IMPREST SUPPLY BILL

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10705, 28 August 1912, Page 5

IMPREST SUPPLY BILL

AN INTERESTING DEBATE

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V IyuuLNGTON, Last Night. An luu— supply ™ l >' lo ° ■ ua* oy governor's message , ia the House of Representatives u,» utteruoou. . , On the motion for the second readin. of the Bill, Mr xl. Mciveimo at length with 1... coal minoß, upuoiainß St*te control andl pomcmg to the redaction it has oftocteu in Jie cost to the people of coal. Sir Joseph Ward dealt exhaustively wi th the state of the Public Works Fund, and the state of the mines fund He extended that the liabilities set out in the Fniancial Statement were apt to mislead, .and went 4,a to demonstrate tnera to be abnormally high. He defended the institution of State coal mines which ,1,0 said had directly and indirectly proved to bo a very fine thing. In .round figures, the establishment of depots had effected a saving of £/00,000 to the people since the mines •were started. Referring to the raising of loans, he declared that other countries whose credit was undoubted M& not done as well as Now Zealand ■ The Hon. Mr Eraser said ho did not intend to go into the whole matter of State Coal mines to-day. He would bring down, a State Coal Mines Bill, which proposed to borrow an amount of money to put the accounts of •the mines in proper order. . The Hon. J. Allen, in answer to the • Budget criticism, said that when he assumed office he wanted to show the •people the position just as he had Jouncl it when he took office. The; loans policy was unwise, and he was going to alter it. He hoped that a one and three-quarters mHlion loan /'would carry them on to 1914. After i that they would have the balance of the Consolidated Funds, which would take them on. He did not believe in yshort-dated loans in any case. The j tJovornment intended to raise money! for homes for the workers, and loans -to local bodies. Unless the money market improvedj the amount of advances to local bodies would have to ,4)8 restricted. On the third reading, Sir Joseph "Ward said if the Minister of "Finance.. thought he could keep off the London market for fear of the under-f •writers taking up the loan?, he would ' -create an undesirable state of affairs. ' If they were going to place all the Joans on the local market, the price of money would go up to an undesirable height. j Mr T. M. Wilford said Mr Allen had under-estimated his revenue, and -over-estimated his expenditure. Tho Hon. Mt Heme's said they were hearing the old tale of under and over-estimation. The estimates were those of the Mackenzie Government. Mr G. W. Russell: Why did you jaccept; them? . . { Hon. Mr Herries: Because we did not believe the Mackenzie Government would be traitors to the country. The gentlemen opposite were responsible for making out the estimates. His Government did not have time to see whether they were right or wrong. . Mr A. M. Myers envied the Minister of Finance in coming into possession of the Treasury benches., under such happy circumstances. If the finances were discreetly, handled, . a Minister's position would be a happy one.. i Tho Hon. W. Fraser, referring to Mr Myers' proposal about converting the loan into a 30 -years' stock loan, said that was gambling on the future. He averred that the loan would cost the Government 5 per cent. At the «ud of two yenrs-the market might be all right; but it might not. He deprecated entering into responsibilities without having money to meet them. That also was gambling in tho future. and was a bad policy.;

Mr Russell criticised the proposals of tho Minister of Finance in connection with tho Sinking Fund. The whole thing was, he said, juggling with figures. He declared that the Budget did not contain any reduction in taxation, though the Reform Party's platform stated that they wore out-to accomplish that.