POLITICAL ISSUES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 May 1938, Page 5

POLITICAL ISSUES

CRITICISM OF GOVERNMENT’S POLICY. MR J. ANDREWS ADDRESSES MASTERTON GIRLS. Some observations on political questions of the day were made by Mr J. W. Andrews, of Lower Hutt, at a luncheon attended by business and office girls, held in Messrs Hugo and Shearer’s tea rooms on Monday. Mrs T. R. Barrer presided and introduced the speaker. The gathering was arranged by the Women’s Section of the National Party Committee. On August 26, said Mr Andrews, the Labour Party official paper, the “Standard,” had credited Mr Nash with the statement, following his tour of England and the Continent, that the Soviet system of economics was regarded as the best in any country in the world, largely supported by the fact that the State owned all the land. Mr Andrews added that they had got possession of the land, by killing off all the landowners.

Referring to the flight of capital from New Zealand, Mr Andrews quoted an address by Mr S. W. Alexander, an English financial critic, who, as reported in the “Evening Standard” of April 12, 1937, said that it was due to Socialism. Mr Alexander advised investors not to purchase New Zealand Government bonds and to avoid securities in commercial enterprises dealing exclusively with New Zealand. Mr Andrews, commenting on the statement, said New Zealand industry depended so much on getting financial support from England that if this dictum were carried out it would mean the starving of New Zealand industry. Mr Andrews went on to refer to three different statements made by Mr Nash relating to • New Zealand goods. When in England, he told them that for every shilling they spent in purchasing New Zealand goods, New Zealand would likewise buy British goods. When in Germany, he told them that for every shilling they spent in buying New Zealand goods we would reciprocate by buying goods from Germany. Then Mr Nash told the people of New Zealand to produce their own goods instead of buying from overseas. How could he reconcile these three statements? asked Mr Andrews. The Government, said Mr Andrews, made a lot of its State-housing scheme. Actually, every house was being erected under its scheme not by the, State but by private enterprise. The Government was giving preference to the big contractors, and the small man was not able to tender. Rising costs and restrictive legislation, said Mr Andrews, had prevented enterprising people from putting up houses of their own. Last year, in Lower Hutt, 108 building permits for houses were applied for by private individuals and 101 houses built, while the Government claimed to have built 74 houses, a total of 175. For the five years prior to the slump there was an average of 348 new houses erected in Lower Hutt every year. Mr Andrews went on to refer to what he termed the lack of business aptitude shown by the Government in dealing with the housing scheme. Although there were plenty of joinery factories in New Zealand the Government had built a huge one in Wellington. Now joinery factories were idle while the construction of houses was held up owing to the lack of tiles, the supply of which the tile factories could not meet. Last year, in Lower Hutt, the borough had lost £lO,OOO in rates following on the refusal of the Government to pay rates following on the refusal of the Government to pay rates on its sections until the houses were erected and occupied. Mr Nash had said, observed Mr Andrews, that the Government would raise wages without increasing prices. As the result of its policy building costs had gone up from 14s and 15s per square foot to 23s per square foot. Wages had been raised by about one-third and a quarter less work was being received in return for that third.

Although the Government had promised that taxation would not be increased, said Mr Andrews, a property not far from Masterton, in 1935, paid £123 income tax on land tax and £419 in land tax. In 1937 the same property paid £1022 in respect to the first-mentioned item and £2698 in land tax. Referring to the income tax in 1937 the amount payable on an average income of £450 showed an increase of 62 per cent compared with that payable in 1935 and on an income of £6OO there was a 50 per cent increase. Taxation in New Zealand, said Mr Andrews, was the highest of any country in the British Empire and as far as records could be produced of any country in the world. Referring to compulsory unionism, Mr Andrews asserted that a levy of Is on unionists helped to pay the wages of union secretaries amounting to upwards of £2O per week. There was no incentive today to rise above mediocrity, and actually there was a premium on indolence. Those who had the courage and moral force to help themselves were at a disadvantage. Socialism, he said, made an appeal only to those who were willing to share their 6d in return for half of the other man’s 10s. Mr Andrews quoted Mr E. J. Howard, chairman of committees in the House of

Representatives, as it appeared in “Hansard,” volume 186, page 156, stating: “I am not offering any apology for saying that I intend to get rid of Parliament as now constituted as soon as possible and substitute an industrial Parliament.” In conclusion. Mr Andrews reminded his audience that they were British and asked them to remember the traditions of the Union Jack and keep it flying.