find that the-Reform party would really give, effect to that policy, instead of talking about it for 21 years as the Liberal party had <iono. After referring to irrigation and the Otngo Central railway, Mr. .Statham said it was' all very well for tho Opposition (o say that (he Government were proposing to rob the Maoris-, but tho late Government ha'! not .always conserved their interests. What about the Mokau case? Ko iind lmver been ablo to get a satisfactory explanation of that cast; yet. Mr. Okcy: You never will. Mr. Statham continued that i'o mtiiibcrs of the late Government ever talked about Mokau. Under the Xative Lund Act uo person could acquire more thaji 3HOO atros of .Native laud. But this Mokau estato was of 53,000 acres. There was certainly provision that when the Governor (Itemed it expedient to let one person have more than ,')000 acre''?; the Governor could pass an order to that effect. But this transaction .had. been rushed through-without proper regard to formalities, and there was no explanation offering, itv/as idlo under the circumstances for the Opposition to talk of robbery of tho Natives. Ho again congratulated tho Ministry on the policy enunciated, and with the personnel uf the Ministry as it wos lie had no fears as to its being carried out. Ho could assure them that they had young Xo;v Zealand behind them.

THE MEMBER FOR KAIAPOI. POLITICAL PATRONAGE. The Hon. D. BUDDO (Kaianoi) said that there was no need to jjo back into ancient, history. The Government had -been guilty of a. somersault very recently, lo him the Budget .was not so much remarkable for statesmanship as for 'modesty/ It was -necessary, that they"should p.m.'.forward a policy to suit the five or six members'who had recently joined them. Otherwise they would very soon Jiwl themselves in the soup. 6{ tho .thirty-seven sections- in -the Budget, 2G •did not. propdso alterations, seven in-volved.-very .slight alterations, and four involved alterations.' Mr.' Buddo read tho reply, of. .Mr.•M'AlLster, Crown Solicitor at Jnvorcargill, to statements reenitlv made by the Hon. F. M. B. Tisher, and criticised tho altitude which the Minister had takepi'up. Similar charges 'had been in ado by the membersfor Rangitikei and C'lutha, wl-o had expressed their pleasure at .an end being made of Government patronage.. Mr. Buddo declared that if the appointment of casuals made them friends of the Government, disappointed applicants must become enemies of tho tioverniiipnt. in order to satisfy the Raugitikei Racing . Club a permit had been talc'ea from tlua Canterbury Jockey Club.

Government members: Absolutely right! Jliclit have taki'ii half-a-dozen.

Mr. Buddo' said that tho cliange of permits might be. attributed to political patronage. Another instance of political patronage, lmd arisen in connection with tho report of the Education Commission. The report had appeared in three important Government pap?rs before it was presented to the House. Some-lame- state, ment was made to the House.as - to how the report got out, but the fact remained that Government papers got it and other papsrs did not. The inference .was that the Government papers had got tho report by political patronage. Important papers like thfl Education Commission's report were not thrown to the winds, to be picked up by anybody before they were presented to Parliament. Mr. liiidrlo next elaborated at considerable longth a statement that the Minister for Finance (tlio Hon. Jas. Allen) had materially altered his opinions about sinking funds since crossing the floor of the House. While lie agreed that tho. Government should aim at assisting small local bodies rather than large ones, ho doubted the wisdom of coming down at once to small local bodies. Some statesmanlike proposal in regard to guaranteeing tho loans of local bodies would have been welcome. The Government proposals for the reform of tho Upper House contained nothing new'. The electorates proposed were too large. As to electoral reform, ho agreed that tho second ballots should bo abolished. While he would oppose, the misdeeds of tho Government, ho would not hinder them in doing good. He advocated the provision of receiving wards in mental hospitals, to which patients could be consigned pending examination, which would discover tho' real nature of their mental ills. As a settler, he would never stand in tho way of proposals to expedite land settlement, but he would not like to seo any wholesale system of drawing on the" private funds of the Dominion, for this would cause a stringency in tlio money market. Ho would support the. granting of tho freehold to l.i.p. tenants. He entirely disagreed with tho proposal to appoint a general manger of railways to bo selected in tho Old Country. From his knowledge of railways there, he did not think that would , bo n wiso change. Tho Government took over office under tho happiest possible auspices. (Government laughter, and shouts of "Hear, hear," froiii Mr. Russell.) The condition of the fanners was never better, and labour was plentiful. (Mr. Wilson: Not so.) Tho community had confidence in itself, but he did hot want tha Government to feel too confident of itself. Tho Opposition would give the Government that support which they believed.it was their duty to do. ■

Tlio House rose nt 10.40 p.m., on the motion of Mr. C. K. Wilson (Tauniarunui).