CAMPAIGN NOTES

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22513, 22 September 1938, Page 12

CAMPAIGN NOTES

Standard of Living “We are getting fast into a style, privately and publicly, of a standard of living that the country cannot carry, declared Mr T. D. Burnett, M.P. (Temuka), at Milford last night. Mr Burnett prefaced this statement by remarking that he would probably lose votes for expressing his conviction, but he did not care. “No Dirty Politics” “Mr Semple has said tiiat it is going to be a dirty election,” the Rt. Hon. G W Forbes said when opening his address at Waikari last evening. ‘I make it a policy never to contradict a Minister; but on this occasion I must say that we have no intention of departing from tradition in Hurunui. In the past we have had no personalities in this electorate during our campaigns. We on our side will make no change. What Mr Semple says about a ‘dirty election.’ must apply to some other part of New Zealand, Certainly it does not apply to Hurunui.’, Mr Forbes emphasised that he appreciated that he had always had a good vote in Waikari. • Political Chain Letters Chain letters said to be circulated to influence political opinion were mentioned at the meeting held by the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes at Waikari last evening, when a questioner asked if the National Party had any association with them. Asked for details, the questioner said he had seen one in Christchurch advising people to vote against the Labour Party and also making charges against a certain church. “The National Party is in no way associated with these chain letters. We condemn them entirely,” Mr Forbes said. “They are being issued to damage not the Labour Party, but the National Party: that is the idea underlying the scheme. The National Party dissociates itself from them entirely.” The questioner was asked for details about the letters, and finally he mentioned the Orange Lodge. Mr Forbes: That is nothing to do with us

The questioner: They say it is. Mr Forbes: You can accuse me of anything you like, but you can’t say I belong to the Orange Lodge. Mr Forbes said the National Party wanted no religious differences in politics. All religions were welcome to the party.

Duration of Electioneering

A .complaint against the short period allowed for the election campaign was expressed at Milford last night by Mr T. D. Burnett, M.P. "We did not anticipate such a short, swift campaign,” he said. “I actually thought that the session would run to the end of September and that we would have a five weeks’ campaign, with the election being held at the usual time in November. It is impossible to get round and speak with any studied ease or give the address you would wish to the people. We are racing round all over the Dominion. Some of the candidates are giving four speeches a day.” “Not Seddon’s Mantle” “Labour members say the mantle of Seddon has fallen on them; but when considering this scheme and their financial plans, one can only conclude that the mantle of Sunnyside has fallen on them,” said the Rt. Hon. G. W, Forbes, opening his campaign at Waikari last evening. Mr Forbes was strongly criticising the Labour Gbvemment's social security plan, on tbe grounds that it was beyond the. present capacity of the country to meet the financial commitments involved. “I knew Richard John Seddon, and I know that there was nothing he was more careful about than the country’s finances and the ability of the country to pay for any social reforms,” Mr Forbes said. Canterbury’s Mixed Farms “Costs are piling up, and in spite of the mortgage courts one-third of the mixed farms in Canterbury and Otago would require by rights to be interest free and rent free if the occupants are to have a decent standard of living and some hope at the end of it,” said Mr T. D. Burnett, M.P., at Milford last night.

A Noisy Meeting 1 Facing an almost constant barrage of interjections, and silenced several times by brief periods of uproar, the National Party’s candidate for Eden, Mr D. Pool, made his first campaign speech under lively conditions at Mount Eden last night. Persistent interruptions were maintained by a section of the audience at the back of the hall. Almost every claim of the candidate was questioned by interjectors. The arrival of a police constable was the signal for an outburst of laughter, cheers, and applause. Several groups of interjecrors were approached by a constable. A vote of thanks to the speaker was carried by acclamation; but an attempt to introduce a motion of confidence in the National Party resulted in a motion of no-confidence also being presented. The meeting concluded with cheers for Mr Hamilton and for'Mr Savage, and neither motion was put to the vote. —Press Association. Value dt Education “The Labour Party believes that the greatness of a nation depends on the standard of education of its people, and that no matter what happens, education should not be neglected,” said the Hon. H. T.'Armstrong at the Beckenham School last night. It was badly neglected before 1935. The National Government had locked out the five-year-old children, and at the same time had withdrawn subsidies from kindergartens. The country owed a great debt to the men and women who had kept the kindergartens going during that dark period in the history of education in New Zealand.” ‘ (Applause.) , ,■ The Labour Government had reopened the schools to five-year-olds, had reopened the teachers’ training colleges, restored assistance to the Workers’ Educational Association, restored the apprenticeship system, and restored the school dental clinics, which had almost been destroyed by the previous Administration, said Mr Armstrong. The present Government had allocated in one year the sum of £4,633,000 for education, a record vote under, that heading, and £1,396,000 more than in the previous year, added Mr Armstrong, Statesmanship Needed Great statesmanship would be needed to deal with the problem of New Zealand’s trade with Great Britain, said Mr T. D. Burnett, M.P. (National candidate for Temuka), at Milford last night.

An inexplicable problem existed in any attempt to build up the secondary industries of Jthe Dominion. The British farmer was becoming angry with the flood of imports, and when a tariff wall was built the English footwear workers protested. New Zealand was seeking a one-way traffic. The Home market was the only market for the "Dominion’s primary produce and the only hope was in keeping step with its requirements. An Independent’s View The statement that he was afraid to trust Labour with the government of the country any longer, for the reason that the Prime Minister had said the party had only started on the journey, and its policy was going to be carried out to the letter, was made by Mr R. A. Wright, M.P., . Independent candidate for the Wellington West electorate, addressing an audience at Wellington this week, Mr Wright said he did not know what the end would be. Labour would socialise everything. The Labour Party varied,' he said. In it there were some very extreme men. “There is the mild Socialist, and so on until you get the real Mac Kay. They are all good men.individually. It is collectively that they an Jwj added.