BUDGET DEBATE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 August 1939, Page 5

BUDGET DEBATE

SPEECHES IN IHE HOUSE

YESTERDAY RISING PRICES AND FOREIGN POLICY. UNEMPLOYMENT POLICY CRITICISED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. In taking urgency for the Financial Debate yesterday, the Acting-Prime Minister (Mr Fraser) explained that nis action was intended, not to terminate the debate at -that sitting, but simply to allow the House to sit beyond the normal rising hour of 10.30 p.m. so chat the last speaker of the day could finish his speech before the adjournment.

Six speeches were made, four by Government members and two from (he Opposition side of the House. The Government speakers included Dr D. G. McMillan (Dunedin West) and Mr R. McKeon (Wellington South). The former said the Government was determined to live within its income and not place an additional burden on the shoulders of future generations by borrowing. British foreign policy in the Far East was criticised by Mr McKeon, who blamed this for the necessity for the present defence expenditure in New Zealand.

The Opposition speakers were Mr F. W. Doidge (Tauranga) and Mr E. B. K. Gooseman (Waikato). Mr Doidge said there were no crueller or more insidious wage cuts than those created by rising costs on persons with fixed incomes. The working man was gradually awakening to the hard lot he was having to face and was becoming aware that no Government hitherto had been responsible for wage cuts on such a scale as those for which the present Government was responsible. Mr Gooseman said that belter pay and better conditions existed on relief works than in the primary industries, it was no wonder that there was a .shortage of labour for dairy farms. The present system of unemployment relief was whittling away the independence of the people. Numerous departmental reports were tabled at the start of the sitting. These included the reports of the Railways Department, Transport Department and Internal Affairs Department. The House adjourned at 10.35 p.m. till today.