RELATION OF STATE AND PEOPLE

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 306, 21 September 1943, Page 6

RELATION OF STATE AND PEOPLE

Mr. W. J. Polson’s Address DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PARTIES Dominion Special Service. NEW PLYMOUTH, Sepember 20. Mr. W. J. Poison, National Party candidate fur Stratford, speaking at Inglewood tonight said tile difference between Ihe National Parly and the present Government was that one believed tlie Stale should be the servant of the people and the other believed the people should be the servants of the State. Mr. Polson said l*e claimed lite right of reply to some of the leaders of the Labour Party who hud journeyed to Taranaki to tell the electors what a foolish man Air. Polson was and to try to persuade them not. to vote for him. He said the Labour Party lost its sense of responsibility in the management of the accounts of the country and also it governed by regulations of which Parliament knew nothing. He specially referred to the introduction of the Education Bill in the dying hours of Parliament and when the proposal to delete the word “secular” Irom the Bill was made the Prime Minister said be would not proceed with the Bill but would carry out the proposals by regulation.

Mr. Polson discussed the question of manpower, saying the Government had acted without a trace of a sense of responsibility in drafting men for military service. Production hail suffered. Primary production was vital to the economy of New Zealand and its maintenance was essential to help pay the war expenses and maintain the standard of living for the people. When the Americans came here they advised that New Zealand should maintain her production in preference to sending men to the fighting f ront. Notwithstanding what the Ministers were saying, dairy production had declined and conditions pointed to a further reduction this season to the extent probably of 25 per cent. There had also been a decline in production iu other directions.

“If we are going to send 22 per cent, of our men into the fighting forces, we should organize the manpower of the civil population on something more than a 40-hour week basis,” said Mr, Polsou. "But the Labour bosses would not have that, though the women of Great Britain are working 55 hours a week and the men 60 hours and more compulsorily.” Air. Polson said he did not criticize the Government for the war effort overseas and the sending and maintaining of a division in the Middle East. He did think, however, that they had beeu overenthusiastic about sending forces to the Near East and the Pacific, having regard to the economic needs of the country. Watersiders’ Earnings.

Replying to statements made by Mr. Roberts in an address at Stratford, Mr. Polson said the figures given by Mr. Roberts as to the average earnings of watersiders did not tally with the figures given before the Auckland appeal board. He did not complain at high wages, so much as the fact that for much of the time they were paid for they did not work. He quoted letters from waterside workers, which he claimed substantiated that statement. Referring to the cost of living the speaker said the increases were so great that they were- being systematically concealed from the public. He gave examples of increases in the prices of butter, flour and oatmeal between 1938 and 1943, and said they represented 12| per cent., 17| per cent., and 35 per cent, respectively. He compared the figures with the Government’s claim that the cost of living had not risen more than 13 per cent, during the war. Every housewife knew the cost of living had risen. “Some of the things it has done have been fantistic,” said Mr. Poison, referring to the Internal Marketing Division “If I could have my way, I’d sweep that division right off the map.” (Applause.) He cited instances of muddlement iu the department which w'ere responsible for raising the cost of living. “They have not settled a single serviceman on an inch of freehold land in this country,” said Mr. Polson, referring to the Servicemen's Settlement ana Land Sales Act. ,In spite of what Major Skinner had said, the Government had uoc settled any soldiers on freehold land. M hat had happened was that some men who had come back had bought the trochoid of farm land and had been financed through the State Advances Corporation. The Government's policy was, and always had been, the nationalization of land.'The secret of the prosperity of New Zealand was freehold tenure in land, which ••ave a man pride in his own place and the knowledge that be had something which he could hand on to his descendants.