THRIFT UPHELD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 August 1938, Page 4

THRIFT UPHELD

ONE OF THE CHIEF SOURCES OF PROSPERITY VIEWS OF THE HON J. G. COBBE (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The contention that the great majority of the medical men in New Zealand were opposed to the Government’s health scheme and that the proof was amply demonstrated in evidence given by the profession before the Parliamentary Committee, was advanced by the Hon J. G. Cobbe (Opposition, Oroua), when speaking on the social security report in the House of Representatives yesterday. Mr Cobbe, who was a member of the committee, said that the Opposition members were favourable to a good system of health insurance which would help those who needed help. They were also favourable to superannuation. Their difficulty at the moment, however, was that they had not sufficient information to satisfy them that the proposed schemes could be carried out as they should be carried out in the future. The Minister of Lands, the Hon F. Langstone: “That means no scheme at all.” Mr Cobbe said that thrift was one of the chief sources of prosperity. If people had not been thrifty the Government would never have been able to introduce its scheme at all. It was incorrect to suggest that the National Government had accelerated the slump. Mr J. O’Brien ( Government, Westland): “Oh yes it did.” . Mr Cobbe: “The slump was worldwide.” Mr Langstone: “It was only a money slump.” Mr Cobbe said it was to the credit of the men in charge of affairs at the time that New Zealand emerged ir»m the slump as well as it did.