CHRISTCHURCH CENTRAL

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33063, 2 November 1972, Page 11

CHRISTCHURCH CENTRAL

Mr B. G. Barclay, M.P., who last election won the Christchurch Central seat by a 3406 vote margain, will again stand for the Labour Party. He is being opposed by Mrs B. J. Beaven, National Party candidate, teacher and housewife. Another teacher, 25-year-old Mrs D. Roberts, is the candidate for the Values Party. Social Credit will contest the seat from afar—the candidate is a 27-year-old post peeling contractor, Mr R. A. Thomas, of Tuatapere, In Southland, who plans at least one visit to the electorate during the campaign. The New Democrat candidate is Mr C. C. Jensen, a motor mechanic. I

A wish to speak for thousands of ordinary women whom she terms “the silent majority,” is behind the candidacy of Mrs Barbara Beaven, aged 42, who feels strongly on the situation of women today. She says she is not against equal pay, but is concerned at the possible effect of this leading to wide acceptance of the double income as a standard. “Women should not. be forced to work,” she says. “This would place them under tremendous strain, particularly when their children are young which involves strain enough as it is.”

Equal pay could also lead to disappearance of the legal and moral responsibilities borne by men and this could again threaten the stability of the family. She regards as quite unrealistic suggestions that women with young children should be paid by the Government — if all those with children under three years old were paid $lO a week, this would cost the taxpayer something like $75 million a year. Mrs Beaven says few people realise the very real difficulties faced by women in the country, particularly those with small children. “But it is difficult for the average woman to have a say.” And there are not enough women in Parliament, she maintains. Mrs Beaven has an interesting background: “My parents went through the depression and like many others had to give up fanning. For a period they had a hotel in Westport and had to work very hard indeed.” She recalls going with her father to election meetings, addressed by an early Social Credit leader and to meetings addressed by Mabel Howaiti. “It was natural that I should become interested in poltics,” she says. “Mind you, my parents were strongly National—in the way that if you voted Labour you were out of the door; not that this affected me.”

Memories of sheer hard work are vivid with Mrs Beaven—it was this that had enabled her to be sent to a private boarding school, she says.

After St Margaret’s College, and Woodford House she went to the University of Canterbury where she

gained a B.Sc. degree, majoring in botany and zoology. She taught at St Margaret’s for a period and in England. At 24, Mrs Beaven took over her mother’s manufacturing and model frock business in Christchurch and ran it for several years. In Oxford, where her husband farms, she has become active in community service and is a committee member of various organisations. More recently Mrs Beaven has been teaching at Aranui High School and is keenly interested in education. “I married into a family that has always been interested in politics and I became keenly interested in country education,” she adds. She attended meetings of the National Party in Oxford and Rangiora and this led to divisional meetings, with a vital interest in the difficulties of country women.

The New Democrat candidate is a 56-year-old motor mechanic, Mr Cairn Jensen (the name, he says, is a derivative of Pitcairn and is Scottish). Married with a family of five, he says he has been a social crediter for 15 years. “But the Social Credit League has changed its policy and done away with the national dividend which is the basis of reconstruction and the solution to 99 per cent of our problems,” he says.

He describes the national dividend as the distribution to people by way of wages and salary enabling them to buy the goods they produce. “And people should be able to buy what they produce without going into debt,” he says. To achieve this, an entirely new financial structure was necessary, he said.

Asked if he saw any issues peculiar to Christchurch Central, Mr Jensen said: “Not particularly; I am open to people bringing matters forward and will take it from there.”

Mrs Diane Roberts, aged 25, a teacher finishing her B.A. degree this year, advocates local-area rather than centralised control of education from Wellington. “Teachers are dominated by what inspectors want,” she says. “They should be free to teach much more of what children are interested in—economics, political science, international affairs. We should not just

stuff facts into pupils for examinations, but teach them to think and find out for themselves.” Active in the Women’s Liberation Movement and the Abortion Lav Reform Association, Mrs Roberts says she was invited to a Values Party meeting and in the manifesto there were many things she had been thinking about for a long time.

Political meetings do not enthral her. “One I was invited to on education was a political lolly scramble, the audience cynically realising that in spite of what was said by the candidates now, nothing would really be done.

“They know that after the election the M.P. will just disappear and they will never be able to get hold of him. It was all rather depressing and showed why people are so apathetic about politics in New Zealand.”

Mrs Roberts says the Values Party is hampered in its election campaign by a lack of money, and by the fact that several candidates are university students who are sitting examinations.

But as well as support from young people, there is an increasing interest from older voters who are disillusioned by politics and policies of the main parties, she claims.

Mr Bruce Barclay, aged 49, says he has found three years in Parliament has meant “a terrific education” on the problems that exist among people in the community. “Some of these are serious, such as the growing number of uncared for children.

“If they are not cared for, then it is society’s business to ensure that they are.” He cites just’ one of many examples he says exist, as a child, dirty, neglected, unwashed and rejected who was shunned by other children at school, and who only began to respond when one teacher took an active personal interest. Another problem concerns a mother of a family who had no food. This was a complex situation and there were a number of children involved. But Mr Barclay points out that sending a hamper of food from a social service agency did not solve problems which looked like being enlarged and perpetuated with the children. What is needed, he says, is a professional social welfare approach to overcome the causes of the problems that arise. Asked what he had achieved as an M.P., Mr Barclay said collectively he felt he had contributed to making legislation better and improving the environment.

An important part, he maintains, is select committee work “the place where Parliament listens to the people.” He has been on mines, land and agriculture committees, the special select committee on Manapouri and the petitions committee. Mr Barclay urges that if people consider they have something to say and a

voice they want heard they should make use of the opportunity given by select committee hearings. “I also feel these should be more open to the news media,” he adds. "If they look like embarrassing the Government, they are likely to remain closed”

He has some reservations, and says there is an equal responsibility on the news media and politicians to concentrate on the purpose of the committee and the evidence being placed before it, rather than on the comments of M.P.’s. MAJOR ISSUE

The cost of living and inffetion is seen by Mr Barclay as a major issue this election. “There is a fee Eng that the country is winding down when it should be up and going,” he says. “It is bogged down in the Government’s tackling of inflation which has depressed industry rather than invigorated it.” “We need to feel a sense of prick that we are going somewhere,” he adds.

Askeid what he sees as the country’s greatest need, Mr Barclay puts this down as an increase in productivity. This would help solve many problems, such as unemployment and inflation.

lit would also increase the weadth of the country so that more people could share in this and benefit by k. “We cannot have a good education system, for example, without the monejy to spend on this.” Mr Barclay says restructuring the taxation system is another major need. At present too much tax is paid by the person in the lower income group, and exemptions for the family man have declined.

“Housing is a most important issue, both by way of providing more State rental homes, and also by making it easier for people to own their own homes,” he adds. “Far too many people are forced into paying high interest rates.”

In the inner city area of Christchurch, he would like to see balanced development as well as something done to meet the desperate need for accommodation for the aged. Mr Barclay has been dogged by some ill-health, but he says he has fully recovered from a recent gall bladder operation and is fighting fit for the election campaign.