1600 HEAR MR KIRK IN TOWN HALL

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33063, 2 November 1972, Page 16

1600 HEAR MR KIRK IN TOWN HALL

About 1600 persons, including perhaps 50 young hecklers, listened last evening to the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Kirk) giving the first political address in the Christchurch Town Hall auditorium.

The address was wideranging but repeated much that had already been reported from previous speeches or from the Labour Party manifesto.

The heckling began before Mr Kirk started to speak and was maintained steadily throughout the evening. Mr! Kirk appeared to find it encouraging and was never at a loss for a reply. In introductory remarks, the Mayor of Christchurch (Mr N. G. Pickering) described Mr Kirk as a young and vigorous New Zealander. "He’s been mistaken for Stewart Island,” called a heckler.

Almost as soon has he reached the microphones, Mr Kirk turned to where his critics were sitting and suggester they would benefit from the Labour Party’s policy of improving pre-school education.

Introducing nine candidates for local electorates, Mr Kirk said any of them was worth two of the National candidates, but it was what they stood for that counted.

In Mr Hugh Watt he had a loyal assistant — “I don’t have to go on television and fight with my deputy,” he said.

One of the many areas neglected by the Government was the plight of the handicapped, and Marylands in particular had been starved of funds, said Mr Kirk. The

Government was providing 50c a day for each child — who could keep and care for a child for that cost? From next February, the Government was going to give Marylands another 51 for each boy — just the same as they gave the farmers for each sheep. •NOT HEALTHY’ "Handicapped people are people. A society that cares more for its sheep than its handicapped is not healthy,” said Mr Kirk.

“What will Labour do for

Marylands?” called one of the audience. Mr Kirk said Labour would provide up to 100 per cent of the cost of buildings, or up to 90 per cent of the total cost of land, furniture and buildings. It would also provide the basic cost of keeping the children, and would see that it was not necessary to depend on the goodwill of Australians for money to maintain the home.

Speaking on the environment, he said that in regard to Lake Manapouri the Government had merely decided not to make a decision, and had gone ahead and authorised the building of a high dam so the lake level could be raised later.

Labour, said Mr Kirk, would not raise the level of Lake Manapouri. It would also bring down legislation

prohibiting any type of work on Lake Wanaka that would affect the natural level of the lake. Labour would also make the Government subject to the laws of the country relating to the environment. GANG ELEMENT Touching on the rise in crime, Mr Kirk said the way to deal with the motor-cycle gang element was to put them off their bikes. “One law for the bikies, another for everyone else?” called a heckler. “You’re a Fascist. What’s with this right-wing Labour kick? Why don’t you deal with the causes rather than the symptoms. Speak up: we can’t hear what you are saying.” “Then I suggest you close your mouths and allow your ears to open,” said Mr Kirk. He spoke of overcrowding in prisons, unemployment, a need for the promotion of industry by providing finance and protection, and a need for the revision of rail charges from the South Island.

A 501 b package, he said, could be airfreighted from the South Island to New Plymouth for $5 less than the cost of rail freight. There was something radically wrong with the railways administration when this could happen. Mr Kirk won approval from the hecklers when he spoke of Labour’s foreign policy. New Zealand’s policy toward Asian countries, he said, should be its own and not a matter of standing in the shadow of a large country and saying, “Me, too.” “That’s what we want to hear,” said the hecklers. DIRECT RESULT New Zealand’s inflation was the direct result of Mr Muldoon’s financial policies, said Mr Kirk. Each time the Government had slowed production, it had forced industry to put its prices up because their overhead costs remained constant. Wages merely followed the other increases. The Government, said Mr

Kirk, had imposed 37 separate increases in taxes and departmental charges since January 1, 1970. In three years under a Government pledged to hold prices, the cost of living had gone up 25 per cent.

Labour’s proposals to prevent exploitation by some landlords, and to provide rate relief for pensioners, were discussed next, then a need for more housing, and more finance for local bodies. At this stage, after a particularly prolonged interruption by some of the hecklers, Mr Pickering gave a final warning. Mr Kirk continued, touching on education, health services, a need for a third medical school, and the ill-effects of mothers being forced to work to help support their families.

“Let’s make it possible,” he said, “for a couple to establish a home on a basis of one job and one mortgage.” Inevitably, Mr Kirk was asked where the money was coming from. Natural growth in the economy, he replied, and tax incentive saving schemes. One of the last words came from a heckler. “That,” he said, “was a recording.”