LABOUR POLICY DEFENDED BY CANDIDATE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 57, 31 October 1949, Page 5

LABOUR POLICY DEFENDED BY CANDIDATE

“I am here because I realise that during the 14 years it has been in power the Labour Government has legislated wisely and well and has accomplished more for its people than any Government in the world” said the Labour Party candidate for Bay of Plenty, Mr Godfrey Santon, who addressed a public meeting in the Ngongotaha Hall on Thursday night. The audience of just over 50 people was most attentive and there were no interjections. At the conclusion a vote of thanks to the speaker and of confidence was carried unanimously. The chairman was Mr J. Henderson.

Mr Santon said that many people had expressed surprise to finding a farmer taking up the cudgels on behalf of the Labour Party. “I do so because I remember the good old days of Tooley Street legislation;' the days when the markets rose and fell from day to day. In that period the farmer never knew his position from one day to the next,” he said. He recalled the pitiable state of the farming industry when the Labour Party became the Government. One of its first tasks was to look into the farming position. Some £B2million of farming debts were written off and the farmers were given a guaranteed price. Through the Dairy Industry Commission, comprising seven members of whom four were farmers, the farmers marketed their own produce and fixed their own guaranteed price. Basic Policy Differences

“The basic differences ih the policies of the two parties and that the Labour Party believes in a fair standard of living for all classes while the National Party believes in a good standard of living for the favoured few,” said Mr Santon. It had been stated by National Party representatives that the only hope of salvation for industry lay in the establishment of surplus labour pools. “If efficiency in industry depends on empty bellies then God help the country,” he said adding that the prosperity of a country depended on the purchasing power of the people. , It had been said that the Government was trying to take control of private enterprise but in actual fact private enterprise had never flourished as much as under the Labour Government.

Controls Needed Referring to controls the speaker said that these were imposed during the war. The last control to be lifted was that on meat and this rose by 3d a pound in the case of mutton and Id a pound for beef. When the restrictions were lifted the butchers forced up the price of livestock. A buyer resistance to increased meat prices had been built up and the stage had been reached where many butchers were wondering whether it would not be better for them if the controls were. still on.

Controls had been removed from tawa timber to allow it to be used for sub-standard building such as garages etc. Private enterprise then forced up the price until it was now within 1/6 per 100 feet of heart Rimu.

The National Party intended to abolish import controls, but his talks with many importers had convinced him that they were in favour of its retention. An instance of what would happen when import controls were lifted was given locally quite recently, said the speaker. The Minister of Customs alowed a small import of cardboard. The Whakatane Board Mill, which had been working long hours immediately had to reduce its hours of work.

If import controls were abolished factories would have to reduce their staffs, the Social Security scheme would be burst wide open and there would be swaggers on the streets again, he said. The view that if the National Party became the Government it would operate on an entirely different policy from that which it proposed had been stated in 1939, said the speaker, and the position was the same today. He said the National Party did not understand money and was continually thinking of saving. It could not see that by saving it was cutting down? someone’s living standards.

Commenting on the power situation Mr Santon said that since 1935 the power output had been increased by 193 per cent and over 12,000 miles of power lines had been erected. All this had been done even though the war had intervened and two generators for Karapiro we,i;je. lost as thfe Result' of enemy.V,action. Cost Which - ha'd -been “premised by tbtgs^N“htional Party, could come from three sources, he said. Firstly there were raw - materials Which were bought overseas,

and beyond this country’s control! The second source was wages and the third reduced profits. The National Party frequently criticised the Government’s policy of controlling profits, so that it was easy to see where the reduced costs would come from.

Returning to the farming industry Mr Santon said that the_ future of farming looked' very rosy in view of the long-term contracts which had been arranged. The farmer was in a very happy position and the Government planned to develop one million acres of back country which would add further to the prosperity of the country. Other plans include the building, of roads to sereve the back’ country farmer and the extension of the rehabilitation scheme, when the returned servicemen were settled, to cover young, farmers who weremomingn omit was planned to build State houses in rural _ v J.

During the next three years the Government planned to build 50,000 State houses, said the speaker. This would break the back of the country’s housing problem.