P.M. puts off meeting after reading report

Press, 1 July 1978, Page 14

P.M. puts off meeting after reading report

PA Palmerston North. Little hope is held that a proposed meeting between the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) and the Municipal and Counties associations will take place in the foreseeable future.

The meeting, originally planned for last Tuesday, was postponed by Mr Muldoon after he read an article in a Palmerston North newspaper, in which the Municipal Association’s president (Mr B. Elwood) was said to have called on New Zealanders “to revolt.”

“The article as it appeared in the ‘Tribune’ especially because of its totally incorrect heading and introduction, created an entirely wrong picture,” said Mr Elwood, who is Mayor of Palmerston North.

“This obviously has angered Mr Muldoon, but I took steps to advise Mr Muldoon’s office, and the two local members of Parliament, that the story appearing in the ‘Tribune’ was wrong and that I was going to try to have the position recitified.”

Mr Elwood said he would write to Mr Muldoon in an attempt to explain the situation in the hope that a new meeting date could be set.

But in spite of his efforts and acceptance of the blame by a “Tribune” journalist. Mr Elwood has heard nothing from Mr Muldoon since the Prime Minister’s public announce-

ment of his decision to postpone the meeting. Mr Muldoon said he had been given a statement by Mr Elwood which referred in “quiet extravagant terms” to a revolt against

taxation and a move toward communism in New Zealand. He said he was “not prepared to meet these people (representatives of the Municipal and Counties associations) in that kind of atmosphere.” It would be totally unproductive for the Government to conduct some kind of battle in public with Mr Elwood. “We have to cool it down before we can have an intelligent discussion,” Mr Muldoon said.

The “Tribune” journalist who wrote the report has sent a telegram to Mr Muldoon which said: “Greatly regret events subsequent to my story. Error responsibility mine resulting from misinterpretation of Mr Elwood’s comment. Constructive intentions distorted, compounded by iocal problem. Regret embarrassment, earnest hope that tomorrow’s meeting can still be held. Please accept this as a personal apology and wish for meeting to proceed.” Mr Elwood said that no reply had been received to the telegram.

“The Manawatu Stadard, Ltd, publisher of the ‘Tribune,’ did all it could yesterday morning to assure Mr Muldoon’s office that the heading and information were incorrect and no fault of mine,” Mr Elwood said.

“ I am appreciative of the ‘Tribune’ journalist’s courage in sending a telegram in those terms. Frankly, I would have hoped that those explanations would have been sufficient, but Mr Muldoon still decided to postpone the meeting.” Mr Elwood said he

could see the "results of two years intensive work going out the window.” He hoped that after a breathing space Mr Muldoon would come to see the difficult situation in which he had been placed, and that they could together work out a reasonable solution to the urgent problem of local government finance. Mr Elwood said the misunderstanding had arisen from his endeavour to explain a complex matter, dealing with the relationship of central and local government and the financing of local government, in simple terms. If he had said that New Zealand was becoming a Communist State, that was in the context of agreeing with Mr Muldoon that there was a need to pull back the level of pub-lic-sector expenditure — expenditure by central government, local governemrit, and special purpose authorities.

“In order to emphasise that local government must be responsible in calling for more resources, I tried to emphasise the problem that New Zealand faced with large publicsector expenditure relative to the size of gross national product,” he said. “What I said, in order to emphasise that point, was that in my definition, a state of communism was where more than 50 per cent of a country’s resources was controlled by its system.” Mr Elmwood said he had never said that Mr Muldoon or his Government was a Communist Government or that they were leading New Zealand to communism.