National Policy Criticised

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 59, 4 November 1949, Page 5

National Policy Criticised

VISITING LABOUR M.P. SAYS MR HOLLAND’S PROMISES WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE OF FULFILMENT

Dealing with aspects J of Mi' W. Shllivan’s criticism of the Government, Mr Freer said he was surprised to hear that Mr Sullivan had

said the Minister of Works, Mr

Semple, had made. a failure of b everything he had touched. That followed strangely on the praise other National Party members, including the Leader of the Opposition had given Mr Semple for such things as the elimination of level crossings, and the importing of earthmoving machinery that had proved invaluable during World War 11. Sq. far as the losses on the railways were concerned, it was ad- * mitted that rises in freights and fares (or reductions-in wages) could *srhaps have turned a loss to a pro!t. He would leave Mr Sullivan to suggest which. So far as the National Airways were concerned that was a new venture and it was an accepted fact that often sound new ventures had to face preliminary losses to get on their feet. Mr Sullivan had also said he objected to State interference in business, but it was a fact, proved by Mr Freer’s experience, that groups of businessmen actually came to th a? Government asking it to intervene to protect their interests against un-, fair bompetition. ' Disinheritance Bogey Dealing with the “disinheritance bogey”, Mr Freer claimed that under the present Government’s administration greater inheritances had been left than ever before, because people now had much more to leave to their descendants. The “If Policy” He described the National Party’s policy as the “if” policy (or the • “iffy” policy). He claimed there was nothing definite promised and the whole thing, apart from the “ifs”, resembled nothing if not Labour policies of the past. Alleging that the Forbes and Coates administrations had dishonoured a pledge not to reduce old-age pensions, Mr Freer claimed to trace a relationship between those parties and the present National Party and gested that the Opposition’s pledge not to interfere with Social Security benefits might be similarly dishonoured.

Free Enterprise Taxation Mr Freer claimed that taxation here was not nearly so heavy as in the, United States and quoted statistics to back his contention. Though Mr Goosman (National) Piako, had described the recent £lO taxation rebate as “chicken feed” it was a fact that rebate had taken 125,000 people out of the income tax paying class. That, he said, might look

like “chicken feed” to the Nationalises, but it did confer a real benejyln on a lot of people. *nPut And Take’’ He saw little possibility of the Opposition’s being able to carry out its promises to reduce taxation while still maintaining social servfces. One could not put 30 gallons of beer into a barrel and draw out 45. No Government could spend more than it collected. Similar comments were applied to the housing loan and land sales amendment proposals.

•‘Own Your Own” Mr Holland had said his Party’s policy was “own your own” so far as housing was concerned. But Mr Freer claimed more people owned homes now.then had ever done so before. In the 10 years from 1926 to 1936 only 5,821 private houses were built. In the first nine years of the Labour administration 38,000 were built. He did not attempt to- deny that present Jiving costs were high, but claimed that today people had the money to buy what they wanted. If goods were cheap and the wouldbe buyer had the “bottom out of Vais pocket and the seat out of his pants” cheap goods he couldn’t afford to buy were the dearest goods in the world. During a time when Australia and the United / States could build only six houses per 1,000 people and the United Kingdom only four, New Zealand had built nine. Tax Exemptions Tax exemptions on overtime promised by the Opposition! applied only to the building and allied trades, Mr Freer claimed, and the idea was avowedly to induce those workers to work more than 40 hours. Actually, most of such workers were doing 44 hours today.

Claiming that the Labour Government had. brought New Zealand out of the slumpv by its own efforts and chiefly its inflation of currency, Mr W. W. Freer, M.P. for Mt Albert; told an audience of about 60 at the King Street Hall on Wednesday night that it tvas not true that the Government had taken office on the “rising tide” in 1935. He asserted that the National Party’s promises to reduce taxation without reducing social services were impossible to fulfill, and that the retention of import and currency control were necessary/

Dealing briefly with capital punishment, Mr Freer, refuting Opposition figures concerning the incidence of murder, said it was actually 11 per year before 1936 and only 9.4 since.

The “Welfare State” Mr R. M. Algie and other members of the Opposition had referred critically to the country as „“The Welfare State” as thought that were something to deride. What on earth was a Government elected for if not to promote the welfare of the people? This business of “going back to the pioneer spirit”, was jusLa catchcry. The only’ pioneers were not those who went out into a patch of bush with an axe and felled trees to make a farm. There were other types of pioneering and the pioneer spirit was as strong in this country today as ever. The “welfare state” was also a commonsense state based on the Christian principle of helping those of our people who needed it. Currency Control The Opposition’s proposal to do away with political control of the Reserve Bank and the Bank of New Zealand was strongly criticised. It would mean, Mr Freer claimed, taking the control of currency out of the hands of the people and handing it over to a few individuals. To do away with import control would mean an insuperable increase in the national debt. Just as no individual could afford to live beyond his income, neither could a nation live beyond its means. Nor was it fair to build a burden of debt for posterity.

He quoted the case of the Board Mills’ having to restrict output following recent large imports of cardboard which had been sought by manufacturers.

It was not right to say New Zealand goods were not any good. They could prove' their worth on any open market and were every bit as good as the ■ same machinery could make anywhere. International Affairs New Zealand had played a worthy part in international affairs, Mr Freer said. He saw in the world picture two opposing ideals—Communism, represented by Russia, and capitalism, represented most truly by the United States. In between, most, of the nations of our Commonwealth were trying to mould capitalism into a welfare state. No one should fool himself that we had socialism or anything like it in New Zealand, but he did hope to see an ultimate Christian and democratic socialism achieved. We should attempt to understand Russia better and to learn from her experiments, though to attempt to apply Russian politics here would be ridiculous folly. He personally regretted that Mr Boswell’s mission to Russia had been such a “dismal failure.”

What is Freedom? Mr Freer put it to his audience that freedom was not so important as security. It might be said, for instance, that a destitute man would be free to buy what he wanted if goods were available in unlimited supply. But would not most prefer the security of knowing they had the means to buy a fair share* of the goods that were available? Right now he claimed we had only one-tenth of the per cent of unemployment, compared with 6 per cent in America, 11 in Ireland and no better figure than obrs anywhere. He claimed that, while there were no unemployed here in 1938 there were 10,000,000 in America. In 1939, New Zealand was the only one of the 53 United Nations to place an army in the field with no unemployed men in it. Some Americans, on the other hand, had never had a paid job until they got into he forces.

There was no “rising tide” in 1935. New Zealand was brought out of the slump to the greatest measure of- prosperity she had ever known by a Government which had applied commonsense to the handling of the affairs of a nation and deliberately erhbarked upon an infiationarv policy which had placed money in the hands of the people to buy gobds that were available. Vote of Confidence At the conclusion of/Mr Freer’s address: the meeting passed a vote of thanks to the speaker and a vote of confidence in the Government and Mr Fraser as its leader.