“ISMS” NOT RECOGNISED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 October 1938, Page 4

“ISMS” NOT RECOGNISED

MR SAVAGE ON LABOUR POLICY. MEANS TO MEET PROBLEMS AS THEY ARRIVE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. “We have been blamed for a lot of ‘isms.’ but we do not Tecognise any ‘isms.’ We deal with problems as they arise, as all thinking men do,” said the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage,, in discussing the prospective policy of the Government in an interview last evening. Mr Savage said that that day he had been communicated with on the radio telephone by the representative of an Australian newspaper, who asked “What are going to be your first steps to establish Socialism in New Zealand?” He had replied: “The first step to establish Socialism in New Zealand was taken when the Maoris landed here.” At that the Australian newspaper man had expressed some momentary surprise.

“Some people are in the habit of taking up superficial parrot cries,” Mr Savage said. “But we are concerned about dealing with everyday problems as they arise. The main problem is ‘How can we get New Zealand’s production into the hands of those responsible for it?’ That means that the people have to have sufficient incomes to buy the things and services they are creating.” Mr Savage said he had told the Australian newspaper concerned that his first lesson in finance had come in 1893, when the good old orthodox system in Australia tumbled like a pack of cards. “I said that our job in New Zealand was to develop a system whereby people would be able to buy to the same value as they created things and services, and that we were not out to destroy.”