Speaking to candidates

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33062, 1 November 1972, Page 10

Speaking to candidates

(Ken Coats)

AVON

Mrs Mary Batchelor, trade union organiser and city councillor, is the Labour Party's candidate for the Avon electorate, which was retained for Labour in the 1969 election by Mr J. Mathison with a 5600 majority. Mr Mathison is retiring from politics, but Avon is likely to remain a safe Labour seat. The National Party’s candidate is Mr G. V. Thomas who has a one-man business. Mr I. W. W. Barrow’ is again standing for the Social Credit League, and the New Democrat candidate is a widow, Mrs R. M. Thelning.

Christened Irwin, but known as Peter Barrow for as long as he Can remember, the Social Credit candidate is having his third try for Avon. The 51-year-old engineer and market gardener says he is most unhappy with a system that involves Christchurch in a loan and interest repayment of $297,500 annually. “We should be doing more with Reserve Bank credit and local bodies are suffering because of finance difficulties,” he says. “In the end, of course, it is the individual who suffers and this is why we should ensure that Reserve Bank credit, which has only to be repaid once, at 1 per cent, is used for local body development and spending.” Mr Barrow says he has stuck with the league because the New Democrats are “people who will not conform to working together on committees. They are dictators,” he alleges. The two panties have similar policies, but the New Democrat candidates say one thing, and the leadership says another. “They are a splinter group who are for ever contradicting themselves.” The biggest issue in Avon, Mr Barrow claims, is one of rates and local body spending. Sewerage smells are lowering property values. The answer lies in a sane financial policy at government level. He does not favour selling ironsands to the Japanese, but says New Zealand should set up its own smelting on a large scale. But he is for disposing of coal from the West Coast provided a deep-sea port is constructed at Point Elizabeth. Mrs Thelning Mrs Rona Thelning, a widow, New Democrat candidate, says she was a member of the Social Credit League since its inception in 1954. “But the league is now not fulfilling the Social Credit principles as laid down by Douglas,” she maintains. “The last conference was quite unconstitutional.” Asked what she saw as issues in Avon, she said the electorate was typical of others throughout the country. “It is up to the residents to say what they want done,” she says. Asked how she planned

to find out what residents think, Mrs Thelning said she would advertise and people could get in touch with her. But she does not plan to knock on doors or hold meetings.

“I am a very retiring person really, but my belief in monetary reform and John O’Brien is so strong, I have to stand,” she adds. Asked her age, Mrs Thelning said this was her own business and she would not say what it was. She adds that she is against mothers with young children going out to work, and considers that people should have sufficient access to finance to enable them to buy goods and services, and maintain a proper standard of living, without both husband and wife having to work.

Mr Gordon Thomas, aged 51, one of a family of nine who went to the Sydenham Primary School and at 13 was working sweeping floors, cleaning windows and delivering messages for 7s 6d a week, has a background more akin to that of a traditional Labour supporter than a National candidate.

He says his father, who was a foreman cabinetmaker, was a keen Labour man, but he and his brothers and sisters became National supporters. -“I first supported the National Government in 1951 at the time of the waterfront strike when the union leaders, Jock Barnes and Toby Hill, were holding the country to ransom and crippling the country,” he adds. “And at that time Mr Nash of the Labour Opposition was neither for nor against.

“Honesty and integrity have always been lacking in the Labour Party.” Today, Gordon Thomas runs a one-man business at home as a manufacturing jeweller, "self-taught.” With the help of his wife and daughter he makes dressing table sets, powder bowls and similar articles. “I have been going 10 years and while the business is going well now, there have been ups and downs,” he said.

He has a son, Malcolm, who is completing a B.Sc. at Canterbury University. He recalls that he tramped all over Christchurch for that first job with a pram-making firm. “Times were hard; mv father was foreman over 40 carpenters and they all got the sack and finally he did, too,” he says. “I not only had to polish and clean windows and sweep the shop floor, but also supply my own bicycle," he adds. “Then came my second job, in a fruit shop opposite the Provincial Hetel and I earned £1 a week.

