BUDGET DEBATE NEARING END

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20023, 23 August 1939, Page 12

BUDGET DEBATE NEARING END

LABOUR STANDING

REPLY TO CRITICS OUTLAY ON PUBLIC WORKS OPPOSITION COMMENT CAUSE OF MANY STRIKES POLICY OF GOVERNMENT (IVr Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. Train delays are sometimes responsible for unexpected and far-reaching happenings, and the subsidence in the Main Trunk railway near Te Kuiti on Monday night proved no exception to the rule. It was instrumental in causing an adjournment of the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon, probably the first adjournment of this nature that has happened within the history of the New Zealand Parliament. At 2.30 punctually the House met, but the first surprise came when the Clerk of the House, Mr. T. D. H. Hall, announced that the Speaker, the Hon. W. E. Barnard, was unavoidably absent.

The Chairman of Committees, Mr. R. McKeen, occupied the chair and read the customary prayer at the opening of Parliament. • The acting-Leader of the House, the Hon. P. Fraser, then announced that owing to the train delay there had been a slight hitch in the arrangements for the continuance of the Budget debate. fie asked leave to confer on the matter with the Government and Opposition Whips. Mr. Fraser, Mr. J. O’Brien, and Mr. H. S. S. Kyle had a hasty conference on the floor of the House, and Mr. Fraser suggested that tile House should adjourn till the ringing of the bells. This was agreed to, and the House accordingly adjourned at 2.33, three minutes after , the sitting had commenced.

The Speaker, Mr. Barnard, and 13 members, including Mr. J. Thorn (Thames), who was scheduled to be the first speaker in the continuation of the Budget debate yesterday afternoon, had been passengers on the Main Trunk express bound for Wellington from Auckland which was held up by the subsidence of the line at Te Kuiti. They walked across (he obstruction and came on to Wellington by a fast rail car which reached here at 2.13 p.m., and the adjournment at 2.33 was taken to allow members to have some lunch and settle down after their arduous trip. The House resumed again at 3.30. Urgency Granted

Continuing the Budget debate, for which urgency was granted on the same lines as last week, Mr. Thorn said the Opposition had made a haoit of criticising the Government’s public works expenditure, ibut there was not a Nationalist member of the House who was willing to see such expenditure cut down in his own electorate. To his way of thinking, said Mr. Thorn, members of the Opposition could not ask the Minister of Public Works, tne Hon. R. Semple, to increase expenditure in their electorates and then turn round and accuse the Government of extravagance lor having consented to that expenditure. The Opposition had also charged the Government with failing to solve the unemployment problem. Strange arguments were heard from the Opposition, whose members were quite icady to say that if money was spent m making bullets, guns and armaments, men had to be found, tout if the men were put on public works, developing the country’s resources, then, according to the Opposition, it was symbolical of unemployment in the country. Mr. T. D. Burnett (Nat., Temuka), stressed the importance of primary production to this country, and said it was on the exportable surplus of the counetry that our prosperity de--170,000 primary producers of this pended.

He paid a tribute to the work of the Agricultural .Department anct staled it hi became the people to sneer at the primary producers, because it was tne •‘cocky” on the land who was .bearing the heat of the day and was responsible for our' exportable primary produce.

He suggested that 12-hour regional weather broadcasts should be made to warn high country farmers of impending storms, and also that a conference should be held under the auspices of the Ministry of Transport to consider ways of clearing high country roads of snow to enable farmers to get their stock out of danger. In conclusion, he further suggested that all the social security tax from persons under 25 years of age should be set aside for housing for young couples. At the present time we were thinking overmuch of old people and not enough of those who were to carry on the country. Mr. J. G. Barclay (Lab., Marsden): Is that the new policy of the National Party? Mr. Burnett: No. I am speaking entirely oft' my own bat. Over here we are entitled to do that. Ohakea Aerodrome Aifter the tea adjournment Mr. J. O'Brien (Lab., Westland) referred to a statement by Mr. H. G. Dickie (Nat.. Patea) that the aerodrome at Ohakea should be placed underground, stating that on the figures supplied him by

