Sell-out to foreign Powers alleged

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33068, 8 November 1972, Page 18

Sell-out to foreign Powers alleged

Both the National and Labour parties were selling the country to foreign Powers, the Social Credit candidate for Riccarton (Mr J. Biggs) said last evening. Opening his election campaign before 10 persons at the Westburn School hall, Mr Biggs said Labour had organised the Comalco contract and the National Government had carried it out.

He said good farmland in Central Otago was to be flooded and people displaced because of the Japanese and other foreign Powers in the • Comalco agreement. “There are a lot of foreign [Powers trying to buy us out, but the Japanese concern me in particular,” Mr Biggs said.

Although the newspapers gave it little publicity, in 1971 the National Party was negotiating the sale of West Coast coal to the Japanese, who were offering between $l4 and $l6 a ton. To break even for its transport and operating costs, the New Zealand Government would have had to receive $56 a ton.

The subsidy New Zealand taxpayers would have had to allow in getting the coal from the West Coast would have amounted to about sloom, Mr Biggs said. The West Coast coal should not be allowed to be burnt up. If it were processed in factories about 300 different products could be obtained. West Coast iron sands and beech forests, wood pulp, food processing, packaging and transport were other areas marked by foreign domination, he said. The transport industry was particularly bad with foreign

•monopolies taking over the [trucking firms. The Japanese were keen to use the country's geothermal steam as heavy water for atomic power stations. How far the New Zealand politicians would go to let them use it was anybody’s guess, Mr Biggs said. “Is it good sense to let foreign Powers strip the country of raw materials?" he asked. “Social Credit wants New Zealand for New Zealanders It is getting to the stage where we will have to buy •our country back from •foreign Powers. “Social Credit wants this trend stopped and even reversed. If elected the Government, it will introduce adequate legislation to do so,” Mr Biggs said.