FOR AND AGAINST

Chronicle (Levin), 11 July 1946, Page 6

FOR AND AGAINST

Press Assoeiation

♦ Mr. Fraser's Appeal to Miners

By Telegraph—

WELLINGTON, July 10. Ll the House of liepresentatives today, Mr. C. II. Chapinan (Wellington Nortli) contiuued the Address-in-Keply debate. He said it was in the interests of supporters of the National Party to Intye a large number uueniployed in order to have eompetition among workers and to keep wages depressed. Hilles, -s the Labour Government remained .in ofliee, the buoyant employnient positibn'would no longer exist. The country/would be 011 the highway to inflatiok if some existing price controls -were lifted. Frantie elforts were being made by tlie Opposition to becoine the Govern'meut in the name of freedom and uutranmielled capitalism. The Labour Government was proud of its achievements but the Opposition announcement of a ten year plan was simply plagiarism. Mr. D. O. Kidd (Waitaki) said that despite the assertions of Labour membees, production liad not increased during. the Government 's term of oliice. If the Government had paid farmers the price they were entitled to reeeive for tlieir produce, there would be no need to subsidise them. He suggested that wlien tlie next appeal was made to wheatgrowers, it sliould be addressed to Nortli Lsland growers who produced four per cent. as against the South lsland 's 0o per cent. of the total. NexV Zealand in 1010-11 grew 622,000 acres of wheat, in .191,1-16 629,000, in 1965-66 243,000, in 1966-67 221,700, in .1967-63 136,000, in 1963-69 131,000. The largest area grown under the Labour Government was 237, 00U acres in 1912-16. H011. D. G. Sullivan: You are falsi- ! fying tlie ligures. 1 ilr. W. 6. Broadfoot (Waitomo) rose to a jioint of order and Mr. SullivRii witlulrew the «word ' ' falsifying, ' ' and ! substituted " misrepresenting. " j AJ r, Kidd said he referred the Minis- ! ter 'to the ligures as published in the j appr'opriate Vcar Books. If New ZeaI land was to mahitahi lier primary pro- | duction, it would be neeessary to xeverse the drift from the country into 1 the cities and p&sh eheap electric power j into tlie country areas. i Claims For Guaranteecl Price«. | Mr. W. T. Anderton (Eden) said thc j operation of the guaranteed prices in j tlie past nine years had done more for 1 tlie farming community and for the I wliole of the Donii'nion in regard to standards of living, tliau any other legislatiou ever plueed on the Statute Book. Tlie Opposition 's alternative would not give dairy farmers the samc stabilitv tliey had enjoyed under thc guaranteed price which had given tlieni security of tenure and of the value of tlieir land. Liscussing hoiising, Mr. Anderton said tlie Opposition reulised that as tlie shortage was overcome thc lieople would pay private laudlords £2 lUs weekly for old dumps wlien they could. ' obtain a State houso for 30s or 62s (»d. The Opposition 's hearts blej | for private owners who had nioney in- | vestcd iu sub-standard houses. j Mr. E. P. Aderniau (New .PJyniouth); j said although the Governmen't deelared j it would build 12,000 State houses yearly, there were nmre than 6000 of those houses lodav stauding without a.roof. 11 is reply to Government MemberS' i claims that New Zealand 's cost of iivI iug could . not be bettered, was that a I list of 66 articles sold at a total of 14s | 1-1 Ll clieaper in Queenslaiul than in this j country. New Zealand whitebait which : sold at 6s 6d in New Zealand, sold at Is 6d in Queensland. Mr. Clyde Carr (Timaru) after traversing tlie history of wheat growing in New Zealand, said New Zealand 's perforniance duriiig tlie war was an indi cation of poteutialities for the future. Maiden Speech. Tlie maiden speecli of the Nationai Heiuber for Raglan, Mr. A. Hallybur ton .Johnstone, gave added interest to 1 tlie debate, ile spoke for 66 minutes and was warnily applauded by both sidcs of ihe House. Rei'erriiig to the liaglan by-election canipaign, he said he deplored the pre sence of orgauised 'gangs of holligans at tlie meetings in Huntly which he and tlie Beader of the Opposition attended. The incidents at that meeting occurred not .spoulaneously but certain mcn had beeu instructed to demonstrate. "Democracy went overboanl," said Mr. Johnstone. He did not think tliat the I president of tlvc Huntly Miners '• Union sii]iported such tactics because the ! Leader of the Opposition was invited 1 by liiin to meet and address the miners j on jiiining probiems. Manv tributes had | beeu [iaid to Mr. llolland by tlie min- | ers and otiiers, for the iuanner in which ' he stood uyi to tlie demonstratiou. "If that meeting was a negation of (lcniocracy, why lias the Labour Party not coudemned such tacties'l" he asked. "The.v have not done so to the best of lnv knowledge." Mr. Johnstone said he was alarmed at the spread of a spirit of intolerance j throughout the country. The nuntber of strikes last year" was 154 more than ever before. There was bittemess too in industry and politics. He called on the Government to set up a coniniission of inciuiry to investigate the facts concerning the coal shortage. There was an urgent need for more power if both primary and secondary industries were to expand and coal was the bootleneck in industry. How were we to get more coal? he asked. Would it be by the miners working harder? There was not much room for improvement in this direction. Could we get extra coal by using more machines or "by increasing the use of the present machinery? He thought dragline machines could he worked double or even treble shifts. Could the number or men in the mining industry be increased or conld there be found more places for men to work? Tliere was a differenoe of opinion 011 the niethods for .the control of the mines. The Miners' Union considered j tlie only wav was to nutionalise tlie! mines. There was tilso the question of j prolit sluiring to be considered. It would appear that oue way to iucrea^e production was to allow ihe miners to

