Social Credit “Has Real Show” In Sydenham

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30287, 13 November 1963, Page 19

Social Credit “Has Real Show” In Sydenham

Sydenham was no longer a Labour stronghold, the Social Credit candidate for the electorate, Mr J. E. Pounsford claimed last evening. Speaking to an audience of 16 in the Oddfellows Hall in Wilsons road, Mr Pounsford said his party had a “real show” of taking the seat on November 30. Although he said he did not wish to launch a personal attack on his opponents, Mr Pounsford concentrated much of his criticism on Miss Howard. “Mabel does nothing until she is pushed and it is hard work pushing somebody all the time. “It is far easier to do the job yourself and I am asking you to give me that opportunity,” he said. Labour "Worried"

The Labour Party was worried that Sydenham was moving into the marginal class of electorates, he said. Holding up a quarter-page newspaper advertisement which included a photograph of Miss Howard, Mr Pounsford said: "This is the first time this sort of thing has happened. The Labour Party has given more space to its Sydenham candidate than it gave to its own leader when he opened the campaign in Christchurch. “This is the very testimon-

ial of all the hard work I have put into this electorate in the last three years,” he said. ‘The Labour Party knows the position is ‘iffy’ and is prepared to spend £lOO in advertising in one day . . . A voice: At that rate they’ll use up their £5OO in five days. Mr Poqnsford: Perhaps Mabel is only prepared to work five days. (Laughter) He said it had cost Miss Howard £lOO in an effort to regain lost prestige. Mr Pounsford estimated that between 70 and 80 per cent of the electorate was sympathetic towards Social Credit. “Neither of the other parties can say that. All we have to do is to convert enough sympathisers to supporters and we will have a Social Credit member of Parliament for this district,” he said. Mr Pounsford said he was the only Sydenham candidate who actually lived in the electorate. Miss Howard lived in Aranui and “the other one somewhere on a farm in the country,” he said. It had cost him a considerable amount to shift from Kaiapoi to Sydenham, but he did it because he had the electorate at heart.

"I have a deep attachment for the Sydenham people,” he said. “They are my kind of people—working people. I understand their problems and am equipped to fight for them.” Mr Pounsford pledged himself to help pensioners and said he would personally fight any attempts to increase the salaries of members of Parliament until all the needs of pensioners had been met. Candidate Questioned “If Social Credit is such a wonderful thing, why is it that none of the 80-odd politicians in Parliament have been converted?” asked a questioner after Mr Pounsford had finished speaking. Mr Pounsford said the Labour Party had “a brutal manner” towards anyone who did not toe the party line. “And National Party politicians have to toe the line, too,” he said. “But surely someone would speak up in favour of it,” the questioner said.

Mr Pounsford: I could tell you a Lot more in a man-to-man talk. But not here . . . the press is present.