WANTS TO HELP

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 5, 1 October 1935, Page 10

WANTS TO HELP

Sir Alexander Herdman Re-enters Politics

CRITICAL SPEECH Whole-hearted Indictment of Government © DEPRESSION POLICY Dominion Special Service. Auckland, September 30. A whole-hearted indictment of the Government for mismanaging much of the country's affairs and aggravating the effects of the economic depression was delivered to-night by Sir Alexander Herdman in opening his campaign as an Independent Candidate for the Parnell scat. Sir Alexander had a most friendly reception from an audience wliich filled the hall, and it is estimated a further .300 people outside listened to the speech through a loud speaker. The candidate was accorded a vote of confidence, a small minority dissenting.

Giving his reasons for seeking election, Sir Alexander said after a. number of years as a spectator of polities be had come forward in the hope that he could be of some help to the people of the country in wliich he had spent all his life, which be had served in some public capacity for over 30 years, and which he felt capable of serving for a further period. As at the present. time political conditions were unusual, he preferred to stand as an Independent, and if elected he would enter Parliament free from allegiance ,o anv political organisation. “The Reform Party has ceased to exist." continued Sir Alexander, I was present at its birth; I knew it when it was in its swaddling clothes; 1 saw if grow from infancy to vigorous manhood, find unfortunately I have been a disappointed spectator of its decline and mesalliance which took place when it became weddbd to the United Party.” Democrat Leader. The Reform Party’s conduct of public business, its legislation, and its policy in recent years had been such as the men with whom he had been'associated in the early years of the party would have shuddered to contemplate. There was to-day no United Party and no Reform Party, only a national party. He was glad to find leading the new Democrat Party a man of the type and with the experience of Mr. Hislop, with whose family he had had associations, for many years. He respected Mr. Hislop, whose meeting the following night he hoped would be most successful, but he could not see ais way to join him. With some of Mr. Hislop's political views he agreed, but on other questions they were, he feared, not in harmony. He preferred to stand as an Independent, and if elected would enter Parliament free from allegiance to any political organisation. He had no doubt he would find some congenial spirits .among the other Independents who would probably be returned. If elected he would vote to put the Government out of office and he would vote to keep Labour out of office. Therefore there could be no doubt about where he stood. He agreed that Messrs. Coates and Forties had been faced with puzzling problems, .and they had attempted to meet the adverse conditions, but it was clear to him that they had made grave mistakes and had created difficulties more serious and stupendous than those they had sought to cure. One or other had been in office since 1925, and in that period money had been squandered, taxation had become crushingly heavy, departments had been mismanaged, unemployment had increased, business had become stagnant, and confidence had been destroyed. Not only the circumstances but the country’s leaders also were to blame for all this. However, the future was what mattered. He felt certain that the sooner New Zealand swept away irritating and unsettling legislation and started to work again as a"sensible community on sound lines and ’ well-tested principles the sooner would confidence be restored and anxiety banished. Confidence Shaken. The shaking of confidence in mortgage security Sir Alexander described as the beginning of the train of evils leading to a decline of lending, of dealing in land, of building, and so of employment. The Government, he said, could not escape its share of blame for adding its quota to the ranks of the unemployed. He was glad to hear that there was now a loosening of purse-strings, , but there was still no briskness and buoyancy jn business.

Legislation was not the only unsettling factor, making people fear another four years under the present Government. Heavy taxation was coupled with the creation of new and expensive administrative bodies and official posts, unnecessary Ministerial trips abroad—that to the King’s jubilee excepted—and other evidences of extravagance, inefficiency and bungling. The report of the National Exjienditure Commission was a catalogue of instances of waste—huge losses on swamp drainage, abandoned railway lines, and much more. The report of the Native Affairs Commission was another story of negligence, muddle and incompetency. Mr. Coates in 1925 with bis large following had bad it in his power to place the country on a sound footing. .Since then he had been in and out of office, so he could not be held responsible for all that had happened, but between 1925 and 1934 the public debt bad increased by £55.000.000. equal to £6.000.000 a year. Taxation during the period had certainly increased. What high exchange had cost the consumer and the taxpayer was hard to estimate, nor could anyone say what cost would have to be faced when the rate was reduced.

.Sir Alexander could see nothing jn the Government’s policy or practice that gave any hope of largely reduced taxation or of a cessation from borrowing.

