ELECTION CHALLENGE ISSUED IN

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 13, 8 October 1937, Page 3

ELECTION CHALLENGE ISSUED IN

— Prea* As'socBtioj l

THE HOUSE BUDGET DEBATE Argument on the "Public Credit" \ — — STATE AND THE BANKS

(By Tpli'sraph

Jr WELLINGTON, Lart Night. ! In the House to-day the debate on the Budget was resumed by the Miuister of Lands (Hon. F. Langstone) who dealt with the Government's attitude towards the Use of public credit. The basis of public credit, he said, comprised all goods and things in existence in our ordinary workaday world. In the Hominion to*day most of it was held in private hands. He went on to deal with the. difference between monetary and national credits and stated that the banks were using the public credits to-day. Could they not be used just as well aud efficiently by the Statet He hoped to see the day when the Government had full control of the public credit. There was much to be done iu New Zealand, he said, after almost a huudred years of misrule. ' Labour had accepted office and was faced with the' task of clearing up the mess left it by past Governments. They could not do it in one short session of Parliament. The Government intended to place New Zealand on thtf highroad to success aud prosperity. Healing with saving, the Miaister stated that the only method of intellig^nt saving was intelligent ppending and he assured them that the people could face the futurewith every Bonfidence in. the Labour Government. Sir Alfred Ransom stated . that Mr Langstone had said the only way of intelligent saving was intelligent speuding. Was there a 6ingle father in that House who had taught such a policy to his children f Was that the level of intelligence of the Minister of Lands and the Minister of Finance! He had been led to believe that the standard of intelligence of the Minister of Finance was of a much higher order than that. Mr Langstone had also said that the Government in one short session had not been able to undo what had been done in a hundred years of misrule. What au indictment of.this fine Dominion, which had been built up by our pioneersl The Opposition was proud of this Domimon, but the ■ same apparently did not apply to the Government. He criticised Mr Langstone for not uttering a singie word ia the rcOurse of his speech on the land settlement policy of the Government. Was it the Government's intention to produce a land settlement policy just before the next election as an inducement for its return to office! Sin- Alfred Ransom j went on to criticise the present taxation policy, stating that he was not surprised to see savings bank deposits increasing, b'ecause the people had little inducement to use their' money in other avenues in view of such taxation as •the Government was levying. If the Government had spent money which it had expended on nnemployment relief on the development of waste lands and increasing production it would have been.of greater benefit to the country. He supported the Government's housing policy but said it must be conducted in such a manner that it would not raise the cost of house-building to1 the private individual. He Tegretted that there was no provision under the present scheme for the private ownership of houses which the Govfernment was buildings and considered every person who rented a- Government house should eventually be given the opportunity of owning that dwelling. Referring to a statement in the House by Dr. McMillan recently that he would like to see the press of the country State-owned, Sir Alfred Ransom asked them to imagine what would happen if the press were politieally and not partisan-owned. They would then soon have a Ministry of. Publicity and every editorial would have to be passed by that Department before it could be pub* lished, as was the case in two countries which had recently been visited by •'•ha Ministers of Finance aud Labour. How would the Labour Government like to see this country under a dictatorshipj he asked. Mr T. H. McCombs, Teferring to the operations of private banks, said that if these were State-owned they would be managed iu such a manner as to bring the greatest good-to *the greatest aumber of the eommunity. With regard to Sir Alfred Ransom 's contention that Labour members were not proud of the Dominion, he said Labour members were proud of the progress which had been made in New Zealana in spite of past Governments. Sir Alfred Ransom, h.e said, had twisted round Dr McMillan 's suggestion for a State-owned press. What Dr. McMillan had meant was that the press of the Dominion should be perfectly free from party ' iontrol. Sir Alfred Ransom had also stated that this Government was destroying the credit of this country. Nothing was further from the truth. [n fact, New Zealand stocks had inireased in value on all the principal mafkets of the world since the present Budget had been published. In 1911, Mr McCombs said, the Opposition had promis'ed to bring in invalidity pensions but had left it for the Labour Party to aaake that promise good some 26 years later. He quoted a series of returns to show that production in secondary inlustries had increased despite the curtailment of hours of work due to the introduction of the 40-hour week. He questioned the ability of members of the opposition as businessmen and asked where was a singie member of the Opposition who had made a real success of his business. Mr W. J. Polson rose to a point of I grder, contendipg thjit there was a plaia 1

