LABOUR ADMINISTRATION DEFENDED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 64, 16 November 1949, Page 5

LABOUR ADMINISTRATION DEFENDED

The meeting concluded with a "vote of thanks to the speaker. Mr Santon opened by referring to his previous remarks that he took up the cudgels on behalf of Labour because he remembered the “good old days” of Tooley Street speculators when markets regularly rose and fell and the farmer never knew his true position from one month to the next. He recalled the “pitiful state’\of the primary producers when Labour took over ,in 1935. One of the first things the new Government did was to inquire into the financial position of the industry and wipe off some £B-| millions of the farmers’ debts. Then they gave a guaranteed price based on the cost of production.

I 'Praise For Present Marketing System , Twenty years ago, Mr Santon went on, two of the most prominent people in dairying circles were Mr W. Grounds and Mr G. W. Goodfellow. Addressing the Legislative Council recently, before the Cooperative Dairy Companies’ Bill was passed, the former had said ?ihat when the present Government 'came into power it established what the industry could not do because of dissension —the marketing system. The Labour Government had achieved what no one else could/' have achieved. The Government deserved the greatest credit for bringing in guaranteed prices for the producer. In contrast to that, we had Mr F. W. Doidge stating that the guaranteed price policy of the Government was a piece of “bold Socialistic bpshranging”, that every farmer knew it and would deal with the Government accordingly. Mr W. A. Bodkin, National member of Central Otago, had said that no man in public life or with any sense of responsibility ’ would rest until “this iniquitous measure” was removed from the Statute Book.

Mr Santon went on to point out that Mr Holland had not given any promise to the farmers that his party, if elected, would continue to give guaranteed prices. /

"Latterly, the Government had set up the Dairy 'Marketing Commission, of seven members, four of whom Were farmers. Through this organ isation farmers market their produce and fix their own guaranteed price. “Not long ago,” he added, “we laughed the wharfies to scorn when they asked for something .similar.” Industrial Relations In the ; year 1948, Mr Santon told his audience in dealing with the industrial situation, the number of ''"Relays’ work lost per worker in New 'Zealand through strikes was 3.7. In the United Kingdom the figure was 4.6 and in Australia 5.3. AIL, three countries had Labour Governments. In the United States, however, the figure was ,17.4, in Canada 20.7. Much was heard of the time lost through industrial disturbance and yet in 1947 there were 1,052,000 man days lost through industrial accidents in this country, compared with 78,000 “ days lost through strikes.' In the four years 1943 to 1946 inclusive, the loss of working Lime by accident was 23 times great--er than -that lost through strikes. In J 902 we lost 20,000,000 man days through unemployment he added. Taxation Though admittedly farmers are heavy payers of income tax, there was another side to the story, Mr Santon pointed out, and went on to give the example of a man he knew who claimed he paid £3 per cow in income tax, a total of £IBO. This man had five children, and, in the course of a year he received L 1 back in family benefit £l3O. In addito that, his wife' had had an .average of one confinement every •year they had been married, and if it had not been for Social Security ■that would have cost a minimum of 4 £3O a year. Moreover, he had free dental treatment for the children, free doctor, free medicine and free hospitals for himself, his wife and the family. To cap it all, he still had\ £IBOO of income left after he paid the tax: Mr Santon had suggested to him if he worked out the benefits against the tax, he would find he was making money out of the deal. That man had had one of his children in the Waikato Hospital for months with poliomyelitis

WAIMANA • MEETING HEARS FARMER CANDIDATE EXTOLLING PRESENT PRIMARY PRODUCTION POLICY

Himself a farmer who claims that the primary producers are better off than they have ever been under the present Government, Mr Godfrey Santon, Labour candidate for the Bay of Plenty seat, devoted a good deal of his time at Waimana on Monday night to discussing Labour’s achievements and intentions in connection with New Zealand’s largest industry. There was an excellent and representative attendance which gave the candidate courteous attention throughout.

and, even today, 18 months to two years later, the child was still going back for free specialist treatment.

“I have no hesitation in saying that, but for the Social Security scheme, the amount he would have had to pay out would have made £IBO look like chicken feed,” the candidate declared. A worker on £8 a week with a wife and two children, after paying all taxation in the year /1946 had £342 left. Today he would have £422 left. In effect, the Social Security scheme had paid his taxation, and given him a bonus. That, Mr Santon said, was in line with the policy of the Labour Government, giving a better distribution of the national income. Last year £55,000,000 of taxation was re-distributed that way —by taking from those who had an over-abundance and giving to those whose need was greater.

