CHANGED POSITION

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 82, 4 October 1938, Page 6

CHANGED POSITION

P. 0.5.8. FIGURES

"TWO INFERENCES"

Nearlly 400 people attended to hear an address given by Mr. O. C. Mazengarb, National Party cand?d£}ie for Wellington Suburbs, at Taita last night. From the interjections and from statements made by the candidate it appeared that a big proportion of the noisy element consisted of people from outside the electorate.

When question time came, the chairman (Mr. F. S.* Hewer) was equal to the occasion by restricting questions to the electors of Wellington Suburbs.

Mr. Mazengarb opened his address by referring to the changed situation of the country as revealed by the Post Office figures. Up. till.a few months ago the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance, and nearly all the speakers for the Government Party were enthusiastic about, the returns from the Post Office Savings Bank which, they declared, were the best evidence of the increased prosperity of the country- The Prime Minister had also said, "This prosperity will last only so long as a Labour Government is there to maintain it," But the thought had occurred to the speaker that nothing had been heard about the Post Office deposits for a long time. EXPLANATION WANTED. "I wondered at the silence," said Mr. Mazengarb, "and therefore looked into the matter myself. I found that for the first four months of this year, as compared with the same period of last year, the deposits had gone down by £337,180, the withdrawals had gone up by £914,365, and the excess of deposits over withdrawals had been reduced from £1,899,311 to £637,746. Now then! (Laughter.) Let Mr. Savage and Mr. Nash explain those figures."

If the Post Office returns reflected the prosperity of the country, prosperity was rapidly diminishing with the rising tide of Socialism. There were two possible inferences to be drawn from the figures. Either the Post Office depositors were sending their money out of the country for safety, or else there was the more charitable inference that the cost of living had risen to such an extent this year above what it was in the first four months of last year as to prevent. the working people from banking as much as they did. The PostmasterGeneral was the only person who could say which of these explanations was the correct one.

At this stage a constable walked forward into the middle of the hall and gave a warning to a man who had been shouting out various irrelevant remarks.

When the meeting came back to order Mr. Mazengarb said he felt he ought to apologise to the residents of Taita for the conduct of a section of the audience. "I know many of them by sight," he said. "They come to my meetings from outside this electorate, from Petone and Moera, and try to talk me down but generally end up by saying something good about me."

A voice: It's only your party we don't like. I'll say this for you, Mr. Mazengarb—you're the cleanest fighter in the whole National Party. (Loud applause from all parts of the hall.)

The meeting closed at a late hour, the chairman declaring a vote of thanks and confidence carried by acclamation.