State Spending Attacked

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 70, 15 December 1937, Page 6

State Spending Attacked

-Press Aasociation.)

RECKLESS PLUNGING Opposition Leader Reviews Session LEGISLATIVE TRENDS

* (By Telegraph-

INVERCARGILL, Last Night. Complete satisfaction witli tlie worb of the Opposition in Parliament during the first part of tlie session was expressed in an interview to-day by the Leader of the Party, the Hon. Adam Hamilton, A brief review of the session was given by Mr. Hamilton, who said that he and his colleagues had constantly endeavoured to direct public attention to the weaknesses in the Government's legislation , "How iSJt wa have succeeded it is not for me to say,35 Mr. Hamilton added, " but I am more than satisfied that those members who have honoured me with their support have worked steadfastly and well to guard what we believe to be the best . interests of New Zealand." With a few notable exceptions, Mr. Hamilton said, the past three months in Parliament had not given rise to legislation. as revolutionary as that passed last year. However, it was well to remember that during its first year of office tiie Labour Government, with its overwhelming majority, had laid the foundations of State Socialism with its accompanying creed of "keeping the better man down." This year the Government had. advanced its plans more cantiously, but the same objective was still apparent. "The National Party has set its face against Socialism," Mr. Hamilton said. "We realise, of course, that the world must progress and that New Zealand must progress with it. In most civilised countries to-day there is a call on the State to take a growing share in directing community activities, but there is all the difference in the world between direction and coercion. It is through its attitude of coercion that the Labour Government is endangering many features of our national life which have •tood the test of time and which are •till worthy of being cherished.'' ' ' Straight-out Coercion. ' ' Three items from the Government's legislative programme were mentioned by Mr Hamilton as being indicative of straight-out coercion on the part of the State. The first was the Primary Products Marketing Amendment Act, to control the sale, under fixed prices, of all foodstufFs produced in New Zealand. That measure alone, he said, would give the Government the right to rcgulate the entire trading activities of the country so that the people could buy only what a group of theorists thought they should buy, and at prices fixed by those same theorists, with the idea of reducing producers, distributors and consumers to the dead level of mediocrity. "Two other matters which call for some comment both concem housing,'-" Mr Hamilton continued. "The Government has not only renewed its restrictions on the free renting of houses, but it has also erected fresh barriers so that the people who have invested in house property are now finding thsn assets turning into liabilities. The Government admits that there is a housing shortage, but at one stroke il kills the incentive for private enterprise to provide additional housing accommodation, while at the same time it extends its own^powers for becomiog the ultiniate landlord for the whole country. "Already the Government has s stranglehold on transport and the export of one of our chief jprimary products. It controlS finance- so rigidly that there is no scope for legitimate industrial expansion, and now we see it pushing forward in its insidious invasion into the private lives of people. "As the Opposition, we are endeavouring to guard the people 's rights from a complete state of domination, and we aTe satisfied that we have the snpport of the majority of our countrymen. ' ' Lesson of Past Three Months . The great lesson which had been lcarncd during the past three months in Parliament, said Mr Hamilton, vras that men trained in business, irrespective of whether that business was agricultural or industrial, were requireu to handle the finances of the counfc.y. No competent farmer, manufaeturer, or Iradesman would think of spending ihe whole of his income just because he happened to be enjoying a period of prosperity. There was prosperity to-day certainlv, but the Government was not only spending the whole of its record income, but was also" hypothecating the future. "Last week we passed the Appropnation Bill," Mr Hamilton said. 'It covered the expenditure required for all services provided for 1,500,000 people and that expenditure reached the staggering total of £54,000,000. How long can New Zealand continue at that pacef Sane, ordered development is oue thing, but reekless plunging is another, and we as an Opposition will feel justified ir) continuing to call the publie attention to this blind extravagance, which, if it proceeds much further, must resulfc in national disaster." -