PARLIAMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 October 1917, Page 5

PARLIAMENT.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL By Telegraph.—Press. Association. Wellington, Last, Night. The. Legislative Council to-day discussed the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Ant Amendment Bill in committee. The Bill was read a third time and passed without amendment. The council adjourned at 3.5 p.m. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES The House met at 2.30 p.m. NATIVE LAND BILL. Hon. W. H. Herries gave notice of his intention to introduce the Native Land Act Amendment Bill. REPLIES TO QUESTIONS. Replying to Mr. Isitt, Hon. A. L..Herdman --said precautionary measures had .been taken at different ports Jo protect overseas vessels against the introduction of explosives on board.' Replying to Mr. Anderson, Hon. (... W. Russell said the recent reduction of racfc meetings would not be nullified by permitting clubs to hold.meetings off their own courses. No permit, thereforo, would be granted to the Wyndham Club for a race meeting at InvercargiU. Replying to Mr. Anderson, Hon. W. D. S. Maedonald said the Imperial Government had declined to purchase New Zealand rabbits at 20s per crate, and had offered ISs, This offer had not been accepted, and the Imperial Government declined to go any further with the transaction, preferring to purchase, other foodstuffs, as the price asked for rabbits was too high. Mr. Massey promised to communicate with the Imperial Government on the subject. Replying to Mr. Hornsby, Sir James Allen said lie proposed to abolish for the present evening parades of Territorials and Senior Cadets in country districts, in to relieve the shortage of labor. Replying to Dr. Thacker, Hon. A. L. Herdman said it was not possible to escape the necessity of issuing permits to foreigners to work on the waterfronts. Many of them were our allies. The remainder of the afternoon sitting was occupied in discussing the reports of select committees. The House adjourned at 5.30 p.m. LIQUOR RESTRICTION BILL. The House resumed at. 7.30 p.m.. and proceeded to consider the amendments made by the Legislative Council in th'e Sale of Liquor Restriction Bill. Mr. Massey indicated that he. proponed to ask the House to disagree with the amendments made in the new clauses la, 3a. 3b, 4a and 4b. He agreed with the principle involved in most of these amendments, hut thought the clause required re-draftins. He disagreed with 4c. because it was the intention of the House to put clubs and hotels on the same footing. It was also intended that the provisions of the Bill should apply to Bellamy's. 4d and 4e also required modification to meet social requirements. He proposed to agree with the amendment made in the clause of deferriiii; the coming into operation of the Bill till December 1. He moved' that with these exceptions the amendments be agreed with. Mr. Wilford urged that the operation of the Bill should be deelayed till June 30. The Xo-License party had gained a great deal, and he asked them to show a l'ttle mercy to the men who are going to be ruined by the alteration of thu law. A member: What about the e.vtra year ? Mr. Wilford, continuing, said if total prohibition had been carried at the last election, licenses would still hate run till the' end of June, and he asked the House to observe the terms of the scrap of paper. He moved that clause 2 be also 'disagreed with. Mr. Isitt said the proposal to eytend the time from November to December had absolutely no reason behind it. except to give the trade another month. However, the No-License party was not going to strain at that point, but as the most optimistic did not expect the war to end under twelve months, and if the Bill, by extending the time to June, was going to cut away half of the war period then the No-Licen«e party did not want the Bill at all. Mr. Massey said that if Mr. Wilford's amendment was carried into effect, in nil probability they would have to go back to November 1. The Legislatice Council had as much say in the matter as the House, and if December was struck out, the other place might conclude that the House insisted upon November, and would reinstate it. Messrs Webb, Witty and Glover supported the amendment. Mr. 