Values head not optimistic

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34009, 25 November 1975, Page 25

Values head not optimistic

HAMILTON. The Values Party leader (Mr Reg Clough) believes that his party might suffer in the General Election because of the polarisation of voters created by Labour and National. “A lot of our supporters have said they want to vote for us but they cannot because it might allow National to get in,” he said in an interview. “Some independent observers I have spoken to during the campaign say we may be surprised at the percentage vote we will get, but I believe we could suffer because of the polarisation of voters between National and Labour.” . Values was established only a few months before the 1972 election, and captured 2 per cent of the vote. Mr Clough declined to predict what the 1975 figure would be. OVERSEAS LOANS New Zealand’s overseas credit would probably be exhausted by mid-1976 and imports would have to be cut by almost half, Mr Clough told an outdoor meeting in Hamilton.

Values did not see any prospect of a boom in export receipts in the forseeable future, Mr Clough said.

New Zealand had been enjoying an artificially high standard of living because of its overseas borrowing, and its credit would begin to run out by the middle of next year and imports would have to be cut severely.