FINANCIAL DEBATE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1524, 21 August 1912, Page 6

FINANCIAL DEBATE.

OPPOSITION HANG BACK. A FARMERS' MEMBER. NEED FOR POPULATION. The Financial Debate was resumed at 2.5 a p.m. As on several occasions earlier in the debate, the Opposition failed to put up a speaker. Mr. W. H. D. Bell, member for the Suburbs, had been last to speak on Friday evening, and the adjournment had been moved by Dr. To Rangihiroa. The latter was not in his plaoe when the debate resumed, and as no other member offered to fill the vacancy, the Speaker commenced to put th© question, that the House go into Committee of Supply. Mr. Craigie and Mi-. Hanan showed some signs of rising, but did' not do so, and it was left to a Government member, Mr. It. Scott (Tuapeka) to carry on the debate. Mr. E. SCOTT (Otago Central) said that the Budget had been approved from end to end of New Zealand. There were among those who had been members of the party which had held office for many years who believed that no good coiilfl come out of Nazareth. (Laughter.) It had been claimed that the late Government had changed tho. trend of political thought in the Dominion. He was of opinion rather that the people hail changed the thought of the Government. He defended tho Government party from tho charge that- they had conducted their election campaign by _ misrepresentation, and slander, and by raising the sectarian issue. His own experience was that the late Government party candidates were to blame-in this respect. 1 An hon. member: Hear, hear. They re the real culprits. Mr. Scott jibed the Opposition on playing'on the ono frayed string of their 20-years-oUI battered instrument, which liail lost its power to charm. The one string left was "representatives of land monopolists." He declared that he had 110 large landowners in his district, and lie had yet to learn that the present Government was supported mainly by wealthy men. The member for Hurunui had stated that the large landowners were slinging up their hats with joy at the return of the Government, but he omitted to state that tho small landowners and the artisans; and numbers of other peoplo likewise threw up their hats. Even the civil servants had thrown up their hats when no one was looking. Ho approved of tho proposal for reform of the Legislative Council, but he did not -think tho big electorates would be found to work out well; No man could travel over, a whole island to make himself and his views known, and the result would bo that the candidate who advertised most and best would have the greatest chances of success. He pleaded tho cause of tlio.' back-blocks settler, and especially of tho settler in Central Otago, who needs water by irrigation. He enlarged upon tho need for more people- in this country, and ho regretted that there was no mention of immigration in the Budget. It was the current opinion in the towns that there was no need for moro population, but tho need becamo obvious when one went into the couutry. There farmers were selling their'ploughs and .their teams, and had given up methods of farming which required labour because men could not be obtained. It would he well if the Government employed agents in the Old Country to procure suitable immigrants for New Zealand. INDUSTRIAL PEACE. MR. BRADNEY ON THE LABOUR FACTION. Mr. J. H. BRADNEY (Auckland West), defending the Government from the reproach of "Toryism," said there could •be no Toryism in any country whore the people had the privilege of universal franchise. He found fault with tho pensions scheme. Ho hoped the Government would fed its way to provide that everybody should receive an-annuity, instead of only tho needy ones receiving a pension. Referring to the first session, and tho division by which the Government escaped defeat on the casting vote of tho : Speaker, ho said it was presumption, after ' that vote, for twenty-two members of the 1 Houso to elect a Prime Minister and to ■ disfranchise other members of the House and the people for several months. Ho ' thought the Government should consider ' the advisability of making use of prison ' labour to make roads. Ho considered that • it was very unfair competition against " tho mine-owners for the Slate to take Gtl." royalty and Is. wharfage, Is. Cd. of the peonlu's money, and then to undersell the unlucky mine-owners. The only fair way to carry on State coal-mining 1 was to nationalise all the mines, and run > them by the State. 3 Mr. G. \V. -Kussell: Do you believe t that? Jlr. Bradney went on to state that the . inevitable corollary to that was for the i Government to take over all the business of the country. "Then you would fiud in this country this happy position," h< said: "People will have to say to the Government, 'Give us this day our dailj e bread.'" When that time did come, al : I though lie was already in the sere ,anc o vellow leaf, he would leave this countrj n to live in some other place where he coulc [i. work under a competitive system, e Mr. G. W. Russell: You forgot "Leat o us not into temptation." ; Mr. C. K. Wilson, impossible. (Laugh ter.) ' . i- Mr. Bradney declared that aUogethei too much attention was paid to the noisi i, mado by I ho Lalwur faction. A\ liat o i- the mail win worked in tho country ti ?. feed them all? If there was any real la hour in the country, where was it ? VVlior was the man who was taxed to keep uj the Labour legislation lor the cities, i he was not following the plough? Ther a was no reason for any labour tin •9 rest in this Dominion, where inone; ■a had been freely borrowed, am

spout, where every borougli had borrowed nil to the hilt. This money was mainly cirnilatnl among workers. 'l'lie worker in New Zealand, he said, was belter fed, better clad, lived in better houses, and got bettor wages than worker.-; anywhere else. | Ho questioned whether there were men in j any country in the world who had bet- | ter conditions than the New Zealand < workers. Ho believed that the Arbitra- ; lion Act had been introduced in all good i faith, but it had failed. "When it was : introduced it was thought that it was | going to do away with strikes, and to pro- < inoto industrial peace. Could any lion- . ourablc member say now that wo had had j anything liko industrial peace? i Mr. CI. Laurenson: Yos, wo have. i Mr. Bradney replied that for years the Court had never been able to overtake its work, and unions always went to tlio Conciliation Councils not in a friendly but a fighting spirit. Until a better state of feeling existed thero could never bo industrial peace. Had the Arbitration Act been enforced equally on the employee as on the employer there would never bavo been .so many strikes. Ho claimed to belong to the working classes, and the opinions ho voiced were thoso of many of the best workers, tho men who had homos and families. He found fault with the workers' homes scheme on the ground that the homes erected were up-to-date villas which could not be let at a rental which lower paid workers could afford to pay. Ho objected also to tho free admission to tho country of alien agitators. These aliens ought, he Baid, to show poljco certificates for at least fivo years. He would like to sec New Zealand closely settled by self-reliant people, and not by people crying constantly to tho Government, for some privilego or other. Ho believed in equal justice for all, and that was the keynote of all sound democracy.