'Payne contended that if the hotels were left open till June the necessary revenue could be obtained with which to give the Second Division larger pensions. On a division Sir. Wilford's amend-, ment was lost by r>o to 24, and clause Unagreed with. The Premier that Sir J. Findlay, Mr. and himself prepare reasons for disagreeing with,the amendments made by the council. ' Mr. Wilford protested that the committee was composed of men all on the one side of the question, and, after discussion, Sir Joseph Ward was added to the committee. The following is the division list: For Mr. Wilford's amendment (24) —Messrs Bollard, Brown, Buick. Sir James Carroll, Messrs Colvin, Fletcher, Forbes, Glover, Herdman, Hudson.. Jennings, McCallum, Maedonald, Myers.. Parata, Payne, Scott, R. W. Smith, Statham, Thacker, Sir 1 Joseph Ward, Messrs Webb, Wilford and Witty. Against the amendment (50). —Sir J. Allen, Messrs Anderson. Anstey, Buddo, Craigie, Dickie, J. M. Dickson, J. S. Dickson, Ell, T. A. H. Field, Sir J. Findlay, Messrs Fraser, Guthrie, Hanan. Harris, Henare, Herries. Hindmarsh, Horns, by, Hunter, Isitt, Lee, McCombs, Malcolm, Mander. Massey, A. K. Newman, E. Newman, Ngata, Nosworthy, Okey, Parr, Pearce, Poland, 'Pomare, Poole, E. H. Rhodes, T. W, Rhodes. Russell, Sidey, G. H. Smith, Sykes, Talbot, Thomson, Veitch. Walker, AVilkinson, Wright, Young. THE EXTRA LOAN. Sir Joseph Ward moved the second reading of the War 'Purposes Loan Bill No. 2. He said that since 1914 this country had borrowed £41,084,284 for ivai; purposes alone, irrespective of the amount asked for in this Bill. In addition to this amount other loans had been raised amounting to £0,077,700. Then there was the four million proposed to be raised by this Bill, which brought the grand total up to £51,701,984. In view of the magnitude of these figures, members should understand that if it had not been necessary to raise this extra fopr millions, the Government would ndt have asked them to do so. He felt confident, however, that the country wouli

i"-"™" Tryg) cheerfully bear the burdens imposed upon it by abnormal circumstance*, and help the Motherland to win the w<ur. Mr. Buddo warned the Minister not to put too great a strain on the .financial institutions of tho Dominion.. Mr. Payne asked if it was. proposed to raise this loan free of income tax, H« characterised the -whole buqinws aa th« feeding of financial vultures on the country. In view of this position, the ptopli ought to insist at onoe on the establish-, racnt of a State Bank. Mr. Pearce asked what amount o| the last loan had been subscribed by the. people and by the financial institutions Dr. Newman asked whether it wai proposed to raise any part of this Jean before March, and, if-not; how much wa* to be raised in March, He urged thai an independent commission be appointed to overtook the hyge expenditure of th< .Defence Department. Mr. Ell controverted the arguments ol Mr. Payne in favor of a State bank a! a panacea for our. financial ills. He favored the suspension of sinking 'tod'' payments for a few years, as a relief tt the taxpayer. Mr. Harris favored raisinga portion oJ the loan on the principle of premiun bonds. " '' Sir Joseph Ward, in reply, said In could not afford to enter upon experiments such as a State bank and predion bonds, :ts tliev might raise opposition ir quarters where it was necessary to cultivate friendly relations. Regarding thi apparent discrepancies in the Defence De. partment's estimates, he contended they were only.apparent, the increased amount asked for being due entirely to increaied expenditure of war material in some great battle for whieh the New Zealand Government had to pay. but whiijh no man can accurately estimate beforehand. In an amended statement of borrowing, he 9aid that up to the ond 01, September we had borrowed, or taken authority to borrow, £03.335,000. To this had to be added the £4,000,000 in this Bill, bringing the grand total to £67,835,000. He could not say how'much we would have to raise here, because he hoped to get the Home authorities to take -a portion of our stock in payment for liabilities in Britain. On this depended hoiv much we had to raise of the C 4.000,000.000,000 now being asked for. Dealing with the last loan, he said it wa» a great success, and it would not be necessary to put into force the compulsory clauses, but he would not hesitate to? do so in connection with future loans,' 11 necessary. He did not think he would have to raise more than £12,000,000 in the next portion of the £28,000,000, a good deal of which had already been promised, nor did he think he would hav« to raise any of it before March, but that would depend upon getting our stock accepted in Britain. He was closely watch- 1 iiig the rates of interest, and without desiring to interfere too much with the course of business, he would see that th< rates of interest did not become extortionate. The Government lending dopartmcnts were showing a good evarapH in this respect. Discussing the abandonment of the sinking fund, he declared that never, so long as he was MinUteJ of Finance, would he yield to such a suggestion, nor would he agree to break-, ing in on the reserves. By tbi» means we would he in a strong position to meet our obligations, and the many new problems which will arise after the Wr. The second reading was to' on fhe voices, and the Bill was n put through the remaining stages ithgul amendment and passed, The House rose a 11.20 p.m.