GIFTS FOR EVERYBODY

Evening Star, Issue 22149, 2 October 1935, Page 14

GIFTS FOR EVERYBODY

LABOUR and democrat policies prime MINISTER’S CAUSTIC COMMENTS [Fkom Ont Parliamentary Reporter,] WELLINGTON, October 2. • < T do not regtird this as a serious challenge to the Government,” stated the Prime Minister when his opinion was asked regarding the Democrat platform, announced in Auckland.' “ It is a case of bidding without any sense of responsibility knowing the impossibility of fulfilling such gaudy promises' The Democrat Party has now shown itself to be entirely irresponsible. Everything attractive ns promised, including in the same breath enormously expensive boons and concessions, though promising readily to curtail the money supply from taxation, which is the only source of payment for them. The Government cannot enter into that sort of bidding, as it has to maintain a system of sound finance, knowing the serious consequences to every section of the community if that was departed from. It has to leave the biddiftg to Labour and the Democrats, who have no such responsibility. •• The -two bidding parties hope to divide between them the votes of the unthinking. The most embarrassing thing for either party would be to find itself in office, overloaded with pledges which it must know to-day it would be impossible to fulfil after the elections. It appears to me that the sky is the only limit of the Democrat bid for votes, and that the Labour Party has occasion to feel some aJlarni because it looks as if it had been overbid by this policy of gifts for everybody. It is a gambler’s throw with nothing to lose and just a hone that the electors will not stop to think when they see the glittering bauble. . “ So far from being a serious challenge to the Government,” concluded the” Prime Minister, “ the Democrat Party has shown that its only desire is for office at any price, with no thought of the real interests of the Dominion.”