WELLINGTON CENTRAL

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 307, 22 September 1943, Page 9

WELLINGTON CENTRAL

Mr. IVill Appleton (National) stated at Roseneath last evening that Government spokesmen had been quoting the ver.v high tributes paid by the united nations leaders to INew Zealand’s war effort. IVhat they failed to recognize, said Mr. Appleton.'was that these tributes were paid to our people as a whole, and. not to the Government’s .policy. The direction in which the war effort bad: been hampered was the lack of political unity, and in this connexion the Prime Minister had missed a glorious opportunity when he returned from England after conferring with Mr. Churchill. AVhat he should have done then was to have called all the moderate elements together and formed' a really National Government. Had he done so, he would today have had the whole of our people behind him.. "A war-time regulation which is equivalent to law makes it compulsory for any young people, if directed to do so, to work at some other place,” said Mr. Appleton. "No one can object to this provided both of the firms arc British, otherwise the liberty of the subject is taken. ■ As things stand a young man ■who has fought in the Middle East can be directed to go and work for someone of alien blood. Aliens have received altogether too much consideration at the hands of the Labour Government. Many old-established; fir-ms have had .difficulty in getting licences, whereas aliens who have apparently' only been in New Zealand a short time seem to have no difficulty in obtaining supplies.” The use of •the Prime Minister's staff for preparing election propaganda was claimed as un.fait Iby Mr. Appleton. The number of staff ’liad greatly increased, he said, under ‘Labour's regime, and a great deal of the time of these officials was taken up in preparing .propaganda on behalf of. the Labour Party. Nobody in the National Party was getting paid by the State for doing that kind of work. •"There is little honesty about the cost of living figures used by our Prime Minister,” said Aircraftman C. G. Scrimgeour (Independent), speaking in the Town Hall last night. “He says that the cost of living has gone up by only 13 per cent, since the war began, and that the price of things generally has increased by only one-eighth. Every man and woman in New Zealand'knows that this is literally .untrue, but. Mr. Fraser has apparently "used statitsics to prove it, and the elector is blinded by a mathematical smokescreen. What really happens is that a percentage figure which the Government Statistician calls a ‘Retail Price Index Number’ is taken by Mr. Fraser and used as an index of the cost of living: notwithstanding that the statistician is* careful to make, it clear in the Official Year Book that it is not an index of the cost of living. The statistician points out that many commodities, from cosmetics to cooking appliances, arc not included in his retail price index number, which he admits omits nearly 20 per cent, of household expendillire—.being based mainly on groceries, dairy produce, meat, home rent, fuel and light, clothing, and miscellaneous items. However, the figure for groceries, for instance, is dominated by the price of potatoes, and a drop in potato prices automatically disguises the fact that other grocery prices have gone up steeply. With home rents, the figures (collected half-yearly) take no account of recent lettings, of rooms, flats, or subletting. With the fuel and light cost, emphasis is placed on candles and kerosene. relics of the early days. Mr. Fraser's figures are based on family budgets of the depression bedrock, 1930. Even the retail price index has been discontinued since 1942: consequently the workers were not able to use the official figures in Arbitration Court arguments.”