THE SESSION

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 55, 28 November 1921, Page 6

THE SESSION

TARIFF DEBATE THIS WEEK PROGRESS OF RETRENCHMENT The House of Representatives will commence the consideration of the new tariff this week. A general debate covering the broad questions of policy may take place before tho House reaches the details of the) Bill. Many of the clauses of the Bill 'contain merely necessary machinery, and may be discussed properly when the schedules are before the House, but other clauses embody an important new principle, since they give th? Government power to vary rates of duty and the application of the tariff by Order-in-Council. The Bill itself contains only 32 clauses, but some of them aro made highly complex by their relation to the schedules. Clause 31, for example provides that the principal Act shall be amended in accordance with the fifth schedule of the Bill. The fifth schedule contains three pages of miscellaneous amendments. - The first schedule of the Bill, containing the new duties, covers forty pages.

ECONOMIES IN THE DEPARTMENTS The Prime Minister has not indici/ted yet when the legislation dealing with retrenchment will make its appearance. This legislation has received much attention from Cabinet during recent weeks, but Ministerial statements have suggested that cv?n now the extent .of the reduction in Public Service salaries and the method of applying the reduction are in doubt. Members of _ the House, in the meantime, are receiving many communications from Civil servants. It is understood that the Economies ■■ Commissiton has recommended certain amalgamations of State Departments, with the object of saving overlapping expenditures and reducing overhead charges. The amalgamation of the three Insurance Departments, Life, Fire, and Accident, has been indicated as a possibility. Another suggestion is that the Tourist Department may be linked with the Railway Department. This probably would involve the transfer of health resorts to the Health Department. The Insurance Departments, it may be mentioned, are not a charge upon the taxpayers. They pay their own way and have money to invest. PROMOTING MINING.

Tho annual report of the Mines Department states that extensive use continues to b? made of the Government prospeoting-drills, which are lent to hirers free of charge. During Hie year six parties employed these drills, an aggregate of 6822 ft. being bored in search of coal, alluvial gold, and cinnabar lodes. A workable area of coal was thus proved in Canterbury, and the continuation of a cinnabar lode was proved in North Auckland. During the year ended March 31, eighteen approved prospecting parties were granted subsidies amounting to £6545, of which £1156 was expended during the year;, in addition to which .£697 granted during previous years was expended during the past financial year. Upon these operations 122 persons ware intermittently employed during the year, practically th? whole of the prospecting operations in the Dominion being now subsidised by the Government. DEPARTMENTS TO PAY. The existing tariff law exempts from Customs duty any goods imported for the use of the Government of N?w Zealand. The Customs Amendment bill proposes the following new section:— "Save with the approval of the Minister in any case, and in accordance with conditions prescribed by him, duty in accordance with this Act shall b? lewd, collected, and paid on all goods being ’the property of the Crown in respect of the Government |of New Zealand and imported into New Zealand or entered for home consumption on and after April 1, 1922.” The effect of this clause will be to reonire tho payment of Customs duty on goods imported by the State Departments after the end of the current financial year. NO RECOMMENDATION. The Defence Committee of the House of Representatives has reported on the petition of Dr. E. Yeates, who asked that certain notices in the New Zealand Gazette with regard to his military services should be cancelled and that his appointment to and discharge from the New Zealand Expeditionary Force should be readjusted; also that, he should receive adequate compensation for injuries alleged to have been received by him owing to the action of the military authorities. Dr. Yeates served w'ith the New Zealand forces early in the war, and he complained subsequently that he had been harshly treated by the authorities. The report states that the. cmnmiti.ee has taken into consideration the facts of the case, and has heard evidence on both sides- The committee finds that Dr. Yeates’s medical qualifications are unquestioned, but it has no recommendation to make in regard to his claim for consideration and compensation. POSSESSION OF HOUSES.

The Minister of Labour, replying to a question in the House, stated that he intended to bring down legislation dealing with the difficulty of people who hafl bought house® for their own occupation and were unable to obtain possession, lie would make provision for tho cases of returned soldiers and men with families who were suffering hardship, owing to tho refusal of tenants to move out of purchased houses. / 'Mr. I’. Fraser (Wellington Central): The law already provides for that in any ease of undue hardship. The Minister said that he thought that in those cases relief should be given. He did not know that there would be much alteration of tho law in other respects. Where the houses were required for occupation by the purchaser it would have to bo genuine occupation—not any camouflage.