FINANCIAL DEBATE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1525, 22 August 1912, Page 6

FINANCIAL DEBATE.

THE MEMBER FOR WAIKATO. MORE ABOUT ISOLATED SETTLERS. Tho Financial debate was resumed at 5 P 'Sir. .T. A. YOUNG (Waikato) opened his speech with a sturdy advocacy of the freehold tenure, as being the tenure which gave to the settler in New Zealand the best opportunity possible. He agreed with the Government that the speeding up process was very much needed in New Zealand in regard' to the settlement of Native lands. Things would have .to he changed altogether. In the recent , past certain intimate friends of the late Government had been favoured in getting leases through the Maori Land Boards— at any rate it was so in. his district. These men were speculators, mid nien employed by legal linns, and the. bonalidc settler, "who could not get land, ultimately had to pay lo these speculators considerable sums as goodwill. He thought the Government .should we that these men who secured -Maori lands should be compelled to cultivate them and make, them productive. In the latter part of his speech. Mr. Young entered a strong plea for the back-block settlers. I'eo'plo in cities should not think (hat it was they alone who , raised the value of land. Jt was .rural imliisfries that sustained the country, and if these industries slopped tho cities would quickly suffer. The liaclf-block settlers in the past had been tbliidctl. In iflOil'llip. Government pro-nii.-'od to spend a niillian of money in a ]>eriod of lour years'in developing tho back-blocks. That promise, had not been kept; Local bodies had been blamed for not spending grants that had been made in the Public Works Estimates, but in large areas cf the North Island there wore no local bodies, and tho responsibility for the lioii-cxpendiliire of grants so far n.s these areas were concerned rested on the Government. Last year in one district a grant of JiM had been made for a road, and of that amount only £\ had been spent. Mr. Young read a letter from a settler whose only access to his section was by way of a pack-track, which was cros.-ed. ' in a gorge, by .a stream three feet deep. A road had been promised in this case, but so far almost nothing had been done. The sum of ,4MG0,000 had bean placed ou the Land Settlement Appropriation Account during the previous year, but until he raised the question in the House a week earlier ■nothing had been done towards spending the money. Tho Public 'Works Department had received no authoritv to spend it. He wai glad to say that he had received a letter from the Prime Minister stating that the matter would bo attended to right, awny. Ciling some fnrllipr iiislancps of back-block hardships Mr. Young said that although the mail conch in tho Kawhiii district was a small trap the roads wrrp so bad that four or fivo horse.? ivpre roiuirod In pull it 'in a rrrrmt. jo«rn»r »hil<? the co.irh iras t'lT.crsing Uie main toad a uaKojcjt jva*

