PARLIAMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 August 1922, Page 5

PARLIAMENT.

YESTERDAY'S SITTING. REPLIES TO QUESTIONS. EARMARKS AND BRANDS. By Telegraph.—-Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. The House of Representatives met at 2.30 pan. Replying to Mr. 'T. D. Burnett (Temuka), the Minister of Agriculture stated he was looking into the matter of earmarks and brands, and legislation was projected, but he could not promise that a Bill would be introduced this session, as the matter is of great importance, requiring expert advice. He assured the questioner that old marks and brands on back stations which possessed an historic value would not be interfered with. The Prime Minister informed Dr. H. T. Thacker (Christchurch East) that |he question of leasing the Hanzner Spa has not been considered, but no doubt if '.he Minister of HeaJtii. under whose control it \yas, considered better results could be attained by leasing, he would submit a proposition to Cabinet. Referring to the Mount Cook hermitage, Mr. Massey added that nothing had yet been decided upon regarding a lease, but he thought it possible that something of this sort would eventually be done. Replying to Mr. P. Fraser (Wellington Central), the Prime Minister-said Cabinet had decided provisionally, upon the personnel of the commission to inquire into the question of soldiers’ pensions. Replies from those selected were awaited, and if they accepted the positions the commission would get immediately to*work. The Minister of Agriculture promised to obtain information regarding supplies of woolpacks and cornsacks available for the coming season, Mr. A. D. McLeod (Wairarapa) having quoted a rumor current that a shortage of woolpacks was probable. THE BUDGET DEBATE. The debate on the Financial Statement, ‘to which Mr. H. E. Holland (Leader of the Labor Party) has moved an amendment, was continued. Mr. J. McCombs (Lyttelton) supported the amendment. Hs condemned the action of the Government in putting men off urgent public works. Mr. A. Harris • (Waitcmata), defending the Government’s policy regarding unemployment, pointed our that the Public Works Department was to day employing 7200 men, whereas the normal number was only about two thousand. Mr. M. J, Savage (Auckland West) supported the amendment. He said if, as the Prime Minister stated at Foxton, we were round the corner, it ought to be possible to'find money to-deal with the tmeniploynient problem. The Hon. C. J. Parr, discussing Mr. Holland’s criticism of naval defence, said on that subject the Leader of the Labor Party was quite unsound.

Mr. Holland: You are all sound. We i only objected to spending money on an , obsolete ship such as the Chatham. Continuing, Mr. Parr said, on the subject of military defence, that Mr. Holland evidently would have none at all. , He then passed on to discuss the land manifesto of the Labor Party, which he ridiculed us inimical to the interests of the settler. After pointing out that those who to-day were making the most noise about the 44 per cent, tax-free bonds were those who most uniformly supported the proposal when it was made by Sir Joseph Ward. He proceeded to deal with education, conI cerning which he declared it was utterly impossible to further reduce expenditure, i unless free education in secondary and techi nical schools was abolished. 1 Mr. D. G. Sullivan (Avon) said the I previous Government had made it a pracI tice to transfer surpluses to the public

! works funds, and if that had b&en done this j year Canterbury might have had its 'unemployed problem solved by putting in hand the Hiley scheme of railway inaprovei ment, including the duplication of the i Lyttelton tunnel.

Mr. T. W.' Rhodes (Thames) said there was no ginger in the Labor Party’s attack on the Government, and he could not describe it as other than, a sham fight, in which a great deal of blank cartridge was being fired. He deprecated the Labor Party’s theory that further taxation could be imposed on higher incomes, and said the real salvation of the country lay in. the watchward'of the Budget, viz., “economy.” Mr. D. Munro (Dunedin North) declared the Government had deliberately engineered the unemployment problem by continuing immigration for the purposes of making an attack on workers’ wages. He maintained the best way to make the railways pay was not to reduce the workers’ wages, but to reduce fares, so ns to induce people to travel as much as possible. .-V. present the railways were, closed to vast numbers pf people because the railways were not being run on business lines. The debate was adjourned, and the House rose at 11.10 p.m. till 2.30 p.m. on Tues-