“I also worked for Harry Urlwin for five years and I was regarded as 'a pretty good worker.” At the outbreak of the Second World War, Mr Thomas tried hard to get into the services—“actually I wanted to be a fighter pilot”—but he was passed only grade 3 medically. “I went to the West Coast and did a bit of mining and was manpowered into different jobs,” he recalls, “I worked in freezing works, factories, on the wharf, truck driving—no job was beneath my dignity I can tell you, as long as there was a few bob in it.” Mr Thomas does not look on himself as an uneducated man. “I guess I always had a yen to improve myself and felt I had missed out a bit.

“I have undertaken many W.E.A. classes and have been president and secretary of the public speaking and debating clubs.

Among his successes he lists the Nash Trophy for being one of the best debating team, and winner of the best speaker award in W.E.A. competitions. He has taken classes that have included English and economics.

Mr Thomas is highly critical of the Labour Mayor of Christchurch and claims that it was the election “fiasco” that sparked his interest in national politics. He joined the Avon branch of the National Party, accepted vice-presid-dency and then accepted candidacy. “It is a challenge, and I have an excellent chance of being elected because the Labour candidate put up by the trade unions is very weak,” he says. Asked what he saw as main issues, Mr Thomas said housing was one. “Our record is first class; it will be an issue because Labour will make it one.” He also sees a need to get tougher with law breakers and would like more police to

deal with crimes against property and the person He claims that Avon, represented by a Labour member for 53 years, is one of the most neglected electorates in New Zealand Local issues such as the Bexley tip and lack of development at New Brighton beach need active support for the member, he says "Labour M.P.s have been almost impossible for people to get hold of. but I will be available at all times and will fight like hell for the -people of Avon,” Mr Thomas affirms.

Long a strong advocate of equal pay for women. Mrs Mary Batchelor, organiser for the 5000strong Canterbury Clerical Workers’ Union, says she looks forward to being able to work at a national level for improvements affecting the lives of people. “I want to be in a position to improve things, instead of sitting back and moaning — although people who know me know I don’t do that,” she comments.

And she places as a top priority raising the medical benefit so that elderly people can afford to see a doctor when they need one “You would be surprised at the number of people in real need; even young people cannot stretch their budget to meet the fees necessary,” she adds.

A working woman on a wage rate of $45, faced with paying $l6 a week for rent is also in a difficult position when it comes to seeing a doctor and paying the fees, Mrs Batchelor points out. Mother of two, now both in their twenties, Mrs Batchelor says she is in her “early forties.” She began training as a milliner after leaving secondary school, but had to give up because of eyesight problems. Various jobs followed including working in a grocer’s shop until she took the union post seven years ago. She became chairman of the Canterbury branch of the Council of Equal Pay and Opportunity, one of the first in the country to be formed, and comments now: “Naturally some progress has been made, but 1 am sorry the commission’s recommendations have not been carried out to a greater extent.

“The fight is by no means over. Unfortunately, people tend to mix up equal pay with other forms of equality when wage rates should be dealt with as a separate issue.”

Asked for her reaction on gaining the Labour nomination for what has long been regarded as a safe seat, Mrs Batchelor admitted: “It took me a few days to come down to earth; I was surprised and pleased, of course, that people considered I would do a good job in representing them.

“I am determined not to let them down; it might sound soppy, but I am tickled at the idea of being able to work in governbent when I have fought hard in the field of equal pay. Having been given this opportunity, I am resolved to use it to the best advantage.” Because of her job with the Clerical Workers’ Union, Mrs Batchelor is keenly interested in industrial relations.'Much of the discontent of workers, she says, is due to insecurity. Modern technology is seen as a threat rather than a development bringing benefits. “This must be overcome by ensuring the worker gains, through, for example, a shorter working week,” she says. "And here unions will have to give to some extent through agreeing to shift work with workers on rotation. What is important, however, is that the workers see gains to them and employers and workers’ representatives must work out benefits together. Mrs Mary Batchelor, who is chairman of the City

Council’s health and general committee, has been a delegate to the Trades Council for more than six years, and is no stranger to a man’s world. And she considers her sex is irrelevant in the question of representing electors. “In many issues the different approach I have, being a woman, could in fact be an advantage,” she says. Other needs seen by Mrs Batchelor are more State houses, properly integrated into the community, more pensioner housing provided through local bodies financed from central government, and more attention to education because of the increasing responsibility being thrown on the teacher by i