BUDGET DEFENDED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 August 1939, Page 9

BUDGET DEFENDED

ACTING-PREMIER replies TO CRITICS FINAL SPEECH IN LONG DEBATE. CLAIM LAID TO PUBLIC SUPPORT. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The Budget Debate in the House of Representatives was brought to an end last evening by the Acting-Minis-ter (the Hon P. Fraser) with a speech in which he replied to Opposition criticisms. Members on the other side of the House had charged the Government with squandering money and general extravagance, said Mr Fraser, but they had steadfastly refused to say in what direction they would curtail expenditure or make savings. “The Budget has been favourably received by the country, though no one expected for a minute that taxation increases would be popular, Mr Fraser went on to observe. “The number of resolutions of protest against the Budget proposals has been surprisingly small. The reason why the large majority of the people of the country approve the Budget is the great increase in the social services they are enjoying. They also realise that the question of defence, particularly at this moment, has to be faced up to, and that extra money is required. There is general acquiescence with the Budget so far as the public is concerned, if we separate the Press from the public. The last two elections have proved that the Press hardly ever represents the majority of the people of the country.” FINANCE AND PROPERTY. The Budget, Mr Fraser continued did not contain a depression’outlook, nor did it suggest that this country had reached the full level of development. The Financial Statement proclaimed the right of the people to control the destinies of this country through their elected representatives. It said that credit and currency should be utilised in a wise, sensible and scientific way so as to provide for the equitable distribution of wealth in return for services rendered. An Opposition member: “What does the member for Grey Lynn say?” Mr Fraser said there was no difference as far as the Government’s policy and Labour Party principles were concerned between the member for Grey Lynn and other Government members. The Government believed that by the effective use of the economic organism the prosperity of. me country could be promoted. The Opposition, said Mr Fraser, contended that the Government had gone too far and must go back. The debate had at least broken the hedging of the members of the Opposition in that respect. Mr Holland (Opposition, Christchurch North) had said the Opposition did not want to reduce wages, pensions or social services or to interfere with the 40 hour week. However, there were apparently other Opposition members who did not agree with that, for Mr Coates (Kaipara) had said that the 40-hour "week must go. Mr Holland: “No he didn’t.” Mr Fraser: “Yes he did as definitely as words could make it, and so did the member for Pahiatua (Sir Alfred Ransom).. COMING TO THE POINT. “Members of the Opposition belong to a deuressionist party,” said Mr Fraser. “Why cannot they be specific, and when they tell the Government it is squandering money and far too extravagant why do they not say where adjustments can be made? Apparently their method is to say anything so long as it is detrimental to the Government. They refuse steadfastly and consistently to come to the. point and say what they would do differently from the Government, what expenditure they would reduce, and where they would save money they claimed to have been extravagantly spent. “The Leader of the Opposition said in his speech that the Government is raiding every reserve, and this statement was taken up by other members of the Opposition. Early in the debate the member for Oamaru (Mr Nordmeyer) challenged the Opposition to specify what reserve the Government has raided. That challenge has not been accepted. The present Government has presented balanced Budgets. That cannot be said of all the Governments that have been in this country. With this Government the Budget has been balanced on every occasion and capital expenditure has been met, not by borrowing but from departmental resources. Post Office savings, and by calling on the credit of the country through the Reserve Bank.”