POLITICAL NOTES
MEMBERS' SALARIES
FURTHER INCREASE FAVOURED
When the Committee stage of the Civil List Bill is reached, probably this week, members will seek to have the proposed honorarium increased from iC4SO to .£SOO. Tho present payment lo members of tho House is .£3OO a year, and there appears to be a general feeling that the honorarium of iiiO proposed by Uis Government is not adequate, especially if soma deduction is to bo made for superannuation. The Prime Minister has indicated that lie is willing to take the opinion of the House 011 the subject, but no private member can move an amendment involving the increase of public expenditure, and if an increase to -CSOO is to be made, the motion will have to corns from the Government. The House em find means of indicating its desire. Tha Bill as introduced 'by 11 r Massey does not propose any increase in the salaries of Ministers, and the opinion of the Hou.w seems to be strongly in favour of an increase. The Prime Minister stated when lie was movfns 1 the second reading of tho Bill that Cabinet bad decided to leave this question to the House, but hero again the actual motion must come from the Government.
PRICE OF BUTTER
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTER TO MEET. The Frime Minister has stated that » committee of the Houso will be set up this week to consider the price of butter in the local market, and make a recommendation to the Uovernment. The committee, whatever its personnel may be, can scarce'.y avoid recommending an increase in the present maximum price ol' butler, to have effect as soon as tne supply now held in the stores from last season is exhausted. The consumption of butler by the people of New Zealand is at the rate of twenty pounds per head annually, and the additional subsidy required to maintain the present retait price in the face of. the increased export price would be well over .£].000.000 annually. The Minister of .Finance has in(Healed plainly enough tnat the Treas. ury is not prepared to accept additional burden? on this scale.
AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE
JOSIAH. HOWARD BEQUEST. "Is there any hope that the Government will reconsider its decision Io establish an agricultural college under the Joshh Howard bequest outside- Hawke's Bay?" asked Mr. flimter (Waipawa) in tho House of Representatives. The people, ■if' the Hawke's Bay district, «iid Mr. Hunter, felt that since the bequest had been made by a Hawke',l Bay resident, Hie college should be placed hi the. district. They would be very disappointed indeed if the Government insisted on placing the college elsewhere. He hoped that the decision already snncunced would be reconsidered.
Mr. M'Nicol (Pahiaiuaj supported Mr. Hunter's protest, lift <=oUI that the policy of the Government seemed to he to move everything into the neighbourhood of the capital'city. They could not move the farm, so they had decided, to sell it and spend the money as near as possible to the capital. The. Hawke's Bay people were exceedingly disappointed. Mr. Massey replied that the Government hail referred tho will of the lat« .Tosiah Howard to the Solicitor-General, who had advised that the will gave no indication that he intended the college to be. established in Hawke's Bay. The 'iovenimciit had taken up the position that the proper thing to do was to establish the college in a central position. Suitable land wa.s available at "U'eraron. and the Government proposed to place the collego there.
LAM VALUATIONS
BIG INCREASES MADE. When the estimates of the Valuations Department were before the House of Representatives early on Saturday mornins several members suggested that the '•evaluation of rural land should be hastened. Thov mentioned that in many districts the Government values were very imall compared to actual values, and that the State was losing much revenue through the collection of taxation on the old valuations.
Mr. Massey replied that ninety sgeci-alh'-selected emergency valuers were being appointed to assist tho Department in overtaking the work. Revaluation wore preceding at a very good pace. The Commissioner of Taxes had been furnished lately with revised unimproved valuations allowing an increase of over ,£24,000,000. This extra value would be available for the purposes of land taxation during the current year.
NOT CALLED
At 2 o'clock on Saturday morning, Mr. Holland, leader of the Labour Party, made a protest in the House of Representatives against late sittings. He. said lie was tired. He believed other moniliem were tired. If the discussion of the Estimates rnntinued lie proposed to maKo "an effective protest" against business being done at such hours. He vmtUl discuss every item-item by item. This threat did not appear to perturb tho House. Half-a-dozen members were on their feet with questions for the Minister w soon as Mr. Holland sat dowiiv The class under discussion was completed half-an-hour later, and the House then rose, so members lost the chance of seeing if a tedious debate Teally could bn killed by kindness.
WANGANDI RIVER SERVICE
"Will the Minister bring before Cabinet! within a reasonable time a proposal that; a. State servicn be established on tho Wanganui Eiver?" asked Mr. Veitch. (Wnnganui) in tho early hours of Saturday mcraiuy. The Hon. D. 11. Guthrie replied: "AII I can tell you is that the matter must Mime before Cabinet for consideration he< fore the end of this year. Beyond <*>at I cannot say anything."
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19200906.2.18
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 294, 6 September 1920, Page 4
Word count
Tapeke kupu
899POLITICAL NOTES Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 294, 6 September 1920, Page 4
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Dominion. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.