MR. HOLLAND SPEAKS OF NATIONAL PARTY AIMS

Chronicle (Levin), 5 July 1946, Page 7

MR. HOLLAND SPEAKS OF NATIONAL PARTY AIMS

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WELLINGTON, J uly 4. | A tribute to Alr. Fraser ror his ttblt • regresentution of New Zealand at ; L lutetl Natioiis conferenees and otlier ; inlernational oceasions, was paid by the I Leader of the Opposition, Mr. fcj. U. I lloiiand, when opening his eontrilmtion j to, the Address-in-lteplv debate, before ■ erowded galieries in the Uouse of Kepreseutatives toniglit. Ile said Alr. F'raser 's represeutation of New Zealaud liad given satisfactiou to all seetious of the community. Mr. llolland quoted extensivcly from j rccenl pronouncomeuls by Uovernment- ! spokesnuui in which he claiined they had resorted to villlication and misrepj iTsentation of the Opposition. This'lu-j | diealed that itlic Uoverniuent itad abandoiieil all liope oi' success at the next eleclion, oji tuo merits of its owu programiue. Were the Uovernment as pop- ' ular as it eluimqd, it would have little need of eiectioncering at all but taclii.'s recentty adopted by Uovernment ; loadors, of vilifying their oppouents, wero taelics of desperation. Alr. llolland said Mr. J. Thorn, the previous night, had elaimed that the Uovern- j ment's ability to repay sixty millions; • borrowed from Britain under a meiuoraiidutu of seeurity, was due almost en- j tirely to exchange control. Ile had i . ovcrlooked the fact that, without the: primary producers who wero the fouud- ! ation of New Zoaland's economy, it { w otild have been impossible to repay I £UuU9 let alone sixty millions. The National l'arly had devised aj policy ui mtiximum and nihiimum pricos ) to guarantee the primary producer that i lns pmvs would never i'ali below a cer- ' tain point. His party was also pledge^l to pr dueer eontrol of marketing of the j Dominiou's primary produce. Ile denied that his party would ctit wages. They liatl plans to meel tiie j possibility of a deelino in private em- , ployment by expanding publie coustruc- j tiou works in many direetions in order: to mahitahi Tui 1 employment. Ile be- j lieved in high wages and the forty-hour | week but not in the universal livc-dav ! week. Tliere w as no such thing. Whore would the men of the country l>e if ; housewives deinanded a iive-day week. | Mr. llolland said a ruinour had been I circulated that the National Partvj would deprive Maoris of family allow- j unees. That also was uiitrue. They rc- j garded the Maoris as equals but were i tletenuined' that if they gaiued office, they would c.ombat Ihe ravages of sickuess amoug the Maoris. Iufant mortal1 ity among the Maoris stood at 102 per thousand as against 39 per tiiousaud for pnkehns. Mr. Holland claimed his party had the niost commonsense hottsing policy , yet presented to the Dominion. Its fundamental hasis "was private ownership of homes but not one tenant of State houses would he disturhed. Every' penny a tenant paid off should he regarded as the equity of the tenant. In the past two years State tenants! had paid £2,000,000 but that had not • brought them a penuy nearer to owner- j ship. The Nutioiial I'arty's industrial poi j it- v was lo support every elhcient and j wortliwhile iudustry and the ]>arty pro- j posed, when it beeame Ihe Uovernment, j to set up a Board of Trade with i'nll j rt'prosentation which wouhl deterrnine ! the wortliwhile industries. That }>ro-; posal had found widesjiread aeccptance j bv nianufa'tiirers and importers. Mr. llolland again denieit over lutving j Jesc ri bed ihe Soeial Seeurity seheme as j "applied lunaey, " a statement reecnt-i ly attributed to hiin by the Minister of : 1 l*n 1 ernal Att'airs in Wanganui. Dealmg with ihe inereased ineotne of j the people in Ihe period' 10o»i/4:t, Mr. j Holland said the figure inereased by i £1 I0,ooo,( 00 but in Ihe same period thej value. of produetion inereased by £o(i,- i 000,0(10. The position was made worse j bv the Uovernment freezing Londou J fimils. The National I'arty's remedyj was to eqnate the supply of goods with | the purehasiug power of the people. In- . enmseil pr-nluetion meant the use of j tnore manpowor yet men were being |n>|(| in ihe forees aud denied to In- i dustrv. •

