Social Credit Answer To N.Z.’s Internal Problems

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29766, 8 March 1962, Page 16

Social Credit Answer To N.Z.’s Internal Problems

It was a national scandal that import control had been used as a political instrument by both the Labour and National Parties, said Mr V. F. Cracknell in Oamaru last evening. Mr Cracknell was speaking in support of the Social Credit candidate in the Waitaki by-election (Mr A. W. Barwood).

The flood gate for imports had been opened in election years, he said, and when governments had been elected they had had to make things good.

“Since 1951 New Zealand's receipts overseas have risen by over £loom, but payments in the same period have jumped over £2oom. When we look closely at the payments figures we see that they consist of a deficit of £slm in 1951-52, a deficit of £ 42m in 1954-55. and a deficit of £s9m in 1957-58. There was a deficit of £s7m in 1960-61—a total of £2o9m spent in election years," said Mr Cracknell. Overseas Investments He opposed “the Labour policy of selling out New Zealand piecemeal, at any cost, to overseas Investors. This, coupled with the National Government joining the International Monetary Fund presents a grim and serious picture. The league’s attitude is that it is not opposed to the development of secondary industry provided it is done on fair and reasonable terms and at fair and reasonable costs. That applies also to foreign investment.

‘Social Credit’s answer to our internal problems is to reduce taxes and co«s by squeezing debt out of our economy. The answer Is in using the people's credit through the Reserve Bank. We must replace the preponderance of debt with clean, honest money. “This money will come from the simple records of bookkeeping, from the same place as it does now, except that it is now created as interesting - bearing debt. This change must be gradual and we must recognise the obligations of people under the debt system. “Different"' Money “The emphasis is not on more money but on a different sort of money,” said Mr Cracknell If something was not done the morale of the people of New Zealand would be destroyed and they would become material for totalitarianism and Communism. Speaking of the “aluminium fiasco," Mr Cracknell said that the Comalco Company was going to pey valuable overseas funds to im-

port bauxite from Australia with the result that New Zealand's own resources of bauxite would be frozen. Of membership of the International Monetary Fund, he said that the Government bad joined to gain access to more debt and had jeopardised a large slice of New Zealand’s economic sovereignty. The Social Credit policy on oversees funds was to divorce import control from politics, and expand the internal economy and overseas markets, he said.