TIMARU SEAT

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30287, 13 November 1963, Page 18

TIMARU SEAT

Social Credit Candidate (From Our Own Reporter) TIMARU, November 12. “Your wealth will be a barometer, a sane and scientific money system, £1 for £l’s worth of goods under Social Credit,” the league’s candidate for Timaru (Mr M. J. Hayes) told 16 persons at the opening of his election campaign at the South School this evening. Social Credit was a simple explanation of the faults and evils of the present inadequate money system. It was a philosophy of life with all emphasis on freedom of the individual. Social Crediters recognised man as God’s masterpiece, and any legislation that would be placed on the statute book would be put there for his betterment. “Today, the opposite is the case.” said Mr Hayes. Instead of the State being there to serve mankind, man was increasingly forced to serve the State. He had become a cog in the machine." Social Credit was a simple truth, Mr Hayes added. “We fear no contradiction in the statements we make. They are considered ones. That is why our opponents label us as ‘funny-money cranks.’ They will never face us man to man on an open platform in an open debate. We have no axe to grind. We have a message for the people.” Progress “Retarded” Social Credit believed that that which was physically possible and desirable for the betterment of mankind should be financially possible. “The surface of New Zealand has only been scratched. Our development and progress have been retarded," Mr Hayes said. The basis of Social Credit was to establish an economic and social order built on the foundations of brotherly love, truth, honesty, and endeavour.

The individual was more important than the State, and systems should be made for man, and not vice versa.

Restrictive forms of political and financial dictatorship should be opposed. Social Credit believed in competitive enterprise, that Stateowned businesses should conform to the same conditions as privately-owned ones. It believed the only purpose of production was consumption, that the first necessity was to reform the present unchristian money system, which was dishonest and unjust, and the basic cause of evils. “Some people think Social Credit is only monetary reform. Money is a great dictator: it is a key to a new life, and the reforming of the money system is but the beginning. Money is valueless; it is only good as a means of exchange,” Mr Hayes said. “Confusing Jargon" Social Credit was spoken of in a jargon that confused the people, he said. Production did not distribute sufficient purchasing power to buy the finished article. This was a natural fault of the money system. Wages and salaries were being mortgaged to buy goods that were already there. People were divided religiously and racially, and there would be no peace and disarmament until the usurious and iniquitous money system was abolished, he said. Nothing could be politically right that was morally wrong, and the politicians had forgotten that. A vote for Labour and National in South Canterbury was a vote for stagnation, and had been for years. Only when Timaru became a marginal electorate would the people come to their senses, said Mr Hayes.