RIVAL PARTIES’ IDEAS EXPOUNDED. . .

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 58, 2 November 1949, Page 5

RIVAL PARTIES’ IDEAS EXPOUNDED . . .

ELECTION TUMULT WAXES STRONG AROUND WHAKATANE: TWO MEETINGS LAST NIGHT: MORE THIS WEEK

With an address by the sitting member of Parliament for the Bay of Plenty, Mr W. Sullivan, at the King Street Hall, Whakatane, and another by the Minister of Agriculture, Hon E. L. CulBen, at Edgecumbe last night, the tumult of the election waxes stronger in this locality. Tonight electors will be addressed at the King Street Hall by Mr Warren Freer, Labour M.P. for Mount Albert and the youngest member of the House of Representatives.

Other political meetings scheduled for this week are: Mr Godfrey Santon, Labour candidate, Thornton Hall tomorrow; Mr Sullivan, Board Mills lunch time Friday, Matata that night and Ruatoki North Saturday afternoon.

PARTY POLICY DISCUSSED BY MR SULLIVAN

Many of the more important angles of the National Party’s policy were dealt with in forceful and lucid style by Mr W. Sullivan M-P- and Nationalist candidate for the Bay of Plenty seat in an address to electors at the King Street Hall, Whakatane, last night. f He paid particular attention ~ to housing, land settlement, the Land Sales Act and the hospital system. Mr Sullivan concluded a long address which had held the undivided attention- of a packed house by declaring that the National Party intended, if it became the Government, to re-establish private enterprise wherever it could. “We want everyone to earn more, own more, consume more,” he declared. Without a dissentient voice, the meeting passed a vote of confidence in Mr Sullivan and in the National Party’s policy. Dealing with housing, Mr Sullivan said: “The number of applications for State houses is 49,000, and marriages in New Zealand average 13,000 a year. If we build 16,000 homes a year (and two-thirds of newly-weds need a new home), we reduce the back lag by only 8,000 a year. In addition to this, is the

Improvements To Land Sales Act

promised slum clearance. |,, To overcome the real shortage of V homes, much will have to be done. Material supplies will have to be assisted. Timber millers will have to be assisted with log and bush supply, and by continuing the subsidy on overtime. Building materals which we are not producing in i sufficient quantities must be obtained from overseas.

Longer Hours “The building and all allied trades will be encouraged to work extra hours, and to this end the National Party proposes to provide a ' subsidy sufficient to take care of the overtime rates. More hours worked will give us more homes. Building sites will be available by the purchase and subdivision of housing sites. These, together with a proportion of State housing sites . (now 21,000) will be available for private ownership. “Building controls will be reviewed giving more responsibility to Local Bodies. An amendment will h$ made to the Fair Rents Act. Own"Wrs of large homes will be encouraged to subdivide for tenancy. In i;he larger centres this, it is hoped, will provide a number of new units. ■: % “We are determined immediately to assist those who are living in bad conditions by the prevision of temporary or transit homes in centres where the need exists. .

Primary Industries 9 Expansion Vital

Home Ownership For All Is Aim

The National Party policy is for home ownership, Mr Sullivan declared. The New Zealand citizen should own a home of his own. Because of high costs the ordinary man is finding this more difficult every day. To encourage home ownership and to assist those on the lower income scale to become home owners,” he said. “We will provide a ‘free of interest’ suspensary loan which will be available, once only, to all who build or purchase a new home for personal occupation during the next three The loan will be made on approved plans and specifications and will be equivalent to 10 per cent of the approved cost of the home with a limnt of £2,000, inclusive of the suspensary loan allowance. IT the owner lives in the residence for seven years continuously the loan will be liquidated. Speculation will not be permitted. To encourage homes on farms to accommodate families, or to help in new farm settlement the loan will be available. 125 Per Cent Cost Rise Assistance of this nature is deemed necessary, because building costs have advanced at least 125 per cent

Hospital System To Be Overhauled

since 1938. At that time a tradesman received about £6 per week, requiring 200 weeks’ work to pay for a house costing £1,200. To provide the same house today would cost £2,400 and would need 300 weeks’ work at the increased wage of £8 per week. The proposal is to' assist the average citizen to become the owner of his own home, giving him a stake in the country. Housing will be declared a National Emergency for the next few years, and a determined effort will be made to satisfy the country’s needs. Commercial building permits will be reviewed, and in districts where the housing demand is nearly satisfied, permits will be available in order to provide work and employment. State houses will be offered for sale to tenants now in occupation. Houses will be sold at valuation and purchasers will be assisted with finance. No State tenant will be interfered with, and no present day contract will be broken.

undertake a complete re-organisa-tion of the hospital system, based on regional control and decentralisation, with the idea of providing a more efficient service coupled with more local control and responsibility, in co-operation with the B.M.A. Hospital taxation, he said, would be reviewed, with the ideal of eventual abolition, and hospital rates would be adjusted so as not to exceed 1936-39 levels.

