PARLIAMENT.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 396, 16 September 1911, Page 5

PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. BUDGET DEBATE. [ill" TKLKGRATH. I'RKSS ASSOCIATION" ] Wellington, Last Night. The House met at 2.30 p.m. The debate on the Budget was resumed by Mr Arnold, who pointed out that the main questions had not been touched, except by the two last speakers. He looked upon the Opposition as being as dead as Julius Caesar, and thought the Government would do better to watch the under currents running through the Dominion than paying so much attention to the Opposition. Personally, he would always be found with the progressive party in the House, irrespective of its title. He considered the Budget the most progressive for many years past, and would heartily support itReferring to the labour problem he held that what workers required was the right to work, not charity unemployment. The insurance scheme did not fully cover this matter. Mr James Allen argued that the Opposition, so far from being dead, would come back from the country a strengthened reform party. In reference to insurance against unemployment, his party would make an honest endeavour to do something tangible in the matter. He pointed to the necessity for something being done for Central Otago. The appropriation made had never been expended, and now, on the eve of the general election, the Government proposed to do something. He regret at the waste of money in railway construction all over the Dominion, maintaining that lighter lines should be built in new country. The extraordinary haste with which the Budget had been framed had resulted in inaccuracies and misstatements and the Premier had misrepresented to the public tha amount of the national debt. The Premier had put the debt higher that it actually was, stating it to be 81 millions, instead of 77 mililong. It was not his duty to show the debt lower than it was, but these r, gures served to show inaccuracies in the Budget. He took exception to the statement that Treasury bills had been paid off, inasmuch as they had been renewed a few weeks after being cleared. Errors usually accrued to make the figures appear in favour of the Treasurer, and such things did not give confidence in the completion of the figures. Mr Russell, in replying to Mr Allen, said his speech might be characterised as fault-finding and nagging on minor details. He was convinced the country was sound and prosperous, which would not be the case with a change of Government. The Budget was generally optimistic, with a supreme confidence in the people anu a broad humanitarian view o? all matters. Opposition members were calling out "What is your land policy?" "Why," said Mr Russell, "it is all in the present law. That is the policy." To emphasise his remarks he mentioned that for the year ending March, 1911, 1,412,742 acres had been taken up by 2267 selectors.

EVENING SITTING,

On the Houae resuming in the evening Mr Herdman continued the debate. He declared the whole statement regarding the Treasury Bills was slippery. He averred the coat of railway construction had materially increased between 1906 and 1911, the difference being £4SOO. A million Budget, he described as a deliberate attempt on the part of the Government to rehabilitate themselves. It showed nothing as to how the Native lands were to be settled, nor was there any reference made to that •'expensive superfluity," the Legislative Council. The general trend ot legislation and the manner of taxation was having a disastrous effect on the working man. Mr Laurenson maintained the Budget contained more far - reaching humanitarian proposals than ever put before the country in any previous Budget.

Referring to Mr Okey's contention that the leasehold should be the stepping stone to the freehold he reminded him that the Government had to legislate for posterity, not for this decade. He urged the Premier to concentrate attention on the proper education of the young, to fit them for the world of usefulnesss and self-reliance, and also upon a sound land policy with an increased and graduated land tax.

Mr Fisher characterised the Budget as an electioneering one, pure and simple, and providing for everything except lunatics and collectors of moa bones. On the matter of taxation he contended the increased cost of living, and many other conditions, imposed additional taxation on the man least able to bear it.

The debate was adjourned and the House rose at 11.30 p.m.