THE NEED FOR ECONOMY,

Taranaki Daily News, 7 October 1921, Page 7

THE NEED FOR ECONOMY,

STARTING AT THE TOP. MR. HAWKEN’S VIEWS. Wellington, Wednesday. ■Speaking last night in the debate on the Address-in-Reply, Mr. O. J. Hawken (Egmont) said that he had been a member of the Parliamentary party which had visited the South Island, and it struck mm that there was a vast bulk of country in the South Island that wa-j being ill-used, badly managed, because of the bad out-of-date system of tenure. He held that that was one of the main reasons for the backwardness of the South Island as compared with the North Island; and he believed that the matter would never be rectified, that the South Island would never have a proper chance until a change was made in the tenure. The Leader of the Opposition had tried to make out that the Reform Party had no right to be on that side of the House, that it had not a majority of the country behind it. Mr. Wilford: Do you deny that? “GENERALSHIP!” •Mr. Hawken: You wait. The Leader of the Opposition, he added, had set out all the forces at his disposal at the last election—horse, foot, and artillery. But he seemed td forget altogether that there was sugh a thing a-s generalship. (Laughter). Mr. Wilford: General Hawken on generalship ! (Laughter). Mr. Hawken claimed that there had been good generalship on the side of the Reform Party, and bad generalship on the other side. That was why the Liberal Party was split up into five parts. (Laughter). Mr. Wilford: You would split up into forty parties within twenty-four hours if Mr. Massey went out of office. (Hear, hear, and laughter). Mr. Hawken maintained that the want of generalship in the Liberal Party was shown in the fact that in the last year of Mr. Seddon’s premiership Customs and Excise, which were generally held to be the ppor man’s taxes, though everybody, of course, paid them, stood at £2,728,193; and the rich man’s taxes, the land and income tax, at only £606,704. In 1911, again, the Customs and Excise duties totalled £3,145,927, and the land and income tax only £1,035,958. But this year the land and income tax amounted to £9,937,924, and Customs and Excise to £8,769,251. Or, taking last year, when the Customs position was more normal, the land and income tax totalled £7,927,667, as against £5,006,079 for Customs and Excise. “SQUANDERING.” As to the 17$ millions of accumulated surpluses that the Leader of the Opposition had stated was squandered on the soldiers— Mr. Wilford: No, no. Squandered on the big land owners. Mr. Hawken said that the 17$ millions had been spent on furniture, homes, and businesses for the soldiers. Mr. Wilford: No, it is twenty-two millions including that. Mr. Hawken: Weil, at any rate, if that was squandering, I wish we had more money to squander. (“Oh, oh!” and laughter). Mr. Wilford: Mr. Downie Stewart said he could blow half a million in no time. (Laughter). The Hon. Downie Stewart: If we granted all you ask for. (Laughter). Mr. Hawken contended that what had been done for soldier settlement was the one bright spot in the present situation. It was a monument to the credit of the present Government. (Hear, hear). Mr. R. Masters (Stratford): What about McCutcheon’s land?

Mr. Hawken: The difficulty was that parts of it were not suitable; though I believe it was worth the money the Government gave for it. (Laughter). Mr Wilford: Whose fault was it that it was not suitable? Mr. McLeod: No man can spend twenty-four millions without miking mistakes. Mr. Wilford: Whose fault was it? Mr. McLeod: Probably the fault of the man who bought the land. Bus that class of land was wanted by some of the men. Mr. Holland: How much of the money was lost? Mr. McLeod: Tf we lost ft smali amount of that money, it was ours to lose. It was not borrowed money .4,11 that was ailing the country, he added, was that the Government had been a little bit extravagant. Mr. Wilford: A little bit! (Laughter). “REDUCE WAGES.” The Government, said Mr. McLeod, must reduce the country’s expenditure within its income. The big too , many of them, had been hard hit, and' the small farmers, as often before, isere at present carrying the country on their back#?. When the big farmers’ incomes were down by one-half they could not pay the same wages as those based on full incomes. Mr. Holland: Wages were never based on full incomes. (Hear, hear.) ' Mr. Hawken maintained that, from the rich man downward*, there should be an all-round decrease in the income of the people. Commencing with the House itself, salaries should be reduced and the reduction should go right through the civil service. Some said that the state of affairs would shortly improve; but he could hardly see that. Wool, for instance, had a long way to go before it reached even the pre-war point; and, of course, wages were very different before the war from what they are now.

Mr. Holland: Prices were very differ ent,’ too.

Mr. Hawken added that he believed wool would go up; but he did not believe that butter and cheese could keep up to the present figures. Butter at 2s a pound was abnormal; and the probability was that as wool went up Putter and cheese would go down. Last year we had imported £35 000,000 too much, and over and above that, value of the farmers’ live stock had fallen by some £25,000,000 to £30,000,000; that made the position very bad indeed, overstraining the finance of the banks and other lending institutions. There were 50.000 Gov-

ernment employees, but over 150,000 in the agricultural industry. Men in that industry and in other industries had had their wages reduced, and he thought that there should be a corresponding reduction from iop to bottom in the’ Public Service, too, putting them on an equality with the other worksrs in the Dominion. He had the greatest confidence in the country, and he believed that if that were done, things would right themselves before very long. The present taxation was having a very bad effect, and the Government must put down expenditure and reduce, instead of increasing taxation.