PARLIAMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 5 July 1929, Page 3

PARLIAMENT

|]bT TJILEGRAPH —PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.] . THE COUNCIL. WELLINGTON, July 5. The Legislative Council met at 2.30. The debate on the Address-in-Rcply was continued by ITqns. Thomson, lsittand Sir Thomas McKenzie. The-Counci lrose at 4.50 p.m. till 2.30 p.m. to-morroW. - * THE HOUSE) The House met at 2.30 p.m. After the transaction of formal business, Hon. J. G. Coates resumed the debate on the Address-in-Reply and was followed by Hon. W. Veitcli. Messrs "J. A. Young, W. J. Poison, and J, Kyle. The House rose at 9.45 till 2.30 tomoiTow.

ADDRESSfIN-REPLY DEBATE. MR RODKIN’iS SPEECH. WELLINGTON, July 3. • A. vigprpus land settlement speech .by'Afr Bodkin (Penfral Otago), was a feature, pf tfip opening "of- t%. 4ddre?s-in-Reply ddb.ate in the House of RepresentatiTCs to-night. The mover of the motion, as a new .member, is /usually • heard yith attention without interruption, b,qt the Central Otago representative put such eqipl\asis intp his of the former Government’s land policy that the Reform Opposition, was provoked to shpw ■its dissent, and the speech in dup course will produce, lively replies. It gives promise of qn interesting debate of,,fpng difrntion. : It seemed /difficult to realise that such a filing qs nueiuplpyment s\yas possible in New Zealand, declared Mr. B,odkin in moving the Address-in-Re-ply motion. Now Zealand had a population of ..one and a half million,-its accumlated wealth totalled hundreds of millions, last, N year’s export was of record value, yet . unemployment was iits‘greatest domestic problem. A study of economic, situation showed i; was : hopelessly unbalanced. Secondary industries "Had “ failed to absorb more . workers, and thoiisauds had come in ‘ from , outside. He believed lie could . demonstrate that the main difficulty was due to the failure of the primary industry to alhsorh the number of employees it could reasonably be expected tq take. ‘Tn o + her wor-ls,’’ said Mr Bodkin, “it moa.ns an absence of land imlicj'.” ‘Ydiay had the primary industries failed to absorb their proper quota of workers? Had the farmers failed ? The answer was that the the excess of £12,000,000 exports showod .wonderful activity. Trafisport conditions ivere excellent, and the organisation of export and marketing, was never better In the country’s history. The question still remninpd; ■Why: had farming, failed to absorb more workers ?. There was not sufficient scientific farming, and any amount of openings for development were not utilised. Our farm lands would carry five time more population..

SIXTEEN .-YEARS "WITHOUT ' POLICY.

Nobody could contend that subdivision was impossible, or that the men of the Dominion were the wrong class, fW laind works. The only reason why young men anxious to-get" on the land; had failed to realise* their - ambition was because, the Reform Government for sixteen years had no bund settlement policy. Its administration of .Crown lands in Otago aline' demouistrated that contention. Tlie late Government had- alienated over a million acres of Crown lands in that province on lease for thirty-five years to ninety-two applicants. The late Gov-, .prnment was not concerned over the, .opportunities for a couple of hundred, families beinp able to go on this land. It. only considered the interest of ninety squatters ■ whose leases were expiring. Hundreds of small grazing run leases had expired, but in no case had subdivision been carried out. The Government had actually allowed .wealthy syndicates to hold large areas One of the most glaring instances was that of a man .who contested a southern constituency in the late Govern-, ment’s He j owned so much: land that he could not make a deer, laratipn in support of, apy Crowp land transfer to himself of . 35,C00 acres of pastrpl county be wished to acquire. I( was under two, titles, and as he could not take one his wife took a title, and' he formed, a limited liability company, the shareholders, •being his wife and himself, and the transfer of the second title was authorised by the late Administration. If. that,landowner bad arranged with) A private individual to be a dummy ip securing this land -both would be liable to heavy penalties. The effect, of this arrangement on avoidance of jinconjo tax was that his wife put in; one return, including all the exemption she could claim. He put in <t separate return, and the limited company was another. ■entJtv fo” taxpaying purposes. A Government which would lend itself to such a transaction had. he declared no sense of respon-' sibility. to the people and no sense 1 of duty.

