“EVERY MAN A CAPITALIST” IS AIM OF NATIONALISTS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 5, 29 June 1949, Page 5

“EVERY MAN A CAPITALIST” IS AIM OF NATIONALISTS

Wellington, June 28. “If the present Government is known as the Labour Government,” said Mr W. J. Sim, K.C., in his presidential address at the National Party Conference yesterday, “the National Government wcfuld be tvell pleased to be recognised primarily as a producers’ and consumers’ Government, and foremost among the consumers whom we wish to help are the workers.

“We pledge ourselves to leave nothing undone which will ensure that household goods, supplies, and requirements will be available in full supply, and at a price well within the reach of the average householder. To those living on socalled unearned incomes, and to pensioners hard hit ! by the cruelties that have arisen under the socialists, we shall give immediate relief. “The the farmer and the business man we give an assurance that socialisation of lands and businesses will cease immediately, and restoration will take place wherever it is reasonably possible. Exasperating controls call for removal, and incentives to production and aids to distribution will be permitted to work freely and produce increased results for the good of all, ending the slump in goods and services that now holds New Zealand in its grip.”

Failure Of Socialism As a Government concerned- primarily with the welfare of all, and not with sectional interests, the National Party, after concentration on production, would give attention to the requirements of the consumer and strive by all means available to bring prices to a stable and reasonable level.

On the destructive side, socialism in New Zealand had been a complete success, on the constructive side, a failure. It had built -no industry, made no contribution towards increased production. The supreme difference between the Parties was that the present Government desired to see every man a socialist. The National Party desired every New Zealander by his initiative, energy, and courage, to become a capitalist, owning his own home and enjoying his independence within the law and the self-respect which went with it. “IjWish to add what we shall not do,” concluded Mr Sim, “and to save us from future electioneering misrepresentation on these subjects I could only hope that any publisher who honours me by repeating these Words will do so in block capitals heavily inked: “We shall not interfere with the Social Security scheme, and all its present benefits, including the family benefits, and we shall not cut wages or salaries.”