VISIT OF PRIME MINISTER

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24052, 14 September 1943, Page 6

VISIT OF PRIME MINISTER

LARGE AUDIENCE IN CIVIC THEATRE

Two departments which he had administered before becoming Prime Minister were mentioned by the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser) in an address at Christchurch last evening, Education and Health. He said wasteful expenditure of public money was criminal, but in increasing the expenditure on education from £2,700,000 to £5,000,000 the Government had made one of its best investments. Mr Fraser said his predecessors in office could not have realised how bad conditions were in some schools. In one place he saw 30 Maoris in a classroom not big enough for 10. Some of them had tuberculosis and instead ox being a place of learning it was a iorcing house for the germs of consumption. The Labour Government when it came into office had provided more grants than the education authorities could use with the staffs and materials available. The Government’s policy was to give every child the opportunity of growing up into the best type, spiritually, mentally, morally, and physically. The Prime Minister said he hoped that when the war was over they would get a more up-to-date and scientific system of medical benefits under the Social Security Scheme, with health centres and co-operative clinics where thd doctors would either be employed by the State or work co-opera-tively. There a patient would be met by a general practitioner and directed to the appropriate specialist in the same building. With such a system the patient could feel that he was getting the best medical skill available. Mr Fraser also referred to the preventive medicine campaign, for which, he said, the present Minister (the Hun. A. H. Nordmeyer) was showing great enthusiasm. The Civic Theatre was practically filled by an audience of 1300 and there were some persons outside. After Mr Fraser had reviewed the eight years since Labour assumed office and briefly indicated the policy for the future, a motion of thanks and confidence was moved by Mr John Roberts. When the Mayor (Mr E. H. Andrews), who presided, put the motion, there were a few voices in opposition. The Prime Minister then asked for a show of hands and hardly any were raised against the motion. Mr Fraser was given an enthusiastic reception, and there were very few interjections.

NEW ZEALAND AND LEND-LEASE

MR FRASER REPLIES TO MR DOIDGE

“Statements like those of Mr Doidge cause ill-will instead of building the solidarity and friendship which are so necessary," said the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser) in Christchurch last evening when referring to comments by Mr Doidge on lend-lease. Mr Fraser said it was humbug to suggest that the United States might try to get some advantage from what he described as the finest gesture ever made by a nation at peace to one-at war, the passing of the Lend-Lease Act before the United States came into the war.

“Mr Doidge shows clearly that he has not the slightest comprehension of what lend-lease means,” said the Prime Minister. “It does not mean going into debt.”

He said the United States supplied aid to New Zealand, which gave what it could. It would not matter how the balance-sheet stood. Mr Doidge had missed the very conception of what the war was being fought for. The United States had been a generous, good neighbour, and had put a wall between New Zealand and the Japanese. Without that assistance New Zealand might have been invaded. To suggest that the United States might try to get some advantage from the situation was just humbug. New Zealand worked in the closest co-opera-tion with both the United States and the United Kingdom when important matters arose. *

PART OF SECONDARY INDUSTRIES

GOVERNMENT’S POLICY

Industries which had sprung up overnight to play their part in New Zealand’s defence would not collapse like a house of cards when the war was over if there were a Labour Government in office, said the Prime, Minister (the TU. Hon. P. Fraser) in a speech at Christchurch last evening. He said he was referring to suggestions made by Mr F. W. Doidge, Tauranga, Mr Eraser said “National Review,” which he believed was the journal of the Manufacturers’ Association, had described Mr Doidge as an embarassment to the National Party. He could assure Mr Doidge that in neither the United States nor Great Britain was there any animosity over the development of New Zealand’s secondary industries. They realised that the time had come when New Zealand could not find occupations for all her young men in primary industry. New Zealand must develop secondary industries all over the country. The Prime Minister said he had been told by experts that the reasons for the good work being done in New Zealand factories were the high standard of education of the workers and their high standard of living. Speaking about Onekaka, Mr Fraser said it was regrettable that the quantity of iron ore there was not as great as had been hoped, but there was enough iron there for the basis of a good industry with the use of a certain amount of Taranaki ironsand. The industry would be developed as conditions permitted after the war. WESTLAND SEAT HON. J. O’BRIEN OPENS CAMPAIGN ACHIEVEMENTS OF LABOUR OUTLINED (P.A.) GREYMOUTH. September 13. “New Zealand at Work And at War” was the theme of the first campaign speech of the Hon. J. O’Brien (Labour) to an audience of 150 persons at the Lyceum Hall, Greymouth, this evening. He was heartily applauded throughout, and at the conclusion was accorded a unanimous vote of thanks and confidence in himself as member for Westland and of the Labour Government. , ~ Mr O’Brien quoted figures relative to the private income of the people of New Zealand, which, he said, were not generally known. In 1932-33 the private income of the people of New Zealand was £90,000.000, and in 1942 it was £250,000,000- It was estimated that it would be £260,000,000 this year. Therefore, he said, it was evident that after the whole of the taxation was paid the private incomes of the people of New Zealand were more than £100,000,000 greater now than when the Nationalists governed. The Labour Government, said Mr O’Brien, had stabilised land on its productive value, and what happened after the last war was not going to happen this time with regard to returned men, who had had to walk off pretty quick or were thrown off their farms.

