MINISTER ON TOUR

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22512, 21 September 1938, Page 12

MINISTER ON TOUR

MR WEBB SPEAKS AT HOKITIKA REVIEW OF GOVERNMENT'S LEGISLATION tFrom Our Own Reporter.] HOKITIKA, September 20. The Minister for Mines (the Hon. JEV'C. Webb) arrived in Hokitika this afternoon to begin a tour in the Westland. Buller, Motueka, and Wairau electorates. At Hokitika this evening he addressed 250 electors in the Princess Theatre, where, at the same meeting Mr J. O'Brien, the member lor Westland. opened his campaign. Mr A. R. Elcock, the deputy-Mayor, presided, , _, The Minister reviewed the uovern-j ment's legislation for the provision o, social security. He claimed tnat Ne\v Zealand, in the last three years, had undergone a complete economic change How many, he asked, ever believed it was possible to bring about order out of such chaos as the labour Government had been confronted with when it came into power. How many workers thought that Labour could do away •with the 10s a week "slave" camps, build homes for the people as it had. and successfully establish and conduct the Reserve Bank. Yet all these things and many others, the Government had done. The Government believed that if the country was to have prosperity, its people must be enabled to work and produce national assets, at the same tune earning money to buy the things they needed. He quoted large sums spent in public works in Westland Westland. he said, was coming into its own, because the Government was part and parcel of the people of the West C< t. _Vii- Webb and Mr O'Brien were greeted with cheers and accorded a nearty vote of thanks and confidence MR NASH DISCUSSES CURRENCY "MONEY MUST BE BACKED BY GOODS" (P&SBS iSSOCIATIO* TKL.ISBAJ*.) WELLINGTON. September 20. Opening his election campaign in his own constituency in Lower Hutt last night, the Minister for Finance (the Hon. W. Nash), speaking on currency .and credit, said that money was no Tise whajysver Unless there were goods behind it. but money could stimulate the production of goods and that was being done in the Dominion to-day by the way in which the Government was using the money system. All the money needed was being provided by the Government through the Reserve Bank. , "You can "go on doing that as long as you have goods to back it up," continued the Minister. "Not one penny ■we have spent on housing in the Dominion came from anywhere else than the Reserve Bank. If workers in their turn go on producing goods to back money up, we can go on, but if they do not produce the then the whole thing will collapse." Mr Nash dealt at length with income tax and said that the important feature was not what amount of a man's in-1 come was taken for taxation, but how much of his income was left for him.! There was no harshness associated with income tax in general. SOCIAL SECURITY ACT BR. M'MILLAN SPEAKS AT HAMILTON CHIT" ASSOCU.TIOK TELXa*AIt.) HAMILTON, September 20. In an address to a big audience in the State Theatre last night. Dr. D. G. McMillan, M.P. for Dunedin Wect, explained the Social Security Act. He contended that it was not a question at New Zealand being able to afford it; but one of being able not to afford it. Dr. McMillan was given an attentive and enthusiastic hearing, a vote of thanks and appreciation being passed unanimously. MR MORGAN WILLIAMS AT WEST MELTON Mr C. Morgan Williams, MP., Labour candidate for Kaiapoi, addressed .a well-attended meeting at West.Melton on Monday evening. Mr R. A. Boag S resided. A vote of thanks to Mr-Wil-aitts and of confidence in him and in the party, was carried unanimously after the address. ■