LABOUR POLICY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 251, 22 October 1937, Page 11

LABOUR POLICY.

GOVERNMENT CLAIMS.

CATERING FOR FARMERS.

YOUNG PEOPLE IN INDUSTRY.

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, Thursday. When the debate on the Financial Statement was resumed in the House of Representatives this evening, the Minister of Labour. Mr. Armstrong, speaking of farm labour, said no Government had e\er catered so well for the farming community as had the present Administration. It had been stated that the Government's policy was going to be detrimental to industry because it would prevent the employment of young people as apprentices through the operation of the Shops and Offices Act and the basic wage. The Government, however, was encouraging the employment of young people in industry, especially in building trades. When the Government came into office 3300 apprentices were in employment in the Dominion. To-day there were 7135 apprentices. J lie Minister also referred to increased employment generally and said the Government's legislation was apparently not proving as disastrous to the country as had been stated. Dealing with avenues of employment which the (lovernment had opened up which were of assistance to farmers. Mr. Armstrong instanced the fact that 3(>B men were employed in the destruction of ragwort in the North Island, most of their earnings being paid by the (lovernment. Maoris were to-day being treated better than they had been for many, many years and were placed on an eqiral footing with the whites. The Government was finding useful work for Maoris to do developing their own interests. He could go on for hours instancing successful schemes financed out of employment funds by the present Government to develop national assets. In conclusion, Mr. Armstrong said he had nothing to apologise for in spending funds at his disposal, because he believed those funds were being spent in a good cause. Fighting Against Leisure.

Mr. IT. Atmore (Independent. Nelson) congrtaulated the Minister of Labour on what he had done towards the reduction of unemployment. At present, he said, we were fighting against the leisure which the machine age was giving us. no contended that if the

Opposition came into office again it would hardly eliminate one measure which had been placed on the Statute Book by the present Government, and he deprecated the party recriminations wjiich had occurred during the debate, wherein there had been very few constructive speeches. He wished to congratulate the Minister of Education on the provision he made in the Budget for education and the facilities which were being provided for the training of further pupil teachers. The Opposition, he said, had attempted to balance the Budget and in djjang so had unbalanced every domestic Budget throughout the Dominion.

Mr. Atmore contended that the Government could not carry out all the housing required in the Dominion under the present monetary system. The Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Lee Martin, paid tribute to the late Lord Rutherford. He said the Budget was a comprehensive and intelligent review of Labour's first year in office and gave a good indication of its future policy. It had refuted all of the Opposition's predictions of Labour's failure and must have been a fairly bitter pill to members on the other side of the House.

Stampeding the People. The Minister accused the Opposition of attempting to stampede people into the belief that the Labour Government's financial policy would prove disastrous to the country, and quoted opinions of overseas newspapers which have praised Mr. Nash's Budget. He expressed surprise at the Leader of the Opposition's quotations from the Bible during his Budget speech because both times "eat. drink and be merry" appeared in the Bible it conveyed the directly opposite impression to that which Mr. Hamilton had intended.

The Minister also criticised the statement of the member for Awarua (Mr. Hargest) before the Coronation that New Zealand should only be represented at the Coronation by men who had been born in New Zealand when he knew perfectly well that neither the Prime Minister nor the High Commissioner had been born in the Dominion. Mr. Massey, he said, had represented New Zealand overseas and most of New Zealand's leaders had not been born here. The debate was interrupted by the adjournment at 10.30 p.m.