PARLIAMENT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2544, 17 February 1923, Page 3

PARLIAMENT.

ADDRESS-IN-REPLY DEBATE. PRIME MNISTER’S SPEECH. Wellington, February 15. At 7.45 Mr Massey rose to speak in the debate on the Address-in-Reply. He said it had been stated that he "had been pushed into calling Parliament together at the present date, but that was not so. He had merely followed the constitutional practice. The session had been called for the special purpose of ascertaining whether the Government had a majority behind it. He quoted a statement of Mr Holland to show that if Labour put the Liberals in Labour would put them out on the first occasion they refused Labour's demands.. The Liberal policy would'thus be dictated by Socialistic Labour, and he wanted to know if this country would stand for that.

WHAT LABOUR DOMINATION WOULD MEAN.

Proceeding, Mr Massey quoted further statements to show what Labour domination meant to a country. It meant political chaos, and the only alternative to that was another election. If the three-party system continued, he predicted that before many years extreme Labour would be on the Ministerial benches. The people, of Britain had settled that point for themselves by giving the Government a. majority greater than the other parties combined. REPLY TO MR WILFORD. Coming to the speech of the leader of the Opposition he declared that in speaking of housing Mr W'ilford had quoted the amount spent by the Government, but lie had quoted an amount just a million short.

Continuing, Mr Massey referred to Mr Wilford’s reference to Jhe 41 per cent, tax free debentures. That was a transaction arranged by the National Cabinet and he was prepared to take his share of the responsibility for it. He did not think any other member of the National Cabinet should bring it upMuch might be said for and against it, but he was satisfied that they could not have got the money at the time in any other way. Reverting to' the housing question, he said that he had proposed the £lO deposit system, and further he had given instructions that if the security seemed good and reasonable that advances should be made up to 95 per cent, of the value of the risk, which he thought would be found very beneficial. So far as the Advances Department was concerned, they had plenty of money to lend up to £I,OOO so long as the security could be approved.

Answering the charge that the Government looked after the “big men” he claimed that the first reduction in taxation made by them was to assist the small mortgagors, which meant a loss to the Treasury of £IOO,OOO. If all went well, lie was looking forward to making another reduction in taxation and he had it in mind to abolish the Customs duty ,on tea.

HUMANITARIAN LEGISLATION. It had been said that the Government had no heart for humanity, but he wished to draw attention to the humanitarian legislation. The old age pension was raised to 15s per -week and the age f9r women was reduced from 65 years to 60 years. Then there was the widow’s pension, which was increased from £l2‘ to £39 per year, and the epidemic widows’ pensions were granted. It had not yet been made statutory, but that made no difference; the pension was being given. Pensions -were given in cases where police constables lost their lives and a rebate was given on the income tax proportionate to the number of the family. 5 The widows of superannuated public servants were also being better provided for. Then there was the educational vote. When the Government came into power they were spending half-a-million on education, but last year they spent over three millions, and they had'built 636 buildings for educational purposes. No doubt more was required to be done, but everything could not be done at once. ASSISTANCE FOR FARMERS. It had been said that the Government had not done anything for the farmer, but he could write a book about what had been done for the farmer since he came into office. First on the list there was the freehold, which was now the law of the land and would , never be He did not wish to take all the credit for the commandeer during the waT, but finally it was arranged, not to get a big price for the farmer, but to get the_produce to the other side of the world, with the result that the farmers raised £160,000,000 worth of produce for which they got. the money and kept this country prosperous during the war years. Then there was the butterfat tax, which he considered most unfair on the important industry, and which he had repealed. Next was the establishment of the meat pool, which resulted in an important reduction in freights. The Australian State shipping services had not paid when allowance was made for payment of income tax. They in New Zealand had not the money to go in for State ships; and if they had they must remember that shipping was now passing the transition. stage arfd the new ships would be oilburners and they must take care to avoid purchasing ships which would be obsolete in a few years.. So long as they could get their produce carried at reasonable rates, that was all they could expect or want. If anything unfair was going on it would be the duty of the

Government to interfere so as to keep freights at a reasonable level. Then there were the steps taken by the Government to get an interest in the phosphates in Nauru and Ocean Island. But for that the farmers in New Zealand would have to pay at least 50 per cent, more for phosphates and fertilisers than they were now doing. Perhaps more would have to be done in this conned ion, but undoubtedly a good start had been made.