work extra time. Possibly oue reason for the shortage of coal production was the inadequate reward for miners. All ihe overtime they Carned at thc face was taken in taxation. Mo'st if not all the increased output, came not from old mines but from open cast mines. More could be done to improvo the facilitie.s for miners. He referred to the Prinie Minister's visit to Huntly last Stmday and his (Mr. Fraser's) appeal to the miners to produce more because if they did not it would be the downfall of the Labour Party. ' 'It is right and proper that the Prime Minister should appeal for more coal," said Mr. Johnstone, "but what a pity that the appeal should be based on the political considerations of the .Liabour Party and not for the benefit of the country as a whole." Major C. F. Skinner (Motueka) said Mr. Johnston 's memory was short if he thought the Huntly meeting was the first at which orgauised opposition faced a speaker. Every Momber of the Government had faeed such tactics in tlie past particularly in the Waikato. The rates of taxation obtaining in the Dominion were known to all and it was palpably untrue to say all the miners' extra earnings from overtime went in taxation. Tlie only bottleneck in industry today was that of labour. Tliere was a shortage of hands to do the jobs tequiring attention. Thc number of voung people coming forward for indtistrv had declined and would probably not be on the increase again before 1952. Free Enterprise Championed. Mr. M. n. Oram (Manawatu) said New Zealand 's economy in the last ten vears had been based on the false preniise that we could isolate ourselves from world iufluences and conditions, wliereus 110 country was more dependent 011 external influences or on the development of Empire trade than was New Zealand. A policy based 011 liigh wages, short hours, easy work and class liatred, had brought the country to oue of the greatest erises in its history where a ehoiee must be made which would determiue the manner of living of ourselves and our children for mauy years to come. We must fiud the balance between liborty and order, neither ()f which could long exist without llie ollxor. The people wero begin

r ~ i 1 ning to reali.se that the socialist newj order more often than not resulted in chaos and were realising from tlieir own experience of regimentation that • a balanced measuro of liberty must be • maintained. Pree enterprise had duties as well as rights and had the obligation to improve the living standards of those dependent on it, but whatever exploitation had resulted from the free ehter- . ■ prise system in the past, was being replaced today by a more insidious 1 j exploitation — exploitation by militant ; l unscrupulous trade union bosses. | The Government had been saved from j tlie inevitable coiisequences of its I policy by the war. The National Party j believed in a full productive employnient based on free enterprise, the kev j to whichtwas an incentive to employers i and work ers, a true health scheme l'or j the people based 011 prevention rather ' I than cure, and in education upon which i the fate of the nation depended. The House rose at 10.60 p.111. until : 2.60 p.m. tomorrow.