DEBATE CONTINUED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 August 1939, Page 6

DEBATE CONTINUED

PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE TODAY STATE HOUSING COSTS. DEFENCE & OTHER ISSUES. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. The Budget Debate was continued in the House of Representatives today by Mr E. P. Meachen. whose speech was interrupted bj r the adjournment last, evening. He stated that the Leader of the Opposition had complained that the Government's housing policy had been responsible for increasing rents, but it had often transpired that people could rent Government houses at a cheaper rate than they could carry on their commitments for houses purchased under the State Advances scheme of the previous Government. Mr J. A. McL. Roy commended the efforts of the Minister of Transport to reduce the toll of human lives on the roads and, referring to defence, said he did not agree that most of the extra taxation would go to defence. The Prime Minister had said that increased population was the best defence, he added, but the rural population was declining. The Government should make more money available for the settlement of farmers on the land to fill the empty spaces. There was plenty of room for more intensive farming than was being carried out today.

Mr R. M. MacFarlane said the Leader of the Opposition had contended that it was bordering on presumption for members of the Government to criticise British foreign policy. It was nothing of the sort, he said, because Britain's foreign policy very' materially affected this country. In the event of an outbreak of hostilities it was essential, he said, that the Dominion should pursue a progressive public works policy. Mr T. L. MacDonald said the Opposition was emphatically in support of the Territorial movement, but it did not think it went far enough. Most Opposition members who were eligible were members of the National Military Reserve. The debate was interrupted by the adjournment at 1.0 p.m.