Labour Campaign In Buller Opened

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30284, 9 November 1963, Page 12

Labour Campaign In Buller Opened

(From Our Oum Reporter)

WESTPORT. Nov. 8. No section of the community could go forward without the other, said Mr W. E Rowling. Labour member for Buller, opening his campaign at Westport this evening. Labour's policy was based on incentives to the employer on one hand and the employee on the other, and the Labour Party offered objectives and not handouts, he added. Mr Rowling addressed an attentive audience of about 85 persons for more than an hour. There were no interjections. Mr Rowling said he would say little on Labour policy as the pattern had been set by Mr Nordmeyer in his national address last Tuesday. He was critical of the Government’s “steady does it” policy, and considered it a policy of disease. Its major symptoms were complacency and inertia, he said, and it was sufficiently contagious to affect the country’s whole economy. In 1960 the Minister pf Finance (Mr Lake) had said that New Zealand’s resources were fully employed. This was arrant nonsense, as everyone knew, and Buller was a district where this was most apparent.

“We are a great trading nation.” said Mr Rowling, “and only by earning overseas exchange can •we survive.” He said one of the objectives of a Labour Government would be to set up an export development agency. From his own observations and those of other parliamentarians, other countries were quickly getting on the job. He considered diversification of products in New Zealand most important. “We should look very closely at what the con..umer demands, as we are selling on a buyers’ market—we cannot say take it or leave it. They will ay leave it—and we must sell competitively." Outlining plans for overseas aid. Mr Rowling said a Labour Government would continue aid under the Colombo Plan as at present, but would expand foreign aid under slightly different arrangements. He considered that where New ealand gave aid to foreign countries it should receive preferential trade, and qu. ted the case of India receiving New Zealand assistance in installing milk treatment plants and then purchasing powdered milk from z.ustralia. It would be much better if the powdered milk came from New Zealand, he said. The Labour Party’s plans tor the Buller district were outlined at length. Referring to the harbour, Mr Rowling said the policy was the same as that at the time of the by-election: the harbour development would proceed as soon as the engineers vere ready, but from discussions he had had he thought the work could be speeded up a little. He thought more money should be granted to the engineers at Gracefield Laboratories to enable them to proceed faster, so the ground work could get started. Ministry of Fuel “We are not going to give way to pressure groups and we will establish a ministry of fuel and power to coordinate the country’s fuel resources. We will reduce freight rates on coal, one of the greatest detriments to its sale, and we will establish a research council to report directly to the Minister of Fuel and Power.”