MR FRASER AT WAIMATE

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24051, 13 September 1943, Page 6

MR FRASER AT WAIMATE

GOVERNMENT’S WORK FOR SERVICEMEN

Five hundred citizens of Waimate gave the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. p. Fraser) a cordial reception at the Olympia Hall, Waimate, on Saturday evening. Mr Fraser's speech covered very fully the Gpvernment’s legislative and administrative achievements in four years of peace and four of war. He claimed that the Government’s record justified a renewal of the people’s confidence with even greater strength on election day. He reiterated the Government’s pledge that irrespective of any depressed economic and financial conditions elsewhere, there would be no destitution or distress in New Zealand as long as Labour had the people's authority to make full use of the country’s resources. “The .main issue is between Labour and the National Party,” said Mr Fraser. “The others are interlopers and mushroom growths which sprang up overnight, and will be swept away on September 25 and forgotten.” Paying tribute to the New Zealanders’ assistance towards the victory in Italy, 'Mr Fraser said that the New Zealand Division was recalled to Alamein to hold Rommel while the Bth Army regrouped, and in the role it was called upon to play contributed largely towards saving Egypt, the fall of which would have caused incredible events. Mr Fraser said it was only fair to these men who had saved their country and the world that the, people and the Government should co-operate to repay the debt owed to them. However, the war was not won, and it was not the time for complacency nor for talk about New Zealand being overcommitted. when Great Britain and Russia were going all out. It was well known that manpower was a perplexing problem, said Mr Fraser, but what New Zealand promised had been reconsidered from time to time, and Mr Churchill and President Roosevelt had full knowledge of the Dominion’s resources.

Referring to the land settlement of former servicemen, Mr Fraser said it might not be possible to subdivide areas without involving considerable expense in the erection of houses and farm buildings, and also fencing for the additional farms on that particular area. It seemed to him, Mr Fraser added, much preferable, instead of inflicting heavy initial expense on returned soldier settlers, and breaking their hearts —as happened too frequently after the last war—in the effort to work off tlfe debt, that it should be looked upon as war expenses. This would avoid any future necessity for writing off money as was done on a previous occasion, when £12,000,000 out of £20,000,000 had to be written off. In any case. Mr Fraser asserted that returned servicemen wopld not be placed in hopeless positions, either on the land or in any other occupation. Even the most that the nation could do for the men and women who had fought and made sacrifices to save their country and their Empire■' from the tyranny of the Axis powers would be too little as a reward for their magnificent service, said Mr Fraser. . At the conclusion of Mr Faser’s address a vote of thanks and confidence in the Government was moved by Mr J. Greegan and carried unanimously. Cheers were also given for the Labour ' Party. ' CAMPAIGN NOTES POINTS FROM SPEECHES Sales Tax Revenue. —“We couldn’t afford to take it off,” was the reply given by .Mr J. W: Munro (Labour, Dunedin'North) to a questioner who asked him' why the Labour Party had failed to abolish the sales tax as it had promised to do and why, on the contrary, it had increased the tax. “I did not make any such promise because 1 knew we couldn’t abolish the tax,” the candidate added. “It is such a good money spinner that we couldn’t let it go. Who is against it? 5 Only the traders. and not the general public.” • Money for Servicemen.—“As far as the settlement of soldiers is concerned L would like to see advances made to .servicemen at, say, 2 per cent, interest,” said Mr S. J. Murdoch (National, Marsden). “That would be in line with the money obtained by the Government from the Reserve Bank, which advances at 1J per cent, for the first £5.000.000 and 2 per cent, for anything over that figure. If its is possible to use money at that rate of interest for Government purposes, it should be possible to use it for the returned boys.” Mr Curtin’s Success.—“ The outstanding success of Mr Curtin’s party in the recent Australian elections is, I believe, the first indication of a worldwide trend to the ‘Left’ by the so-called common people in their search for the New Christian Order, which is imperatively necessary if we are not to continue our wholesale sacrifices of the world’s youth to the pagan god of war,” said Mr H. Atmore (Independent. Nelson).

Communists and Labour.—Mr W. A. Veitch (National. Wellington Suburbs) alleged that there was an “unholy alliance between the Labour 'Party and the Communist Party.” Mr Veitch said he believed the personnel of the Communist Party had insinuated itself into the trade unions and had obtained con. trol. “The Labour Party depends very largely for its fighting funds;” said Mr Veitch. “on contributions from the trade unions, and the Communists have stipulated that if contributions be handed over, the Communists must have a quid pro quo. The Land Sales Bill is just that." Housing Shortage.—“ Within the next 12 months we should have taken the keen edge off the housing shortage.” said Mr F. L. Frost (Labour, New Plymouth) in an address to women electors at Waitara. Hard Work as Minister.—The Minister of Agriculture (the Hon. J. G. Barclay) told an Eltham audience that he had every reason to understand the farmers’ point of view because he had been a farmer all his life. “But I am working harder now,” he said, “than in the days when I milked 93 cows.” “You’ll soon have a holiday,” said an interjector

Sympathy For “Underdog.”—“l am asked whether I favour dictation by Roberts and C 0.,” said Dr. A. M. Finlay (Labour, Remuerd). “I deny such dictation. The only dictation of the Government to-day is by the people of New Zealand. If by sectionalism my opponent means sympathy for the underdog, I’m proud to be a sectionalism’

Not Backed By Brewers.—“lt is a peculiar brewery organisation that cannot afford more than £25 if it is so keen to keep a Labour Government in power,” said Flying Officer R. Clayton (Independent, Patea), when saying that, as far as he was concerned, the rumour that brewery interests were backing the People’s Movement to keep the National Party out was “pure bunk.” He said the People’s Movement gave him £25 and he was told that if he could do without it other candidates could use it. He was asked to give no pledges. His candidature for the seat was his own idea, and he could have done without the donation. Labour and Mr Lee,—Three weeks before his death, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates went to Mr J. A. Lee and said he had been sent to ask him to join the War Cabinet, said Mr Stevenson McDougall (Democratic Soldier Labour, Wellington West), but if Mr Lee said that to-day they would call him a liar. The Government had been pulling all kinds of strings to get John Lee back into the fold.