POLITICAL

Opotiki News, Volume I, Issue 34, 20 May 1938, Page 3

POLITICAL

ADDRESS BY HON F. LANCSTONE -GOVERNMENT LAND POLICY A political address was given by the Minister for Lands, the Hon. F. Langstone, in the Parish Hall on Wednesday night, there being a good attendance. The Mayor, 311 G. S. Moody, occupied the chair and welcomed the 31inister. The member for the district, Mr A. G.„ Hultquist was also on the platform, and prior to< the Alinister commencing his address, spoke briefly to the audience. The Minister was received by acclamation on rising to speak.

The Minister said it gave him great pleasure to give an address to an Opotiki audience and referred to the beauty of the town of Opotiki, and 'said the subsidy to the reserves was only one of many distributed throughcut the country. He wished toi discuss with them the position of the country—what was and what is! They knew the past and: it was from that knowledge of the good and the bad that they were able, to sift the wheatfrom the chaff. When the Government came’ into power there were many difficulties. There were tens of thousands of men on relief work. Tlie single men only received 6s a week, while the mariied men received little more than £2. The- men in the country districts suffered more than those in the cities. r J)he Labour Party knew that everything would be all right if they safeguarded! the sanctity of the home. Me asked what the position was to-day. There was not tlie hardship to-day. There were no appeals for clothes and food. When the Labour Government took office they wanted to relieve the suffering and they found £270,000 for Christmas cheer to the relief workers. Fifty per cent, of the farmers were then bankrupt. The, Labour Party did not want the farms as some people tried to make out-. The farms, were only useful when they were occupied. It- was a grievous wrong to try and frighten the people that the Labour Party was going to take the farms. 'They would never be a free people until they were debt free.

Interest Savings Air Langstoue then referred to the London Loan of £10.135,d00 at 5 per £B.dUdO,ddr, at 3 per cent. A reduction of £2.135.0dd had been made in principal,'while the annual saving on the overseas interest bill was £266,750. There were unavoidable costs in doing that, i.e.. cost of conversion, exchange rates and remittances. These items totalled £1,720,000. All this had now been transferred toi the post office account ; in other words, they had transferred the debt account to New Zealand. Seeing they had money idle in the Post Office Savings Bank, lying to the credit of their own people, on which money they were committed to pay interest, they intelligently used the money for that purpose, so that, instead of paying interest to people overseas, they were paying it to their own peole. New Zealand money was therefore, credited with interest which formerly went outside the country, thus conserving for all time their own national welfare ,and reducing overseas liabilities. 11l 1936 a London loan of £5,869,988 at 6 per cent, was reduced to £1,600,000 at 3 per cent., a reduction in the debt of: £1,869,988. This resulted in a saving in the interest ln'U of £232,000 annually. The 'saving in interest on the two loans was 6 193,919. Prior to coming into l power the National Government had pledged the credit of the country to* the extent of over £16.000.000. That was from 1923 to 1629, years of high prices and general prosperity. The •amount was raised on the London market at high rates of interest. On some of this amount tlicv received only L 92 for every £IOO, although they paid interest cn the £IOO. The “under par” of the loans totalled £1.800,000. and the cost of raising them was £3.390.000. making a total of £5,100,000 in dead cost and charges. During those years direct income taxation (the nation’s fr.ee in-' come) was reduced by an average ot £4,000,000 per annum, 'so that, while giving away its income, New Zealand was pawned to the overseas moneylords. That was Shy locks way, the Orthodox method in which the metropolitan daily papers believed, and which they advocated. Could anything he more infamous or treacherous than to pawn and pledge the lives and the

daily labour of our people/ and tlieir assets, to pay tribute' in perpetuity—to pay interest and principal for moneys credited but never received ? Tlie thief, tlie racketeer, the confidence man are not more cruel in their methods. Yet the hideousness of this orthodox method was gilded over and made to appear to be sound, intelligent, and a commonsense way of obtaining loan capital. The newspapers could have rendered a. wonderful service to the country. The press was trying to poison the minds of'the daily readers. These people were not conscious of their responsibilities. National Debt increase. It was true the National debt had been increased —but not by borrowing oil the London market. Not one single additional shilling had been so borrowed. On the contrary, the London debt- had been reduced, by £4,000,000. The National debt bad been increased bv £5,109,102. How, and why? The Southland Power Board had a ■debt of £1,670,569'; £1,500,000 of this was borrowed in London and guaranteed by the Government. Trouble arose in regard to : the payment of the exchange rate, and, in view of the fact that the Government was guarantor for this sum, it was deemed wise to take the whole thing over, assets and liabilities. This was consented to by an overwhelming vote of ratepayers in the power beard area. This £l,670.569 formed part of the £5,109,102 referred to previously.

