PARLIAMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 November 1917, Page 8

PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES THE WAR BONUS. By Telegraph.—i Press Association. Wellington, Oct. 31. The House met at 9.30. The Supplementary Estimates were introduced by Governor-General's message. Sir Joseph Ward said he desired to explain the position of the war bonus to <?ivil servants. He said members would notice that in each of the revenue, earning departments an item was set down ,for war bonus. This meant that each department had to provide its own bonus out of its own revenue, so that the bonus would not be a charge on the Consolidated Fund. The bonus would be paid this year on the same basis as last year, that is, ,-£400.000 would be voted and divided amongst those in receipt of salaries not greater than £3l o. ■ In addition to the £400,000, an extra provision of .-£175.000 would be made in the Appropriation Act for Allowances of a shilling, a day to married men in i,he Raihvav Denartment. which would s*b-' sorb £58,000 to the end of the financial year. This allowance would be made to men receiving not more than £220, and was necessary to maintain the efficiency of the railway service, which men had been leaving in considerable numbers of late. None of the bonus would go fo the .higher paid officers of the State. The allowance to the railwaymen would be provided out of the addition to the railway rates. He desired to point out that in the Budget the amount estimated as necessary to cover the Supnlementary Estimates was £700,000. The amount voted in these estimates was' £(100,000, so they were saving £4O 000 on the estimates. Mr. Wright put in a plea for the lower paid officers in the postal service, and asked if they could not be put on the same footing as the men in the railway. Mr. Fletcher asked what tlie Government proposed to do about the cost of living report. Were they going to carry it out or ignore it? He contended that the recommendations regarding the supply to the people of cheap fish could be put into operation at once. The Premier intimated that the Cabinet would consider-what portions of the .report could be given effect, to. Mr. Ell complained of the unfair way in which some officers were seeking to .frustrate the establishment of slot telephones. By n system of unfair charges thev were endeavouring to persuade t'he Minister that this system of telephones did not pa.v. Mr, Anderson regretted that more money was not voted for opening up new country. If we were going to maintain a'-high rate of taxation we must have new sources of revenue.

Messrs. Hornsbv and Isitt complained of the unnecessary expense incurred by

the Defence Department in connection with courts-martial. \ Mr. Poolo made an appeal to the Minister of Railways to resume suburbar trains in order to help to solve tlu housing problem in cities. JiTr. Colvin urged the opening un ol 9 new Slate Coal Mine 011 the West Coast. Cheap coal was essential to out industries. I)r. Newman blamed the Government for not doing anything to reduce thi cost of living to the people. A Food Controller should be appointed. Vege tables should be grown where flower: •were now grown, and brown bread should •be eaten instead of white, and the Gov 'eminent should buy 100.000 boxes whei it was cheap, and sell to the people al reasonable prices (luring the winter. ' Mr. M'Callum endorsed the appoint ment of»a Food Controller, Lord Rhond da had done a great work in Britain He asked why we should not have sucl a man here. The debate was continued by Messrs Witty, Veitch. Thacker. Okey, Jennings Glover Young and Payne, who deal mainly with local grievances. The de bate was proceeding when the House rose at 1 o'clock, Wellington, Last. Night. The House resumed at 2 p.m. Mr. A. Walker expressed approval of the proposal suggested by Mr. Okey that a bonus of £2 per ton should be given for the production of pig iron, with a viow to assisting the iron industry. He also complained that so little had been done to reduce the «ost of living. Mr. Webb contended that the Otlra tunnel should be brought under the Mining Act, as the working conditions were extremely unhealthy, more rigid inspection being urgently needed by qualified mining inspectors, to say nothing of a more sympathetic Minister. Mr. Hunter complained of the unequal shipment of frown lamb, pointing out) that from Wellington 400, 1 000 carcases had been liberated, as against 100,000 carcases from the rest of the/ Xorth Island, and there was a feeling that the port of Wellington was receiving undue preference. SUPPLEMENTARY ESTIMATES.' The motion to go into Committee of Supply was then put and carried, and the House went into committee. ■Speaking to the proposed increase of £•25 to the second clerk assistant to the House of Representatives, Mr! Anderson contended there should be no bonus or increases in salaries when the Government had told the House they could not afford to give better pensions to the widows and children of soldiers.

■Sir Joseph Ward said it was absurd to suppose that, even though we were in war time, there were no cases in which increases should be made to salaries. This officer had. been in the department for 25 years, an/J he could not live on the salary, considering his responsibilities. His predecessor received £435. There were very few instances where salaries of over £350 were increased, and these were special cases, The following votes were passed:— Legislative Department, £0800; Department of Finance, £3730; Post and Telegraph Department, £74,790, On this vote Mr. Sylces asked if some more equitable method could not be devised of distributing the war bonus.

