Each Area Of Buller Has Own Problems

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30294, 21 November 1963, Page 12

Each Area Of Buller Has Own Problems

(From Our Own Reporter)

WESTPORT, Nov. 20.

The election campaign in Buller had been made interesting because each area had its own peculiar problems, said the National candidate, Mr E. W. King, when addressing an audience of 35 people at Karamea. He considered the northern portion of the electorate had had a particularly fair run from the present Government and described the claim by the Labour candidate in the by-election last year that, if National won the seat there would be unemployment in the district, as so much nonsense. Mr King said he was much impressed with the progressive attitude of the people of Karamea in bettering their living conditions in the face of so much isolation and expressed sympathy with those who had been affected by the floods earlier in the month and also by the outbreak of bovine tuberculosis earlier in tlte year. The candidate spoke in support of the policies of the Minister of Labour (Mr Shand). Mr Shand had been strongly criticised in many quarters for having tried to make democracy work in New Zealand, but he had tried only to carry out one of the main objectives of the National Party. Mr King said when Labour went out of office in 1960 there was a state of chaos and many angry people left for the National Government to contend with. Now. he said, everyone was having a wonderful time under the National Government's policy. The Prime Minister's steady-does-it policy had served the nation well for the first 18 months; now it had given way to a progressive policy. Mr King said the part played by the Opposition in the last Budget debate had been ineffective as there was little it could criticise. A public relations man who had been retained by the Labour Party to prepare its campaign publicity had said that Labour needed to make drastic improvements and introduce new policies for the elections if it was to be successful.

The Government was in its second stage of long-term planning and was in the process of “dishing out" three times more in State Advances loans than Labour did, but it also realised the need to keep the economy balanced. Speaking of overseas trade. Mr King said Labour speakers had said enough in the last few weeks to damage New Zealand’s overseas trade The country depended on exports for its standard of living but. since 1957, it had gone from a sellers to a buyers' market. National had experts in the trade promotion field and it was also significant to note that 31 members of the National Party’s campaign force were farmers compared with none in Labour's. Mr King told a questioner the Government was mindful of the problem of the high cost of living in isolated areas and was doing its best to tackle it. He also gave an assurance that everything possible would be done to lift the economy of the Buller. He advised Karamea farmers to form a catchment board to help in developing land and increasing farm production.