officers of the department the cost would be £1,200,000. With the necessary equipment for such underground hangars, including the installa-

tion of electric light, the cost would be nearly £2,000,000. To adopt the same policy for all military aerodromes in the Dominion would cost nearly £10,000.000. The present cost of the scheme at Ohakea was £450,000. The Opposition had always been accusing the Government of not giving the farmers a fair deal, said Mr. O’Brien. They said the guaranteed price was not enough, and so on. He reminded the Opposition that New Zealand had had farmer Governments for 16 or 17 years and that there had been three Prime Ministers and farmers holding practically every portfolio.

Mr. A. G. Osborne (Lab., Onehunga): And they were all dumped. Mr. O’Brien went on to quote the bankruptcy figures to show that the farmers had headed the list for year after year until Labour came into office. British Foreign Policy Mr. H. S. S. Kyle (Nat., Riccarton) congratulated Mr. F. W. Schramm (Lab., Auckland East) on his recent speech upholding British foreign

policy, comparing it with that made by Mr. R. McKeen on the same subject. In answer to a Labour interjection, ,he said he would gladly go up to Auckland East to assist Mr. Schramm in his election campaign. (Laughter.) He forecast a decline in production this year totalling £3,000,000. Dairying had .decreased despite the fact that the Government was still telling the House what a wonderful thing the guaranteed price was and that the decrease was entirely due to. increased labour costs and the uncertainty of securing -labour. He contended that the strikes against the increased price of beer by the watersiders and railwaymen were really strikes against the Government policy, and he also asserted that a' great portion of the increased income tax for which the Government had provided in the Budget would come from the middleclass sections of the community. The people with larger incomes were at present heavily taxed, but their numbers were comparatively small, while people witli smaller incomes were more numerous, and it was on them that +he increased income tax would bear most heavily.

Speaking of the Government’s housing policy, he -asked if the Government were setting aside a sinking fund to provide for depreciation on the houses which were being bull He doubted if any of the rank and file members of the Government knew what + he cost of the®e house® really was. All they and the House knew was that the Government was spending £10,000,000 on housing.

Housing Under-Secretary

Another question which aroused interest was if the member for Grey Lynn, Mr. J. A. Lee, were still Undersecretary for Housing. No one seemed to know.

Mr. Kyle predicted that unless the Government made better provision for oversea credits, the number of factories throughout New Zealand would soon be closing down because importers would be unable to get goods from overseas and manufacturers would be unable to secure the necessary raw materials.

Mr. E. T. Tirikatene (Lab., Southern Maori) deprecated attacks on the Minister of Public Works for the magnitude of his expenditure, pointing out that the works estimates included £1,354,000 for native matters and there was another £400,000 for other native purposes. He asked would the Opposition prefer' reduced wages and pensions to the petrol and beer duty increases which they criticised. Loan at Time of Maori War Included in the debt recently converted in London was £77,000 originally borrowed in 1860 for the prosecuting of the Maori War. He calculated that £135,000 in interest had been paid in 50 years and the descendants of the people against whom the war material bought with the loan was used had been helping to pay off that debt. Mr. Tirikatene appealed to the Native Minister to abolish the Board of Native Affairs and take over the administration himself. The board, he contended, had been set up to act as a buffer between the Maoris and previous Governments. The member for Eastern Maori, Sir Apirana Ngata, was not responsible for its appointment. In fact, he had been badly let down by his own Government on the matter.

Mr. Tirikatene concluded that it apparent that the present Government was out to overcome difficulties which had lain between the Maori and the pakeha for many years. At 10.28 p.m. the acting-Leader of the House, the Hon. P. Fraser, moved the adjournment and the House rose. This was an indication that Mr. Fraser would reply to the debate thus finally disposing of it.