PARTY POLICIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 July 1938, Page 7

PARTY POLICIES

VIEWS OF THE MEMBER FOR MASTERTON. CRITICISM OF NATIONAL PROPOSALS. Speaking in the Address-in-Reply Debate in the House of Representatives on Thursday evening, the member for Masterton (M. J. Robertson) said that the whispering campaign which had been referred to by other speakers in the course of the debate pointed to the political bankruptcy of the Opposition. This was further borne out by the fact that in the course of the debate no constructive ideas had been enunciated by Opposition speakers. He traversed the various announcements of policy which had been made by the Leader of the Opposition (the Hon A. Hamilton), in speaking at various places and claimed that each one had evidently been scrapped in turn when it was found that it was not meeting with the approbation of the various sections of the community to which the Opposition was in turn appealing for support. Mr Robertson quoted what he called Professor B. E. Murphy’s destructive criticism of the National Party’s outline of policy announced last year and pointed out that Professor Murphy was speaking on behalf of the investing section of the public. The recent National Dairy Conference, Mr Robertson observed, had next shown that Mr Hamilton’s denunciations of the guaranteed price had not met with the approval of the dairy farmers. Quoting from the “N.Z. Dairyman” in support of his contention, Mr Robertson said that journal had denounced Mr Hamilton’s changing attitude on the subject of the compensated price as political humbug and hypocrisy, and had warned dairy farmers not to sacrifice the substance for the shadow. Dealing with the attitude of the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Association, Mr Robertson quoted from a recent bulletin issued by that association as showing that it also found grounds for dissatisfaction with a statement Mr Hamilton had made regarding his party’s policy where secondary industries were concerned. Mr Robertson contended that the National Party had evidently fallen back, therefore, on a purely negative policy of criticism, with no constructive alternative to offer and said he did not think that this would constitute any kind of effective appeal to the people of New Zealand.