WAS IT INSINCERE?

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 135, 4 December 1929, Page 12

WAS IT INSINCERE?

UNITED BORROWING PROGRAMME

That the United Party's loan proposal brought forward at the last election was not made in sincerity, but was a most flagrant attempt to obtain the votes of unthinking people, was alleged by t\.r. Johnston when speaking at Blaekbridge. Such a party, he argued, was not to be trusted further with the government of tho country, and shoul~ be turned out as soon as possible.

, The United Party, he said, had got into pjv/er on their proposal to borrow £60,000,000. Although this proposal had deluded the people it had not deluded the party's own members,' for they knew the scheme to be impossible. He could not imagine business men like Mr. Taverner and Mr. Donald believing in tho scheme, nor did he think the rank and file of the party believed in it, for had they not the repeated warnings of "the world renowned financier, Sir Joseeph Ward," uttered up to twelve months before the election that New Zealand was borrowiing too much? The party when returned to power had not attempted to carry out the programme in full, but had borrower only -£.7,000,000. Asked why it had replied that Mr. Downie Stewart had promised the London money market that he would not go to it for more than two years. That explanation, after it had been persevered with for some time, was exploded, and no other had been given in its place. The real explanation was that the United Party had never intended to borrow £00,000,000, and-never could.