PARLIAMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 July 1922, Page 5

PARLIAMENT.

IMPREST SUPPLY BILL. ’ TOTAL OVER. THREE MILLIONS. RAILWAY POLICY ATTACKED. POSITION OF. SOLDIER SETTLERS. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. The House met at 2.30 p.m. The Hon. Sir H. Rhodes gave notice of his intention to introduce the Naval Defence Amendment Bill. Replying to Mr. H. Holland (Buller), the Hon. D. H. Guthrie said that when coal was being purchased for the railways the claims of the Wallsend mine would be considered, but he would not recommend the department to make an agreement regarding coal similar to that made in connection with the surplus wheat. The Premier indicated that he desired the House to pass an Imprest Supply Bill, and he moved that the House should go into Committee of Supply for that purpose. Mr. T. M. Wilford (Leader of the Opposition) said he thought the tirhe had arrived when the House should be told whether the railways were still losing money. If so, how much, and if in the loss the cost of imported coal had been taken into consideration. So far the allegations of Mr. W. A. Veitch (Wanganui) had not been convincingly replied to. He criticised the proposed board of advice. It was always supopsed that the heads of departments had been in consultation with the general manager, and it came as a shojk to the public when they found it was not so. MOTOR TRAFFIC GAINING. He wanted to know why no one had been appointed to fill the position of commercial agent rendered vacant by the retirement of the previous holder of that office, and why also was there no inspecting engineer in connection with the railways. There was discontent from one end of the country to the other with the management of the railways, and everywhere motor traffic was being supported by the public against the railways. The board of advice was simply an attempt, politically impotent, to stem the rising tide of discontent. The thing was farcical. He did not cast reflections on the capacity of railway servants, but he did not believe that the policy of the department was laid down by the Minister with sufficient clarity

to enable them to know the road on which they were travelling. With regard to the proposed commission on soldiers’ settlement, he declared it was a vote of no confidence in members of Land Boards. He maintained there was a serious loss on soldier settlements, which would have to be faced. It served no good purpose to keep postponing the payments on rents and stock. He wanted the Government ,to frankly admit that a

mistake had been made, cut the loss, and start on a new basis altogether. He asked the Minister to lay down a new policy which will relieve soldiers from the trouble in which they are in, but instead of doing this he offered them a board, which was simply a piece of political hypocrisy. LOSS ON THE RAILWAYS. The Hon. D. H. Guthrie said the loss

on the railways was about £3OOO per day. It was not due to expensive running of the railways, but to the serious drop in the business offering. This drop he, however, hoped would soon disappear and the railways would again begin to pay. Every effort was being made to catch up the leeway in connection with the maintenance of lines, which he admitted had suffered somewhat through inability to get material during the war.

So far as the board of advice was concerned, it was being appointed simply because Mr. McVilly could not carry on the whole of the administration without killing himself. Further, such sharing of responsibility woud enable the general manager to get into touch with the public, which would be most advantageous to the department. He contended they had inspectors enough without an inspecting engineer, for there was one in each department. So far as motor competition was concerned, the Leader of the Opposition would soon find that most drastic measures were being taken to cope with this trouble. Regarding soldier settlements, he declared there was one argument and only one that the Opposition could hurl against the administration, and that was that the time for revaluation had come. He (Mr, Guthrie) considered it had not come. He was prepared to help soldiers over hard times, and he proposed to set up a commission to help him to do so. Mr. E. Newman (Manawatu) foresaw that if local bodies were allowed to mop up money for hydro-electric schemes, then when the moratorium expired farmers were going to have the greatest difficulty in finding money to renew their mortgages, and this was the cause of the greatest anxiety amongst settlers. REPLY BY THE PREMIER. Referring to what had been said regarding soldiers, Mr. Massey said it was all a question of getting votes on the part of the Opposition. He admitted mistakes had been made, but there was no corruption. He challenged anyone to bring a charge of corruption. So far as the investigation of soldiers’ difficulties was concerned, one board would be no good, and it was proposed to set up a board for each land district. The boards will ascertain if revaluation is necessary, and if so, when and what remission of rent should be made.

It was absurd to suppose the whole scheme of soldiers’ settlements was a failure; it was not so. Most of them would make a success, but no man would make a success until he acquired knowledge of his holding. Unfortunately everyone was too anxious to get men on to the land, and there would be failures, but it would be a small percentage, and we had got to encourage instead of discourage them. Even with the slump he was confident that if the soldiers’ land was offered for sale today they would get back every penny it cost the country. Discussing railway matters, he quoted a speech of Sir Joseph Ward, which showed that he in 1912 suggested a board of advice such as the Government now proposed to set up, and he (Mr. Massey) quite agreed with the suggestion. New Zealand was not. the only country where the railways were working at a loss; every other country was in the same position, only worse. The Government had no. intention of going back on the present pensions system, but he had had his attention drawn by the Treasury to the enormous outlay upon pensions, and he desired to say, in connection with future pensions, that it might be necessary to do something ia the

way of setting up a form of contributory system. The House then went into committee of supply. The Premier stated the total amount asked for was £3,099,450. The Bill was put through the committee stage without amendment, read a third time and passed. The House rose at 11.35 p.m. until 2.30 p.m. to-morrow.