Debate on The Grain Duties Act

Official report · Assembly of SchwartzistanSession 1904 · col. 9277

The Speaker: The House will come to order. The Bill stands for its third reading. The Minister.

Jorn Gerst (Minister of Finance): I beg to move the third reading of the Bill, and I shall be brief. The Bill raises what it says it raises and spends it where the schedule says. I have the figures and will lay them on the table. I read the material clause to the House. Sets the duty at 7 pfen in the marka. I commend the Bill to the House.

Hugo Faunel (Westgau; The Reed Party): Sir, The land pays for everything in the end. The Reed Party will vote as the land would vote if it could. The Bill is a money Bill and a money Bill is a Bill about who goes without. Westgau has had a hard year. I say that not against the Bill but so that the Minister remembers it when the fees are fixed. I oppose the third reading.

Magnus Brenn (Kesselhöh; The Continuity Party): Sir, The Continuity Party supports every measure that keeps the record whole and opposes every measure that does not. This one keeps it whole. I should like the Minister to say what the yield will be, and I should like it in marka and not in percentages. The members for Kesselhöh have met and are of one mind on the Bill, which does not happen often. I cannot vote for the Bill as it stands and I shall not. [Laughter.]

Leon Marrow (The Capital District; The Continuity Party): Mr. Speaker, My constituents in The Capital District wrote to me about the Bill, all 8 of them, and they were against it until they read it. The Bill is in order. The Clerk has entered it. The Ministry of Chronology has seen it. I do not see what more the House requires. The clause is short and I shall not read it. The duty falls on the trade and the trade passes it on. The House knows this and votes for it every year. I support the Bill, with the reservation I have stated.

Albrecht Venbier (The Sudmark; The Workers' Front): Mr. Speaker, There is not a word in the Bill about wages. There never is. I put the word in now, so that it is in the record. The Bill is a money Bill and a money Bill is a Bill about who goes without. I sit for The Sudmark. The clerks there are few and the roads are long, and any officer the Bill appoints will spend a week finding the houses. I support the Bill, with the reservation I have stated. [Interruption.]

The Minister thanked the House for a short debate and asked for a short division.

The question being put, a division was called for, and the members went to the lobbies.

The Speaker declared the Ayes to have it and the Bill was passed.

The remaining Orders of the Day were deferred and the House rose.