NATIONAL PARTY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 June 1938, Page 3

NATIONAL PARTY

(Continued from page 7.) “Ten small farmers are decidedly a better proposition than one farmer. They mean more employment, more trade for shopkeepers and more prosperity all round.” HOME OWNERSHIP. Mr Weston said another ‘plank of the National Party platform was that everyone in the community should have the opportunity of owning his own house. The present Government was building houses all over the country. The National Party thought it was building them in a very expensive way, “What I want to say is that the Government today does not ■ allow men who are occupying these houses to buy their own freehold. If the National Party gets back, all'these Government houses will be occupied largely by men who can call their place their own. Apparently in Russia nobody is allowe'd’to own his own house and ' that would seem to be the policy that dictates'the attitude of the present' Government in New Zealand. Why should they not allow the tenants of these houses to* buy them? What does New Zealand gain by keeping these houses in the hands of tenants? And why fowls and boarders should be barred in State houses, I cannot understand.” THE DAIRY INDUSTRY The policy of the party in connection with the dairy industry, Mr Weston said, was that it-was going to repeal the Act by Which the Government had commandeered the produce of the farmer. In future the farmer would get the fruit of his own work, he would be allowed to market his produce himself, possibly through the Dairy dr in whatever way the dairy industry wished. The' Government’s action Was not merely Socialism,"but really* a piece of Communism. Obviously the commandeering of the produce was the first step to taking the land itself. The Russian system of collectivist farming was the aim of the Government. Stalin’s liquidation of the kulaks had been One of the greatest massacres in history. “The farmer in New Zealand has had a very rough deal from the Government,” Mr Wdston said. “Extra costs have all been piled up against the farmer. 'He will'have to have special treatment if prices run against him.” “If the National Party was returned to power there would be no class distinction as there was under the present Government. THE EFFICIENCY ACT. Referring to the Industrial Efficiency Act, Mr Weston said one of the first industries brought Under it was the fertiliser industry. It seemed a very easy one to take charge of. In the Hawke’s Bay and North Auckland districts farmers thought that they ought to have their own fertiliser works. The Bureau of Industry reported against both of those applications. “In the meantime the farmers of these two districts Went to see the members of Parliament,” Mr Weston said. “The Minister of Industries and Commerce, the Hon D. G. Sullivan, was in a very 'awkward position. He had members of his Own party supporting the applications and the Bureau of Industry opposing them. What did he do? He did nothing for a good many months and then he removed the fertiliser industry from under the scope of the Act entirely. His delay means a cost to the new works of something like £20,000.” Dealing with the question of unemployment, Mr Weston /aid the people of this country should'expect frankness in dealing with it. It was idle to suggest that unemployment had been done away with. The present Government did not take the country into its confidence. If it disclosed the whole position it would be found that unemployment today was very much worse than the Government cared to admit.

“We propose to get the country back into a state in which confidence is restored, and in which private enterprise will have its full scope,” Mr Weston continued. “The remedy used by the present Government was merely a palliative.