MLP.’s Assemble for Opening of Session

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1006, 24 June 1930, Page 10

MLP.’s Assemble for Opening of Session

SEVERAL POSTS VACANT RAILWAY CUT MOOTED THE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter PARLIAMENT BLDGS., Today. Members are slowly beginning to arrive at Parliament Buildings, which are taking on a sessional appearance, with messengers stationed in tiie corridors, Avhich, during the recess, have echoed forlornly to the steps of visitors. Several Ministers are away paying visits to their electorates before the opening of the session. but all have been busy, particularly regarding cutting down expenses in their various departments, according to the policy of reducing administration charges. It Avas stated that the railways expenses are to be reduced this year bv £500,000, which means that every item must be overhauled and subjected to the closest scrutiny. In all parts of New Zealand station staffs are being considered with a view to reduction, and many officered stations may become flag stations, and in many cases staffs will be reduced. There have been long conferences between the general manager, Mr. H. H. Sterling, and his executive officers, and it is understood that very few cadets will be taken on in the service for some time. For about four years there has been a tendency to engage girls for clerical duties where before cadets would lia\'e been used. By tomorrow it is expected that all members of the Government Party will have arrived in Wellington, and a caucus will be held in the morning. Besides questions of general policy the caucus Avill have to consider the appointment of a chairman of committees, this position having become vacant through the elevation to the Ministry of Mr. S. G. Smith, and whips, the senior whip, Mr. A. J. Murdoch, being now a Minister, and the junior whip, Mr. G. C. Black, having resigned with Sir Joseph Ward. For chairman of committees the names of Mr. J. T. Hogan, Independent member for Rangitikei, Mr. W. J. Broadfoot and Mr. W. A. Bodkin, have been mentioned, and each now has a fair chance. Mr. Hogan is virtually a member of the United Party, and may as Avell doff his independence. His chances for the position are considered good. Mr. Bodkin was in the running for a. seat in the Cabinet, and this position may console him. Mr. Broadfoot is another disappointed aspirant. It seems likely that Mr. E. Healy (Wairau), a popular member and a good organiser, will bo senior whip, with Mr. F. Lye. Mr, J. A. Macpherson and Mr. G. C. Munns each with a good chance of the junior position. MR. H. E. HOLLAND’S VIEWS Press Association WESTPORT, Today. In the course of a pre-sessional address last evening, Mr. H. E. Holland, Leader of the Labour Party, said that the forthcoming Parliamentary session promised to be one of the most interesting in the history of the Dominion by reason of the position of the three parties and the questions that would be involved. Mr. Holland recalled the statement of policy handed to the Press after the special meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party held in February last and said that while there would of necessity be a general atmosphere of uncertainty" over practically every stage of the session, there would be nothing uncertain about every point of that statement being pressed to its logical conclusion.

One of the main questions that would be before Parliament would be that of unemployment and proA'ision for permanently handling the problem. The day for temporary methods had gone and a basis for action along effective lines Avas provided in the report of the Unemployment Committee set up under Sir Joseph Ward’s administration. It was of very great significance that the committee, which included representatives of employers and wage workers, should have come to the unanimous decision that the solution of the problem of unemployment was social responsibility, to be shouldered by the Dominion as a whole. No sounder principle had ever been written into a report of a Select Committee or Royal Commission. Equally sound was the committee’s recognition of the fact that the finding of woyk was of first and supreme importance, and this was supplemented and strengthened by the declaration that the work to be provided for the relief of the workless must be of a useful and productive character and that standard wages should be paid for all such Avork. Other valuable portions of the report were recommendations that a permanent employment board should be set up and that where no work was available, sustenance allowance should be provided. lINCIDENCE OF TAXATION

These proposals were in line with the principles advocated by the Labour Party for many years, said Mr. Holland, but it was when they came tc the incidence of the proposed taxation that differences would be found to exist. The proposed flat rate tax on persons 3 8 years of age and over AA'as to provide £505,000 out of a total of £700,000, and it went without saying that the overwhelmingly major portion of this would be paid by persons with small incomes. The ma.n with £5,000 a year would only pay his 24 shillings a year along with the worker whose income might not reach anything like £2OO a year. It was true that persons with incomes in excess of £ 300 were to pay an additional tax of one penny in the pound, but here again the man with an enormous income would only pay at the same flat rate a pound as the man with a small income. The principle of graduated taxation, for which the labour movement stood, was preferable. However, notwithstanding the taxation defect, the report was a most valuable one and the Labour Party would press for legislation based upon the principles embodied in the committee’s recommendations. Referring to the railway Inquiry, Mr. Holland said that representatives of organisations of railway employees should have been included in the personnel of the commission. Men who were conversant witli the inside working of the system and who knew both its advantages and its defects, to say the least, Avould not be less capable of making useful recommendations than some of the gentlemen who had been appointed. The Labour Party would resist any further attack on wages and conditions of public servants and would also offer opposition to any attempt to apply the guillotine to the education vote or to any interference with hospital subsidies that Avould handicap those engaged in hospital work throughout the Dominion. When the House met the Labour Party Avould press for the fullest investigation in regard to Arapuni and would insist on every fact in relation to that scheme being made public. It seemed to him that not only the Public Works Department, but the Reform Government and its Minister of Public Works responsible for the undertaking, had much to explain. The conditions of employment on various public works of the Dominion, and especially on relief work jobs, would be raised by the party with a view to securing a reversal of some features of policy adopted by the late Minister of Public Works.