Credit And Currency Members of the National Party seemed concerned with conditions overseas, Mr Santon said, and they seemed afraid that, if they were to sieze the Treasury Benches conditions that threatened overseas might spread to this country. They knew that if that were to happen the name of the National Party would be dammed forever. They knew they had no remedy for a slump. In the United States today there •were 4,000,000 unemployed, or 6| per cent of their worker population. If we were to have 6J per cent unemployed here we would have 46,000 unemployed. In Ireland today the percentage of unemployed was 11, in Belgium 11 and in Germany 9. To save their faces, the Nationalists were going to the electors with this proposition: If they become the Government they will remove the control of our credit and currency from the Minister* of Finance and place it in the hands of an outside Board. A Board which would be beyond the reach of electors. A Board which in effect would be the government, because what Government can govern, fbr the well-being an happiness of the people if someone else holds the purse strings? “In my opinion, if the National Party were to do nothing else it could do nothing more dastardly than that,” Mr Santon declared. Although the Nationalists were keen to divorce themselves from other previous Tory Governments they aimed to set up the very machinery that brought disaster to this country. We had not had such a threat to our welfare since the days of Sir Otto Niemeyer. , He recalled that that famous financier, Baron Pothschild, had said he did not care what Government was in power so long as he controlled the credit and currency of a country. That was, of course, in direct opposition to the policy of the Labour Party, which had always sought to make money the servant of the people and not its master. In 1919 the Massey Government decided to build homes for returned veterans, and by the end of 1921 had built less than 400 houses, and reported it was regrettable the project had to be abandoned because of a lack of money., Electric Power The Government was repeatedly criticised in th? matter of electric power supply, Mr Santon said.. It might not be known that since 1935 the power output of the country had been increased by 193 per cent. The Government had erected 12,000 miles of power lines in spite of the war. It might not be generally known that the first two generators ordered for K-rrapiro were lost by enemy action. The National Expenditure Commission in 1932 reported that we had sufficient ( power for many years, and our progress was too -rapid. Moreover, in 1936, the Association of Electric Power Boards also protested against the further development of hydro-electric power, claiming that there would be a surplus of supply for many years. Mainly For Women Turning his attention particularly to the women, of whom there were a good pronortion present, Mr Santon said, “You are the ones that the

Tories have tried to woo and then, like the villain, have tried to frighten. They have called you packhorses. They have tried to scare you on the question of capital punishment. They haven’t told you that in the 12 years preceding the abolition of capital punishment there had been 132 murders in this country and that in the 12 years since there have been only 113. I think that one murder is far too many, but these figures prove there has been no increase due to the abolition of the death penalty. The New Zealand National Council of Women, at its 1949 conference, passed a resolution supporting the Labour Government’s action in abolishing capital punishment. Capital punishment has been abolished in 30 countries other than this one and there has been no increase in the murder rate of any of those countries.” Mr Doidge and Mr Holland had sai/f women would look charming if it were not for the fact that they had no clothes to wear and were reduced almost to fig leaves. Those gentlemen had waxed enthusiastic over things they could buy for their wives in Sydney, Mr Santon said he was amused because just before that he had had letters from relatives in business in Sydney asking if he could possibly buy them a pair of tennis shoes, unprocurable there. He himself had to queue for a beer or a cup of tea in that paradise of plenty.

Relatives on tour had left intending to equip themselves in Sydney, but had written back full of laments over the shortages and high prices there. He quoted a letter from a Panmure woman, recently published, claiming that she and her husband, after earning £ls a week in Sydney for a year, had found they had nothing left after their living costs had come out of it. So, he said, New Zealand was not the worst country in the world after all. Others had their shortages and high prices, too. Even Mr Sullivan, addressing the House of Commons had said we led the world in most things, and so we did.

Those Living Costs “Nationalists say they will reduce costs,” Mr Santon went on. “There are three main items involved in the cost of any article—the first is the price of the raw material (which in most cases comes from overseas and is beyond the control of anyone in this country), the second is wages involved in manufacture, and the third is profits. Mr Holland and the National Party have been very quick to fly to the defence of anyone on whom they think the Price Tribunal has ben unduly harsh. Mr Holland has said that profits are the essence of trade. He has also said he will not cut wages.

“So I leave it to you to decide which of these items the Na-

tional Party will cut if it is to

reduce costs. It must be one of them.”