PARLIAMENT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 86, 15 August 1913, Page 2

PARLIAMENT.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 14. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. The House met at 2.30. The Hon. F. M. B. Fisher moved to set up a committee and to combine with the committee from the Upper House to consider the report of the Registrar of Friendly Societies, also the Friendly Societies' relations to the State in the matter of social insurance. His object in doing so waß ;o carry out the expressed desire of v deputation who waited on him recently. The committee to consist of Uessrs Anderson, Buick, Coates, Daved, Dixon, Harris, Forbes, Sid>y, Webb and the mover. The motion was carried.

THE BUDGET DEBATE. Mr McCallum continued the debate m the Budget. He held that the budget was barren of policy. It was imply the reports of Departmental leads: The Government should collider such statesmanlike measures as he nationalising of the main roads of he country and railway completion >oliey. The Grey election had proved (isastrous to the Liberal Party, but ar more so to the Reformers. Mr Huntersaid he hoped the matter sffecting advances to settlers would ie expedited. The same sentiments pplied to the advances to workers.

Mr Webb said he had listened careidly to all the speeches, tmt had heard lothing that would give hope to the ;reat mass of the people pi New Zeaand. The tax imposed on the squatora of the Dominion was insignifiant, as compared with the unimprovd value that had been voted for roads nd bridges in the backblocks, but it vas his belief that t lot of money ,'as gravitating into the pockets of cvuatters. The man who took up and was forced to load his acres and .tarve tire lives out of his children to nake ends meet. He advocated State )anks as a means of settling the ;rea't economic questions whicti wtre iow weighing down the masses He ontended rhat all Civil ■servants iiould hare ail civil rigltu, and prosion should be made f ov their advancement. He believed that if unmproved estates were taxed and taxd there would be no necessity to go to every year for loans; He- held ,'v Government which the, IVr.t'f i.A'.t : r -'M tWj , if}o:'<linmerit rbich carried it.orit had committed i; social crime. Thousands throughout, vew -Zealand,; were escaping service, '6t a handful 6n ! tfie west coast were rounded ;to Eipa Island.' j He, attributed! the downfall qfrthe.Wiard Gcvern-nen-fe to! :the iaik*i<l\ictnm of the! De-et-.'crf'Act,ar(d ;b->. of the tl'-ta'dno , uglit. U! Dca; / r4 ; with the Warn

.uikc, he said they Ini 1 'he death if the man Evans at the door of the jOTernment for maladministration. ff» called upon the Government. t.j ibid a public enquiry to celar thenrilelves of the stigma of having cau&id the,chaos which reigned there lie ileaded for consider a] >k' mcreas* in the salaries of teach'.-ti." ; He -.contend-. ■d ( "ihat the Go.7erßUivit iuul no .-tight ;o prevent the, police', forming an--as-, •.ociation just as farmers; nercliants ind' others were doing. The present 'ia'rty was neither clean, progressive, lor humanitarian. It wasn't clean be•ause no clean Government would rest ;ne vete's of pledge-breakers. The "overnment was trying to settle people on gum lands in the North while nillions of acres belonging to shareholders 1 in the Dominion newspaper, ■emained untouched. Not only were lie Government supporters monopolsing land but. had begun to mono)olise the Press of the Dominion. In tlawke's Bay 105 people owned over i million acres, yet the Premier had :old the House he proposed to re■nter upon certain forest- reserves for settlement. .Speaking on the cost of iving, he tompared 'the £BI,OOO raised through the increased Graduated Tax with the £-10,000" paid in customs in plug tobacco by workers. If this ,vas the best year* the railways ever had, as claimed by the Minister, where .vas the necessity to import a highsalaried manager? Why were secondclass fares not being reduced? Why were fares on young children being charged? Mr Anderson said, in rebutting the marge that the Government were not sincere in regard to land settlement, hat the Mackenzie Government had ■lit up 10,000. acres in three months. The Massey Government had settled 160,210 acres since they came into office. The freehold was endorsed by the House and the country. That was why the Government was in power.

Mr A. M. Myei? said the expenditure had gone up Hinder the present Government, and they should now withdraw the charges of extravagance made against their predecessors, and admit that the country cannot carry on without increasing expenditure. Speaking of the Public Debt he pointed out that the average increase in the past 21 years wa5£3,416,174, but the Government put on £5,706,800 in its fist year, a pretty good 'performance for a non-borrowing Government. Mr T. Y. Seddon moved the adjournment and the House rose at 11.50.