Notes From The Gallery

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 7, 11 August 1939, Page 23

Notes From The Gallery

(By

Our Special Representative

Prime Minister's Courage + Knitting in the Galleries The Guillotine + Defence and Private Enterprise Broadcast and Public Speaking

O one who drinks beer, drives a N car, pays income tax, or is thinking of dying, will need to be reminded that*the Budget has been presented. Knowing that the next day he would have to go to hospital, Mr. Savage acted for Mr. Nash. Members knew that he had been in ill-health, and gave him a splendid reception when he appeared in the House for the first time for some days. Again, when he left, immediately after the presentation, he was applauded; but they did not know at the time just how ill he was, and until the following day were not able to express their proper appreciation of his courage in carrying through a difficult task. Without a hint of any weakness that might have distracted the attention of members and the electors from their pockets to himself, he told the House how the Government proposed making up the difference between estimated income and expenditure; £1,000,000 from raising the income tax scale; £200,000 by reducing the amount of exemption from death duties; £300,000 by increasing the tax on beer by 6d a gallon; and £1,000,000 by sending the petrol tax up by 4d per gallon. Hurry The Budget proposals were put to the House as a Committee of Ways and Means, in the form of resolutions which had to come into effect by midnight, so that no profiteering could take place between their presentation and their application. The Opposition plunged at once into criticism, but reserved its real attack for the lengthier debates on the Bill which had to follow. They Knit as They Listen If the ladies of New Zealand are less bloodthirsty than their knitting sisters of Paris when the guillotine was busy, their fingers are not more conscious of the events they watch. At least, the sisters of the Revolution turned aside to spit in time to the plopping of the heads in the basket, but not more than one or two of the women knitters who filled the galleries even dropped a stitch while Mr. Savage guillotined their incomes. Some even managed to concentrate on embroidery. New days, new ways. Satisfactory to Mr. Semple Most of the Budget was read in complete silence, but when the blow fell on petrol the Opposition groaned; when it fell on beer they writhed; and when Mr. Savage reached the £3,000 mark for taxation on £8,000 incomes, Mr. Semple nodded his satisfaction. But Not to the Farmer One of the Opposition’s main points was the effect of the new petrol tax on the farming community. Though their time was brief they used all they had in efence of the man on the land.

A Point of Accounting The member for Kaipara (The Right Hon, J. G. Coates) must have been spurred out of his customary quietness by the sound of all the millions being spent and collected, for he was almost the first on his feet when Mr. Savage had finished. He raised a point about the relation between the petrol tax and the defence vote, saying he doubted the Government’s claim that one would not be included in the Budget if the other was not necessary. Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Fraser assured him that the relationship was definitely direct, although no separate ear-marking had been done. No Respect for Parties War, or the fear of it, has no more respect for parties than for persons, During the week before the Budget the House turned from the Government’s home defence policy to glance at British foreign policy. One National Party member blamed the pacifist policy of the English Labour Party for the weakness that made Munich necessary; two Labour Party members blamed the pacifist policy of the English Labour Party’s successors for the weakness that made Munich possible; and another National Party member blamed them both for forgetting that an Empire founded on the "Gospel of Might" could not avoid astonishing its rivals if it suddenly asked them to accept the principles of Christianity. In general, the socialist government left defence to the private enterprise of volunteers, and the capitalist opposition wanted it socialised to the degree of making military service compulsory. Two Voices When the Hon. D. G. Sullivan (Avon) rose in the Address in Reply debate to speak for-the Department of Industries and Commerce, he followed Mr. S, G. Holland (Opposition, Christchurch North). Mr. Holland had spoken very forcefully, using all the arts of rhetoric to:demolish the Government. Mr. Sullivan spoke quietly, so quietly that he seemed to be talking about the "Easter situation" when the Opposition interjectors were talking about the Eastern situation. But 200 yards away, in Lambton Quay, the contrast worked the other way. The voice which in the House had sounded slow and hesitating sounded to the knot of listeners outside a shop bold and challenging. It was a striking example of the contrast between the necessities of public speaking and the niceties of broadcast speaking. Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Holland, both well practised in’ all the arts of speech-making and debate, happened on this occasion to strike exactly the contrasting notes necessary to point a moral of which members have been becoming increasingly conscious since the microphones have hung in front of them.