If I Were Prime Minister —

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 482, 11 October 1928, Page 8

If I Were Prime Minister

THE SUN is offering a prixe of £lO for the best reply to the Question• “What Would I Do if I Were Prime Minister?** To-day tee publish the 15th of the entries. The competition is “open to all comersand ■closes on October SO.

By

GENUINE REFORMER

If I were Prime Minister, my first attention would be directed to establishing a sound land policy in conjunction with a sound banking and financial system, for it is impossible to have the one without the other. Neither is it possible to absorb all labour in permanent employment—thus solving the unemployed problem—until we have a better systenVof finance. Next, I would turn my attention to the present educational system and consider carefully if the present method of educating the rising generation could not greatly be improved. Then I would concentrate my attention upon the Civil Service and give it a thorough overhauling with a

view to discovering if the country is getting full value for its huge expenditure in this domain. FINANCIAL REFORM My first and chief aim, however, would be to endeavotir to, establish a banking system "that would provide sufficient currency, without borrowing either from abroad or internally, to absorb all available labour in reproductive employments of one kind or another, in industries of all kinds as well in primary, with the ultimate object of enabling this Dominion, not only to supply itself with all the manufactured goods it annually consumes, goods that could be manufactured here as well as or better than abroad, but ultimately to enable us to export manufactured goods in place of raw material, thus providing employment for a much larger population, and at the same time providing us with the only means of gradually wiping out our huge national debt. I would also, through a sounder banking system, enable farmers and others sending produce to London and elsewhere to save large sums in the way of exchange. With the advent of a sound banking system which would aim at keeping

always the same amount of mow in circulation per capita of the payment of wages. I « ou sympathy with any agitation tor -.he abolition of compulsory trade unionism and the Arbitration Court, leaving it free to every man fany compulsion being made a punishable offence! to join a union or not as he pleased and to work for what wages he could geL thus the best workers would command the highest wages, yet the inferior workers would not be debarred from accepting work at such wages as they might be worth or were prepared to accept. I would also allow employers of labour to employ as many apprentices as they desired without being dictated to in the matter by any trade union. •yVith regard to endowments to mothers, I would revise the present Act and instead of granting endowments only to mothers who had more than two children and whose husbands were earning less than a certain wage, I would seek to bring in a Bill advocating an endowment of, say, 10s a week until the child was 14 years of age: also to the mothers of all children born between the first day of September in any leap year and the first of September of the year following. To the mothers of children born at any other time I would allow no endowment whatever. This would aim at the control of the sex instincts and the limitation of families within reasonable bounds. LIQUOR AND LAND As for prohibition, I hold the view that good beer and good wine taken in strict moderation are not injurious but beneficial, and that their use therefore should hot be entirely prohibited. Rather would I seek to make it part of our educational system to teach the rising generation the importance of self-control in all things, even in gating and drinking, and that wine and beer, on account of their intoxicating power, should never be taken to excess. I have allowed myself little space to deal at any length with details of my land policy or banking policy, but I would like to that I am strongly opposed to any more virgin lands being opened up for settlement until all the land now taken up, but in most cases less than half improved, is fully improved and stocked, and producing the maximum amount of annual produce of which it is capable. This is the work of at least a generation. All unimproved land, therefore, now remaining may well be left for future generations to improve, who will need more land as population increases. For all farmers who now have partly improved farms I would provide money at a low rate of interest, the repayment extending over a number of years, for the making of permanent improvements and the purchase of stock, but no money would be provided for the repayment of mortgages except in cases where it could be shown that the money would be reinvested in the improvement of other land, or invested in producing wealth of some kind. As far as possible I would compel mortgagees to eat up their mortgages during their own lives by way of life annuities, thus gradually ridding the country of old mortgages (or debts). And in cases where mortgagees were prepared to convert their mortgages into life annuities the Government would consider purchasing such mortgages in exchange for life annuities provided my valuers considered the mortgage well within the market value of the security.