The Reserve Bank, he said, was not n true reserve bank at all. lie suspected that it had been created in part to cover up the hopeless muddle into which the country had gob as a

result of interference with the exchange. The National Mortgage Corporation had been brought into existence primarily for the very laudable purpose of providing cheap money, but secondarily to hide from the public gaze the heavy losses which tlie State Advances Department had recently made, and regarding which essential information was being withheld from the puolic. The seizure and sale of the gold reserves of the trading banks Sir Alexander termed a strange transaction. Was there any excuse or justiticatipn for the seizure of property and the subsequent sale of part of it to keep up the credit side of the Consolidated Fund? If so he would like an explanation of it. He considered the raising of the exchange a breach of faith with l»ri tain, seeing that it had been doue when the ink wa_s hardly dry upon an agreement to promote trade tween the two countries. It was true that times had been bad, but lie ventured to say that if 50 per cent, of the Dominion's difficulties was due to adverse economic conditions, 50 per cent, was due to crude, unsettling legislation. He was convinced that anyone who fairly considered the course of events since 1925 would find, in the words of an eminent public man, that everywhere and on every side grave mistakes had been made; traders had been harassed, confidence destroyed, legal rights menaced, and progress retarded; that the worker could not find work and that deep discontent and unhappiness abounded on every hand. 1 I*ro|>osed Remedies. Sir Alexander devoted the latter part of his address to elaborating seven proposed remedies for existing evils. The first, he said, was to restore confidence. The present Government had destroyed confidence. People feared it and no one knew what it would do next. The psychological effect of bad government could not lie overlooked. If confidence could stimulate trade and industry and open up avenues of employment then it was what the country needed. Secondly, an attempt could he made to make new arrangements for getting a permanent market in Britain. Under the existing arrangement there was no permanence. New Zealand had been conceded a little breathing space but that was not enough. He had reason for thinking that if Great Britain wore properly approached and were assured of honourable treatment a satisfactory arrangement might be made. He could promise nothing tinder this head, but be believed that this all-important issue was capable of a satisfactory settlement.

' By raising exchange, subsidising produce, and not carrying out. the Ottawa Agreement, New Zeaianfl was “off side" with Britain. Steps should be taken to get rid of the exchange subsidy as speedily as possible.

Thirdly, it was possible to help in improving the farmers’ finances.. lariners consisted of those who did not need help and those who did. The second class comprised the hopelessly insolvent, the hopelessly incompetent, and capable men who with some reasonable financial assistance could be bellied over the stile. These last should be aided and protected by loans at a low rate. For these he had no doubt money could be obtained with State backing, and there need be no interference with the rights of others under contract.

The system of unemployment relief should be completely overhauled and put upon a business basis. As a basic remedy for unemployment every impediment standing in the way of the investment of money and the developmeut of trade should lie removed. Though knowing little of the machinery of official relief, he felt sure that it could be made more efficient. At present it tended to produce a class, of professional idlers. There should tie classification of the unemployed, and the State should make every effort to provide, work for men of proved integrity who could not get it. ■ Special work should be furnished for the man who was unfit for manual labour or had spent his life in clerical occupation. Voluntary employment committees should be revived throughout New Zealand. He was not at all sure that it would not be better to raise a loan for genuinely needed public works than to force the private citizen to pay the present heavy tax for unemployment. A reduction in taxation would be an immense boon to everyone. In his opinion the two most effective ways to reduce unemployment were to stimulate the investment of capital and case the taxation burden. The latter could not be achieved in a day by any Government, but a beginning could be made by determining to keep expenditure within reasonable limits. The Dominion’s tourist traffic was capable of great improvement, but the existing department would have to be recast and reorganised.

State trading enterprises should be subject to rates and taxes and to the same disabilities as private concerns.

Sir Alexander made passing reference to a number of other matters requiring attention, among them being tlie cost of education, local government reform, Native lands and Native affairs, transport and the administration of charitable aid. He said be was in favour of the adoption of preferential voting. No Short Route to Happiness. “I regret that I am unable to point out a short route to a. state of liapiness and prosperity which we all so much wish to see achieved ” remarked Sir Alexander. “Tlie steady but slow* inarjii of a policy which involves reversion from tlie habits of extravagance <o tlie habits of fi-iigality, from wild experiment to sound principle. from unreality to reali.-y. must. I am afraid, result in temporary inconvenience and a certain amount of hardship. I can only trust the people to be patient.” In every country awaiting development capital was essential. If crushed, squeezed and abused, capital would take wings or hide underground, leaving misery, poverty and stagnation behind it. “Tlie crying want in the public life or New Zealand to-day is men of ripe experience, men of sound knowledge, and men who by the exercise of sound judgment and application can steer tlie country back into safe wafers.” said Sir Alexander in conclusion. “They should help in a time like this. I have lived a life of seclusion for many years and cannot profess to have an up-to-date knowledge of public business. Other men have that knowledge and experience. They are better aide to help than I am. To them I appeal to step forward and help this Domhiion, of wliich we are justly proud, back to security, to freedom from care, and to such a high level of public conduct as will make her one of the most resjiected parts of his Majesty’s possessions.”