THE ELECTIONS

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LVI, Issue 89, 26 November 1935, Page 4

THE ELECTIONS

MID-CANTERBURY SEAT,

LABOUR CANDIDATE AT

LEESTON

Despite the wet night, there was a good attendance of electors at the Town Hall, Leeston, last night to hear an address by the official Labour candidate, Mr H. E. Herring Mr J. C. Free was elected to the chair.

Mr Herring emphasised that monetary reform was the most important issue in this election. This issue had also confronted the electors of Canada, where the contest was fought over the control of the money system and resulted in an overwhelming win for the Liberals, who advocated public control. This same issue was now being raised in New Zealand. He remarked that this aspect of the Canadian elections was not pointed out in the daily newspapers. In Tasmania also a monetary commission had been sitting, and its report was in line with the developments which had occurred in Canada and elsewhere. This public control of credit which was now regarded as so revolutionary, had been the jealously guarded prerogative of the State for centuries up to about 80 years ago when it slipped into private control! In Canada the currency in circulation had been increased by 58,000,000 dollars, in accordance with a decision of the Economic Conference, and a policy of public works was to be carried out to stimulate industrial development. Labour in New Zealand proposed to work on similar lines Mr Herring quoted the example of Guernsey, where in 1820 a market hall was erected at a cost of £4500 by the issue of credit notes which were redeemed four years sooner than planned. The system was extended, and altogether £80,000 worth of notes were issued, with which roads, a wharf, two schools and a college were built. Part of the issue was redeemed when, as a result of negotiations, a bank took up £15,000 of the loan at 3 per cent. This loan was not yet repaid, and had cost the people £48,000 in interest. The candidate said that there was no doubt, if Labour came into power, that it could carry out its policy without hindrance by the Governor-General or the British Parliament. In regard to the formation of the Coalition Government, he said that during the negotiations on two or three occasions the sub-committees of the parties met and Labour and then Reform were the only delegates to have their programmes ready. Then the Labour leader (Mr Holland) heard that the other two parties had been conferring together without consulting Labour, and negotiations were broken off. Labour had no intention of repudiating the debt overseas; on the contrary, it would negotiate with the British Government on the lines of funding it at a lower rate of interest, and placing the savings of interest in a sinking fund to redeem the loans. Regarding savings in New South Wales under Labour, Mr Herring declared that the National Party made much of certain advertisements which had appeared in a Sydney newspaper at the time, offering to sell bank deposits at a low rate. The candidate said that the New Zealand Labour Party had been informed that these advertisements were faked in order to discredit the Labour Government in New South Wales.

j Discussing unemployment, the candidate said that he considered the flat rate levy was unfair and that there should be some graduated system of tax; the cost of administration had risen largely; the registered unemployed was still the largest per capita in the world; that instead of giving building subsidies to wealthy firms, the money would have been better spent directly on those who I needed it most; that the Unemployment Board was spending too much time in seeing on how little a man could live, rather than on developing some policy of employment. He declared that there was something wrong in a country when there were alarming reports of malnutrition among children, while there was an excess of food produced in the j country. j Discussing secondary industries, he advocated a policy of the development of the natural resources of this country, as an avenue of providing employment, and also of increasing the wealth of the country. New Zealand was rich in minerals and natural resources, some of them rare minerals which should be developed. Surplus power at Waitaki could be used for extracting nitrogen from the air and the manufacture of nitrogenous manures. There was an immense scope for development, and he gave an instance where 70 talkie plants in use in this country had been made in Auckland, the base being iron from. Onakaka. On the motion of Mr F. Alexander,

the candidate was accorded a vote cf thanks and confidence, and a vote of thanks was passed to the chairman.