PARLIAMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 October 1917, Page 5

PARLIAMENT.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. In tho Council to-day various tributes were paid to the memory plf the late Hon. ,J, I). Oriuond, and a vftte of condolence accorded to the relatives. The Council adjourned at 3.10, = '* v , HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ■ SIR JAMES ALLEN'S REPLY. t Wellington, yesterday. Sir Jas. Allen, in reply, characterised as a breach of faith some of the amendments moved after he had agreed with tho 'Second Division what the concessions should be. In some respects the Bill was more liberal than the demands of the Second Division. There was good reason why, in some cases, the pension to a widow without a. child should not i)e more than 30s a week, and he quoted instances from actual cases in support of his statement. The Government tried to make the Bill liberal, and it should haVe been more liberal had 4t been wise to make it so, but any pension scheme which did not encourage the recipient to go to work was not wise, but unsound. On the question being put Mr. Brown intimated he desired to withdraw his amendment. This was agreed to and the Bill was read a third time and passed. The House rose at 1.45, The House met at 2.30. THE WHEAT SHORTAGE. , Tho Hon. D. Buddo asked the Minister of Agriculture what was the position with regard to the wheat supply. Hon. W. D. S. Macdonald replied that there were no immediate prospects of getting wheat from Australia. New Zealand was facing a shortage, and the Government was in constant communication j with Australian suppliers. The trouble was with the seamen, and as soon as the trouble was over two shipments would be sent—one to Auckland and one to Dunedin. Mr. Nosworthv wanted to know what was the actual shortage. The Minister said the shortage was about a million and a quarter bushels. It was considered that the prospects were for an increased yield, but there would be an actual shortage. There was ever 1 * indication that there would be plenty of wheat available from Australia when the shipping difficulty was removed.

REPLIES TO QUESTION'S. Replying- to Dr. Thacker, Mr. Massey said he was ill conference with the Wellington Harbor Board, with regard to the unloading from overseas vessels of supplies of r.nti-toxin and other drugs which were being held up by the labor troubles. He added that the action of the waterside workers could not be allowed to go ou much longer. Replying to Mr. Parr, Mr. Massey said the Government was considering the question of appointing a commission to go into the whole question of defence expenditure. A Parliamentary Committee could not deal with it before the end of the session, and Ministers had too much Cabinet work to give it the necessary attention. In answer to an interjection, Mr. Massey said in: the session would close on Saturday fortnight. """ NEW ZEALAND CASUALTIES; The Minister of Defence stated that casualties in the New Zealand forces to October S were as follows: Killed 850!); missing and prisoners 140: wounded 22,007. ELECTORAL BOUNDARIES. Mr. Hornby moved for leave to Introduce the Electoral Boundaries Commission Hill. He explained that the Bill was mainly designed to secure greater regard to community interest in determining electoral boundaries. He enumerated apparent absurdities in connection with the new boundaries, and asked tho Government to take the Bill up and put it on the Statute Book.

Mr. Ell contended that population was the correct basis for representation. He favored increasing representation in tlio House by five additional members, as many districts were much too wieldy for poor men to contest.

Mr. Anstey favored preference being given to community interests. The new Waitaki electorate was a shocking example of what a district should not be. and lie appealed to the Premier to intervene and prevent a grave injustice being dons to two widely-separated portions of the electorate.

Mr. Forbes said it was time a better system was adopted. Members had only <o look at the maps of the proposed new boundaries to see how ludicrous the present system was, Country electors desired representatives who knew their requirements, and were interested in their problems. If he ever got the opportunity, he would do his best to get the remuneration of members increased. He also thought that members representing large electorates should have a travelling allowance.

The Premier said he did not know what was in the Bill, but ho was afraid there was not much hope of anything- being done with it this session. He believed the commissioners had done their best in difficult circumstances. It was impossible for them to please everyone. Ho realised the difficulty respecting the injustice to hotelkeepers by the alteration of boundaries. He had asked Parliament three years ago to deal with the matter, and a change had been put into a Bill providing that where practicable to get a hotel into a "wet" district that should be done. That waa not possible in every case, and he did not know what more could be done. If local option was going out that would get rid of the difficulty, but Parliament was not likely to make that alteration. In regard to Maori representation, no doubt some reconsideration was required. (Personally lie was not prepared to say that Maori representation should be placed on tho siime footing as European. An Electoral Bill would be necessary next session, as there were quite a number of anomalies to be dealt with. He intimated that objections would be received by tho commissioners up to November (!, so there was plenty of time for the public to take action.

