LABOUR’S RECORD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 September 1943, Page 3

LABOUR’S RECORD

ACHIEVEMENTS IN PEACE AND WAR MR J. ROBERTSON’S SURVEY & CLAIM. ORDERLY SOCIAL REVOLUTION. A survey of the Labour Government’s record in peace and war was made by Mr J. Robertson, Labour candidate for the Masterton seat, in an address, to electors at the Solway School last night. Mr R. Maxted presided. Mr Robertson received an attentive hearing and a motion expressing confidence in him and in the Labour Government was carried unanimously. Mr Robertson said an election became unavoidable and inevitable following the withdrawal df Mr Holland and others from the War Administration, on what the London “Times” had characterised as a trivial incident. The conditions which existed before the Labour Government took office in 1935, Mr Robertson declared, were a reproach to Christian civilisation. What happened in the next three years was a peaceful, orderly social revolution, in which unemployment was practically abolished. As one indication of the change thatj had taken place in the social conditions of New Zealand, Mr Robertson said the aggregate private income of the people had increased from £144,000,000 in 1935 to £201,000,000 in 1940. Five hundred dairy farmers, seelcted at random, in 1935 had net incomes as follow: There were 348 with net incomes under £lOO a year, 138 with incomes of between £lOO and £250; 14 with incomes of between £250 and £4OO and not one above £4OO. In 1938, the same 500 farmers had net incomes as follow: 90 under '£loo a year; 89 between £lOO and £250; 219 between £250 and £400; and 102 over £4OO.

EDUCATION. Mi’ Robertson said expenditure on education had been increased from £3,000,000 in 1935 to "£5,200,000 in 1941. He had no need to tell Masterton audiences what had taken place in Masterton. Three completely new schools had been erected and a wonderful Technical College—now known as Wairarapa College—added to the Wairarapa High School, while the Central School had been rehabilitated. Labour had improved the conditions and the standard of living, which had been maintained not only in times of peace, but also under the terrible stress of war. SOCIAL SECURITY. Stating that Social Security which had been introduced by the Labour Government was now embodied in the Atlantic Charter, Mr Robertson added that everything that had been done to bring about this tremendous change had been resisted tooth and nail by the Opposition. Labour, Mr Robertson said, had levelled up the incomes of the people. This more equitable spread of income was the underlying cause of the tremendous increase in the prosperity of New Zealand.

WAR DEMANDS. Mr Robertson said that had it not been for the policy carried out in the four years of peace in which Labour was in office, New Zealand would never have been able to play the role she had under war conditions. He deplored attempts by. politicians to capitalise the inconveniences brought about by Avar demands and use them against the Government, which was straining every nerve to achieve the unity which was essential to bring the war to a victorious conclusion. Since Mr Holland and others of his party had left the -War Administration, there had been no cooperation nor any attempt by the National Party to bring about unity. MARKETING DEFENDED. Mr Robertson defended the action of the Government regarding the 15 per cent wool payment. The sheep farmer,. he said, had received every penny that) the British Government had paid. “God' help the people of New Zealand if the I Marketing Department is abolished,” | said Mr Robertson, referring to a reported statement by Mr Holland. “No Department has been so misrepresented as this one.” People, he said, blamed the Marketing Department for everything and for matters over which it had no control. If any case had been made out it was for an extension of its control. WAR EFFORT. Quoting opinions on New Zealand’s war effort expressed by leading people and papers overseas, Mr Robertson said that what New Zealand had accomplished for war purposes was almost incredible. Every New Zealand service man today went forth with every part of his equipment, except his rifle, produced entirely in New Zealand. That had never beep done before. In spite of .the fact that New Zealand had 200,000 men in the services, it had produced great quantities of munitions, guns, clothing, boots and other war equipment in a way that was unexampled or unequalled, comparatively speaking, by any other country of the world. The Government was fully prepared for rehabilitation. As to the Servicemen’s Settlement and Land Sales Bill, Mr Robertson said that there was nothing in the Act whereby the Government could take anyone’s home from them. There was not one thing the Government could take by compulsion other than land required for the settling of returned service men. The reason for the Opposition criticism was that the method for arriving at the value was fixed. The present Act was framed on the same general lines as those in the Mortgagees’ Rehabilitation Act. The only person the Act really hit was the speculator and the aggregator. Mr Robertson gave instances of what had happened after the last war owing to an inflation of values and said the Government was determined that things of that sort should not happen this time.

The objects for which Labour were fighting were freedom of speech and of worship, and freedom from fear and from want. In pursuit of those ideals, they asked for the confidence of the people of the country, to keep it safe and secure from the forces which brought about social stress. The Government had complete control of credit and currency. The issue before the electors on September 25, he said, was one between the Labour and the,National parties and votes given to any other party were votes against the Labour Government and its record of achievement in peace and war.