Sir Jospph Ward said this matter had boon gone into by tl\o Public Service Commlseionpr, mid hp lmd found there was a great difficulty in the way of doing a? the lion? member suggested. The circular sent out bv the P. and T.. Association to members regarding the pay of the lower paid officers 'would not stand Investigation for a moment. The whole position was put In fin unfair manner. Working Railways (£274,038).—1n reply to Mr! Young, the Minister for Railways said the extra allowance to married railway men would commence on December 8. Puidic Buildings, Domains, etc. ( £1270); Native Department ( £1396); Justice Department (£28,0241). Replying to Mr. Webb, Mr. Hanan said I ths number of prison warders was being [iflgreftsgd with W object of reducing the

hours worked by these officers,, but'he could not agree with the statement that warders worked 70 hours per,/week. He was not going to waste public money by setting up a commission to inquire into this matter, as lie was quite capable of inquiring into it himself. This he would do, and make a statement to the House next session. Replying to a question, Hon. G. W. Russell said lie had recently been looking into the question of illegitimate births in the Dominion, and had found to his surprise that during the year 11)04 there were four girls under thirteen years who gave birth to'children. Further, during the past four years 472 girl? of 17 yeara and under had given birth to children and lie intended to give instructions to the registrar's that, in fitture, when the facts disclosed that a girl under sixteen had given birth to a child the particulars must be supplied to the commissioner of police for a searching inquiry. Mines Department ( £o7so).—Mr. Isitt expressed the hope that, in spite of the war, the Minister would not be timid and refuse to spend money on development work. Department of Internal Affairs ( £101,545).—Dr. Xewman questioned the additional salary of £SOO to the private secretary to the Governor-General. Sir Joseph Ward explained that the war had increased the work of the Gov-ernor-General's staff by at least thirty times, and much of it should rightly be paid for by the Dominion. Mr. Fletcher challenged the item of £IOOO for the official war correspondent. He described the payment as waste of money, and moved that the item be reduced by £1 as an indication that the correspondent should be recalled. Mr. Massey said the money was either duo or paid and must be voted. He defended the work of Mr. Malcolm Ross, quoting favorable opinions from Generals Godley and Russell, who thought New Zealand would suffer if Ross was withdrawn. The work of the correspondent was an invaluable advertisement to Xew Zealand, as shown by the publication of his articles in British papers. His salary was £450 and £2 lOs a day travelling expenses. If members chose to strike the item out they must take the responsibility, Messrs Wilford, Isitt, and R. H. Rhodes defended the retention of lioss. Mr. Witty, Dr. Thacker, Messrs MacCallum, and Payne supported his withdrawal. On a division Mr. Fletcher's motion was lost by 33 to 13. Defence Department (£54-08); Customs and Marine ( £7054); Labor Department (£930); Lands and Survey Department ( £20.(i!)!)); Agricultural Department '"( £42,470). .

Wben the House resumed, at 7.30, consideration of the Estimates was continued, the following votes being passed, practically without discussion:—Education Department (£79,525) ; Public Works Fund ( £0940); Tourist Department ( £-200); construction and maintenance of roads (£11,085); State forests (£3315); scenery preservation (£810); State coal mines (£10,575): land settlement (£1158); land drainage ( £7500); Public Trust account ( £0900); Government insurance account (£050) State advances account ( £900); unauthorised expenditure ( £148,055).

Consideration of the Estimates was completed at 8.10, when the Appropriation Bill was introduced.

Mr. Mander began the debate by attacking the Minister for Public Works for all unfair allocation of the votes for public works, and for treating members as though they vert unworthy of consideration, Whether members got votes or not depended upon the state of the Minister's liver,

Mr, Fraser, in defence, said he did not act upon the principle of equality of expenditure in various electorates, but upon the necessity for the expenditure. The inequality complained was due to votes in connection with land settlement, which the Minister for Lands asked him to provide, so that they were not really his votes. His aim ever was to hold the balance fairly in connection with the requirements of the Dominion. Mr. Ell also entered upon a criticism of the Public Works Department, which lie declared was wasteful and obsolete in its methods. Competitive designs should, he said, be called for all public buildings of the value of not less than £SOOO. Mr. McComlw proceeded to discuss conscription, hut. was pulled up by the Speaker, and, after several vain attempts to get round the standing orders and rulings of previous Speakers, he gave up the enterprise and resumed his seat. Mr. Payne raised a protest against the attempt to gag Labor members. Ho suggested to his colleagues' that they should take the Bill and read every line and word in it. and thereby hold the House up for a few hours by way of protest, and in order to show the country there were some members solicitous about the expenditure. He thereupon proceeded leisurely to dcai with clause by clause. The debate was continued bv Messrs Glover, Rhodes (Thames), and Webb, who, in discussing ft great variety of subjects, addressed almost an empty House, their speeches being punctuated by the ringing of the bell summoning tv quorum, Just before midnight the second reading of the Bill was agreed to on the voices, and the House went into committee.

All the clauses up to 28 were passed in a few minutes. At clause 29, Dr. Newman protested against the postponement of the re-grading of civil servants as an act of injustice. I Sir Joseph Ward said the re-grading 1 could not he continued at present. as

so many civil servants were away at th# war. The extension of time was only temporary. Dr. Newman insisted upon calling a division. The clause was retained. (Left sitting.)