SOLDIERS' GRATUITIES.
government proposals adopted
amendments increasing the amount negatived.
By Telegraph.—Press Association. i Wellington, Sept. 25. Mr. S. G. Smith (Taraiiaki) concluded 3 b peflcli and Sir J. Wards' amendment was put and declared lost on the voices, the amendment being' lost by 37 votes to .10. '
Mr. McCombs then moved another amendment to the following ell'eci: That without restricting the. minimum charges provided for, the Government lie recommended to amend these proposals by making the gratuities payable from the date of going into camp to the date of discharge, the gratuity payment to' be 4s per day, 2s to be, paid in cash and 2s in 5 per cent, war bonds redeemable in five years.
Mr. Massey asked the Speaker to rule whether the amendment did not amount to an appropriation and whether it was not therefore out of order.
The Speaker ruled that the amendment amounted simply to a recommendation. It was not an order and the Gov-onnner-c was not obliged to give effect to it; therefore it did not amount to an appropriation and was in order.
Continuing his argument, Mr. McCombs Raid the comparison which the Minister had made between the Canadian and New Zealand payments to soldiers was wholly misleading, and he strongly objected to such an order being circulated by the Government throughout the country. If the Government had followed the Labor Party's advice in paying soldiers such a rate that thev could make proper provision for their dependents thee would have been no difficulty m ?ettin? recruits in the earlv sthges of the w»v, hut the fact was that thev were ro.i eiowiy concerned in protecting financial shirkers.
| Mr, amendment. Mr. P. Fvascr supported it because it most near;? complied with the wishes of the soldier?, K nd then; was ample wealth to make the proposed payment possible. Mr. Vciteh opposed the amendment, because it was a wnste of time. If the Lahor Part? had plaved the game as it should have done, and had supported the . country through the war, they would have been on a pedestal to-day and could have won the next election. After Mr. Holland had supported the amendment and Messrs Wittv and Talbot opposed it a division was called for at 3.55, when the amendment was lost by 3? votes to 5, those voting for it being Messrs McCombs, Walker, Fraser. Holland, and Semple. Sir James Allen, in reply, said that everything that coijld be done to get. this question of gratuities settled by the National Government was done, and he a Cabinet minute to show that the question had been settled on tho basis of Is per day, costing £1,205,000. He believed this question should have been settled by the National Government, and he appealed to Sir Joseph Ward to get it settled before they broke up. Even after they broke up ho asked the Premiers leave to give Sir J. Ward his confidence, and th 0 Premier agreed that he might do so. He asked Sir Joseph Ward #o come and see him, and he asked him throe times. At last Sir Joseph Ward came tn him. Tip was not nrepared to tell the House what fiir Joseph said, but although he was prepared to give Sir Joseph his confidence nothing was done. Those who blamed the National Government for not settling the question now knew why it had not been done. Proceeding, he explained that the Government had delayed announcing their scheme because it was deemed advisable | to provide retrospective allowances. He defended the provisions of the Pensions Act and claimed that the Government had not neglected to provide for men of the mercantile marine. The amount of Is 6d per day was determined upon by the Cabinet in view of the grave financial responsibilities of the country The Government's complete proposals would absorb about £ (1,908,000 The proposal of the leader of tho Opposition meant an expenditure of £8,m0,000, while the Labor proposal I ( !!-! mvolve an cx P«iditure of £16,ORO.fOO. The position was thus before the Houpe. He was exceedingly sorry the? had not been able to come to an amicable agreement on this question, as be would have liked to have seen the gitt made to the soldiers freely and graciously, J
Sir Joseph Ward made a personal explanation denying that h j (. was con- *•, aWut «!• Cabinet's fatuity proposals before* Sir James Alien made lus statement in the House, and he was not at the Cabinet when the proposals were approved. The mat"'f n f er up at the Catiinet after he returned to New Zealand. had ti 'Sir James after he had left the Cabinet: hut he could not d , lscuss the matter with him, because he might And himself in complete disagreement with the party of which -T } he ead - The proper way to k dealt with this matter was to Jiavo nubnutted it to a joint committee of " istead of tl 7 in ? to rush it through at one sitting. Then there might have been a chance of gettine a sort of agreement about the proposals. The motion that the paper lie on X«r d Print6d WaS then an <> the division list. Thei following ITuTe division list on »ir Joseph Wa*ds amendment in the lties-1 0 " fl " estion of 6 °Wiers' gratuFor th e amendment (30): Messrs Anstey, Brown, Buddo, Sir J. Carroll, Messrs Colvin, Dickie, .Forbes. P. Fraser Hanan, Holland, Isitt, Jennings, McCal' liim, McComhs, Myers, Poland, Poole, 'Kiissoll, Seddon. Seniple, Sidey R W Smith, s. R. Smith, Talbot,' Thaeker! Veitch, Walker, Sir ,T. Ward, Messrs Wilford, and Witty. Against (37): Sir James Allen, Messrs Anderson, Bollard, Coates, Craigie, J. M. Dickson, .7. S. Dickson, T. A. H. Fieldj W. H. Field, Sir William Fraser, Messrs' Guthrie, Harris, Henare, Herries, Hine, IHornsby, Hunter, Lee, Luke, Mklcolm, Mander, Massey, Nash, Nosworthy, i?arr, Pearce, Pomare, Reed. R. H. Rhodes, T. W. Rhodes, Scott, G. H. Smith, Statliam, Sykes, Uru, Wright, and Young.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19190926.2.79
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Taranaki Daily News, 26 September 1919, Page 7
Word count
Tapeke kupu
991SOLDIERS' GRATUITIES. Taranaki Daily News, 26 September 1919, Page 7
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Taranaki Daily News. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.