MR J. D. GRIBBEN ‘People should own, not rent’

Press, 20 November 1978, Page 15

MR J. D. GRIBBEN ‘People should own, not rent’

Mr J. D. Gribben, the Social Credit candidate for Selwyn, believes that a good Government interferes as little as passible with the rights of people, and it is on this premise that he bases a lot of his message to the voters. “I am a firm believer in a Government which encourages its citizens by good laws, to go about their own business without State interference. By good laws, I mean laws which don’t tie the people down with a lot of bureaucratic red tape, but allow the people to get on with what they want to do,” he says. “I believe in a society in which private propertyowning is vigorously encouraged. People should become owners, not ren-

ters, of their own homes, small businesses or farms and, if given the opportunity, I will work towards this end.

“Over recent years successive Governments have missed the point — that all sections of our people need incentives, not handouts, to carry on their

own individual projects. It is an urgent necessity that young people, in particular, be given an attainable goal in life, and what better is there than with a 3 per cent interest rate on loans, they could become home, small business, or farm owners. “In some local areas, projects are needed for drainage, secondary schools, water supplies, and roading. The main thing which prevents action on many projects is the high cost of finance. “I will actively pursue a policy of cheaper money for community projects and works so that these local amenities in the electorate can be provided. Cheaper finance could be arranged from the same source as that given to the producer boards —

that is from the Reserve Bank at 1 per cent interest,” says Mr Gribben. “Over the electorate, one question often raised is that of the extra costs placed on the rural counties by the road-user tax. On all sides, I hear of how farmers’ costs have risen and yet the Government has seen fit to increase transport costs in rural areas. “If any Government is genuine in its statements that farming costs must be kept down, then they would never have introduced the hubometer taxation. I have actively campaigned for its abolition and will continue to do so,” he says. Mr Gribbeji is concentrating on street-corner meetings, some of which have been better attended

than any hall meeting he might have held, he says. Boundary changes have boosted Social Credit membership with the addition of Halswell to the Selwyn electorate, but the electorate is a difficult and costly one to service, he says. On boundary changes, Mr Gribben says that the Akaroa section of Banks Peninsula should have been retained in the Lyttelton electorate, and that this has been borne out by his discussions with voters on the Peninsula. Mr Gribben, the Lytteb ton postmaster, has had a long association with Social Credit, as a Domi* nion councillor of the league and as president of the Sydenham branch, although he has never lived in Sydenham.