ADDRESS-IN-REPLY SPEECH.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 November 1918, Page 1

ADDRESS-IN-REPLY SPEECH.

(Dominion Report). The Hon. H. G. Michel said the visit to England of the Prime Minister and Sir Joseph Ward had materially helped to solve the shipping problem. He thought that in order to deal with post-war problems it might be better if party differences, were sunk and the best brains of the country brought together to try to solve those difficulties. The Minister of Defence had often been misunderstood and misrepresented, but rbe fact remained that he had come through the ordeal of the Defence Commissions’ impartial inquiry with flying colour,s. (Hear,_ hear.) There had been no corruption in connection with the expenditure of £40,000,000 for war purposes, and that was a fact which showed that politics in the Dominion were not so bad as they were sometimes thought to be, and that the Government was clean compared with those of some other countries. He contended that every means should be taken to improve the country’s gold production. Referring to the cost of living, he said it. must ho realised that the high prices in New Zealand were not. peculiar to this country. All over the world there was a shortage in production. Tf the Federation of Labour had been able to raise tens of thousands in the past for the purpose of keeping men idle to right wrongs, some real, some imaginary. surely it could raise, say, £IOO,OOO to start co-operative stores, and thus help to solve the cost of living lor themselves ? The high prices ruling in other..countries were responsible for the high prices charged for articles imported into Now Zealand. It was possible to conscript the income of individuals, but it was not possible to conscript the wealth of the country. Those who raised the catch-cry. “Conscript the wealth of the country,” really meant to confiscate that wealth. To do such a thing would be disastrous. He suggested that the Government should set up a Department from which should he issued weekly an official statement explaining the reasons for the increases in certain lines. Such official statements would relieve the mind of the public oil matters of importance, and would serve as a means of combating false catchcries. Some people urged that the State should take over the control of the means of production. That w.oukl not solve the problem of the cost of living.