Mr. SULLIVAN UNDER FIRE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 53, 22 November 1946, Page 5

Mr. SULLIVAN UNDER FIRE

LIVELY EDGECUMBE MEETING

-•CANDIDATE IN FIGHTING FORM

CRITICAL LABOUR ELEMENT

Were it not for the fact that an undercurrent of friendly good nature was always apparent and tenour of the meeting addressed by Mr W. Sullivan, M.P., and National candidate for the Bay of Plenty at Edgecumbe last Wednesday might have been described as ugly.. As it was, an obviously antagonistic element seated at the rear of the hall, kept up a running fire of interjections and criticism practically without interruption for the three hours during which Mr Sullivan spoke. The candidate however never once lost command of the situation and powerfully handled the more personal critics in a manner which demanded attention and candid respect. It would be safe to say that Mr Sullivan experienced the liveliest meeting of his campaign at Edgecumbe, and the bedlam which at times followed some particularly telling statement has certainly given the lie direct to the general'jbelief that this was going to be an unduly ‘quiet’ .election campaign.

Mr J. Neilsen who presided,' extended a welcome to Mr .■ Sullivan to Edgecumbe, the residents of which he said, had watched his activities ‘across the river’ with no little admiration. Mr Sullivan who was soon at grips with the socialistic objectives of the Labour Government said that he was definitely assured that it had every intention of talcing Over, first the major industries and finally the ■ secondary industries. He believed that the people now knew just what the Government was up to. As opposed to this the National Party, which he claimed was the true Liberal Party, was composed of men who had proved themselves by being successful in their own private 'lives, and this was borne out by the fact that they were recognised as the •ablest debaters in the House.

The Slump Again

The meeting started to liven up when the speaker criticised Labour’s habit of harking back to the slump which he declared had been universal. There was immediately an outcry from a dozen places that the ‘Tory’ Government had been responsible. One voice ;yelled that he had earned ten bob .a week in a relief camp. Mr Sullivan: I’d like to know any man who earned that!

Uproar ensued in which a voice -could be heard declaring that it would not have happened had a Labour Government been in office. Mr Sullivan: There were two ; Labour Governments in power then, New South Wales and' Queensland, and both these Governments made far greater cuts in the workers wages than anywhere else. Cries of derision the candidate’s assertion that there was nothing in the National policy for the rich man. An interjector declared the National Party, having criticised Social Security from its inception intended to remove the bene.fits if ever it came into power. Mr Sullivan: If any person present can prove that I have at any time voted against Social Security I’ll resign my seat. To say that the National Party intended to injure any beneficiary under this scheme .is just' so much nonsense.

Secondary Industries

Speaking of the secondary industries, Mr Sullivan declared that the present Labour Government placed every possible obstacle in the way of the establishment of the Whakatane Paper Mills, which had been founded by a lone-hander’ the late Mr Horrocks. He criticised the intention of the Labour Government to establish Cotton Mills in the South Island, declaring that such a venture could only result in dragging labour away from the already short-handed woollen mills which were finding it most difficult to operate. He outlined the scheme of his Party for the establishment of a Board of Trade, to replace the existing pernicious system of importing by license only. This Board would go into the whole question of export and import and be representative of the manufacturers and producers.

A voice: Yes imports from Japan! Mr Sullivan: Let me tell you that there were more Japanese imports

into this country under Labour than ever before. In 1933 we imported *' £886,000 worth of Japanese goods. In 1938 we imported £1,750,000

worth. Don’t talk such utter nonsense. We stand four-square to the Union Jack and those with their hearts in Moscow, should take their hides there also!

Crushing Taxation

Mr Sullivan who was now discovering a full fighting mood declared that the aim of the Socialistic Government was to so crush and dishearten the leaders of industry that they were forced into a submissive spirit, whereby the Government could step in and make all industries State-owned. Cries of ‘rubbish.’ Taxation he declared in 1926-27 was only 15 per cent, in the £. In 1936-37 it had risen to 23 per cent, and last year it was no less than 62 per cent. These figures were irrefutable.

A voice: That’s O.K. We have increased prosperity. Amidst the babel another declared that he paid no hospital bills, another that the banks were full of money saved by the people.

