LEADER'S STATEMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 201, 26 August 1935, Page 8

LEADER'S STATEMENT.

"WE MUST SAVE COUNTRY." "We realise that the time has come when we must stand together to meet the drift of our national affairs," said Mr. Hislop in his first statement as leader. "We must save our country, from the disastrous consequences already apparent from a policy of expediency and revolutionary experiment. "The country to-day realises that the two parties which comprise what is now, for the purpose of an election, called the Nationalist party, have both forgotten the principles for which they stood. They have followed a policy the logical conclusion of which is the subjugation of the people to a socialistic and bureaucratic control. With experiment following upon experiment, with a cynical disregard of the people's rights, based on the cry of expediency, with an unprecedented burden of taxation, crushing industry in order that the experiments may be supported, the confidence of the people has been destroyed. Need for Change Seen. "With all this I am well aware of the many problems that in the - past few years have had to be faced and the temptations to follow wrong courses. We feel that we can no longer trust the destinies of this country to the members of the present Government and that if wfe are to survive as a solvent and free people a change must be made.

"It is with a deep sense of responsibility, conscious both of the honour given me and the magnitude of the task, but with faith that we are in the right, that I have accepted the position of leader. We have adopted a comprehensive policy, the full details of which I shall announce shortly when I take the platform. -Our policy has been arrived at with a due regard to the economic conditions of this country. We have avoided both parsimony and extravagance. After an exhaustive investigation extending over- many months and an examination of all the factors involved we have decided upon constructive proposals. for the major problems of the day. In the investigation we have had the assistance of former Ministers of the Crown, former heads ot Departments, leading experts, and, by no means least, practical, experienced men of affairs. While thoroughly appreciative of the different problems that have confronted the Government, we hold, on major issues, fundamentally different views with regard to the means of sblving those problems. Major Points of Policy. "I shall touch now, pending a full statement from the platform, on some of the major points of the policy. (1) Exchange.—We propose, as soon ag possible and having due regard to existing conditions and to the position of traders and local industry, to allow exchange to reach its true economic relation with sterling. Thus we shall remove from the people of this country a crushing burden, inequitable in its incidence and destructive of trade. (2) Assistance to Farmers.—At the same time we have a sound and definite scheme to assist the individual primary producer by a different method and to the fullest necessary extent, at a much smaller cost to the community and with less injury to our relations with the Mother Country, than obtains under the present inequitable and inadequate system. We propose to break down the barrier, created by the present Government, between town and country. We shall create a spirit of unity in our people and a sense of mutual dependence. (3) Temporary Mortgage Adjustment. —To create machinery to afford necessary temporary relief to mortgagors, without involving either the confiscation of capital or equities or the undue harassing of the farmers involved in the nresent Mortgagors' Final Adjustment At the ■same time to preserve the spirit of the sanctity of contracts. (4) Taxation.—The removal of the *alcs tax and the gold duty tax and the review of the general incidence of taxat:on that the wheels of industry may ■-ram be set turning, freed of a crushing

(5) Unemployment.—Wo have propounded a definite scheme that will, through the channels of public and in particular private employment, return within a short time all fit men to their normal occupation at normal wages. In place of the present spirit of "defeatism" displayed by the Government, we have complete confidence in the soundness and efficacy of our scheme. We shall again set machinery working —the mill, the hammer, the saw and the plough, and all their attendant activities, to their accustomed tasks. (6) Returned Soldiers. —A definite scheme to recognise and meet to the fullest extent the long deferred and just claims of the returned soldiers. (7) Public Health and Welfare.—A comprehensive hospital, health, insurance and pensions scheme. (8) The Maori Kace. —A scheme to meet the just claims, too long deferred, of the Maori people. (9) Local Bodies.—An immediate investigation for the purpose of reforming local body government, so long promised and never done by the present Government. (10) Parliamentary Reforms.—The introduction of more businesslike methods in our Parliamentary system, together with a review of the number of members of Parliament, and reforms of the Legislative Council. (11) Manufacturing Industries.—The protection and encouragement along certain, definite lines, of economic manufacturing industries in this country, upon principles of a balanced national economy. (12) Education.—The provis ; -.m for increased facilities for the education of children along more practical and useful lines. In this respect, to ensure, in conjunction with our employment proposals, the absorption of boys and girls leaving school into normal channels of production, trade and industry. To revert to five years as the school commencing age.

Principles of Sound Finance. "In connection with public affairs," said Mr. Hislop, "I think I may claim to have observed meticulously the principles of sound finance. All the above proposals, and other items of policy, have been subjected to the closest examination and checking by competent authorities and completed for the platform. They comply with these sound principles of public finance. "After giving this outline of some points of the policy, to be elaborated upon the platform at a later stage, I desire to express my warm thanks to the many who have given their time and energy to the task. There has been, through interested quarters opposed to us, exaggerated talk of dissension in the Democrat party. In the formation of any party some differences are bound to arise. To-day I can say that there is no party in this country more loyal each to the other, and more strongly united in the pursuit of a common ideal, than is the Democrat party. "I have, during the past years, attended many conferences, both in this country and in the Old Country. I can say to-day with pride that never have I attended a more generally representative' conference, where there has been a higher standard of character, ability and singleness of purpose, than the recent conference of the Democrat party. It is indeed an honour to lead this band of men and women, strong in faith and united in purpose. Their names will soon be before the country, and in each constituency I ask for their support. "Farce of Party Names." "It is time that the farce of party names was ended and realities faced. We stand for the basic principles of democracy, the rule of the people through their representative institutions. The present Government, which calls itself now yet another name, Nationalists, has done much to drive this country into all the evils of a Socialist bureaucracy than any other Government in our past history. But it has done no more than follow at an ever increasing rate the course both leaders were individually following before the present union took place. There is little difference in principle between Nationalists and the Labour party. It is time the mask was off. "We are a party new in name, but our . principles are not new. We have before us this objective—the good of the country. We shall change neither our name nor our principles. We shall in this campaign follow no petty courses, indulge in no mere personalities or intrigue, but we hope to raise the tone of the discussions of our national affairs to a level worthy of our people. "We believe, fundamentally, in the greatest possible freedom of the individual, and the fewest possible shackles upon this legitimate activity. We believe also that the general good is the supreme aim. We believe in the equal and not the partial sharing of the burden of troubled times and of the fruits of ultimate prosperity. We in bur party, each one of us, has pledged himself to carry our message through the country. We shall fight all the way for recognition of the principles for which we stand, and through our faith win through to ultimate victory."