SOCIALISTIC AIMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 July 1938, Page 7

SOCIALISTIC AIMS

MR COATES ATTACKS GOVERNMENT ALLEGED CONCEALMENT. ADMINISTRATIONS OF PAST DEFENDED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The Government, with the approach of the general election, was endeavouring to conceal its socialistic objectives, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates declared during the Address-in-Reply debate in the House of Representatives last night. “The Government's objective, recently reaffirmed, is the socialisation of the means of production, distribution, and exchange,” said Mr Coates. “At present Labour members are trying to hide the position by assuming a virtuous air and saying that they are taking on the cloak of Seddon. I want to tell them that Mr Seddon was never a Socialist, nor was Sir Joseph Ward, nor Mr Massey, nor Mr Massey’s successors.” It was a point of Government tactics, Mr Coates continued, to endeavour to create a public impression that nothing had been done in the way of pensions or other social services from the day of Seddon until the advent of Labour, but such suggestions would not stand investigation. Pensions and other benefits had all been widened since Seddon’s time, and family allowances and other new benefits had been introduced. Actually the first advocate of old age pensions in the New Zealand Parliament was Sir Harry Atkinson, a Conservative, but, like many others of his school, sufficiently broadminded to be anxious to assist those who were unable to fend for themselves.

In any case, Mr Coates added, the obligation of the State in respect of pensions was not an instance of Socialism. It was only right that some provision should be made for the less fortunate sections of the community. GUIDANCE OR DOMINATION. There could be no objection to the expansion of pensions and other social services at a rate justified by the country’s finances, Mr Coates continued. There could be no objection to State guidance and protection where the operations of trusts and combines were cutting across the interests of the people. Those points did not represent Socialism but merely reasonable co-operation for the good of the community. However, that was not the policy of the present Government. It was seeking to replace State guidance and co-operation with complete State dominance, and at that point the menace of Socialism was definitely apparent. B Mr Coates condemned the commandeer of dairy produce, and recent developments of transport policy and said the Industrial Efficiency Act clearly indicated the determination of the Government to pursue its doctrinaire policy. Although the Act was designed to assist in bringing new industries into existence, it actually set up. a bureau of public servants to make it illegal for anyone to produce without a licence. Enterprise was being hamstrung throughout the country. There was apparently some difference of opinion in the Cabinet regarding the socialisation of land. Mr Coates added. Probably it was not proposed to achieve this by direct methods, but through a process of rising costs and Government control of production it would gradually be accomplished. FINANCE MINISTER REPLIES. The Minister of Finance (the Hon W. Nash) said that the policy of the Government with regard to transport was really on similar lines to the work started by Mr Coates while he was Minister of Transport. Mr Coates had frequently had to suffer charges that his legislation was Socialism, Mr Nash said, but now he criticised the present Government for carrying out what he had originally suggested. The Minister said that during the debate Mr Coates had criticised the Minister of Railways, > the Hon D. G. Sullivan, for taking over certain road transport services, but in 1931 Mr Coates had advocated legislation for the stricter control of road-, transport and had condemned its being allowed an unrestricted sway. The Government of the day had definitely stated that it was necessary to co-ordinate the transport facilities of the country, and in the face of fierce opposition Mr Coates had, with splendid courage, introduced the Motor Omnibus Bill which saved the tramway system of New Zealand. His action had been described as Socialism, but he had gone on with it. The strange thing now was that he was criticising the present Government for actually doing what his Government had thought should be done. THE GUARANTED PRICE. Mr Nash maintained that the guaranteed price gave the farmer hope and stability that he never had before. Mr Coates, he said, had done everything in his power to prevent the introduction of the new system, of the regulation of marketing, and of everything else connected with the guaranteed price. The evidence of. the first two years of its operation, however, controverted everything he had said at that time, for it had been proved that the new procedure gave the desirable stability and continuity to the market. In addition, the farmer had been given so much stability and hope of certainty that he would never go back to the system of 1931. “Members of the Opposition,” Mr Nash said in another passage of his speech, “talk glibly about freedom, but they did a thousand times worse than anything we have done. There can only be freedom where the people have the things they need, but the last Government took everything it could from them by cutting their wages, their salaries and their pensions.”