PLENTY FOR ALL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 August 1938, Page 5

PLENTY FOR ALL

NO EXCUSE FOR POVERTY IN NEW ZEALAND ACCORDING TO MINISTER FOR LABOUR POSITION OF FRIENDLY SOCIETIES (By Telegraph— Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. “There is no excuse for poverty in New Zealand, and no excuse for a Government that refuses to provide for the distribution of the good things of life among the people, said the Minister of Labour, the Hon H. T. Armstrong, during • the second-reading debate on the Social Security Bill in the House of Representatives last night. “There is a superabundance of everything we need to sustain life in New Zealand,” Mr Armstrong said, “and it is the duty of the strong to provide for the weak. That is all we are asking for, and we are not going to allow any combination to stand in the way of that attainment, although we can understand the opposition of the Tory Press and Tory politicians, as they have always stood in the way of progress.”; Mr Armstrong said the Bill was nothing more nor less than humane legislation, which should be in the law of every Christian country—that was, if he interpreted the principles of Christianity correctly. The means test was still in operation, certainly, but he hoped that the day was not far distant when that would be abolished. When people reached 60 they had done their work, and should be entitled to superannuation whatever their income.

“It is all right for members who hardly know what the fear of want means to oppose this Bill,” Mr Armstrong continued, “but no one knows what next year of next month will bring forth. Even those who now imagine themselves secure for life may be sorely in need of this legislation in a short time, and surely this will be a better country to live in when we have banished the fear of want altogether. Let the Opposition point out which, of the clauses in the Bill it opposes and which of the proposed benefits it would reduce, or else admit that it has no reasonable right to oppose to measure.”

The Minister said he had not heard of any opposition from the friendly societies. He had been a member of a friendly society since 1898, and he had never yet heard of one that had made any money out of its medical benefits. The subscriptions were paid to the doctor or to the hospital or for medicine and did not go into the funds of the lodge at all. As a matter of fact, it was his opinion • that the Bill was welcomed by the friendly societies.