LABOUR GOVERNMENT POLICY

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 144, 14 March 1939, Page 6

LABOUR GOVERNMENT POLICY

“Chickens Coming Home To Roost” REVIEW BY MR. WILL APPLETON The chickens were now coming home to roost and most of the predictions which he and other Nationalist candidates had made during the election campaign were unfortunately proving only too true, said Mr. Will Appleton in an address last night to the women’s section of the National Party in Wellington. The fall in London funds and the flight of capital from New Zealand—strenuously denied by Mr. Savage and other Labour candidates right up to the eve of the elections, were the principal evidences of the grave weakening of the Dominion’s economic position as the result of spendthrift Labour legislation. To counter these repercussions, the Government had instituted an import restriction policy and had launcli?.! ed a campaign for increased production with particular emphasis on local manufacturing. It was. a case of shutting the stable door after the horse had gone. The Government had been borrowing right and left in its anxiety to uphold an unstable position which it had itself created. The Government had borrowed from the Reserve Bank, up to February 20, no less a sum than £12,500,000. and the major portion of this sum had been taken from midJune. At the same time the,Government had had to repay to the depositors in tbe Post Office Savings Bank £2,925,603. The export trade of rhe country had declined by £8,337,000, production of all kinds was less, and yet they had been assured by the Prime Minister that there was no drift, that all this merely represented a Dominionwide effort on. the .part of the Government to build on modern lines. Production Problem. “Ho-w can production be increased?” asked Mr. Appleton. Customs revenue and . taxable income must fall under existing conditions. To maintain 5 the huge personnel of the Public Service which Labour had built up, and to provide for tbe social security proposals, in spite of the postponement of medical benefits meanwhile, taxation will have to be increased. High taxation and uneconomic labour . conditions were crippling industry and causing a fall both in farming and manufacturing production. Mr. Savage had made a plea for co-operation. Co-operation was what the country required, but the Government should realize- that co-operation was not a one-way track. “The wonderful insulation theory of -the Prime Minister and his• colleagues has proved a delusion and a snare,” remarked Mr. Appleton. “With decreased farming production and lower prices for our overseas exports and the inevitable curtailment, of importation of even essential goods from abroad, it is self-evident that the standard of living in this country must go down. Theoretically, money wages may be kept up, but ‘real’ wages or the.goods and services which the wages will buy will cost more or not be procurable at all. No one knows this better than the .Labour Government, and if people generally do not. already know it they are in for a rude awakening. .New Monetary Plan.

“It would be humorous if it were not so tragic that, apparently realizing that his financial policy has proved an ignominious failure, Mr. Savage, with his customary soothing syrup, now l>roposes a new monetary plan.” Dealing with the increased cost of living since Labour had been in power, and more particularly with advances in recent months, Mr. Appleton claimed that consumers today, and particularly those consumers who had to live on fixed, incomes, were the forgotten legion. Mr. Appleton pointed out to his hearers that they had the weapon very largely in their own hands. Housewives had organized in other countries, and by concerted action had not only brought the prices of necessities down to reasonable levels but had influenced Governments to bring in measures which had proved beneficial. He quoted what had been accomplished in Australia, in Great Britain and in the United States. '