SOCIALISM IN N.Z.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 43, 6 March 1937, Page 7

SOCIALISM IN N.Z.

Mr F. W. Doidge's Treiichant Attack

ORGANISATION NEEDED

Mr F. W. Doidge, member of thc (livisional council of the New Zealand National Party, addressing a meeting of delegates of the party from the Waikato, Waitomo, Hamilton, and Raglan eleetorates, said: "It is ineredible, but it seems to be true, that there are many people who believe that a SocialiBt Government in New Zealand has found the ■way to easy mOuey- and permanent prosperity; 'tha'' the politicians, by some form of political magic, have achieved what the alchemiste of old d'tiiled to do. To any thinldng man or woman it ia obvious that the present position is about as permanoht as that of a man sliding down a roof. 1 ' The guaranteed prfce was tho glittering proinise which caught the •yote of the dairy farmer at the genernl eleetion. The farmer now realises that all that glitters at election timo is not gold. To-day the farmer does not want the guaranteed. price. Nor does the town. dwoller. At. present priccs the taxpayer is losing £20 per ton on butter sold in London. If that loss continues we ehall, on ah export of 140,000 tons per year, lose approximately '.three miTlions sterling in a year. "That represents onJy one phase of the trouble. In London we are accustomed to seeing Danish butter command a better price than outs. But when our product languishes on a market whieh gives preference to Australian, Baltic, and Iiussian supplies, we know that soinething is delinitely and terriblv wrong. Britain Antagonisen "We are antagonising both tho producer and the importer in Britain. We are seeking to dispose of dumped goods through a system of State marketing. The farmer at Home resents dumping; the importer naturally objects to State marketing. I ' ' There is a third consideration ! vvhich is even more important. Rising costs are killing the dairying industry. In our schools we teach, as a matter of history, of the terrible timea in Britain when women and children «ont into the factories and bogan work at iive o'clock in the morning. Those wero the days of industrial slavery in Britain, happily belonging to the dark ages. But in New Zealand children are slaving in the cow sheds at 5 a.m. Their mothers slave with them. And the ineredible thing is that while Women and children work under these conditions thousands of ablebodied ■ men idle on shstenance in the eities. "In. thiB Dominion all our wealth eomes from the soil. Destroy our only market — Britain — and, economically, we perish. Tl^e rhuddle-headed liscal policy of the Socialist Government jeopardi'ses that market. Mr Nash, at Home, promises the people of Britain . that Kew Zealand will tako just as much in manufactured goods from Britain as Britain will take in primary products from New Zealand. Mr Savage, in New Zealand, threatens a policy of reatrictions upon importations from Britain. Coilnter policies of that deecription do not make sense. You cannoh simultaneously step forward on the- right foot and backward on the left. Marxian Doctrin&s "New Zealand is the last country in the world in which to experiment with Matxian doetrines. There are no rich here from whom to take and give to the poor. It is an astonishing revelation that there are less than 4000 individuals with taxable incomes of over £1000 per year. If you took their total' accumulated earnings and divided them amongst the' million and a-half eitizens of the Dopiinion, there would not be enough to buy each a new hat, "Already the people of New Zealand are the most heavily taxed in the world. Yet the Socialist Government, despite all its pre-election pledges, ste&dily piles up the .burdens of the people. Since it has come into office it has borrowed — and spent — millions. "The National Party has not yet disclosed its policy. Good reateon why. In the Manukau by-eleetion I made immigration one of the principal issues. The Socialist Party opposed it tooth and nail. To-day the Socialist Government, with the Speaker, Mr Barnard, as its chief hot gospeller, iN campaigning up and down the couhtry with that isaine policy. Our iirst task is to reveal the weaknesses of the Government ;s policy. That complcted, it will be our duty to state the alternative. "The Socialist Government occupies the Treasury benches without a mandate from a full majority of the electois. Twenty-four seats are held on a minority yote. If the anti-tsocialist forces a?e organised and consolidated New Zealand 's exctirsion into the crazy realms of Socialism will cease in November of next year.