N.Z. LABOUR PARTY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5439, 24 June 1929, Page 3

N.Z. LABOUR PARTY.

deputy leader in paeroa.

AN INTERESTING ADDRESS.

A rather small but very attentive and enthusiastic audience was present at the Gaiety Theatre on Friday night wheh Mr M. J. Savage, M.P., deputyleader of the New Zealand Labour Party, delivered an address. His Worship the Mayor, Mr W. Marshall, presided, and in introducing the speaker jOf the evening said: that under the auspices of the New Zealand Labour Party a branch had recently been formed in Paeroa. Paeroa was evidently continually having leading men of the Labour Party let loose in the district. Three had been here that afternoon. It was a privilege to have the deputy-leader of the party himself here. To-day political events, were rapid. Possibly in the not too distant future Paeroa would be entertaining Mr Savage as a Minister of the;Crown Things were not too stable, and one never knew what would happen next. Paeroa was used to taking its politics in doses—three yearly, at election times. The present showed new though a little greater interest at all times. In Mr Savage’s address they would seek for what he had to tell them for the good of New Zealand. Whatever he said of good, it would be taken hold of and remembered.

Mr Savage? who rose amid general acclamation, said it was not his first time in Paeroa, hut his first time politically. Hi’ Worship had made reference to future possibilities; It reminded him of when he was one ..of the New Zealand representatives to the Parliamentary Congress in Australia in 1926. On that occasion many were present from the Imperial Parliament, and among them were Labour members who were now Ministers at Westminster. ,At that time he was not so optimistic that the Party would be in power so soon They had been in power for a short while in 1924, but such a quick return in force was not anticipated. Of the present Imperial Cabinet Sidney Webb had been the most assailed, and was the worst member, according to the newspapers, and : they, of course, ought to know. However, said Mr Ravage, Sidney Webb was a fully qualified man, and the speaker substantiated his remarks by quoting from an encyclopaedia, “Mr Webb, very varied and important appointments and degrees.” Continuing? Mr Savage said that the newspapers thought jt was an unfortunate appointment, because the Minister was 70 years of age; but one had not to go to London to find them that age, , and a bit. over. Labour at Home had made great strides—from 160 at the previous election to 289 at tile last. It could not be said that Labour was not ig; on the map. Looking nearer at home there was a similar state of affairs. In 1919, when' the speaker was first , elected to the House of Representat fives, he was One of 8 Labour members ; prior to that there had been 4 or 5, but in 1929 he was one of 19Labour was moving. He had not come into the constituencies he was life ing in to explain his Party’s political opinions, but to give ah idea of what Labour was doing, so that people might take their opinions from the Labour leaders and not from the op- ■ position to see what Labour s policy was and what Labour was doing. Someone had once said, “If the state of the world to-day is a monument to those who governed it in the past. Labour won’t have much to beat,” said the speaker. Unemployment in New Zealand was growing. It was not a good indication, but a fact. There was no use in burying our heads in the sand. It appeared from Government records that people were « . leaving rather than going on the land. ■ During a period of four or five years some 13,000 had left the land, or the land was carrying 13,000 less. It, was easy to see why there was unemployment, unless the secondary industries ■ * were absorbing the men. But secondJf ary industries were also langishing. A number of men had left the country, and the remainder were wholly or partially unemployed. A large num- . ber of men, and women, too, had been turned from assets to liabilities. The I trouble was too much talking : fine sentiments had been expressed by speakers, but the goods had not been delivered. Every day he met unemployed, and especially every fortnight, as a member of the Auckland Hospital Board, he met strong men appealing for work. This was a fertile country second to none on earth. Something F was wrong with the organisation. The Government of the tirrfe should make provision for land and for those to go on it. The average man desiring land to-day was one of small means. They should be looked after. The Government of the day ought to prepare the land and put the people on it. At Putaruru the Hon. E. A. Ransom had propounded a fine policy—to put unemployed men on land to ejear it and then give them the opportunity to set- , tie on the cleared ground. A most ex- \ cellent idea, which the speaker said he / thought had first emanated from Lab- . our, but Sir Joseph Ward, through the fr Press, had severely rapped Mr Ransom over the knuckles for making a statement which he said was the propounder’s personal policy, and not the X "Government’s. The present relief polW' icy meant humilit.v to the worker, and J nothing in return to the taxpayer. Labour was prepared to support the Government in any proper land policy. The Ministers of Lands and Labour should be set apart to deal with the question, so that unemployment and land settlement could be gone into together. They were closely allied, and by solving one both could be solved. The present Government said it was difficult to accomplish, but the finance .of last session was not exhausted, and the land laws were still available to suit everyone, land-holder and lease-holder alike. In Western tC Australia he had seen if not a perfect, M'then an honest effort made to solve *wthe problem. Men were apportioned ' land and put on it to clear it, and at while doing so, were paid 10s a day, which was afterwards added to the capital value of the land.

