FINANCIAL DEBATE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1526, 23 August 1912, Page 6

FINANCIAL DEBATE.

THE MEMBER FOR PAHIATUA. BANKING LAWS AND COUNTEY WOltk'S. ■I. ' ' The Financial debate was resumed at 3.5 p.m. by Mr. Escott, who lmcl 11 overt the adjournment on tlio previous evening. ilr. .T. H. ]jSCOTT (Pahiatua) blamed the late Government for neglecting nccessary amendments to the banking laws. Two or throe more banks operating in the country would tend in a valuable degree lo stave oil' financial stringency, lie denied emphatically that he and oilier Government members hod said that they were opposed to borrowing. They were opposed to tho indiscriminate borrowing and wasteful spending ot' largo sums. Whilo the Government had done a great deal in tho past for back-block settlers, ■many of them were to-day in a very parlous state indeed. ■ Wrong methods of settlement bad been pursued. If th«1 Government had settled land at a capital value of .£3 an acre, instead of at a value of .£1 or 305., and had spvnt tlw balance ahead of settlement, much more satisfactory results would have been obtained, and in the end settlers,would have paid no more for their holding-i'l'hun they bad paid starting from a low capital value. Mr. Lscott questioned the wisdom of expiating settlers.to spend a pint if their time in road and co-operative works. While settlers engaged in these activities their holdings were improved very slowly, and some of Uiem looked back to the time spent upon outside works as wasted time. -Mr. Escott said that lie was not prepared to say that the co-operative system was entirely bad. It was bad in railway construction because it entailed the use of primitive methods and the exclusion of up-to-date appliances. It was unfair to put good and bad workmen in the same gong. It was also unfair to cut down the rates paid to good nion. Ho had known some men spend two days of the week in camp lest they should do too much work and have tho rale cut down. The best system in (he interests both of tho State and of th;> worker was the small contract system. lie was glad that the Ministry intended to rovert to the old system of' loans to local bodies. This would encourage a self-reliant policy. On tho subject. of Local Government, Mr. Escott said I'liat it was (utile of the Opposition to say that I hey would probably have brouirht. jloirn a Kaform Bill if they. had remained.

