WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 4 March 1929, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS

BUSINESS AND POLITICS

PRIME MINISTER AND MANUFACTURERS.

(Speeial Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, Feb. 28.

Speaking at the annual luncheon of the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Association yesterday the Prime Minister touched upon a number of matters of interest to others than those lie was addressing. The Government, he said, had no intention of dealing with the problem of taxation forthwith. That would lie a matter demanding serious attention when the financial position of the Dominion was ascertained at the ciose of the financial year. There would be no tinkering with the subject meanwhile. It was a very difficult problem, so difficult indeed that it could not be intelligently discussed until the w.iole position was fully disclosed and carefully examined. The proper time for such an examination would be when the Financial Statement was presented to the House and the needs ol the country were fully disclosed. Meanwhile there was no need for alarm. The business of the Government was to make provision for the requirements of the Dominion on a sound and equitable basis and thnt was the result it hoped to achieve.

STATE INTERFERENCE. In another part of his speech the Prime Minister, after deprecating unfair State interference with private enterprise, referred to a new development of this evil. “I have been greatly struck,” he said, “by the number of people who com© to my colleagues and myself with requests to take an interset in a company they want to Moat. The Government will not take shares, nor will it co-operate in the shape of a partner with anyone in business in any shape or kind. We will give every facility on railways, roads, adjustments of Customs tariff and so forth, but to ask the Government to make costly railways to put profits into the pockets of a few acquiring lands in those localities, well, we will not do it. Someone else can. We won’t. It would be against the best interests of the community.” Needless to say the sentiments expressed by t'he Minister were very warmly endorsed by his audience.

PARTY FAVOURS

Going still further afield for a topic of interest to his audience, Sir Joseph Ward mentioned some of his recent experiences with newspapers. Hav-

ing explained that the Press Association had been created for the purpose of facilitating news throughout the Dominion, he stated that a message he had sent by request to this organisation on the ere of the general ejection had been reduced to about six inches, while the message supplied by the leader of the Reform Party and the leader of the Labour Party had been published in full. He had requested the newspapers in Invercargill not to report his speech there on ttio ,'ve of his election, as he knew liis opponents would have no opportunity ;o reply to his remarks. But on the following morning he found long reports of his opponents’ speeches. For this he did not blame his opponents, nor their supporters, but he blamed the Press Association. Other lapses if the same kind were attributed to die Dominion’s news agency. SAMOA. Jn the course of a brief chat to-day ,he Prime Minister would not allow himself to he drawn into any discussion •.oncoming the Samoan question. He had spent many hours, he said, in •ending the literature of the subject Hid in mastering its details, hut for the present his reading was for his own riddance only. His first wish, his peronal obligation indeed, was to keep he subject free from party politics, i he Dominion really was acting as exomoor for the League of Nations and it was its plain duty to allow none of its 3wn party or political differences to influence its administration. Personally he was very hopeful of such difficulties as had arisen being overcome, but this would require time and patience ns well as firmness and insistence. The new Government had taken such steps as it thought necessary to secure the results it desired, and so far they have been attended hv encouraging results. It hoped it would nave the assistance of all parties in bringing its task to a satisfactory conclusion.