PARLIAMENT

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 12, 5 September 1919, Page 8

PARLIAMENT

ADDRESS-IN-REFLY OPENED REPATRIATION, DISCUSSED LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL The Legislative Council met at 2.30 p.m. yesterday. DISCHARGED SOLDIERS' SETTLEMENT LOANS BILL. The Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Loans Bill was received from the Lower House. SIR FRANCIS BULL said • that (ho Council could nut amend tho.Bill. and it was a matter of urgency that the Bill should 1)0 put through all stages that day. Tho Houso of Representatives 'had sat up all night to pass it. The Hon. J. 'I'. PAUL supported the Bill, but protested against "the lockiugnp of millions of moiuv which in the futuro would pay nothing in tho way of income tax." The burden of providing revenue so lost would have to be borne liv those who were not benefiting through the loan. The Bill was put through all stages and passed. • ADDRESS-IN-REPLY DEBATE. NERD FOB' GREATER. PRODUCTION. The debute tyion tho Address-in-Keply was resumed. Tho Hon. SIR JOHN SINCLAIR congratulated the mover and tho seconder of tho motion upon the speeches they had delivered on tho previous day. He'referred to the great deeds of the Allied ar•mies and tlto great sacrifices that the Allied nations had made in the recent conflict. We knew how great was our debt to the mercantile marine. Without its co-ODeration the war could not have been carried on by up for more than r. few months. No praise was too great for t.hose in the Motherland who had etuc ! k tn their work to help us win the war. History, viewing the position broadly, must render a verdict that Labour had disolaved wonderful resources and producing nower in the war days. Thoss who looked back upon tho events of the last few years must reflect how little militarism was as a system ."The British Army.- though small, took part in the earlv months in the achievement of one of tho miracles of the struggle. We must, now rcmemlrer our duty to those who had fought and to their dependants. What tho fit' men needed was "help merely to help themselves." Another nroblem that stood out was tho urgent need of developing tho industries of the country. In view of our great indebtedness there must.be an increase in our exports. Thero must bo closer co-opera-tion to make production greater. What was tho actual outlook? Were Capital and Labour hand-in-h/ind? In some industries things were.proceeding smoothly; hut in others there was wastage that must react upor. tho prosperity of the country. Ho did not believo it was gen. orally realised how great our indebtedness was or how much we needed to stand together to-day. Th?re must now he permanently a higher wage. Whoro was that wase to come from i 1 The payment in the long run , must be by results There miirlit bo differences upon the question of how the fund was to bo divided. but there could be no difference on the necessity for making the fund nbig as possible. Tho prac'.iee of adding to wages as tho cost of living wont up was not sound, though it might be advisable as a temporary expedient. All felt 'tho rising cast of living. It was useless to blame Government;! for tho phenomenon—it was an inovitablo result of war conditions. Tho high cost of living was nart of tho price that the countries of the world had to pay for having been at war. Our own Dominion was one of the countries that had suffered least in this fionnoction. He quoted from a statistical tablo figures which showed that only two other, countries- (belligerent or neutral during tho war) had experienced a smaller riso in the cost of living than that recorded in New Zealand. He believed that the only way to deal with food profiteers in the Dominion, if food profiteel's there were, was to expose them to tho public condemnation tf the whole people. Tt was necessary to employ, caution in the use of the word profiteer lest the name should be applied to just as well 'as to unjust profits. He looked forward to a wider recognition of the possibilities of co-operation batwecn Labour and Canitnl. This country, of all countries, was one in which industrial unrest should be at a minimum. Co-operation was not anti-Labour; it was i\ pro-Labour movement. (Hear, hear.)

, The Hon. G. J. GAULAND spoke of the educational needs of the counts}', layinir emnhasis upon tlie necessity for reducing the size of classes in tlio.eclioola, find increasing the salaries of teachers. Tlio Hon. H. L. MICHEL referred to tho cost of living and the outcry against the profiteer. He pointed out the difficulties of solving these problems, and mid that in Australia, the Labour Governments had no better fortune than other Governments in dealing with the nrofitect. Ho disagreed with the proposal, favoured by the Hon. Mr. Grimmond. that the coal mines should be nationalised. He believed that the State would fail ifit attempted to mn the «ial mines of the country. The fact t.hnt it already owned 6orao of the mines had not Drovented the occurrence of industrial trouble at those mines. The debate wns adjourned at 5.55 p.m. on the motion of the Hon. J. T. Paul.