NATIONAL PARTY IDEALS

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 309, 24 September 1943, Page 9

NATIONAL PARTY IDEALS

Claim By Hutt Candidate

“When the Rt. Hon. M. J. Sayage died, the Labour Party died,” declared Mr. Croft (National, Hutt) amid some dissent at his Petone meeting last night. “I voted Labour at both the last elections. but. I have now joined the National Party, and am its candidate because its ideals arc the only ones offering which conform to my ideas. of the country's needs. “It stands for the unity of the people of the country in place of the bickering which now goes on (between the numerous bodies the Labour system has set up. “What we want is unity, freedom, and security. What we want is true Christian principles as a basis of government. . “The Labour Government has, for instance, given high wages to youth without teaching youth how to handle money. “Eighty per cent, of the candidates of the National Party following our great leader, Syd. Holland, are workers, anti a large number of them have already been away to the war. They are not picked like in the old days, nor like they are from Trades Hall.. where they have to sign a pledge of obedience. Our candidates are selected from among the people of the district, by the people of the district. There has been a good deal of talk about the pledge signed bv National candidates. The only pledge I have ever signed is a pledge that if I wasn’t selected by the local party members to stand as their candidate I would- not stand against the selected candidate.. “We are not the ‘old gang,’ you are talking about.”' the candidate told hecklers who were interjecting about labour camps and 10/- a week. “Our party was born in 1935., and we have been weeding out the dead wood ever since.” Dealing with housing, Mr. Croft said that true happiness lay in the home, and that was why housing was placed l so high on the party programme, and why it was intended to place at high level the advances to be made -to those who wanted to build their own houses. The house which cost £7’so in 1935, under the Labour Government today cost £1358, and a £5)00 house then cost £1550 today. Mr. McKeon had' said that the Labour Government had now realized what they were doing wrong in housing, and were going to do it properly new. “And that after eight years,” declared the candidate amid uproar. Advocating the co-operative system of industrialization, which would promote harmony in business. Mr. Croft declared that harmony in business would bring prosperity io the country. . Unions had done- a lot to improve conditions, but in a lot of cases they had -been sold out by their £4O-a-week bosses, or secretaries as they were more politely termed. (Hear, hear.) ' The speaker faced, at times, a barrage of interruptions by interjectors, with whom he fully hekLhis o.wn. A hearty vote of thanks to the candidate for his address was carried with some dissent. '