WELLINGTON TOPICS.
THE MEAT POOL.
PROPOSED LEGISLATION,
(Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Feb. 3.
The Meat Export Control Bill, the measure intended to give effect to the “meat pool” proposal, was introduced in the House last night and was explained at some length by the Prime Minister. It follows generally the lines that have been indicated by Mr. Massey from time to time, but involves the State in a larger financial responsibility than most members expected. The board which is to control the administration of the scheme is to consist of two members appointed by the Governor-General and five members appointed by the producers of meat for export. It will have very wide powers indeed, covering the handling of the meat from the time it enters the freezing works till its disposal “on such terms as it thinks advisable.” The State's guarantee will be behind the board’s finance in a very full and effective measure. The Minister of Finance will have authority to borrow on the security of Treasury bills any amount that may be required by the board to carry on its operations and “to pay the same into the board’s account.” The Bill is coming up for its second reading to-night and Mr. Massey is inclined to permit of no delay in its passsage. COMMISSION ON TAXATION. The Dominion, which lately has been displaying some anxiety concerning the Government’s finance, takes Mr. Massey to task this morning, as severely as a friend may, for discouraging the appointment of a Royal Commission, as suggested by the Hon. J. A. Hanan, to review the incidence of taxation. “It is an a. ide,” it says, “difficult to reconcile with Mr. Massey’s own statement that the present incidence of taxation is not satisfactory, and that if Parliament were able to provide a more satisfactory system of taxation it would be a strong factor in restoring the prosperity of the country.” The Reform organ suggests that the Prime Minister is fully alive to the far-reaching harm done by an unsoi,..d system of taxation, but fears that if taxation problems were searchingly investigated and freely discussed demands would be. raised for sweeping changes which it would be difficult to reconcile with the present imperative need for maintaining a big revenue. It had been understood by business men in the city that the Minister had undertaken to set up a committee of independent experts to review the incidence of taxation,, but apparently the Dominion assumes he has abandoned this idea. RETRENCHMENT. Reports coming in from the provincial districts show that feeling among the public servants against the Government’s retrenchment programme is by no means confined to the city.- Large and extremely indignant meetings at Wanganui, Marton, Palmerston North and other centres have expressed the strongest disapproval of what they have described as Mr. Massey’s breach of faith and of the injustice that has been inflicted upon the lower paid members of the Service. But people who profess to know something of the temper of the men declare there is more noise than determination in their protest. The average public servant, they say, realises that the Government is in a very tight place financially and that it will need every shilling to weather the difficulties of the next year or two. This being the case, they maintain, the rhembers of the service are not going to aggravate the trouble for the Government and themselves by fomenting labor strife that could have only one deplorable end. They probably are right, even Mr. H. E. Holland and his friends in the House are not half as bellicose as they were in the days of uninterrupted prosperity.
IMPENDING GENERAL ELECTION.
The talk of election prospects continues on the assumption that the polling will take place as usual about the middle of December. It is thought that the position of the Government has not been greatly prejudiced by its retrenching activities, but that the railway and post and telegraph “muddles,” as many of the critics put it, will turn a much larger number of votes to one or another of the Opposition groups. Much depends upon what these groups may do towards the removal of their differences during the next three or four months. If they were able to appeal to the constituencies as a united force, freed, on the one hand, of the appearance of faint-hearted Liberalism, and, on the other, of the suspicion of irresponsible Socialism, they probably would return to the new House with a good working majority. But at the moment there is little ground for hoping for such a development. The man to bring it about is not in the present Parliament and there is no sign of him in the country.
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Taranaki Daily News, 7 February 1922, Page 6
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785WELLINGTON TOPICS. Taranaki Daily News, 7 February 1922, Page 6
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