MILLIONS AND MORE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 490, 20 October 1928, Page 7

MILLIONS AND MORE

WHEN COULD LOAN POLICY END? PRIME MINISTER’S QUERY Press Association INVERCARGILL, Friday. Sir Joseph Ward’s glib talk of jnillionS, and yet more millions, will tickle the ears of one section of his Invercargill constituents, but the reception that was accorded to criticism of his “borrow, boom and burst” policy by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, this evening shows that the erstwhile Liberal, now leading the Uniteds. has a difficult task in front of him in trying *o convince the thinking section that his £.70,000,000 proposal is advanced seriously. ■Whenever I look at this £70,000,000 ‘borrow, boom and burst’ policy of the United Party I cannot help agreeing that they tell nothing but the truth in their advertisement to-day, that it is the most amazing policy that has ever been promulgated,” said the Prime Minister. “Sir Joseph says that for the immediate relief of the unemployed a vigorous national policy of completing all main railway lines should be inaugurated so that the unemployed cry should not be heard in the land while he is spending his millions. • Just so, but what is to happen to this mass of workers when the works are completed?” Mr. Coates asked. •Will lie borrow more or will he then resume the wise policy of tapering off loan expenditure which has been followed by this Government since the cessation of the war, and the settling of returned soldiers? “Obviously he cannot cease borrowing all at once without creating a crisis of the first magnitude. When his public works were finished he would have all these men on his hands and the unemployment problem would be more acute.”

The Prime Minister said that unemployment relief works were merely a palliative. The only way to overcome the difficulty was to find the cause and remove it. and that the Government was doing. "Now I see where some of you stand.” said the Prime Minister when a section at the back of the hall signified their approval of the big borrowing scheme. A Voice: It will give us work. The Prime Minister: Yes, it will for a time—for about three years, and then God help you. "I am surprised.” lie continued, “that men in Otago and Southland, levelheaded men, can be taken in by such ‘guff.’ Who is responsible for the high credit of New Zealand to-day?” Voices: Joey Ward.

The Prime Minister: Rubbish. He had nothing to do with it. He has not been near the Treasury benches. He went out of office in 1919, and he was defeated in 1922. He just looked in again in 1925.