While Mr. Williams, in a speech lasl night, drew'a pieture of the inereased produetion of the eountry, iir. llolland said that ia the period HKJIi-N, the nuin ber of milkiiig eows had been redueed bv 1 o;1. 000, pigs by 2M5.000 and the uuniber of dairy suppliers by 14,000 , These reduetious hud taken place while ihe Laliour Party was in ollie.e. In the same period tliere had been a deeline of 50.000,000 Ib. in butterfal iiroduclion and s:',,00() aeres less of wheat had been grown. The one bright spot in our primary produetion was the inereasc in meat tonnage for export which rose from 25b, 000 in 10M5-5G to 551,000 in 1011-45. Mr. llolland said the country was losing its industrial balance by men being attracted from farnis by shorter 1 hours, the live-day week, higher wages and better housing. The National Party would endeavour to rostore the 1 balance, when it beeame the Uoverniuent, by inaking conditions in the ' country niore atlraetive. He would say it was madness to add lo the deniands for electricity, gas aud coal while the present noeds wero un . satisJied. To deal with the probloni of increasing coal supplies the National Party would set up an indepcndent tri bunal to iuvestigate every aspect of the questioa. There were two great essentials — to fight inflation. which could ouly he overcome by more production and more goods, and to reduce costs but not wages. It would he madness to reduce ; wages, he said, and he would never have anything to do with that. The National Party 's policy was to I reduce taxation and give incentive pay i for production. His party wanted to provide an incentive for the people to { work harder and if they wished, longer , hours. J "We are living in a fool's paradise j if we think we can have more by producing less," he said. Discussing the national debt, Mr.

Holland said the 'Uovernment had told only half the trutk. .The net increase in the publie debt in the past year was £21,27o,U00. Mr. Langstone: That is internal. i Mr. Holland said our debt domiciled , in Londou was redueed from £201,000, 000 to £109,000,000 betweeu H)55 and i 1945. There had been a lot of song and ! dance about a reduction of £2,000,000 | Last year £22,500,000 were repaid, leuv ! ing £177,000,000 domiciled in London But between 1935 aud 1945 the publie debt domiciled in New Zealand had in creased from £117,000,000 to £400,000,000. It appeared we borrowed anothei £43,000,000 last year. In all our debt domiciled in New Zealand had inereased | by £329,000,000 sinee 1935 while the total publie debt had inereased l'rom £320,000,000 to £024,000,000. Alr. llolland, discussing better living and working conditions for housewives. said he lioped tp- see the day when they would enjoy, with otlier workers, the benelits of paid holidavs. Mr. Holland, discttssing ' taxation, ! pledged his party to the immediate j i abolition of the saies tax if returned to offl.ee, and said hospital rating on the land would he brought back to the 1937 level and, if possible, abolished. JDiscussiiig the Uovernment 's hand!ing of the War Expenses Account, he said it was intolerable that a sum had been drawn from t'his account to which the people contributed by war savings, to pay for cigarettes iinported during the recent peacetlme sliortage. Minister in Eeply. "1 assure the leader of the Opposi liou that unquestiomibly there will be a reduction in taxation "aud 1 hope it will be a substautial oue," -said the Minister of Supply, llon. 1). G. Sulli van. Ile said Alr. llolland must have | ueen' pretty sure the Uovoriiment intended to reduce taxation, hence the leader of the Opposition fouud it prulent to advocate tax reduetious. All'. Sulli van said Alr. llolland 's own supporters must lmve been disappointeu that so niuch of his speech was given over to a .querulous moafx against his critics. It had been somewhat petty. ile wondered liow the National I'arty proposed to reduce taxation and stili liuance soeial seeurity. Was it timi) intenlion to increase the charges on people themselves > The Opposition hau > xhown a complete voite l'ace in coiu- j parison with tjieir previous attitude toi soeial seeurity. The height of antagon- 1 iSin and feeling- was shown by thej Opposition when the Labour; Uovern- j ijient brought in soeial seeurity and thej guaranleed price legislatiou,' . yet thej teader of the Opposition declared liisj party was going to have a anininuun j ,md maximum price for dairy production and was going to all'ow tho producers lo iix Ihe -price in tliose limits. ' Alr. yullivan referred to' the Yunioiired attitude of ihe National l'afty toward the Maori people and said recentlv Oolonel Honare had taken the leader f of the Opposition to tusk couceruing! i eported abuses by Alaoris of soeial f seeurity benelits. Hucli statements re-' dected on the integrity oi' the Maori ! people but had been explained by thej .eailer of ihe Opposition as " nrisunder- , standiugs. " He said Alr. llolland had' lalkeu airily about increasing the sup- j ply of goods but the leader of thej Oiqiosilion should know that the short-j age of goods today had nothiug wliat- • ever to do with internal questioas. Iti was entirely a quostion of os'erseust conditions — quotas available. for e.v port. He said that the sliortage of aiq\ commodlty in this country would not; last l'or a single day if it were possible j to get goods from overseas. Alr. Bullivau said the incentive wagci such as Alr. Hollaud ailvocated was.; alreadv operative in dozens of factories j tn the Dominion, initiated by officers ot - the Uoverniuent aud producing oxcei- 1 tent results. An extension of the sys- j teiii was being sought. The JIousc adjourned at 1U.30 p.m.' untii 19. 39 a.m. tomorrow.