TACTICS OF THE NATIONAL PARTY ALLEGED UNFAIR

As long as he was campaigning round the country he would demand a clear answer to the statement made by the Leader of the Opposition concerning the position of import licenses, that it was not what you know but who you know that got a license, sajd the Minister of Agrictulture, Mr E. L. Cullen, in an address at Edgecumbe last night. “I will demand an answer of a statement that is not worthy of Mr Holland,” he added. Throughout his address Mr Cullen was given an attentive hearing and at the conclusion a vote of thanks was passed. There were no dissentients or interjections. The attendance numbered just over 50. “Not Clean”

The National Party if elected the Government will amend the Land Sales Act, Mr Sullivan said. Building sections, business goodwill, and commercial buildings will be exempt. . In fact, all property which does not exceed £750 in value, and residences in excess of £3,000 in value, will not be subjected to any price control. House property exceeding £750 and under £3,000 in value will be passed for sale at present day values, less depreciation, etc. The Act will likewise be adjusted giving justice to rural property owners, where the price will be assessed at present day values. Servicemen will be buying on a 1942 basis, and the difference in price will be made up by the community. Where the Crown purchases property servicemen will have priority. In all cases the owner will receive present day value and the servicemen will be settled at the 1942 value.

Mr Cullen said that such statements by members of the National Party were not clean and were, in fact, unfair tactics. He considered that if Mr Holland knew of such a position he should have notified the Prime Minister on the floor of the House and not outside. “These are unsavoury tactics.” Criticising what he called “lack of vision” among members of the National Party Mr Cullen said that when the Primary Producers’ Marketing Bill was introduced the Opposition had said that it spelt ruin for the dairy farmer and it would not be long before nobody owned a farm in New Zealand. That was the vision revealed by a responsible member of Parliament.

“I "wonder how many farmers own their farms today,” the Minister added. The Government had been accused of taking away the people’s freedom. What fredom? Mr Cullen wanted to know. The business man, the worker and the farmer had just as much freedom today as they had ever had and yet Mr Holland was now shouting from the housetops to give the people back their freedom. In 1932 ap Act was passed by the Coalition Government barring any person employed by the Government from criticising the Government or from standing for Parliament. The Labour Government changed this. A Rose By Any Name . . . ? The Government’s socialist policy had often come under fire and he himself had often wondered what the national criticism of “ultimate socialism” meant, Mr Cullen remarked. He had read deeply into New Zealand political history and had found that in 1922 the then Reform Government, the same as the National JParty, had received a report from a committee it had set up itself to make various recommendations. That committee had recommended that the Government nationalise all coal mines with private mines being taken compulsorily; that a complete stop be put to all land speculation and that no one farmer own more than one economic unit for his own use; that the ferry service between the North and South Islands be owned by the State and run in conjunction with the railways; that all overseas shipping to New Zealand be taken over and if any company refused to come to a satisfactory arrangement a separate company be formed by the Government to export New Zealand’s produce.

“The expansion of our primary industries is vital to our country,” Mr .Sullivan declared. “Our policy will establish more settlers, increase production, obtaining more exports, and thereby increasing imports. Sound economic advancement can best be obtained by assisting our basic industry, making it attractive to personnel, and of real value to all of us. “Crown land, classified as suitable for settlement, will be .made availavle to servicemen, farmers’ sons, share milkers and other classified as farmers. “The policy of State farming , will cease, and land now held, whether it be undeveloped or improved, will be available for those who want it. “Housing in rural areas will be assisted Opportunities Here “No district lends itself to greater advancement in farm settlement than Rotorua and the Bay of Plenty. “There are more than 300,000 acres of Crown and Maori land not yet occupied, and a forward policy of land settlement will play a great part in future development. Hundreds of men search in vain for a farm of their own, whilst today, farm lands are locked away from them.” Fertiliser Subsidy Mr Sullivan promised the reinstatement of the subsidy on fertiliser, the removal of which by the present Government he described as “ a serious blunder.” He said his party aimed to provide subsidies on sea, road and rail transport, chapeaning fertiliser at the farm gate.

All Disowned All this had been accepted by a party that now criticised the Government’s small socialist policy but the Nationalists disowned this -when reminded of it, the Minister added. However, this would make no difference to the Government’s policy when it was returned to office in November, Mr Cullen declared. He appealed for support of the Labour candidate for the Bay of Plenty and expressed the opinion that the present National member would probably not mind a spell from Parliament.

"While promising that the National. Party, if it became' the Government, would maintain all forms of social services, Mr Sullivan promised that abuses and extravagances, were they proven to exist, would be eliminated. The Party would