POLITICAL FREEDOM

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 84, 6 October 1938, Page 6

POLITICAL FREEDOM

CIVIL SERVANTS'

RIGHTS

MR. COMBS'S REMINDER

There were over fifty residents present in the Qhariu Hall last night when Mr. H. E. Combs, the Labour candidate for Wellington Suburbs, addressed the electors. Mr. Scott Ramsay presided, and at the close of the address the candidate was accorded a vote of thanks and confidence.

Mr. * Combs contrasted the industrial and general economic positiionl of the slump years with the conditions which have prevailed since the Labour Government took office, and commended Mr. Savage and his colleagues for bringing order and prosperity out of chaos and depression. He drew special attention to the emancipation of the civil service and their rights to take a full part in the political life of the .country, and to the action of the Nationalist leader when, as Post-master-General, he cancelled the official recognition of the Post and Telegraph Association because it had had the temerity to suggest that the effects of the slump could *be minimised by changes in the monetary and financial system. The civil service was now free in the political sense. THE FOUR COLONELS. "What about the four colonels?" asked an interjector. "The four colonels were disciplined by the officer commanding the N.Z. Forces because they committed /a flagrant breach of the defence regulations which they swore to observe when they took the oath," said Mr. Combs. "Moreover," he added, "this disciplinary action was taken on the advice of the Judge Advocate-General, who is also a colonel, and who in professional life is a X.C, and therefore wise in the law, and who, in political life, is the president of the National Party." Mr. Combs referred to a letter written by "A woman wage-earner," In that night's "Post" in which she scouted the idea that the Nationalist

manifesto drew the line between exempting women with private incomes and women who drew wages. The Nationalist manifesto itself contained the words, and in the latest issue of the "Nationalist News." the phrase was repeated and a promise made to exempt from paying employment tax women having means other than wages not exceeding £250 per annum. The words were theirs, and as they repeated them in their latest publication he could only assume that the party persisted in drawing the line to which he had called attention. .-, SAVINGS BANK DEPOSITS. Asked about the falling off of Savings Bank deposits as shown by his opponent, Mr. Combs said there always had been and always would be fluctuations in these figures as between set periods. There was still a handsome excess of deposits over withdrawals and the depositors need be under no apprehension as to the'safety of their money. Apart from the sums held in the tills for the convenience of business, the whole of the funds of the Savings Bank were invested in Government securities, and every citizen in the country was pledged to pay off those securities when they fell due and to pay the interest on them as it accrued. To suggest, by inference, as one Nationalist candidate had done, that a depositor with £100 in the Savings Bank would have difficulty in lifting that' sum if he required to do so was too absurd for words. It was akin to the story of the woman in Palmerston North who was alleged to have been asked what she wanted the money for when she sought to withdraw £30 from her account. "Your Savings Banks deposits are as secure today as they have ever been," he said. "If you want to lift your savings you will get 20s in the £ at any time in office hours. If you prefer to leave them in the Savings Bank you can leave them there without losing a minute's sleep." Asked why the New Zealand dairy payment was 2d per lb lower than the present price for Australian, butter, the candidate said that the marketing [of our dairy produce was a full year's [job. Should the price fixed by the [Government allow.of a surplus being 'built up.in the marketing account, thatj surplus would be distributed pro rata j when the season closed, which was ■much better than striking too high a j price and then calling on the farmers to make a pro rata refund to make good the deficiency.