RISING COST OF LIVING

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22201, 18 September 1937, Page 16

RISING COST OF LIVING

ISSUE OF MINISTERIAL STATEMENT MR KYLE CRITICISES MR SULLIVAN [From Our Parliamentary Reporter] WELLINGTON, September 17. "The rate of exchange has helped the dairy farmer more than the guaranteed price," said Mr H. S. S. Kyle (National, Riccarton) during the Address-in-Reply debate in the House of Representatives to-day. Mr Kyle criticised Mr A. F. Moncur (Government, Rotorua) for quoting only the highest production averages in his electorate when defending the guaranteed price system. Why, he asked, should Mr Moncur not quote some of the lower figures so that the position could be seen in its proper perspective? Before the election people had been told that the guaranteed price would take the place of the high exchange, but the exchange had remained the same and had actually helped the farmers more than the guaranteed price. "Last May the Minister for Industries and Commerce (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan) Issued a statement in Christchurch on the rising cost of living," Mr Kyle said. "I doubt, however, whether the Minister ever saw that statement before it was issued because if he had it is not likely that it would ever have seen the light of day. He admitted that the cost of living had gone up by 7J per cent., but about a week later Messrs J. Roberts and J. Walsh told the Arbitration Court that it had risen by 15 per cent." Mr Sullivan: If you insist on quoting Mr Roberts, I will have to quote Professor Tocker. "At New Brighton recently the Minister told the unemployed about the number of new houses that had ~een put up and even about the number of marriages," Mr Kyle added. "It is a wonder he did not tell them about the number of births also and take the credit for everything." Mr Kyle referred "to a cutting from a newspaper in which the writer advised the Government to restrain some of its members, including Dr. D. G. McMillan (Dunedin West), Messrs G. H O. Wilson (Rangitikei), and W. J.Lyon (Waitemata) because they were allied with Communists. He said he could remember when Mr Sullivan had marched into Latimer square in Christchurch and had taken the same soap box with some of the leading Communists. Would he do that now? It seemed unlikely, judging by what he had recently told a Communist at New Brighton.