ADDRESS-IN-REPLY DEBATE.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 July 1922, Page 5

ADDRESS-IN-REPLY DEBATE.

P SPEECH BY MR. S. G. SMITH, M.P. J VARIOUS TOPICS TOUCHED ON. 1 ’ (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) } Wellington, July 14. • During the Address-in-Repiy debate, , Mr. S. G. Smith (Taranaki) said that the j Minister of Internal Affairs had rebuked p the member for Christchurch North for , some statements lightly made in regard to the member’s position. The Minister t had come into the House as an Indepen- . dent. He had not been in the House long before he was attracted to the party in power and made a Minister. While the Minister had pointed out dif- , ferenees upon detail among members of j the Liberal Party, he had also disclosed , some difference of opinion among mem- , bers of his own party on the question, to wit, whether the proposed agricultural bank was to be a State-guaranteed enterprise. Turning to the question of the cut in public servants’ salaries, Mr. Smith declared that nothing would remove from the minds of the public servants the fact that while their salaries were reduced a gift was made to big landowners by way of rebate. While the "small farmers of Lambton Quay, Wellington, and of Queen Street, Auckland,” received thi-s gift, it 'Was mere camouflage to say that the rebates were allowed for the sake of the genuine small farmer. He had not yet met a small farmer in his district who had saved more than £1 1 through the land t-ax rebate. The member for Rangitikei had endeavored to make light of the Farmers’ Party. The executive of that party included wellmen who had served the interests of the farmers well. He found among them the names of A. E. Harding and C. K. Wilson, both former supporters of the Reform Party. The farmers were entitled to have a separate party if they desired it. The new party claimed that the success it had met with so far was'due to the realisation of the farmers that they had been hoodwinked by the party in power. He was prepared to that the Reform Party did serve the farmers’ in- ‘

tercets except in a few cases when these clashed with the large moneyed interests. The Government had been returned pledged to reduce taxation. It was useless for such a Government to reply to those who could hardly sustain the burden of taxes that the burden was much greater in Sweden or some other place. ‘The member for Kaiapoi had told the House that the worker was better off under this Government than under previous Governments. The fact was that the present Government had smashed the worker with the baton and turned the profiteer loose to prey almost unmolested; now it was making the public servants pay for its gross extravagance. Mr. Smith professed to have found indications in the debate of whet the Reform propaganda was to be at the next elections. It appeared from the speeches of Government members that the sectarian issue, which had helped considerably to return the Govei-nment to power, was to be abandoned, and something novel offered. The great “stunt” at the elections was to be loyalty. The impression had been given more than once that if one was opposed to the Reform Government one was disloyal to the country. He strongly criticised the cut in public service salaries, and told the Government that it was inviting industrial trouble by its methods.