The purchase by the Government of privately-owned shares in the Reserve Bank and the Mortgage Corporation cost £1,655,728. Also about £IOO,OOO was found for housing. Therefore, of the increased debt of £5,109,102, £3,500,000 was represented by self-liquid-ating assets. The balance of £1,600,000 was used for roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, etc. Never, in the previous history of the Dominion, had the finances been controlled, used and husbanded with greater care and efficiency than during the term of office of the Labour Government. The Government had to reopen tlie training colleges ten secure more teachers. The mental hospitals were overcrowded to a serious extent and the Government had to provide .something decent. One of the only things to give immediate relief toi the unemployed was to institute a vigorous public works policy. The- people could not i'aij to see the wonderful improvement made in the roads. The Minister referred to the great benefits being received from the use of modern machinery and claimed there was a greater value for the expenditure to-day. Everywhere throughout the country railway crossings were being eliminated. They did not expect everything to pay. They did not expect the schools to pay but education paid. They did not expect roads to pay. They were non-liquidating. They could make the railways pay by putting up the freight. The people gotthe benefit- of the railway deficit and they were getting a service at- less than cost. Taxation. The.speaker said a jot of people complained that taxation had gone up. Except for the change in tlie incidence of land and income taxation, and the re-introduction of the graduated land tax, taxation had not been increased ; but, because of the greater volume of business transacted, due to increased purchasing power distributed among the people in wages, salaries and prices, the income in the National Account liad increased enormously. That revenue had been spent wisely and well. He would admit there were anomalies' in taxation. they could not change the fiscal policy in five minutes. They had to' build something new but must not -destroy the old liefore they had built the new. The Government was dui*»g its best to face up to all their promises. Mr Langstone then submitted figures showing that business had increased markedly in the last two years. In cheque transactions there was an increase of £252.000,C0U in New Zealand. There was a big decrease in the number receiving the family allowance. That showed there was a big improvement in the condition of the people. 0 The Guaranteed price. The Minister said lie presumed the guaranteed price question was going to be'a very live issue in the coming election campaign. The farmer was in a position to budget properly as lie knew what--his income-would he under the guaranteed price. In no other countrv in the world was tlieie such

a marketing system, as Ncw“,-Zealand. The principle of the guaranteed: pricewas sound. The price miglvt' not. be high enough. Mr Nash had-said thatnothing would be kept back from the farmer. They wanted to see the farmers well paid. They were notssatisfied with the income {the farmers ...Sjfere receiving but they could only deal until it step by step. | Land Settlement. The Minister claimed that the Government was developing the land in a most wonderful manner. Much criticism had been levelled—particularly by these who had given little thought to the subject, including leader-writ-ers in metropolitan daily papers—-“arm-chair critics”—to, land settlement. He regretted to.; say that' the land question was the most misunderstood problem in their public life. .The following figures would show how land in New, Zealand; was held I .—Area under freehold'--title •• 21,691,072 acres. Crown leases 18,850,150... acres. National parks, State forests etc. 11,445,684 acres. Hand unfit for settlement 5,227,144 acres. Native land 4,547,144 acres. Crown land available 1,728,81 acres. Of the last item, there was only a very small proportion suitable for settlement.

As Minister of Lands lie was neither prepared, nor would lie be justified, in repeating the blunders .of the past in .the matter of land settlement. There,was a time when a Minister of Lands had millions' of acres of land at his disposal; but to-.day things were vastly different. To-day his Department was engaged chiefly in land development activities. Large areas of marginal land which were formerly occupied had been abandoned, and the Department had been compelled to pursue a. policy of rehabilitation, in order to salvage as much of its securities as possible, in the interests ot the nation. Promising results are being shown from these activities, which were now beginning to bear fruit, and which, given time, would become self-liquidating assets. ; The Galatea Jistato, the speaker said, comprising some 22,00(1 acres, was purchased! for £‘loo,ooo. Over £IOO,OOO had been spent in developing and improving the ai;oa, and probably a further £50,000 would be required to complete the programme. Naturally, during the development period, the outgoings were greater than the income. The stock-cjurying capacity of the estate had been increased from 18,000 to 54,000 sheep. Two years ago the accumulated losses on the proper-

y" s ■ : , i ?' ty were £6,000 odd. After meeting ail . interest on purchase ah<T development /moneys, the loss had been reduced to. ' £3,000, and he was hopeful that? ‘tins; (year, the ‘accumulated * loss would be) wiped out altogether. The investment - Was thus fully sustained and* given - time, lie hoped to repay all thdmoney' owing tp the Galatea Estate. Ihe' Grown would then havemit asset- without any corresponding liability in the books of the department.'" Continuing, the Minister said that the test of any industry was the number of persons employed and the consequent increase in production. Land development and farming, although complementary, were not similar, and .the land must-be developed before IT could be successfully farmed. There were 91 blocks operating under the Small. Farms development scheme: 1,194- .men were employed on the work, all of them unemployed relief workers. The area under development com-prised-79,-650 ■ acres. Stock figures were; {1935) sheep 5,578, (1938) 57,615. Dairy cows, 1,585, 5,322. Kun cattle 1,289, 4,469. Horses, 124, 359. Pigs' 520, 2,520. Production figures were: Butterfat (1935) £2,’362, (1938) £57., 766. Wool-£473, £9,176. Sheep soldi £2,679, £33,844. Cattle sold £2,243, £4,547. Pigs sold £1,590, £4,755. These figures gave an indication of the progress made, and in the ordinary course of events, -production' would increase at a more rapid rate in the future. This made the Lands Department a real farming department, familiar with all the difficulties peculiar to the industry. Surely that was worth while? Yet, because lie was doing this, his critics, in their ignorance, said that farms were being socialised. Native Land Development. Referring to the Native land development schemes Mr Langstone said these were developing in a much larger way. Over 800,000 acres of Native land had been gazetted for development, and of that 200,000 acres was fully or partially brought in. Over 5,000 Natives were employed on the work: hundreds of farm cottages had been erected; all necessary equipmenthad been provided ; over 100,000 sheep were pasturing on the blocks, and over 30,000 dairy cows were milked. The returns ran into big figures. 1,500 units'who had their own land nad been provided with capital and stock, and, under the direction of supervisors, were in progress of being made into some of the ;bcst farmers in New Zealand. In his concluding remarks the Min-

ister asked-the people to- put on their thinking caps and said that when the Labour Government was returned to power there would be- more casualties ■ amongst the Opposition than the Labour Party. (Applause).

•-■'a'.’number of questions were asked by members of the audience and replied to' by the Minister.