MR NORDMEYER AT SUMNER

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27500, 6 November 1954, Page 8

MR NORDMEYER AT SUMNER

NUCLEAR WEAPON TESTS OPPOSED

LABOUR’S POLICY ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS

“The Labour Party would view with very grave concern any proposal that the Antarctic area, particularly that part administered by New Zealand,

should be used for testing nuclear weapons,” said the president of the Labour Party (Mr A. H. Nordmeyer) to a questioner at Sumner last evening. “Much of our weather seems to come from th e south,” he said, “and it would be taking a very grave risk to allow these tests to be carried out.”

Mr Nordmeyer spoke in the Town Hall to an attentive audience of about 85, in support, of the Labour candidate for Lyttelt-n (Mr T. M. McGuigan). “There is a number, and we have some in the Labour Party, who could not care less about what happens overseas,” Mr Nordmeyer said. “That is a selfish point of view, and we cannot afford not to be concerned about what is happening in other parts of the world, particularly to our near neighbours. We don’t need to drag uown our standards of living, but to make some sacrifice to lift others to ours.”

He believed there had been a tendency to look to America rather than to Britain and the Commonwealth for New Zealand’s defence and safety. He did not subscribe to the opinion that in the event of another war Britain would not be in a position to support New Zealand. There was a danger if alliances -ve-’e formed with other countries that New Zealand might find itself embroiled in a war in which Britain was not engaged. The Labour Party favoured the admission of all countries to the United nations—“ Spain as much as China.” he said. If the organisation was true to its name. It should contain all governments , The Labour Party proposed that the hydrogen bomb and other weapons of mass destruction should be banned, and favoured disarmament, though unilateral disarmament at thia stage would be unwise, and the party would favour a continuation of defence measures i “Na Chance" “rhe Social Credit Party has no i chance whatever of becoming theGove nment. The only possibility is the continuance of the National Govern- ■ ment or its replacement by a Labour Government,” Mr Nordmeyer said, after discussing finance. “It is wrong to suggest that there was some ti--up between the Labour Party and Social Credit in 1935. We both felt there was a deficiency of purchasing power, but there are some who overlook that toe type of policy it is correct to pursue when there is a shortage of money and a surplus of i goods is not necessarily the same policy that should be pursued when conditions are the opposite. I would ' emphasise that Social Credit has not got a monopoly of financial reform. The i Labour government did evfirything practicable to control the money machine in this country.” A Labour 'government would intro-

duce the pay-as-you-earn system of income tax, which would be of great benefit to wage and salary earners. Mr Nordmeyer said. It would restore to social security beneficiaries the purchasing power their benefits had in 1949.

Some might think the gilt had been taken off the gingerbread by making the family benefit subject to income tax, he continued, but it was only when a man with two children reached an income of £2375 a year that the increase of 5s ceased to be of benefit to him.

The proposal that the benefit could be capitalised to provide for repayment of a mortgage or payment on a n<.w home provided the only opportunity some people would have of reducing their mortgage by a considerable amount.

Mr Nordmeyer said he had been reported as saying he favoured a direction of manpower to house building. He had said nothing of the kind. What he had said was that if more houses were to be built, then more material must be made available and more manpower encouraged to home building. That might mean that there would have to be a slackening up for a time on commercial building until resources could be reorganised. Labour came before the people ' .’th a policy for the future:’the National Party had none, he concluded.