Not perfect, as he had remarked, but .if the" two departments concerned combined to improve the land, subdivide it, build accommodation houses, they would relieve unemployment and do something practical in the way of closer settlement. Finance. Commenting or. finance, Mr Savage said that the day must come when money would be made the servant, not the master, of industry. Money had a greater stranglehold on industry today than it had ever had. The war was in a great measure responsible for this. Money was flowing into banks, and everyone wanted it. If everyone was a shareholder in the Bank of N.Z. what would happen to the land. It was a brilliant illustration of the need of a national banking system run by the people for their own use. A sum of £12,000,000 was awaiting an outlet, an opportunity to invest. Farmers knew to their sorrow that the banks would not invest much on their account. The State Advances Act of 1874 had assisted men on the land at the lowest possible rate, and was in force until 1922. In that year Mr Massey passed an amending Act. The Rural Credits Association never did anything ; it was simply put on the Statute Book. In 1925 the Reform Party, while in a tight corner previous to a general election, had formed a Royal Commission to send 'a committee abroad in order to study rural finance. Mr Polson, of the Farmers’ Union,, was president, a significant fact. On return the Rural Advances Act was decided upon. The State Advances borrowed monev on a State pledge, the Rural Advances Act pledged the credit, of the people who wanted to borrow the money. The responsibility had bee? l , shifted from the State to the farmers. The State Advances had borrowed in the world market at the lowest rate possible, the other borrowed on credit pledged by the borrowers.

A Voice : Can the Labour Government better it ?

Mr Savage • I am not saying a Labour Government can better it. But I do say 71 reply to the interjecter that it would not be so stupid as the Government of to-day. Continuing, Mr Savage said it was not a question of Liberal, Labour, or Reform, but facts. The Government had done nothing in the way of a land policy ; secondly, the Government had gone away from the land policy of 1890—cheap money for those who desired to go on the land. In 1927 a number’ of farmers were asking for advances to buy machinery. Another Parliamentary committee had been set up with the job to devise some means of . answering this. The 1927 Rural Intermediate Credits Act was a repetition of the 1926 Act, pledging the credit of borrowers in order to further involve them, it was easily done without sending to the United Kingdom or the United Stales. It indicated the fact of the Government fooling the people rather than serving them. The keynote of Labour was service. No instructions were taken by the Labour Party from a top-piece, they were'taken from the rank and file. Anyone with a desire to. serve was welcome in the Labour Party. The fact was that they were in difficulties in New Zealand to-day, whether they liked to believe it or not. The Bank of N.Z. balance sa»d the country was doing well. The prospects for the banks were all right, but for the individual ? A look at the unemployment register would tell how the individual was getting on. Some were getting on well, the majority were not. The banks were recording record dividends, and with a bank rate of Qi per cent. How many were getting money nt that ? Very few. The real duty of money was to serve, to instil life-blood into industry. An interjedter : What industry ? Mr Savage : All industries, primary and secondary. The speaker said that at present he believed that primary production was the foundation, but he .could visualise the day when secondary industries would be established strongly. The present population of one and a half millions was capable of being multi plied six or seven times before New Zealand’s possibilities would be exhausted. Last election the political drums had been saying that there was lots of money. None had eventuated, only talk. There was talk of £70,000, ■ 000 at 41 per cent, and to be lent at -l:J per cent. Interjecter • He’ll get it all right.

Mr Savage : Yes—in the neck. What would Labour do ? First, Labour would utilise the services of the Post Office Savings Bank, rather than clip its wings, said the speaker. Before, deposits of £5OOO had been allowed and had been paid 2S per cent. Money invested there had been lent to the' Public Works Department and State Advances. The Reform Government suddenly decided :hat it was not a scientific way of doing things. At that time Reform had a majority of 26, which was now 26 without the ma • jority. Instead of usins public services for the benefit of the public they had clipped the wings of the service.-.. The Post Office Bank could have been made the nucleus of a national bank. The cheque system with the Savings Bank had been advocated, but the only reply from the present Post-master-General was that it would interfere with other banks. The Post Office could be made a bank of issue and do-all the functions of banking The Post Office held the biggest de • posits 'n the land, almost equalling the combined deposits of all the other banks. Mr Donald had said that the Post Office Savings Bank was to encourage thrift, a place where people could put their money in and not get it out easily. The best thrift, pointed cut Mr Savage, was to give men cheap land and the money to work it with. . We had been told to wait until someone at the other end of the world lent us some money. The country could be run on its own credit instead of going abroad. The bill was growing, and we all had a share in it. An earthquake might wipe out New Zealand, but not its bill. In 1925 about the or-.e place not visited by the Royal Commission was Scandanavia, and yet there in Sweden was the oldest State

bank in the world —the Bank of Sweden. He did not think, however, that banks should be politically run. Twelve and a-half millions were to be borrowed in London—money was borrowed anywhere except in New Zealand.

Several other subjects were dealt with by Mr Savage, and will be dealt with in our next issue.