STATE CONTROL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20093, 13 November 1939, Page 8

STATE CONTROL

MR. NASH ASSAILED

j PRODUCE OWNERSHIP

DICTATORIAL CONTROL

: MR. HAMILTON CRITICAL

(Per Press Association.) HASTINGS, this day

I "I can quite understand the Minister ! of Finance, the Hon. W. Nash, cannot I accept my statement that when a | farmer or any other section has the right of ownership of his own production taken away from him. he lias lost ; a most precious thing.” said the j Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. [Adam Hamilton, replying to a statei ment bv Mr. Nash.

| The policy of the Government I directed by Mr. Nash —State socialism j—i:; to own and control everything. That policy is based, as Mr. Nash has shown a hundred times, on telling the | producer that Mr. Nash is better able to plan and regulate their affairs than they are themselves. You work and produce, he says, but then I take the lot. I have a plan and I can regulate things. You work as hard as you can so that my planning is made easier for me. If you have ideas of doing things in some way that you yourself would fmcl agreeable, they cannot be considered.

“If you happen to protest, I will | discipline you because that is only an | organised protest for democratic and ; political ends and, of course, I am not j interested in democratic politics at all. Dictatorial planning is my bulwark and my strength. “A more insincere attitude than that taken up by Mr. Nash throughout his dealings with the producers is difficult to imagine. He has assumed the airs of a dictator and the rights of one, all ! the while assuming an attitude of righteous indignation that anyone could question either his motives or his almost divine right to plan everything for everyone.

“He now brags of his plan of State socialism, but resents a protest from i those from whom he has taken ownerI ship and control. I point out to Mr. ! Nash again that there is a limit to the amount of dictation, regulation and planning justified. Mr. Nash has gone past that limit. It is not surprising either that to secure a basis for comparison in defence of his planning, Mr. Nash has to use the period of the worst slump the world has known. In itself that reveals the tragedy of the present circumstances.”