LABOUR’S RECORD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 September 1938, Page 6

LABOUR’S RECORD

ADDRESS BY MR ROBERTSON AT KOPUARANGA. SOME FINANCIAL ASPECTS. Mr J. Robertson, Labour candidate for Masterton. who addressed a meeting of electors at Kopuaranga last night, was greeted with an enthusiastic reception and dealt in a comprehensive manner with Labour’s financial record. Mr Alex Donald presided over an attendance of thirty. Mr Robertson said that despite criticism, production, saving and trade returns had in fact shown steady progress. Referring to the financial state of the country under Labour, he said the facts were that for the first time in our history New Zealand was really living within its income. It was true, he said, that the London credits had decreased, but there was a substantial surplus still to our credit in London, whereas under previous administrations we had not only had no London credits at all, but had only maintained imports by heavy borrowing. Mr Robertson maintained very strongly that criticism of the Labour Government on the ground that the London credits had fallen disclosed a perverted idea of true economics. The object of the credits in London was to service our overseas debts and pay for the necessary imports, and when we bought imported goods we were merely consuming our own production in the form of manufactured goods which in effect had been exchanged for our meat and dairy products. Mr Robertson said that one of the most serious indictments that could legitimately be brought against the former administration was the fact that when Labour took office there was well over £40,000,000 of a surplus in London. This simply meant that the people of New Zealand had been prevented from consuming their production due to the unnecessary financial restrictions placed upon them. When th& consumption went down producers also suffered severely and stay orders and wholesale bankruptcies were the order of the day. The previous administration had a £40,000,000 surplus in London. Why did they bring industry, agriculture and social progress to a standstill on the plea that they had no money?

Mr Robertson dealt at length with taxation and showed that despite the increased amounts that had been paid into the various taxation funds the incidence of taxation had altered very little, the larger amount paid beingdue to the increased incomes of the people. Mr Robertson was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for his address.