t in office. They had neglected doing so for - 21 yours. ) Jlr. Russell: M 7 o were only in office for i throe months and we brought down a : Bill. Jlr. Escort: You belong to a parly that ; was. in power for 21 years. Local Goveini nient reform, ho continued, would tako • the power of patronage out of the hands ■ of the Government of the day, and would : relieve members of an onerous duty. local bodies would welcome the opportunity to : embark upon a self-reliant policy. The establishment of a Public Service' Board would also take away power of patronage from the Government, and would be a valuable reform. Mr. Escort commended the proposal to settle tho gum-lands of the north. Neglect to do something of this kind in the past had lost the country many good settlors—particularly a number of Austrian gum-diggers. These men were industrious, and fitted to become first-class citizens. He had no doubt that many County Councils would take advantage of tho permission to bo accorded them to erect workers' homes. lis believed that the increase in the graduated tax would break up a number of lar°e ■estates The surplus Native lands should be settled either bv the Natives themselves,, or, if they weTe unable to do so by Europeans. Tt would be a good tiling to set up a Committee of the House to investigate the Native land question. In future Native land sales two-thirds of tlio purchasc-moncy should be paid into tho Advances to Settlers' Account. The interest should be paid to the owners', and the principal could be lent on morhrago to Natives who wished to develop their land. Tf a Committee were set up. as he suggested, a large amount of valuable expert evidence could easily be obtained from impartial witnesses. H e Wils no t entirely in accord with the propositi to import a general manager of railways from abroad. If it was necessary to do this now, it was because the la'te Government had not given their employees a .sufficiently wide field of training. * In future, traffic managers should be sent abroad for training. Applications should be called in the Dominion and in Canada as well as in England, for a general manager. Mr. Escot.t indicated jiis approval of the proposal for the reform of the Upper House. Proportional representation should be employed to Hie Tower House elections as well as in tho Upper House elections. .He endorsed the principle of tho betterment tax. MR, J. C. THOMSON. NO LEAD ON THE LAND QUESTION. Mr. J. C. THOMSON (Wallace) said that the new Government had assumed office under the happiest auspices with a full Treasury and'a prosperous country. A Government member: Waihf! Mr. Thomson said that lie had scanned the Budget in vain for a heading: "Revelations of the Pigeon-holes." Instead, he had found nothing but evidence of the fact that the present Government was prepared to take up and carry on the proposals of its predecessors— proposals which it had opposed and criticised while in Opposition. He could find very little reform in the Reform Budget. The proposed Upper House reform would be unsatisfactory, needlessly costly, and would lead to dead-locks only to be settled by elections. A better plan would be to abolish the Upper House and establish a revisory Chamber instead. The proposed reform of the Civil Service was no reform. Parliament should not be shorn of its powers. The Executive should be shorn of its powers and the powers taken away should be given to committees. Mr. Thomson declared that it was a strange thing, in view of past utterances of members of the Government, that the Budget did not propose any reduction of taxation. He accused the Minister for Finance of a change of front since taking office, in regard to the national assets and liabilities. Railways were required in many parts of the Dominion, and ho could not understand how they were to be provided without money. All the land was to be thrown open but no definite provision was m'ade for roads and bridges to give access to them. After condemning- tho public debt extinction scliemo and voting against it, <thc Government now commended it and proposed to take advantage of it and use it to pay off all tile money, borrowed for advances. The Government had promised land legislation, but not land reform. Many Reform candidates had told people from the platform that they favoured limitation of area and ho wnnted to know when it was to be brought about. Jlr. Thomson twitted tho Minister for Marine with having said that he would never occupy a seat in a freehold Cabinet. He also stated that on a former occasion Mr. Fisher had moved an amendment similar to that moved a couple of days ago bv the member for Timaru. In the Budget the House had been given no lead at all on the land question. He concluded by asking how it 'was that the essential reforms which the Government had advo- , cated when the.v were in Opposition wero not to be found in the Budget. THE MEMBER FOR TARANAKI. ' UNIVERSAL PENSIONS ADVOCATED. 1 (Tafanaki) challenged ■ Mr. Thomson's statement that the Gov- < crnment had found a full Treasury on coming into office. The actual fact was : that there was a dearth of money. Moner was wanted for Advances to Settlers anil ! for Loans to Local Bodies. Tho practi- . cal way in which the financial position , was set forth in the Budget indicated that j the finances of tho country were in good < hands. It had been said that when tho ] Reform Party came into power it would i make an end of humanitarian legislation, i Instead, camo a measure which would ex- | tend , the benefit of tho Pensions Act to i ten thousand women. Other measures 1 projected would give pensions to invalids i and to veterans. The late Government t had compelled a veteran to plaee himself 1 in the same position as an old age pen- j sioner before lie could obtain any rccog- i uition. He contended that eventually ; the pension .benefits would liavo to be car- i l'ied on further than was contemplated in i tho present, extensions. The goal should 1 be a universal pension, whicli would Ijo < received by all when they attained a stat- •' cd age. Something would have to be ] done, in the way of bringing forward a '> universal pension sclieme. He had always been in favour of doing away with ' the- Upper House, and substituting a f smaller revisory Chamber. He was not 1 satisfied that an elective Upper House ' would be satisfactory. That the same ; people should elect both Houses seemed to hi in like fitting a fifth wheel to a ' coach. There should be some difference J in franchise for the electors of the two Houses. He hoped that the Public 1 Works Statement would' bring forward 1 some scheme which would enable people I who were willing to provide a guarantee J to have their branch railways constructed. ' The Jtinistcr would, not be troubled by so many deputations asking for branch ) railways if he were in a position to ask 1 those' who wanted the railways to find [ something towards the ,cost of construction, .and towards interest until the rail- c ways were on a paying basis. Mr. Okey f approved the proposal to introduce a ! railway expert from outside to act as gen- I eral manager of the Dominion railways. 1 Tf an officer now in the service of the c Department were selected it could only c he expected that the present policy would * lie continued. ' c l!e=uniing after the Adjournment, he ] ilealt. with a number of Government proposals. The country, lie concluded, would c not remain stationary, and the Govern- a ment must be progressive.