NO CHANCE TO EXPAND. Was it a?? tyonher with, such in stances as these that the primary industry. ’.nqyesr had a to expand and absorb workers, He u| an

estate in his own district, comprising three large' farms, which came on the market on the owners death. They were mopped up by large landowning neighbours, and if" they wcie unable -to’ get a- title they stipulated w,ith the vendor to get the freehold, and then transfer to the purchaser.

The neu r Government should be congratulated on what it had already acliievcd in land sottlment. The Prime Ministep and Minister of Lands had already made it clear that they were determined to have land- Their policy must be a big one, and it would be conducted by big men, because they had to catch up on sixteen years’ arrears. He hoped G lO Government, in addition fo compulsory qy'inisitjon \ypul(l iniposo such a heavy graduated land tax that it would b e coigniercially impossible to hqid large areas. (Reform laguhtor.) \ “The leader of the Opposition may well feel c.inhary.assed,’l continued Mr Bodkin, “hccap.se fie is ip the position of a sinper being found opt by his sins.’’ (Laughter.)

Mr Martin (Raglan): Now' you are stirring them pp. ; Mr Bpdkip: We recognise frankly that every landowpier is entitled to a certain amount of land.

Mr Dickie (Patea): Three acres and a .cow. (Ironical Reform laughter.) My Bodkin: A good farmer who scientifically w r orks a small area does hqttcr than the aggregator p;l\o does no-t properly work his large holding.

' MR MUNN’S SPEECH

LAND SETTLEMENT. The motion w.as seconded by Mr G. 6k Munps (Rosklll) who endorsed the previous speaker’s references to the ICing and the Governor-General. Referring to the recent earthquake, lie said it ivas •particularly gatifying to see the response o.f the public to the appeal for relief. Mopey could not do everything, hup it liad taken, and deprecated the unwarranted and ill-ad-vised criticism winch had appeared in soqie letters on the subject. Mr Mpnns supported the remarks pf previous speaker in reference fo land aggregation, and said Government had already purchased 9127 acres of land at an average price of a little over £2] per acre. For twelve sections it had lmd one hundred and sixty applicants, of whom ninety were approv ed by the Government. The matter ■\vas then put to the hallpt and there were now. twelve settlers where tlipre was one formerly. He added that the Minister of Lands was going to ask for a development fund, the object of which would be to make loans to those who wei'e willing to acquire the poorer class lands, also, to those already on such lmids: He then referred to aviation, which' :he said, the Government was developing an opportunity offered. Tt was pleasing to see the number of young New Zealanders.who wished tvheroine pilots. He contended that the most ardent, opponent of war could not state that; aviation in New Zealand .was anythipg hut a factor of defence and not office. Referring to unemployment, he said two contributing factors were modern machinery and the increasing numbers of the fair sex who were displacing men in what was formerly ,rightly, or wrongly regarded as tRo latter’s sphere. He uttered an emphptiio protest against the ip ability to haVe move than averrestricted number of boys apprenticed to various trades. He spoke of the opportunity the activities, of the State Advances office offered for emnlov.incr large numbers of carpenters and other tradesmen. He considered that the activities of this department and the housing problem were closely interlocked. rteferring tp the railways, he claimed, that the electors had endorsed the poliev outlined by the United Party and it intended to carry out that pplicy. He could not see any. .veal objection to the extension of main lines. In regard to the proposal to reduce the wheat, duties he said that while lie had previously supnorted such reduction he had since realised that it might mean the,. bankruptcy of myy farmers in the South Island, and he now considered . that the .question was one which should, be subjected to the soundest investigation. In conclusion he appealed for tap co-operation of all parties of the House in seeking a solution of the. pressing problems of the .day. Netv Zealand. was too good a country to be wrecked by party politics.t