inferenee In Mr McCombs* statement that members of the Opposition were not successful in their private business. Mr McCombs: I did not say there was one member who was unsuccessfuL The Speaker: Honourable members are prevented by the rules of the House from discussing the private business of other members in the course of a debate in the House.' I am afraid the honourable member has strayed into forbidden grounds and had better leave the subject alone. l.Ir McCombs was again called to order shortly afterwards for a referience to the intelligence of the membeci jfor Stratford. 1 . The debate was interrupted by the ,'adjoumment at 5.30 p.m. '• The debate was continned when the* Hoase resumed at 7.30 p.m. Mr McCombs stated that before the "present Government came into power 13 per cent of the adult population of the Dominion had 43 per cent. of the nationai income. The indications now were that as a result of higher wages the distribution of income had altered considerably and when the final flgures | were available it would be shown that the nation 's money had been spread among the people. . . Mr 0. A. Wilkinson asked whether it was part of the Labohr Party 's policy ,to "take over the trading banks of the (Dominion. The trading banks were 'serving a very useful purpose in keeping a check on the Government. They had served the public faithfully for 80 or 90 years and he hoped the Government would not take control of them. He criticised the Government's institution of the 40-hour week, stating jthat it had not been able to introduce |it in the Police Department, one of the greatest departments of the State. If !it could not adhere to the 40-hour week [itself it was nnfair to expect private jindustry to observe it. The Governjment had shown great inconsistency in inot applying the same rule to all. New .'Zealand 's taxation, continued Mr Wilj jkinson, was too high. Britain's per j icapita taxation^ he said, with all her i expensive- defence commitments, etc., I was not as '* high as that of this | Dominion, The Government was earrying on with a gambler's risk and was living xight up to its income. Moreover, he added, it showed no disposition to give any relief from taxation and was showing a bias in this direction against a certain class of people, namely, the people who had a certam amount of means. Yet the Government i&tend;ed to use the people 's savings for exIpenditure on public works. The Governjment's gnaranteed price was resented jby a great number of farmers, and he jsuggested that a referendum should be [held among farmers to see if they jfavQared its continnation. When guaranteed prices were first suggested the farmers had not been told the Government fras also going to tako control of the marketing of their produce. In fact, the Government had commandeered .their produce and he wished to take exception to this procedure. The Government's payment of £650,600 over the xealisation for butter and cheese only meant £13 for the dairy farmer and would not meet his extra costs.

Mr Wilkinson also criticised the railway administration, stating that if the present losses continued we would soon have to be subsidismg the railways. to keep them running. Parliament, he said, had ho control over the expenditure on public works, which should be subjeeted to a very close scrutiny of a seleet committee of the House. Some very funny things were happening under the Government's price fixation schejne for petrol. He mentioned the discrepancy in prices in various Taranaki towns. Dealing with defence matters, he said New Zealand could do more to assist the completion of the Singapore Base, which was of vital importanee in the Defence of this Dominion. He urged that the Minister of Defence should visit Singapore to inspeet the base and said Ministers of the Government should make themselves acquainted with the position in the Far East prithout delay. The Prime Minister, he said, had stated that the Opposition only needed to name the day for the jlection. That was a definite challenge, he said. Mr Osborne: Are you out to form a aew party! (Laughter.) Mr Wilkinson: I am not out to form any party at all, but I certainly think the lfcader of the Opposition should have accepted the Prime Minister '3 challenge. Mr O'Brien; Perhaps the honourable gentleman would 110 1 need to retiro then. Mr Wilkinson: In my view the leader of the Opposition failed in his duty in not accepting the challenge. I want to make it plain that I am expressing only my own - opinion, which is not necessarily endorsed by any other members on this side of the House. The Govfernment know how weak they themselves are. About 22 or 24 of their seats are held on a mincyrity vote. "Let , the Government accept my challenge for an election," he said, in reply to Government interjections, "and I'll prove it. There are more ' oHcers' in. the Government of this country than there have ever been before." Mr Wilkinson reiterated that he would not have let the Prime Minister '& challenge pass without accepting it. Mr W. T. Anderton said ho could prove that the prosperity of the Dominion to-day was to a great extent due to the administration of the Labour Government and he pointed out that fche lot of the workers had been greatly improved since the present administration had come into office. He congratulated the Minister of Broadcasting on the efficiency of both the broadcasting and commercial stations and, in reply to Mr Holland, said that the boot trade of Auckland was busy and had increased the number of its employees considerably. The Government had done much for secondary industries, and it was to these we had to look for the absorption of our unemployed. He was surprised that the Opposition should •condemn the Government for its taxa- , ftien 1 Itj w»a a yrineifli thM Ibty

themselves had carried out that so long [as the. people of this cbuntry could j iconsume the goods they produced so long would the country remain pros- ■ perous, and it was the Government's duty to see this continued. Hon. J. G. Cobbe said when the Prime Minister had replied to the leader of the ' Opposition in the Budget debate last week he had made no reference to the Budget which, said Mr Cobbe, was no laughing matter, as the burden of it WQuld have to bo borne by the un•fortunate taxpayer. The Government |was assuming that the high price .of |oar prpduqe in the oversea nvarkets was due to its own legislation and he con* tended it was also improving the standards of the incompctent man .at the axpense of the competent one. Another bf its predi'lections was to assume creu.t for legislation which had been introduccd by past Governments. He asked where the xeckless extravagance of the Government would end. It was certainly not a very pleasant prospect for our children to have to meet huge interest charges as a result of our own expenditure to-day. He contended that the Prhne Ministei-'s intention to use the public credit to a greater extent. merely meant inflatien under another name— an extremely dangerous policy in 'a pioneer country. ' , The debate was •interrupted by tbe