Mr Sullivan declared that direct taxation on the individual (apart from income tax) amounted to 5/6 in the £. Made up from the following: Subsidy taxation 1/-, Social Security 1/6, indirect 1/6, National Security 6d and Sales Tax 1/-. In addition to that an average income tax amounted to another 2/9. I simply meant that for every eight hours a person worked he worked three for the Government «r of the 52 weeks in the year 194 weeks for the Government. What The Worker Pays Money, said Mr Sullivan was only useful for what it could buy, and the average worker while he might be getting more money, was paying heavy in excess for his home and living requisites. He showed comparative figures whereby a diningroom suite in 1938 cost £l4 15s 6d (wholesale) and required a worker to toil for 107 hours at 2/9 per hour to buy it. The same suite in 1945 cost £29 3s and it required a man to work 175 more hours at 3/4 per hour to buy it—6B more hours of work. The same comparison obtained for a bedroom suite costing in 1938 £l9 17s or 144 working hours at 2/9. In 1945 it cost £3l 18s 3d, or 191 hours at 3/4; excess 47 hours. A house which cost £I4OO in 1938 cost the per-, son building it 233 weeks at £6 per week. The same house in 1945 cost £2OO equalling 320 weeks at £7 per week—B7 more weeks. If a farmer purchased 100 totara posts in 1938, the cost was £lB the value of 2401bs of butterfat at 1/6. In 1946 the cost was £2B or the value 320 lbs of butterfat at 1/9 ser lb. The purchase of a Ford V 8 would have cost the farmer in 1938 £355, equalling 47001bs of fat at 1/6. Today it would cost him £706 equivalent to SOOOlbs of fat at 1/9.

A worker’s car (say a Ford Prefect) in 1939 cost £290 for which he worked 1933 hours at 3/- per hour. In 1946 howeyer he paid £520 for the car or the equivalent of 3150 hours at 3/4 per hour—a difference of 1267 working hours for the same car. These figures, said Mr Sullivan were indisputable.

A barrage of interjections followed these figures, one man declaring that his wife ‘drew £9 15s 6d child alowance which offset the rising costs.’

Catching the word ‘Socialist’ from one interjector, Mr Sullivan said very forcibly: ‘The only difference between a Socialist and a Communist'is that one is pink and the other is red. One is out to destroy initiative as quickly as possible and the other is trying to strangle it slowly. Both are combining to keep National out, but we are too strong for both of them.’ (Cheers and catcalls).

National’s Housing Policy

The policy of overcoming the shortage of housing accommodation would be tackled immediately by National, said Mr Sullivan. It was the paramount desire of his Party to provide every person with his or her own house. If Labour got in again it would ’stonker’ private ownership of houses for ever. He declared that the policy of the Conservator of Forests under Labour’s dictates had been to seal off great tracts of millable native timbers, which had only been released during the past six months under pressure.

A National Government would immediately grapple with the problem and proceed to accommodate people so that they could obtain their own titles by a system of payments as rent over a period of years. A voice: Yes, seventy-seven years!

Mr Sullivan: Seventy-seven donkeys, and you’re the .seventyeighth. He went on to illustrate the three headings under - which the tenants of State houses could pay off and ultimately own their own homes, covering periods of 40 and 30 years or immediately if the money were forthcoming. In the same way the returned men would be assisted to erect or to purchase their own homes by virtue of an initial suspensory loan of £2OO. The private citizen would likewise be assisted in the same manner. Today some 23,000 building sites were being held up for State houses. These would be released for private ownership.

The Maori Race

Condemning the ten year plans as submitted by the Minister of Works as belated and not quick enough, Mr Sullivan said that what was wanted was a ten-day plan to deal with housing, coal supplies and electricity. Everything the Minister of Works has been associated with has been a failure! (Loud cries of dissent).

The speaker then produced a propaganda pamphlet issued by the Labour Party and circulated amongst Maori electors in which he was described as a ‘slanderer of the Maori race.’ Mr Sullivan condemned the whole assertion as hitting below the belt, and as fabricating lies which could not be substantiated. A voice: Its all in Hansard. Mr Sullivan: Show it to me then. The same voice: I’ve got it at home.