“We are buying land and spending up to £4200 to put soldiers on it,” said the Minister. “Last time the then Government lost £I3OO for every soldier who was placed on the land.” From a net income of £75 a year in 193 the farmer’s income had now jumped to £371 a year, while £8,500,000, had been wiped off the mortgages of farmers by the Labour Government, said Mr O’Brien, adding: "What had happened since the war broke out? We know. Every step that was taken we were howled at by the Opposition and told we ought to use the Social Security Funds for the purpose-of prosecuting the war effort—fancy taking money from the aged, infirm, anff the sick!

They helped with the war effort all right. They promised to, and then sabotaged everything that went oh. It is our job to defend New Zealand and we are doing it well, with the other crowd barking at our heels.” Discredited in politics, bankrupt in ideas, Mr O’Brien claimed that the National Party had lifted part of its policy from the Labour Government, which it never intended to operate, and even if it wanted to, the moneyed interests would not allow them to do it.‘ Tracing Labour’s achievements since 1935, Mr O’Brien said that New Zealand was a shell of a country when the Government took over, with more that 57,000 registered unemployed. Labour, he claimed, had provided access to outback settlers; constructed new bridges, extended hydro-electric schemes; constructed new highways, and completed roads and railways in spite of opposition. Then had come the magnificent war effort, built up in a remarkable manner. There were now 180,000 in the services, with a total of 95,000 overseas and 124,000 in the Home Guard. In addition the world’s record of production had been built up in factories throughout New Zealand, and no country in the world had gone further along the road to perfection of a rehabilitation scheme than this Dominion, he said.

There was a greater responsibility on the part of the electors to-day than ever before, on which depended the reaction of many great democratic countries of the world, which were endeavouring to put into operation legislation already enacted in New Zealand, said the Minister. If there Was any change he was afraid it would retard the introduction of humane and stable legislation to these and many other countries of the world. Tributes were paid by the chairman (Mr J. B. Kent) to the work of Mr O’Brien as member for Westland and for his work on social security legislation.

NATIONAL PARTY’S CANDIDATE

OPPOSITION TO REGIMENTATION From Our Own Reporter

HOKITIKA, September 13. Mr Frank Chivers, D.SM., official National candidate contesting the Westland electorate, addressed an enthusiastic audience in the Regent Theatre, Hokitika, last evening. The candidate traversed at length the major planks of "the party’s policy and was frequently applauded during his address. Mr Chivers made it plain that he was opposed to regimentation and socialisation of the individual, and the nationalisation of land and commercial enterprises. He drew a sharp contrast between the respective policies of the National Party and the Labour Party in this respect, and said he would fight for the protection of the individual’s rights. The only way to face up to the problems of the future, he said, was through the maintenance of British freedom and justice. (Loud applause.) Mr Chivers emphasised the mainfest advantage evolving from the National Party’s policy for the family man, and said that the rights of the real civil servants would be carefully safeguarded. He was fully in accord with Mr Holland’s statement that the Internal Marketing Department must be abolished. He challenged anyone ,in the audience to enumerate any commodity made cheaper, more plentiful, or of better quality since the inauguration of the Internal Marketing Department. Mr Chivers said that under no circumstances would outside domination of Parliament be tolerated, and proven military defaulters would not be permitted in any way to take part in any rehabilitation scheme. (Applause.) Housing Policy of Party

The speaker dealt with the attractive housing policy of the party, and emphasised the advantages that would accrue to the nation under the party’s education scheme. The present social security scheme would stand and be developed to its logical conclusion, he added. Mr Chivers paid a tribute to Mr Holland as leader of the party, and referred to him as a statesman in every sense of the word. . Mr M. B. James proposed a vote of thanks to the speaker and said Mr Chivers was very modest of his war service to the country, and explained how he had won the D.S.M. Messrs James, Noble, and Robinson seconded the motion, which was carried unanimously, . ;, , Mr A. P. Elcock presided.