The Bill was introduced, and the House adjourned at 5.30. The House resumed at 7.30. SETTLEMENT OF SOLDIERS. Mr. Massey mbved the second reading of the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Amendment Bill, and in doing so he 6aid he did not think there would be any difference of opinion as to the value of the measure, as it simply embodied an amendment wWcli was the result of ex-

poriouco in working the main Act. Up to date, Gil soldiers had been settied under the Act. 478 of whom hail applied for financial assistance. lie did not aspect that every man going on the Uwd would be a success, but the proportion of failures were very small indeed. Ordinary settlement had practically stopped iluring the war, as it Was thought better to reserve (Jrojt.n lands foy soldiers, a|d lie was ple'isott to jay tSjit almost ill the (.'rowii'lajuts, of acre* were Of private lands, fit estates had bean 'purchased, 20 of, which had been aub*4'vided lifto. SioldiMe, 181 of whiA hid This land was all boiUAt at reasonable price®, but it was notajs"reet to disclose the jjrice'at the present juncture. Some despised .the gum lands in the north of Auckland, but they wejw found to grow very good fruit, and there was a clause in ,the Bill to facilitate this class of settlement. Financial assistance had been given to settlers to the extent of £141,775, and the result so far had been so satisfactory that he WM satisfied the country was not going to lose very much over soldier *ettler«, 8e then proceeded to deal with tlio various clauses of the Bill on thp same linei as when introducing the measure, and explained that Land Boards would hfl,ve complete control of its administration, lie expressed appreciation of the interest shown in the working of the Act by members, and also of the generous help given to soldier settlers by patriotic) gentlemen in various parts of the Cominion. ' •

Mr. Witty stressed the need for gre*t care in selecting localities whefre soldiers arc to be settled,. He suggested purcbfcsing estates near towns, and near close settlement, where settlers would be induced to go in for intense cultivation* He criticised some of the purchases made and warned the Premier against putting soldiers into isolated spots, where they wore apt to become depressed if left too much alone, - ■j, '

Mr. Newman (Rangitikei) pointed opt that if the soldiers yet to come back took up land in the same proportion as those already here, it would take a very large area to accommodates them. He advised careful reservation of Crown an,d Native lands. Returned soldiers should have the pick of the land available, and land belonging to military shirkers should Be taken over and settled by soldiers, Hon. A. L. Herdman said there was * general impression that there were a great nVany returned soldiers wandering about looking for work. That was not so. Up to th,e end o| September there were 11,191 soldiers on the returned soldiers' register. Of these 8,525 had been disposed of, and only 103 were looking for employment, and these were scattered throughout the Dominion. The most gratifying feature, regarding the returned soldiers was the fact they showed independence of spirit, for very few of tliern would seek State assistance, but would fit themselves in and generally find their own place in society. Discharged soldiers, as a rule, did not want to live on charity, or be dependent on anyone, but they showed the greatest anxiety to get back to suitable employment at the earliest possible moment. It had been suggested that not enough was being done in the direction of teaching returned men new trades, «s was being done in England, but the difficulty wai that many <lid not want to learn trades Our life was largely an outdoor life, and most of the men wanted some employ, ment by which they could at once augment their pension. The position it England was quite different. There they were dealing with thousands to our lmndieds, but, for all that, the department was doing its best for the men who will learn trades, and the methods by whicl this can be done were being fully pul before every soldier immediately he re. turns. He was considering means bi which men might be sent direct to wsri at trades, rather than going thrauel technical schools, but this would depeni entirely upon the attitude of the em. ployers and the labor unions. As yc only fivo blind soldiers had returned ti Ivew Zealand, two o'f whom had gon' back to England, and the others wen being fully trained. The great difficulti of the department would, howevet aria. the lvar over and 70,000 o< 80,000 were returning within twelvi months. In v,ow of this, he had a schem. prepared, and Cabinet agreed to ee' tunde a million pounds to give emploji ment to men in development tfhtk unde- „!«!> (I ? artm f" ts ' Thw scheme he wa. confident would be sufficient-to into that no man would go short of work! Mr. Jennings stressed the value' o' co-operation amongst soldier settlers, re' bor ald'";;;^ 6 " 36 la tlJvoicl C .° nd mdlng Waß i ß rMd ♦<» «>

anSS tw r v mi<3nig!lt the Pwiiei announced that ho proposed to take ,th. The House rose at 12.15 a.m. i*