"FUNERAL NOTICE"

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 12, 7 October 1937, Page 3

"FUNERAL NOTICE"

Lost Opportunity to Reduce Taxation MINISTER'S DEFENCE (By Tnleeraph— Press Aaioolation.) WELLINGTON, Last Night. The interrupted Budget debate was eontinued by Mr Morgan Williams when the House resumed this evening. Mr Williams said he thought the Labour Government had suoceeded in guaranteeing an. average income to f armers working average size f arms. Statements by .members of. the Opposition wonld iead on to believe that the present Government was themost spendthrift one in the history of the country, but he would point out that it had done something which no other Government had ever done— that was to reducp our overseas debt by £5,500,000 in the past two years. The charge that the Labour Government was prodigal in. its espenditure -was unwarranted and no Government had evei paid'Bo mqch out-of revenue. In fact, the -Labour Government was leading th« country ont of its indebtedness. ■ If any, Government had p'layed the part oi prodigal with. the country 's finances it. was tlie Government of . members of the Oppositjon, and Labour had to come • into o&ce and clear' up the mess into which they had lauded the country, I Oue- of the most difficult problems in I New Zealand to-day, said Mr Williams, j ;was that of the uneconomic farm and 1 he did not cousider it fair to espect the copmninity to guarantee an income to the inefficient farmer comparable With the income of the efficient type of farmer. Refetririg to the question of superapnuation he said it could only be provided out of current production. The people could not live on the savings of ' the past. These could be put into ! brick3 and * mortar, but -one could not | eat bmcks and inortar. If we were to , have an adequate superannuation i system we must have' the utmost effi- ' ciency in production, for we could only 1 .distribute wealtk which was being proi jdUced. j Mr Coates said when he read the, ; Budget he could not get the idea out s of. his mind that the Minister of j Fipauce had becom® the official underitaker for the Government. Mr Savage: He. buried the Opposition, jill right. Mr Coates: The Government 's funeral notice will be sent out -with "income tgx" written upon it iu a few months ' ttoe. ' He eontinued to criticise the Budget, stating that it was political propagauda from begiuning to end. Mr Coates eontinued to dea! with taxation, clrawmg | attentipn. to the fact that industry was iresponsible for he payment of the bill sof taxation in the Dominion to-day. The 'present time, said Mr Coates, offered 'a golden opportunity for the Governiment toimake adjustmeuts and give Jrelief to ' thousands ef our citizens, but it had not done so. Insofar as the distribution of taxation was concemed no oiie would deny that old age, widows', orphans' and.invalidity pensions should be increased in times of prosperity.' Mr Nash: Are they to starve in times of. depression! Mr Coates: What I can't understand about- the Minister of Finance is that hei appears to take credit for all the pensions on the Statute Book. All of those pensions were there, with the exception of the invalidity pensions, before the present Government came into office. ■ . Tn prosperous times, said Mr Coates, he would never fiud fault with pensions being increased. He proceeded to criticige the effects of the 40-hour week aud disagreed with the Governmjent that it was justified. In some cases it might be justified. ' In fact, under the Opposltioh Government there were certain industries which. had a 40-houi week, but it was not justified in all industries. ' The 40-hour week, Mr Coates contended, placed a great burden on industry aud with the heavy impost of income tax the effecfc was to defiuitely wreck industry 's ability to absoro young • people. In connection with [ defence ha cpngratulated the Primfi Minister on his recognition of the necesgity for the defence of the Empire and this Dominion. The Opposition was reafly to assist in any action the Government had taken in providing for a measure of defence. Brivate industry, said Mr Coateg, was the baekbone of this country aud our pro.sperity dependcd upon it. He warned ithe Government that it was thelr duty. to make provision in case there was a f all in overseas prices. Shart prices in New York wero falling. : Mr Nash: New Zealand. stocks are ndt falling. They are going up. Mr Coates: They must fall if other .gtocks falh . He stated that the fall oi' the total of New Zealand funds in London required the urgent atteniiori of the Minister of Finance, as, did the fact that there was not a sufficient margin in our favour between our imports and exportsi New Zealand manufacturers were to-day facing oue of the most difficult periods in their history. Orders were comxng in very glowly and obviously if imports eontinued at the present rate the Government would have a very serious problem to face. Would they face it I by rationiug imports to assist our manufacturers? Would they impose ! additional tariffs or would they comi mandeer exchanges in London? He thought the latter would be the policy of the Government, Hon. F. Langstone: The exchanges took charge of .you, anyhow. Mr Coates: I wonder if the Minister of Lands, who is to follow me, will give * clear indicatxOa of the Government '& jjelicy iu this. reapect. Will the Govern-

'ment eommandeef the o £ trading banks for distributionf Concerning the guaranteed price, Mr Coates said it was a misnomer to call it a guaranteed price. It was a commandeer by the State at a fixed price. The xisxng. scale of costs to farmers would cdnsistently destroy the effect of any increase in the price of their products. Mr Coates said where onqe wa had a premium of 4s to 6s on oversea prices compared with aimilar prices of Australian butter, that premium was now steadily diminishing. Mr. J. G. Barclay: We have never en•joyed a premium to the extent. indicated. Mr. Coates insisted that it had been so. Mr. Barclay: Many long years ago. Mr. Coates: Oh, no. Right up to a j couple of years ago when you people ' started to interfere. Mr. Coates said the' rents being charged for State houses made them impossible for the working man. What he wanted the Government to do was to find the worker a house he cound flnd the rent for in good times and bad, and he doubted if any worker could pay 15s a week in rent for a period of 20 years. He doubted if a worker could pay more than 12s 6d over that period. He criticised the Government 's control of industry and the necessity for people 3ecuring licenses before they could carry on business and also asked the Prime Minister for a clear definition of his intentions concerning the use of the public credit and what that public credit consisted of. The Minister of Lands (Hon. F. Langstone) said Mr. Coates had talked about a free market for farmers but when they had cutthroat competition the honourable gentleman had torpedoed them. Where £2 or 43 had been going into houses during the slump he said there was now £8, £12 up to £15. Young men who had grown up during the slump had been unable to learn £ trade and were certaiuly having a hard time, but to-day they were being apprenticed into trades. There was & lot of talk about increasing taxation but the man who had been receiving 10s a week two years ago and was now receiving £4 a week could alford to pay taxation much better than he could under the past Government. The last Government had given awuy taxation to the tune of £4,000,000 a year while at the same time they Went on to the London market and pawned New Zealand. Between 1923 and 1930 so much had been borrowed that £1,805,000 had not been received as it went as discount and £3,316,000 had been sepaVated in cost. During that period £5,121,000 had been added to the Public Debt and there was nothing to show for it. Wxth the exception of a slump in wool during that period there had been prosperity but iu spite of it £4,0.00,000 a year had been given back in taxation. Mr. Langstone criticlsed the previous Government for increasing the cost of land and stated that soldiers and others had gone on to the land and put ali their savings into their holdings and had lost everything. The policy of past Governments had bxxilt up the big landowners, while the country was forced into debt during prosperous times. With reference to the taxation policy of the past Government it seemed to hira that anyone in business should have a free hand to exploit the public. When individuals or companies were making profits out.of the community the Government was claiming a share of those profits for soeial services. No matter _ what happened elsewhere, said Mr. Langstone, there would never be another slump in New Zealand while the Labour PaTty was in power. The .House xose at. 10.30.