NATIONALISATION OR DEVELOPMENT?

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16699, 6 December 1919, Page 10

NATIONALISATION OR DEVELOPMENT?

I CANTERBURY'S TRUE POLICY. MR MASSEVS REPLIES TO SIR J. WARD. In an interview with a '"Press"' reporter yesterday, the Prime Minister '.do!; occasion to reply to several reported statements ninde by the Leader >i the OppoMtion in his speech at i iYmtika on Thursday night. j "T don't know that 1 have very much to sav in reply to what tho Leader of :he Opposition said to tho people of Tenitika last night." remarked Mr .Massey,'' but it occurred to mo in reading tho report of his speech that he thinks nationalisation is a remedy for all the ills to which the Dominion is heir There is no parallel between owning the railways and the Post Office and the proposals of the Leader of the Opposition. It. is quite right that in a c-ountry like this tho Railways and Post Office should he the property of tho Government, in order to prevent rnonopolv and exploitation, but it is quite a different thing with coal mines, Ibiiir mills, hanking, and in quite a number of other directions in which nationalisation is suggested. Sir Joseph Ward is evidently competing with the party whom we think of as extremists in his expressed desire for .:atio:ialisiition. DEVELOPMENT WORK FIRST. "Tho point that appeals to ine is this, however. These nationalisation proposals will cost manv millions to give effect to. In the meantime, we want til tho monev that can bo raised reasonably for the purpose of carrying on tlio development work, without which the country cannot progress, and the development work 1 speak of includes railway building, road making, b rid go building, generation of hydro-electricity, improving our present main roads, land settlement, and last, but bv no means least, the expenditure involved in tho repatriation of our soldiers. If we c pcnd the money that is available, or u'jc up our credit in tho schemes of nationalisation which linvo been suggested. very well then, wo cannot do justice to tho other proposals, and I lcavo it lo the people to sav which are the most necessarv. HOUSING PROPOSALS. "As for Sir Joseph Ward's housing proposals, which involves taking tho Post Office money for that purpose at a lower rato of interest than is at present bciiig paid, I may point out that Sir Joseph Ward himself said in the House in 1912: —'As a matter of fairness to tho Post Office, and of judicious procedure, the Post. Office should not bo paid less, linn the Government can get tho money elsewhere for tho purpose of carrying on the business of the country.' lie ] insisted, I again quo to his words, 'that it is not right that he should give tho Post Office i per cent, below the market rate.'

"The position is this," Mr Masscy • continued: "Post Office money to-day is > being used for public works' purposes. r Tf we 'isc it for anything elso then we I have to go out in the open market and ■ raise money for public works at 5V por | cent., or more than that. No business I man can approvo of such proposals. According to tho Housing and Accommodation Act of last session, tho peoplo who are supplied with houses, and contracts havo boon let for 200 concrete houses already, will pet tho mor.ev at 4\ nor cent . that is. a house and section costing £SOO would menn to tho occupier £3G a year, or 14s a week. This, of course, does not include tho instalments intonded to pay off the loan at tho end of the term, which in the case of concrete houses will Iks very much longer than in tho case of wooden houses. Talkinrr about workers' dwollincs, I have alwnvs taken a keen interest in this subject. In 1012, when the present Government enmo into office, ♦he Workers' Dwellings Act lied been five yoars inoperation, and, by the way, some very important improvements in tho Act were made by way of amendment' on my motion when tho measure was' beforo tho Houso. But for the first five years the average number of houses built was 31 per annum. For tho next seven years, when tho present was in \yhjch includes the war period when we hhd to slacken tho avcrasre was G7 per annum, and for the present ye.ar wo havo let contracts for about 200. THE COAL MINES. "Sir Joseph "Ward talks about making money out of the coal mines. This ixmntrv has never made a copner out of its coal mines. As far as tho miners are concerned, we all want to see them well paid and the workinp conditions made ns nearly perfect as it is possible to make thorn, but wo object to any ono class increasing unnecessarily tho cost of living for other elapses, ant! that is what tho proposals of flio miners mean. Tt seems to mo that some of our politicians to-day include exaggeration with nationalisation. What, then, is the use. for instance, of talking about thero heing more power than that of nyo hundred Niagaras, or that there will not bo a stcam-rnirino on any New Zealand railway in fifteen years? As for einht million pounds completing our railways, personally I don't think sixcomplete them, but they havo got to he completed all tliei samp, and it is more urcent that this fchonW be done than almost anything elso I can think of. STATE BANK. "As for the State Bank, I can just imagine how a needy Treasurer would use it, and tho quantities of paper money which would bo issued in times of financial stringency. I nsk the people of New Zealand to remember thev are senior partners in the Bank of "New Zealand, and have a most valuable interest therein. And now, apparently, it is proposed to tako away much of its business for the purpose of stnrting anl'. O 'T . ' £ ln competition with it, which ii certain to be more or less undor political control. Such schemes can arid nothing to tho prospects of the country, rm<l will not increoso our output by a single pound's worth. COUNTRY'S TRUE POLICY. "The policy of this country must, during the period of reconstruction, be a policy of development, ono which will mean progress and which will bring prosperity. It we apply ourselves energetically for the next three years wo shall como through nil right," and get into a good position to the responsibilities arising out of the war. If ' we waste our energies in running after fads we shall be a leng time reaching tho goal which we have in view, namely, building up n happy community iu a prosperous country."