thrown clean out. Since the main road was so bad what must lie tlio stato of side roads and hack roads? Mr. Young mentioned tho case of another settler who could only got cowls on to his section by way o'f an aerial wive rope. To get in himself the settler had to trespass on a neighbour's property. The wii'o of this settler was imprisoned in her section during a great part of tho year. She-could not visit; her neighbours, nor could her neighbours visit her. Homo of tho selectors of improved farm settlements were practically destitute. He knew of one case in which a family taking up a section owned only 20s. in money. They only reached their section by besieging the Department for free railway passes. Mr. Voung instanced cases in which the extreme poverty of settlers had been exposed in Court. The fact was, he said, thai: the Government had rushed settlers on to tho land not caring whether they had any money or not. 'Where people had been put on tho land under such circumstances tho Government had to stick to them. The Government should advance stock to these settlers on a bill of sale at a.*? low a rate of interest as possible. Stock firms would not advance stock to these, people under any consideration at all. Recipients of advances would have to bo carefully selected. Ho knew of settlers who had grass, but had absolutely not a single beast to turn into their paddocks. He was glad to see that tho Government proposed to reorganise field experiment stations. There had been a deal of change in these farms, but it had amounted to little more than disorganisation, and there was room for improvement. If an agricultural college was to be established it might well be j-vt up in connection with tho Enakura State farm, already a thoroughly well-eguinped experiment farm. MEMBER FOR NAPIER. TAXATION OF THE WEALTHY. -Mr. J. VIGOR BROWN (Napier) quoted a budget of figures to show that tho longoio settlement in Hawke's Bay had been a success, and not a failure, iis tho member for Hawke's Hay had stated. Every section was occupied, practically all tho rent was paid, and on tho bflOO acres , sonic 12,000 she«p were being depastured. As for blackberries on tho estate, lie would give the member for Hawke's Bay .£2O a hundredweight for all tho blackberries be could gather on the estate. He read copious extracts from tho policy'part of tho Budget, and declared thatitho proposals it contained had nil been advocated by the Ward Government. Why had the new Government done- nothing to settle the Waihi strike, which was having a disastrous effect on the country. Speaking of the tariff, ho thought the Government should reduce the duty on tho working man's tobacco. Jfr. Anderson-. What about beer? Mr. Brown: Reduce* that, too. I don't care! 31 r. Anderson. It's weak enough now. Mr. Brown: You'ro weak enough to drink it. Continuing, he expressed tho opinion that tho Budget estimates would produce a surplus of a million, which would mainly come from the irorking classes. \ Mr. Fisher: Haven't ,you been dcing it for twenty years ? Mr. Brown declared, that ho was not concerned with twenty years ago, but with tho present and tho future.., And to Mr. Fisher be said: "You might havo spilt milk twenty years ago," but that did not matter any more. Mr. Fisher: You don't dea} in milk now. (Laughter.) Last of all, Mr. Brown advocated the taxing of tho unearned incremout of wealthy men. MR. ISITT'S "VIRULENT SPEECH." A DIGNIFIED REBUKE. ' Mr. F. MANDER (Marsdeai) said that he had been in the House for many years, and had never listened to a more virulent speech than that delivered by Mr. Isitt on tho previous evening. He had been very, very sorry to hear it. He bad known Mr. Isitt for a great number o! years; in fact,' they had been young men together, and ho had watched his career with great interest. Ho had known him as a iii-nii of very good parts indeed, but he had always been somewhat rash mid impetuous. He had thought that age would have modified Mr. Isitt's views much nioro than it had done. He remembered Mr. Isitt speaking years ago of publicans in Auckland and calling them things and saying that bo would not shake bands with them. Ho was glad to fee he had modified bis views in that direction since bis entry into Parliament. (Laughter.) The for Christclmrch North would lose his influenco in the Houso and in tho country if he adopted such methods in the Houso. as ho had adopted on the previous night. Ho bad spoken of the Massey Ministry as having been conceived in iniquity and born in dishonour. These remarks'had made his (Mr. Wander's) blood curdle. Mr. Massey and his colleagues were men of great honour in their, private lives, and in their political lives as well, (near, hcrr.) It was not conducive to tho high traditions of the House that a gentleman of Mr. Isitfs standing should make such remarks as ho had made on tho previous evening. In a passing reference to what tho member for Christchurch North had said about Tin*: Dominion, Mr. Mander said that no doubt every journal made mistakes. In any case, The Dominion wos well able to look after itself. lie did not believe that tho hon. member would havo used the expressions he had if he had not been intoxicated. (Laughter.) lie meant intoxicated by tho exuberance of bis own verbosity. (Laughter.) The member for Christchurch North had lost his head for the time being. He had forgotten that he was a member of Parliament, and a man oloso upon 80 years of age. If ho had been a young man—as impetuous as he was twenty years ago—it would have been easier to understand tho tone he had adopted. But ho had had a good deal of experience since then, and it seemed he had need of a good deal more. He (Mr. Mander) had known men lose their influence in this Houso by their want of loyalty, want of fidelity, and things of that kind. ll© advised the member for Christchurch North to follow the. example of the member for Wanganui when he addressed the House, lie looked forward to the member for Wanganui having n successful career, in tho House, for when he spoke his language was that of a statesman. Mr. Mander left tho subject with the observation that ho did not want to be insulted again, as he had been insulted on the previous night by the expressions which the member for Christchurch North had employed. Ho admitted that it was difficult to criticise tho Budget, and that it contained some proposals that, had been in tho previous policy of the late Government. But it also contained new proposals which tho Massey party had (advocated for years, but which had not neon adopted by the late Government. There was, after all, only a paper wall between the two moderate sections of both parties; and it was really a great pity that they should bo sitting on different sides of the House. In point of fact it was absurd to call the Government party Conservative, in view of the fact'that they had materially assisted Hie late Government in carrying most of their valuable reforms. Ho did not think that the Crown lands could ever be properly and equitably settled under a ballot system. Tie would not advocate the total abolition of the ballot, but after a married.man had failed once at the ballot, it should be the business of some Departmental officer to see that on his next application he should bo offered a suitable nrea of land. He believed in graduated land lax-, but he did not think it was fair to punish land-owners who kept possession of their large holdings because they could not find a customer to buy. It seemed to him that there was plenty of land in this country to satisfy all demands for it, but attention should 1)0 diverted first to the large areas which were producing nothing, and contributing nothing to the State. He advocated the setting up of an advisory board to determine which of our proposed railways would pay, and would be most useful" in the immediate future.