CRAZY ECONOMICS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20088, 7 November 1939, Page 4

CRAZY ECONOMICS

LABOUR CRITICISED

SHOULD ADMIT FAILURE

NOT DUE TO WAR

MR. MAZENGARB’S VIEWS

The greatest service the Labour leaders could now do would be to admit quite frankly that they had failed, said Mr. O. C. Mazengarb in an address to a meeting Of the ladies’ social committee of the Wellington Suburbs branch of the New Zealand National Party. There was, however, no sign of their willingness to make this confession. Instead, they preferred to blunder on in the hope that they would be able to delude the people that all would have been well but for Hitler.

“The Labour leaders overlook the fact that the very methods they are trying here are the methods which Mr. Nash saw in operation when he went to Germany and Russia in 1936.” said Mr. Mazengarb.

Postal Uniforms “I wonder if the Government’s followers are credulous enough to believe that it is the war which caused them to be unable to supply postal officials with uniforms last, month. In past years all the troubles the Government had to deal with were laid at the door of capitalism; now we are to have them attributed to the war.

“There was a time when New Zealand held pride of place among the self-governing Dominions. Now, not (even the ingenuity and plausibility of Mr. Nash can secure any financial aid for us. ‘Wc- are not going to hurt anyone,’ said Mr. Savage. But the importers have been hurt even to the extent of ruination in their businesses and farmers are without proper labour and working about GO hours a week for a bare living. Unemployment was to have been cured. But many thousands of men are being maintained out of unemployment relief funds in some form or other, and hundreds of others are being thrown out of employment through the very measures that the Government adopted to remedy the situation. From Bad to Worse “Things are going from bad to worse,” Mr. Mazengarb continued. “The electorate last year was Rifled into a false sense of security by the bland assurances of the Prime Minister and the crazy economics of Mr. Nash. There is already a scarcity of manufactured goods and raw materials. Insulation’ has proved a myth. Retail prices have risen, are rising and will continue to rise. All because of the folly of a Government which chose to believe that Mr. Nash could do what no man in the world has ever been able to do. You cannot make war on farmers, importers, manufacturers and on the savings of the people without causing distress to all sections of the community