THE HOUSE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 55, 29 November 1918, Page 6

THE HOUSE

The House of Eepresentatives met at 2.30 p.m. The John Donald Macfarlane Estate Administration Empowering Bill' and the Christ's College Ordinance Amendment Bill, both private Bills in the name of Mr. R. M'Callum, were read a third time and passed. ~, , , Dn H. T. J. Thacker (Christchurch East) gave notice of The ings Bill and the' Arterial High.vays Bill. The Finance Bill was introduced by Message from the Governor-General. 'J he Legislative Counpil Amendment Bill was received from the Upper House aud read a first time. WAR LEGISLATION. On the motion for the third reading of the War Legislation Bill, Mr. S. G. SMITH (Taranaki) said he wished to protest against the portion of the Bill which had the effect of depriving certain Civil Servants of their rights under the -superannuation scheme. The Stato had entered into a solemn contract with the Civil Servants. That rwnuse had been broken as far as some of the railway men were conepmed. Mr. Smith quoted the case of a. man who, ! n order to join the superannuation fund, had sacrificed a life insurance policy. When the time came, for his retirem.mt the Government said that all rights were suspended during Ihe war, and that the man must stay at work. Yet there were other men brought back into the service during the war, who were drawing superannuation in addition to full wages. There never had been any t-eed to inflict this injustice on some 35 railwaymen. Mr. Smith contended that the staff shortage in the railway service, had been due. to bad conditions of service. He had been a railway servant himself, and he know that he could not have his family and himself on his wages if he had not been able to earn money in other directions. , The RIGHT HON W. P. MASSEY (Prime Minister) interposed in the debase to tell the House that Cabinet had considered the question of' repeal of, the clause to which exception was being taken—that requiring pensioned railwaymen on re-employment in the service to forfeit pensions while-re-employed. The decision of Cabinet had been that there was no longer any necessity for the clause, and that it might be repealed. The Solicitor-General was preparing a repealing clause, and it would be inserted in the Bill. Mr. J. M'COMBS (Lyttelton) still persevered with the matter. He said that tho necessity for the clause had never arisen, and that the Government would not have done,the right thing until, it paid to the men the superannuation benefits of which they had been wrongfully . deprived. , s Several other members continued tho debate. The Prime Minister, in reply, said that he regretted the attacks that had been made on certain persons during the debate. The member for Grey Lynn had described as Germans a group of northern settlers who were not Germans at all. They wore Czecho-Slovaks, and were thoroughly loynl to tho Dominion and to the Empire. They had sent their sons to'the front during the present war and during the South African war. Mr. Payne, who had repeated several tiuics that the men were Germans, interjected: "Peaceful penetration," and waa called to order by the Speaker. Mr. Massey said he did not think any real hardship had been inflicted on railway servants by asking them to postpone their retirement on superannuation at a time of national crisis. The shortage of men had been acute, and the nation s need had been great. Now that the war was over tho men would be put back into their old positions. , . , ~ ■ The Bill was read a third time and passed.

THE FINANCE BILL,

RAPID PROGRESS.

SIR. ' JOSEPH WARD (Minister of Finance) moved the second reading of the Finance Bill. In thes course of a summary of the clauses of the BiU he said that the clauses dealing with stamp duties adjusted i,ome anomalies and covered various points that had arisen. Ho had come to the conclusion that in view of tho very heavy losses of life insurance companies on account of the war, it would not be fair to demand from these companies the special war taxation. The amount involved 1 was about JM3.000. . Sir Joseph Ward proceeded to reter to those clauses of the Bill relating to 'the raising of loans, and m answer to interjections from the Labour benches he had to refer at length to the question of raising loans free of income tax. He said that the raising of thirty-nine millions in this country was a very wonderful achievement, such as no one would have considered possible a few years ago. But he would ask honourable members to think where money was to be obtained in the future, when there would be no war profits, for all the enterprises for which some honourable members were asking. Also, he deprecated the suggestions made for the controlling of prices of commodities exported. New Zealand was a producing country, and if tho value of' our exports were to be reduced this country would soon be brought to a state of bankruptcy. He explained that the proposal in the Bill to legalise the issue of five shilling bank notes was on account of the difficulties of getting silver coinage from the lioyal Mint. He would not be surprised if these notes became a permanency, for peoplo would carry them in preference to silver coin. The second reading of the Bill was agreed to without debate, and the Bill was committed forthwith.

Civil Servants' Salaries. In Committee, Dr. A. K. Newman pressed the Minister to include in tho Bill a clause to restore the classification of Civil Servants. Now that the war was over the Civil Servants should get relief. Sir Joseph Ward said that the matter was already before the Government. There had been difficulties about a Kenoral classification while so many men were absent at the <var. Another difficulty was finance. Mr. P. A. Wright endorsed the plea on behalf qf Civil Servants made by Dr. Newman. On tho loan clauses of the Bill the debate on the question of exemption of loan interest from income tax wns repeated on lines similar to those followed on every War Finance Bill that has been before the House. A division was taken on the question as to whether the clause should remain part of the Bill, and the clause was retained by 26 votes to IS. The Public Works Loan, In the third reading debate Mr. M'Combs asked tho Finance Minister whether the "free of income lax" provision would apply lo the two and a half million Public Works Loan. Sir Joseph Ward replied: "No. only to the War Loan." He added, in reply to 11 further question, that he had not decided what tho rate of interest for the Public Works Loan was to be, but it would probably be 5} per cent,

The debate consisted of threo speeches, chiefly on the subject of the exemption of interest from income tax, and Sir / Joseph Word replied on this subject. He l mentioned, incidentally, that New Zca- \ land War Loan stock, which was issued / at par, was being sold now at a riis- / count of 2-i per cent. People had sub-/ ■scribed to the loan not for investmemi considerations, but because they wante/d the British .Empire to .win the war. f,Ve - had a right to lie very proud of ij/liat New Jiealand had ' done in respec.'c of war f)alis. He thanked the House for having allowed him to get the I Bill through so quickly. I 'flip Bill was read a third linio'; and passed. Another Dill. At 11.43 p.m. the Electric Power Board Bill was brought down by Gov-ernor-General's Message, and read a first lime. The House rose at 11.-15 p.m. to sit again at 11.30 a.m. to-day.