CRITICISM & DEFENCE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 208, 18 September 1937, Page 3

CRITICISM & DEFENCE

-Press Assn.-

"Government Policy Has Produced Prosperity"

SPENDING AND ECONOMY

(By Telegraph-

— CopyrigM.l

WELLINGTON, Last Night. The debate on the Address-iu-Reply was continued when the House resumed at 2.30 by Mr A. F. Moncur, who dealt ,with the increase in the Post Office" Savings Bank deposits and also with Uitj gruwiug uik'.tci i.iu.u u:u.idi',.. iug, especially the broadcasting of l1;.: liamentary debates, as instanced by tln. substantial increase in radio licenses. Mr. H. S. S. Kyle took the Government to task for not removing the high exchange rate ot saies tax, aml contended that the present satisfactory condition of the dairy farmers was duo mere to the protection of the exchange rate than to the Government-guarantfted price. Dealing with the fair rents "legisiation, Mr. Kyle quoted a statement by the officer administering the Fair Rents Act in Auckland to the effect that women had come to him to discuss the effect of the Act on them personally and had burst into tears when _ discussinu it. Colonel J. Harges / oalu costs were increasing daily to the farmer. II e eharacterised the tour of Hon. Walter Nash and Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage .to England as a complete failure, in which nothing of material nature had been achieved, in spite of lavish promises. The Government had taken a great deal of credit, he said, for spending money, but ho thought it was time they gained a little credit for economy. He criticised the public w.orks policy and said that in good times public works should be kept down, while in times of depression they should be extended to absorb unemployed. Mr. W. M. C. Denham said the policy of the Government had been productive of prospei-ity. The hOusing shortage was one of the legacies which the lasl Government had left them, and was one with which the present Government was coping effectively. Retorting to the Opposition's aecusations that the Government had not kept its promises, he said the Government had never contended it could keep all its promises within 18 months. One member of the Opposition would say, he said, that the country was experiencing unprecedented prosperity, while another of that party said that high costs had cancelled out the increased prices we were enjoying. These two statements could not be reconciled. The House rose at 5.30 until 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday.