LABOUR’S TASK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 April 1939, Page 4

LABOUR’S TASK

SURVEY BY MR SAVAGE PROMISES CARRIED OUT. RECORD IN LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. “We have in fact carried out the promises we made in our election manifesto of 1935. and gone considerably further. /The last three years have constituted a record in legislative and administrative activity on the part of any Government in this country,” declared the Prime Minister. Mr Savage, when presenting the report of the Parliamentary Labour Party at the annual conference of the New Zealand Labour Party in Wellington yesterday. “When we took office we set upon fulfilling the needs of both a shortrange and a long-range plan,” Mr Savage said. “There was, first of all. the remedying of the grave state of affairs, existing when we assumed office, the restoration of cuts, the improvement of unemployment relief rates and wages, of hours and conditions of work, to quote outstanding instances. , “And while attending to immediate pressing needs, we undertook measures for the permanent improvement of the living standards of the people. In serving this end we were at the same time laying the foundations of an economy which means security for everyone. “Where the particular instruments of the capitalist system were rendering adequate service, no change was made, but where the free working of capitalism was resulting in insecurity, necessary alterations were made. INCREASED SUPPORT. “The past year saw the completion of the Labour Party’s first Parliament and its return to office with a greatly 'increased vote, from 392,972 in 1935 to 530,810 in 1938. Expressed in percentages of votes cast, these figures represent an increase from 46 per cent to 56 per cent. This is the greatest vote ever recorded by a political party in New Zealand’s history. “The object of the New Zealand Labour Party as laid down in the constitution is, of course, to secure by constitutional political means the adopton by the country of the party’s platform and objective.” Aftei* reviewing in detail the legislation of the Government Mr Savage continued: “In addition to its Parliamentary activities, the Government has continued to devote considerable administrative attention to financial and related questions, the expansion of manufacturing, of housing and of defence. EXPANSION OF INDUSTRY. “First of all, there is the campaign for increasing our manufacturing industries. For a variety of well-known reasons, this country can continue no longer to depend on expanding farm production in the hope of expanding overseas markets. As members of this conference have always recognised, that dependence means that we are subject to alternate booms and slumps with poverty and unemployment in their train) Whenever overseas prices have fallen, we have had to go without goods from abroad. And we have not been able to supply them from our own production. “Because industrial expansion is so essential to our growth and existence, the Government is seeing to it that we begin to make these goods for ourselves. And I am happy to say that in the few months during which the import regulations have been in operation, considerable increase in the number of factories and volume of production has taken place. THE HOUSING PROBLEM. “Housing has been another major problem. Because of the lack of policy of our predecessors, there is not only a serious lack of houses but of skilled tradesmen also. Because of the enormous arrears we are urgently called to make good in the shortest possible time, we have been forced to bring in skilled tradesmen from abroad. At the same time the number of apprentices has been greatly increased. To date about 5300 houses have been built or are in process of completion, and another 1100 have been advertised. Our capacity for expansion is limited only by the number of tradesmen available and the necessary building organisation to direct their operations.”