Much criticism had been levelled against the Rural Credits Act. It was only a rough sketch of what was wanted and he knew it was defective. They, however, had to be very careful for the Land Bank of Denmark, the largest concern of the kind in the world, had recently lost 90 per cent, of its capital. Personally, he thought they could do better through an extension of the operations of the Advances Department and he wa|S prepared to ask Parliament to do something in that direction.

TAXATION TO BE REDUCED. The financial position was now so improved 'that he hoped next session to reduce taxation to the extent of one and a-half millions, and possibly two millions. The companies, however, were not in such a bad way. Four hundred and seventeen companies were registered last year with a capital of over thirteen millions. It was not denied that they could pass their taxation on and that they did it. What then had they to complain of? The agitation campaign on this subject was simply so much propaganda which was organised to compel him to give way, but he was going to do his duty first. It had been charged against the Government that it had reduced wages, but the fact was that the public servants never had been so well off as at present. He believed in paying good wages, but he wanted good service, and he was proud to say that in the public service they had some splendid men. What they wanted was to keep the country prosperous, and while that was the prevailing condition there was no fear for good wages and good conditions. PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION. On the subject of proportional representation lie said he recently had an opportunity of speaking to two ex-Australian Premiers who strongly advised him to have nothing to do with proportional representation in this country. It meant that the country-quota must go under proportional representation and he believed the agitation was organised for that purpose. The country people would then be at the mercy of the towns.

REFORM VICTORY.

DEFEAT OF OPPOSITIONS,

VOTING 41 TO 38 ON MR. WjILFORD’S 'AMENDMENT.

MR HOLLAND’S LOST BY 40 TO 18. Wellington, Last Night. The divisions on the Liberal amendments were reached in the House of Representatives a little before five o’clock this afternoon. The Labour amendment was defeated by 40 votes to 18. The bulk of the Liberals walked out of the Chamber and did not vote. The Reform had 36 of its 38 members present and added to these were the votes of Messrs Atmore, who registered his name against the Labour amendment, Witty, Isitt, and Bell. . That made the Government’s total 48. Labour polled its full strength of 17, and in addition had the support of Mr Poland, who voted against Reform. Next came the vote on the Liberal amendment and this time all the House was accounted for. The two sick Reformers, Sir Win. Ilerrics and Mr Urn secured pairs from Messrs Ngata and Horn. Messrs Witty Isitt and Bell voted with the Reformers and the victory went to the Government by 39 votes to 36. With the pail’s this made the numbers 41 to 38. The division list on Mr Wilford’s amendment is as follows: — FOR THE AMENDMENT (36). Armstrong McKay Atmore McKeen Bartram McPherson Buddo Masters Corrigan Munro de la Perelle Murdoch Edie Montieth Forbes O’Brien Fraser Parry^ Hanan Poland Holland Ransom Howard Savage Jordan Sidey Langstone Smith Lee Sullivan Lye Thompson McCombs Veitch Mcllvride .. Wilford. AGAINST THE AMENDMENT. (39). Anderson Luke Bell Lysnar Bitehener McLeod Bollard Massey Burnett Nash Coates Nosworthy Dickson .Parr J. Me.' Dickson Pomare W. H. Field Potter. Girling Rhodes Glenn Sir R. H. Rhodes Guthrie T. W. Rolleston Harris F. J. Rolleston Hawken J. C. Stewart Henare Sykes Hockly Williams Hudson Witty Hunter Wright Isitt Young Linklater. It is expected the session will end to-day (Saturday) or on Monday.