NATIONAL PARTY PROPOSALS

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 113, 6 February 1941, Page 8

NATIONAL PARTY PROPOSALS

Address By Mr. Holland PALMERSTON NORTH WELCOME Dominion Special Service. PALMERSTON N., Feb. 5. Approximately 1000 people welcomed the Leader of the Opposition. Mr. Holland, tonight at the Opera House when he gave an address. He was accorded a very friendly reception. He scored frequently in criticism of the Labour administration, his most telling declaration being that there were too many people directing the affairs of the Government whose only success in life had been in the destruction of the success of others. The National Party’s success would be measured in terms of the number of people who would be able to make 'their own decisions without let or hindrance from a dictatorial Government. State Dictation Opposed. “We seek to become the Government because we are confident; indeed, we are certain, that under a system of private enterprise, with the right of the people to own their own homes, their own farms and factories, the people will enjoy not only a higher standard of living, but also a greater sense of personal happiness, prosperity and contentment,” Mr. Holland said. “We believe that New Zealanders do better, they work harder, they are happiest and better off when they are most free from State dictation and interference. “We believe in the enterprise system under which thousands of farms and businesses and tens of thousands of workers are constantly striving to produce more goods and services of better quality for human use or consumption. We believe in the competitive system and we believe in incentive as an urge to efficiency to progress. “New Zealand has made phenomenal progress under private ownership .of the means of production, distribution and exchange, but I sometimes wonder how much of the progress would have been accomplished if our pioneers had been surrounded with today’s rules and regulations and the import restrictions, the licensing system, the mass of permits for this and that, the millions of forms that must be filled in, and the army of inspectors to be maintained. “I know what the pioneers would have done with a Government that clogged up progress in that way, and I confidently believe that the people will catch something of the spirit of the pioneers at the next election and vote accordingly. The Standard of Living. “Much has been said and written on living standards, but the general public are now beginning to realize that money, itself, does not mean goods and has no value in itself,” Mr. Holland said. “The standard of living consists of the goods and services we need in our everyday lives. What we get out of life depends on what we put Into life, and so it is with the standard of living. What goods and services we use and consume depend entirely on what goods and services are first produced. “All production comes from human labour and no manipulation of the monetary system will lessen the amount of labour required to produce goods. Obviously, if we take some 40,000 to 50,000 men out of production, then we cannot expect to have the same amount of goods available for our use and consumption. The obvious course is to work longer and produce more. “I want to say, with all the emphasis at my command, that the National Party is determined to stand 100 per cent, behind New Zealand’s war effort. There is nothing we can do that we will not do. There is no service we can render that Will be withheld, but it i? not subversive to state that there is much more that New Zealand can still do. 100 Per Cent. War Effort. “Will anyone say we are giving 100 per cent, war effort while we refuse to let sawmillers cut timber on Saturdays for making soldiers’ huts, unless we pay them one and a half or double time for all overtime worked? Can anyone say we are playing the game when our Government refuses to permit engineers to make farm Implements to enable the farmers to produce foodstuffs for the brave people of Britain to eat, and to produce linen flax for building aeroplanes to defend dear old England?

•‘I believe Mr. Fraser is quite in earnest when he says that nothing else matters but winning the war, but it is equally true that his colleagues in Cabinet are at the same time going for their ■lives socializing New Zealand as fast as they possibly can.” The two latest examples of socialization, said Mr. Holland, were the Small Farms Bill and the Industrial Efficiency Regulations. The National Party had strongly opposed them, and it was now fighting to restore personal liberty to the people, and for the right of the people to live their own lives in their own way’ and to run their businesses and their farms as experience and not as a bureau dictated.