Mr Sullivan: One of my supporters will drive you home to produce it now, at this meeting. Will you go. now. The same voice: No!

Mr Sullivan: There you are. I can tell you that I can go into any Maori settlement on the East Coast and be welcomed there as a friend. This is nothing more or less than an attempt to make a rift between ourselves and a race we all admire. Farm Production Decline

The decline of farm production had been noteworthy ever since the appropriation by the. Government of the lump sum payments paid over by the Imperial Government. The speaker instanced the falling off in butterfat production and pig meats and maintained that the Government had hurdled the farmer with every obstacle it was capable of putting in his way. The National policy would free the farmer and his produce from political control. He. dwelt briefly upon the Party land policy, and declared that the farmer should be very thankful to the Opposition for the fixing of the Hospital Rate at £d in the £. It had been chiefly due the announcement by Mr Holland during the Raglan by-election that Labour had decided to fix the id in the £. Broadside of Questions

Mr Sullivan’s reference to the burning of the soldiers’ voting papers in 1943 was met by a regular barrage of interjections and queries. “If that was what they have been capable of putting over in the past” he said, “what will they try to put over in 1946?”; A voice: What are you trying to put over us? A fellow who could not do any good for himself was generally a good socialist Mr Sullivan averred. The Socialist Government which New Zealand had experienced during the past 11 years now threatened our very security. It had not hesitated to advance the census, to utilise public funds for political propaganda, grant a dental bursary to a military defaulter, and denied the fair use of the radio to the leader of His Majesty’s Opposition. He had said enough to show that they deserved putting out of office. The above observation brought a storm of objection from the back seats, buFMr Sullivan remained in high good humour, declaring that when he came back to meet them in 1939, they would kiss him.

Free Press Essential

Referring to the Government proposal to establish a pulp plant in the South Island for the manufacture of newsprint, he said that this was the thin end of the wedge towards the cultivation of a ‘yes’ press. Mr Nash had said the product would be sold to the newspapers, and the Government would see that the truth was printed on it. (Cheers). That was the first step towards a Government scrutiny of the news. That was the way Mussolini began. New Zealand required a free press, which being independent could keep an eye upon the Government, and not be forced to bow to the whim of any little Dictator. No one could say that The press of this country was biassed and yet the writing was on the wall if Labour again took office. National stood for free enterprise for everyone who had the initiative to take advantage of it. He was glad of the presence of Labour sympathisers there. It was his job to convert them and he felt that

he had been very successful. (Uproar).

Questions Answered

Mr Sullivan answered a number of questions which the chairman requested be brief. In response to a point raised by Mr King as to whether the National Party intended abolishing the Land Sales Court, the candidate replied that if the monied man lost a few thousand over a deal, it did not worry him. He should have known better. But he was interested in seeing that the returned soldier got a fair deal and also the small householder.

To another questioner'who asked what was the good of a freehold to a farmer. It depends upon your outlook. Mr Alexander stated that it had been agreed upon by all parties not to send any propaganda to the troops in the J-Force. Had Mr Sullivan done so. The candidate replied that he had never heard of any such agreement, and that he personally had written to all the men in Japan from the Bay of Plenty and felt he had a full right to do so.

Mr Alexander: Don’t make me laugh. Mr Sullivan: I think you look better laughing. Mr Newdick asked, why if National supporters were so afraid that Labour was going to socialise the land, so many had within recent years purchased farms or become interested in land? Mr Sullivan said that every man should be entitled to the full ownership of his property and that having once obtained a property they would fight tooth and nail for the preservation of its freehold.

Cheers and Counter Cheers

Mr McCracken moved a vote of thanks to and confidence in the candidate, which was promptly met bjr an amendment by Mr King who moved that a vote of thanks to the speaker, but no confidence in the policy he had annunciated be put. The chairman declared this a direct negative. Mr King then moved that Mr Sullivan be thanked for his address but that the meeting had the fullest confidence in Mr Boord and the Labour Party. The amendment was not put. The original motion was put to the meeting and carried on the voices. Cheers for the Labour candidate, were immediately countered by more vigorous ones for Mr Sullivan.