Speaking To Candidates

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32120, 16 October 1969, Page 16

Speaking To Candidates

By

K. D. Coates

M. P. Hobbj Labour Papanui

Local body rates should be spread over a wider base, considers Mr M. P. Hobby, Labour candidate for Papanui. A former member of the Waimairi County Council and chairman of its finance committee, he says that the burden of paying rates falls on too few people. Payment should not be made in one lump sum, he said, and more people should share in the paying of rates. Asked how he considered the position could be remedied, Mr Hobby said perhaps the central government could become the collecting agency and send rates back to local bodies. In addition, there was a need for amalgamation of all the large number of ad hoc bodies and the establishment of some form of regional government. When questioned as to how a greater number of people would share in the payment of rates, Mr Hobby said: “I am for the user paying, but how to implement this is a tricky one.” But he had met some elderly people who were faced with paying $7O in rates for an old, ramshackle house. “It seems as though we are taking the money off the wrong people in some cases, but you would have me when it comes to how another system should be brought into being.” Asked why he was standing for Parliament, Mr Hobby said that while he was happy living in Christchurch—he runs three men’s wear shops—he felt he needed a challenge. “Jaycees is great fun, and 1 am in Rotary too,” he said. “But I found in local bodies that although we met in committees for long hours we had tidied up a lot of things for people.” He felt that the personal satisfaction in this field would also be experienced by becoming an M.P. where he would be doing a job where major decisions were made. “I would be more effective there than carrying a placard along the banks of the Avon,” he said. No, he was not against protest, but felt there was a challenge involved in standing for the general election. Married with three children, Mr Hobby said he began in business when he was 24. When he left school he got a job working for a retailer who said he would always give him a job. “I realised that this promise only held good so long as his business was good, and I decided it would be much better to paddle my own canoe,” he added. There was more to his job than just retailing. “I am more interested in people than I am in in men’s wear,” he said. His first interest in local body work came as a result of his frustration at being fobbed off when making an inquiry about a drain outside his house.

Later he came to realise that such inquiries were handled by riding members of the local body. Asked why he was standing for Labour, Mr Hobby said he had been born into this party allegiance. Labour had always instigated social legislation and improvement. Other governments objected at first, but then kept measures on and added to them. "My ideas are left off centre, although I am not way out left,” he said. “But my party has more heart for the people.” Asked about Labour’s role ahead, Mr Hobby said Opposition was a good thing in the country because the Government could not always see where it had made mistakes. Labour had also a role to interest itself in the plight of elderly people. “When I tell them that underwear is $7.50 a pair they say they will only take one pair and come back for other in a week or so. “Pensions will have to be revised—they are not large enough on today’s prices,” Mr Hobby said. People were apathetic to politics, he said, because we had experienced nine years of decision-making by one Government which was a great copyist. The National Development Council was Labour’s idea from 1960 turned around a bit and used. "I think one reason is because the parties have moved closer together and perhaps it was a good thing that Mr Kirk dropped the bombshell about State aid—something to wake the people up,” Mr Hobby said. Asked for his opinion on State Mr Hobby said he would like more information on the proposal announced by Mr Kirk. “I know exactly what I have read in the newspapers,” he said. “But I don’t say that State schools do not need more money.” On general respect for politicians, he said some M.P.s developed a veneer which resulted in information not being as forthcoming as openly as people would like. Mr Hobby said he would like to see every price increase justified. He did not favour the setting up of further Government departments, but manufacturers should notify proposed rises and, if they were justified, they should be allowed. “But we see shirts increasing in price from $3.99 to $4.50. and this seems a startling rise,” he said. “Prices should not be allowed to keep on rising without justification.” Asked what ideas he had to aid Maori integration, Mr Hobby said Maori children should be kept at school until they were 16. “We are not getting the leaders and if we don’t do something in this direction, we will end up with a colour problem in New Zealand,” he said.