PARLIAMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 October 1917, Page 5

PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESBy Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington. Last Night. The House met at 2.30. HEARING OF USURY CASES. Mr. Ilindmarsh asked the Attorneygeneral if lie would have the law relating to usury altered in the direction of liermittiii;: a magistrate) to hear eases in a private room, as the publicity of the open court deterred many victims from talcing proceeding:;. .Mr. Herdman said he thought there wa ; , little prospect of such an alteration being made this session. IMPERIAL SOTPLTE9. Mr. Massey laid on the table a return 'Shewing that the transactions of the Imperial Ooveninient Supplies Department amounted to practi-allv iC:>7,000,000. The whole-of the transactions, he said, had been conducted without a hitch and in the smoothest possible manner.

Mr. Witty said the return i.a s very satisfactory so far as the past was concerned, but what about the future? If the Imperial (!oveni:nent was not going to take our produce away in large quantities in the near future, then the people of the Dominion should have the produce at cheaper rates than they were now getting it, instead of allowing it to pile up in the stores. Mr. Thuldo asked if the Premier could make any statement regarding the amount of shipping available before the new season commenced.

Mr. Pcarce said it was most important that the butter factories should know what tins position was with regard to the purchase of the butter output. Could the Premier give the House any definite information?

Mr. Anderson Paid that, from all he could learn, it was very doubtfr.l whether the Imperial Government had purchased (inv output of ehee.se.

Mr. Atassey: Cheese has been pur chased all right. Air. Anderson: That is very satisfac torv.

Hon. A. T. Xguta contended that the Piemier was too busy a man to look after the disposal of the Dominion's produce—by far the most important of (he public departments. The Premier was the most hard-worked man in the country, and either lie should jettison a great deal of other work or hand this lurge question of luipcinl supplies over to some other Minister. He was not suggesting that Air. Alassey was not a | suitable man to look after the disposal I of the produce, but lie was obviously too busy ii man to do it justice.

Dr. 'Timelier contended there we;.' great quantities of produce in the cold store-; which did not belong to the Imperial Government. H belonged to the meat sharks, and ought to be made available to the people at cheaper rates than at present. Air. Okey asked if the Premier e.or.ld give particulars of the quantity of ehe.'se commandeered to the. end of last iea s on, but the price oi which was not s;>ti:cd at the time. Til view of the heavy taxation which they have to pay, the farmers were anxious to gather in every penny "possible.

Mr. MeCombs paid tlie Premier had once stated that all we have is to be at the disposal of tlie Empire. Mr. Massey: 1 say so now. Mr. MeCombs said that in spite of the Premier's declaration they had that afternoon beard tlie representatives of the farmers openly and unashamed d«manding that their produce should be sold to Britain at a fifty per cent, advance on pre-war rates, thus wringing the last shilling out of tlie British public without a piotest from a single member. The whole sordid business was enough to make the Parliament of New Zealand a byword amongst the nations. Mr. Payne said he. had no sympathy with profiteering, but we must be fair to our producers, and until the Imperial Government was .i.ble to show that it had stopped the operations of the speculators in food, wo could not blame the farmers for demanding the.last shilling, since they know that if they did not get it. the speculators at the other end would.

Mr. Anstoy quoted statistics from the Board *>f Trade report for the purpose of defending the producers against the aspersions cast on them by Mr. MeCombs. He pointed out. there was a heavy decrease in the volume of our exports, and contended it was the duty of the Government, if possible, to arrest that decline.

Mr. Massey, in reply, said there was no hoarding up of .produce in the stores against the public, as any reputable trader could, on application to tlie Board of Trade, get meat from the stores to be sold; but tlie fact was that the people had a preference for fresh meat, for which they were, prepared to pay a higher price. This be though! was due to prejudice, as the Government had been supplying the camps with frozen meat with the most satisfactory results. He claimed we were, quite abie to continue the management of the Imperial Supplies Department, quoted tlie fact that the Department liad transacted £37.000,000 worth of business without in Intel) as evidence of the efficiency of management, for which the stac of the oflico deserved high credit. On the question of the shipping problem he was confident that we would have sufficient ships in Oct.iber and November; beyond that he was not abb to speak, but he was quite sure the Controller would tiee justice done to New Zealand in this important matter. He repeated the information be gave the House yesterday regarding the purchase of butter by the Imperial authorities, and then expressed regret that the imperial Requisition Committee had resigned, as they wero doing war work, but they were not able to agree with certain things that were being done, and their resignation could not be avoided. The services of one of the members of the committee (Mr. Reakes) were still available to the Dominion. Only a small quantity of last season's cheese remained in the stores, and he was confident the Government would be able to get the bulk of the butter away. With regard to the cheese commandeered last season, all he knew was that the dispute had been referred to a tribunal which had given its decision in favor of the owners of cheese, but whether the. owners were the producers or the middlemen lie was not able to say. However, a considerable sum of money was coming. Criticising Mr. MeCombs' speech, he defended his declaration made early in the war in favor of giving the Kmpire all we have and are, and asked how much Mr. MeCombs had done to win the war. His conduct had' a disgrace. The Speaker ruled that such a term

could not bo used towards another meniU-..-. Mr. Massey withdrew the remark, but challenged Mr. McCouibs to make a public declaration of bis which was placed in doubt by his voting against the war loan, which was necessary to enable us to secure victory. Ho concluded by quoting from the .report on the disposal of produce, to allow that the New Zealand (iovernment was not concerned in the profiteering (hat was taking place after the produce passed into the hands of the British Food Con. trollcr, if it took.place at all.