MR SAVAGE’S DEFENCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 July 1939, Page 7

MR SAVAGE’S DEFENCE

“PEOPLE BETTER OFF THAN EVER BEFORE” INCREASE IN PRODUCTION. WAGE AND SALARY FIGURES. WELLINGTON, This Day. “The people know that they are better off titan they have ever been before —in New Zealand’s best days there were more men crying out for employment than there are today.” said the Prime Minister, Air Savage, speaking in the Address-in-Reply debate in the House of Representatives last'night. Mr Savage produced statistics with the object of supporting his arguments, and quoted extensively from them in a speech that lasted nearly an hour and a half. “The honourable gentleman goes up and down the country crying out wolf when there is no wolf,” Mr Savage said, referring to the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Hamilton. He suggested that Mr Hamilton should go to the races tomorrow and see the totalisator figures, and then examine the registration of radio sets and motor cars. “If we just turn out notes and do not increase production we get nowhere, but we are not doing that,” he continued. Mr Savage said that the Government was charged with two counts. One was that it had spent too much in buying overseas 1 goods, and the oth.gr was that it stopped spending by restricting imports. CREDIT NOT DAMAGED. The country’s credit had not been damaged in New Zealand, he continued. Factory production was going up and the Government was not letting Britain down either. The country could not stand still. It had to expand both primary and secondary industries, and the first job was to get better balance in production. “There is • nothing wrong with the country’s credit,” he said. Mr Coates (Opposition, Kaipara): “What?” Mr Savage: “Nothing at all.” Mr Coates: “I beg your pardon?” Mr Savage: “Absolutely nothing wrong. We have not lost our good name today. Let me remind the Opposition that they lost theirs yesterday when they were thrown out of office.” In spite of newspaper criticism, Mr Savage said, he believed that it was possible to maintain the standard of life in New Zealand and for the country also to pay its way abroad. “I know that there are many problems to be solved, and not the least is the housing problem.” he said. “We have not scratched it yet. We have a lot to do and we are on the job.” NEED OF ECONOMIC BALANCE, Mr Savage admitted that the country should have better balance in its production. He said this should have existed 25 years ago. The financial manipulators were, however, mainly responsible for the depletion of the sterlings funds. The Dominion’s factory production has gone up 50 per cent because of the Government’s policy of providing purchasing power, he said. Between 1935 and 1938 factory employment increased by 23,000. and in the same period the value of production rose from £79,000,000 to £113,000,000. With import selection factory production was rising still further. Clothing manufacturers had risen in three yearsi from £2,90,000 to £3,900,000, and boot and shoe factories had increased their production every year. “New Zealand fertiliser factories increased their production,” the Prime Minister added. Mr Holland (Opposition. Christchurch North): “Not this week!” Wages had also risen as net profits had risen, Mr Savage said. The Minister of Public Works, Mr Semple: “That is their quarrel.” Wages and salaries on March 11, 1936. were £72,500,000, and three years later they totalled £109,000,000, he said, an increase of 50 per cent. Mr Savage concluded by quoting further figures showing substantial rises in the number of building permits, radio sets, electric ranges and water heaters, electric motors, tractors, other farm machinery and motor vehicles. The Prime Minister was applauded at the conclusion of his speech, the House rising at 9.54 o’clock. Bank of £24,000,000. When the Government took over there was not one penny of overdraft. This decline of funds was largely responsible for the country’s present embarrassment and the shortage of London funds. The situation externally was so serious that the Dominion’s credit was lost, and the Minister of Finance was at Home trying to borrow to make up the deficiency. If the Government had managed the affairs of the country well, it would have had three or four million pounds in London to meet part of the loan falling due in January next year, but there was no money, and Mr Nash was actually asking for new money. INCREASE IN STRIKES. The Government had promised that if it was elected it would insure industrial peace, said Mr Hamilton, but actually in three years and a quarter of Labour rule there had been 189 strikes compared with 51 in the three previous years, with losses in wages amounting to £115.000 “The Labour Party taught the work-"

ers to strike,” Mr Hamilton continued. “The strike was regarded as the. only weapon that could be applied, but now the Government is unable to stop the stream it started. Compulsory unionism, like Communism, can survive only in an atmosphere of industrial turmoil. Union leaders preach the gospel of hatred, and even since the end of March there have been nearly 20 more strikes to add to the new record.” UNEMPLOYMENT EXPENDITURE. The real position of unemployment was obscure, said Mr Hamilton. The official figures gave the total of unenv ployed at 726 but in the year to the end of March there was a record expenditure of £6,474,000 out of the Employment Promotion Fund, a sum more than £950.000 above revenue. Payments from the fund had risen between 1935 and 1938 from £3,912.000 to £6.474,000, and the actual expenditure on unemployment last year was more than 50 per cent higher than it was in the previous year. FAILURE OF INSULATION. The Government was not sympathetic to the export industries, said Mi’ Hamilton, but he was glad to see that the Government had at last realised that the position of the sheep farmers was serious enough to demand an investigation by Royal Commission. Taking 1914 as a base, dairy produce prices were up 7 per cent, meat up 55 per cent and wool at par. The Government Statistician gave the rise since 1914 in wages at 76 per cent, in the cost of living 55 per cent, in export pastoral prices and dairy produce as 15 per cent, and in farm expenditure as 50 per cent. It did not need an accountant to see how farmers, and specially wool and store sheep-farmers were at a disadvantage. All the farmers wanted, and he though they were entitled to it. was to be placed on an equal basis, and they could hold their own. If the commission did its work fully it would find that it was necessary to keep internal costs in relation to export prices. Mr Hamilton concluded by saying that the insulation policy of the Government had failed, as the serious plight of the sheep-farmers showed. The Dominion, he said, once enjoyed a good name, but the Government’s mismanagement had brought about a state of affairs so serious that something must be done immediately.