NOT SOCIALISING FARMS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22432, 20 June 1938, Page 8

NOT SOCIALISING FARMS

Denial by Prime Minister FULL PRODUCTION WANTED (PEESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) MASTERTON, June 19. An emphatic denial that his Government wanted to socialise farms was made by the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) in an address at the Masterton Opera House last evening. A man working a farm for himself would work it much better than if he were working for wages. All the Government wanted was the fullest economic production. When the individual did the job there was no question of the State stepping in.

Anyone who thought that the Ne’v Zealand farmer was not doing his job to-day had a lot of thinking to do. The New Zealand farmer was second to none in the world. The exports from New Zealand, chiefly to Great Britain, were greater a head of population than those of any other country on earth.

Mr Savage was accompanied by the Minister for Mines (the Hon. P. C. Webb) and by the members for Wairarapa and Masterton, Messrs D. Roberts and J. Robertson. The Mayor fMr T. Jordan) presided, and, in welcoming the Prime Minister, thanked him for removing the shackles from the district by undertaking to drive a tunnel through the Rimutakas. At Mr Jordan’s request, the Prime Minister presented to Miss Zoe Pickering the Royal Humane Society’s awards made to her and to her sistex*, now Mrs Ingley» for their gallant effort to save the life of a man who was drowning in Lake Wairarapa. In responding to the speeches of welcome. Mr Savage said that he had been speaking 16 or 17 times a day for the last week, but would do his best. His health was Al.

The Rimutaka deviation had been mentioned. Mr Roberts and Mr Robertson had been at him for quite a long time about the boring of this hole through the hill. The Government's decision was not, as somebody had said, a matter of catching votes, but whether it caught votes or not the hole would be through the hill. The Labour Government was unlike some past Governments jn that there were at least 10 or a dozen men in it who could put a hole through the hill themselves. The Minister for Public Works was not the least of these*- In declaring again that there was no question of this being a pre-election move, Mr Savage said tnat the job would be begun at the earlie't possible moment. It was a question of developing the Wairarapa. Mr Savage said that his Government wanted to extend land settlement. He desired nothing better than to begin where Richard John Seddon knocked off. It had been a delightful experience to travel through the country and meet the people during the last week. Mr Savage was given a rousing reception by the 800 people at the meeting He was cheered loudly on his first appearance and frequently cheered and applauded as he spoke. When he ended his speech he was again cheered, and „ e audience sang “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.”