‘KEY TO THE PROBLEM’

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 101, 23 January 1935, Page 10

‘KEY TO THE PROBLEM’

•Claims For Douglas Credit Scheme CONFERENCE SPEECHES By Telegraph.—Prets Association. Tauranga, January 22. The formal opening of the Douglas Social Credit Convention at Mount Maunganui took place this morning. Mr. A. F. Tanks, Mayor of Tauranga, and Mr. F. Bennett, chairman of Mt. Maunganui Town Board, welcomed the delegates and expressed pleasure that the district had been selected for the conference. Mr. 11. Atmore, M I’., thanked the speakers for their welcome, and declared amid applause that opponents movements dare not come out in the open, and present-day financiers could not get a verdict without a special jury. The movement was the greatest of all time, as it supplied a remedy for the greatest evil and was engineered by the greatest man in the world to-day. which was no extravagant praise of Major Douglas. Mr. Atmore then dealt with the question along the lines of speeches frequently delivered. Captain 11. M. Rushworth, M.P., in a lengthy speech, said there had been two outstanding events during the past year—first, the setting up of the Monetary Committee, of which he had been a member —a very valuable-but extremely boring experience; second, the passing of the Reserve Bank Act and the setting up of the Reserve which should be called the Bank of England, and more truthfully not a bank at all, but. a mortgagee in possession. He then dealt at length with experiences gained in Australia and the growth of the movement there. He pointed out that the sugar-growers of Queensland had not felt the depression because they had a guaranteed price for their product and knew exactly what they would get, while the dairy farmers were in the same plight as those in New Zealand. Looking to the future, he said New Zealand had reached the point of the taxable limit of the people. “Major Douglas has provided the key to the problem, and we are now on the threshold of a new era.” The path to that new state might be strewn with brickbats ami broken bottles or might be made smooth, according to the manner in which the job was done. If it was well done it would go through the door comfortably and easily, but whatever happened it would go through just the same, but the door would be blood spangled.” Singing and cheering punctuated the speeches.