Mr Beetham winds up

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34012, 28 November 1975, Page 14

Mr Beetham winds up

r.V.Z Press Association) WANGANUI, Nov. 28. j New Zealand had long since lost the reputation it once had for leading! the world in fundamen-, tai reforms, said the leader of the Social Credit Political League, (Mr Bruce Beetham) in’ Marton this evening. Mr Beetham. winding up , his campaign for the Rangiitikei seat, said that Social Credit offered New Zealanders opportunity to regain that lost prestige. “In breaking out of the present restrictive trading system and reordering our 'financial affairs, we can as a ination set an example for ■ others to follow to our mutual advantage,” Mr Beetham said. Social Credit would dra-; matically increase investment money by guaranteeing

people’s savings against initiation. It would syphon in- | vestment out of property speculation and money lending. and return it to socially I useful and worth-while production. Social Credit would substantially reduce the cost of! consumer hire-purchase by fixing interest rates low. and ; using variable repayment ■rates as a brake on excessive forward consumption. It would maintain consumer subsidies on essential ;foods and, where needed, increase them. Farming would be stimulated and farmers would get ! the social justice to which they were entitled. New bilateral trading relationships would be entered into with Pacific nations. Social Credit would conserve what little was left in New Zealand’s overseas reserves for debt servicing, ■ freight charges, and the purchase of products such as oil which could be bought only with hard currencies. It would be Social Credit’s policy to lift the economy out of the "doldrums of stagnation and recession” and at the same time apply effective braking to the upward spiral of inflation, Mr Beetham said.