NATIONAL PARTY

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 103, 28 October 1925, Page 9

NATIONAL PARTY

LEADER EXPOUNDS HIS POLICY

OPPOSITION TO REFORM. MAIN-

TAINED,

(BI TBLEORAPII.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.)

GORE, 27th October

Mr. G. W. Forbes, Leader of the National Party, addressed a moderate attendance in the Theatre Royal this evening. The Mayor (Mr. D. L. J'oppewell) presided. Tho address. was mainly on the lines of the lticca.i-l.on speech last night. Mr. Forbes said that men were required for Parliament whose advice nnd service would be of use to the Dominion. Tn connection with the fusion negotiations, be detailed the events leading up to tho abortive coaiereeca, i£e ctutJ-

lenged the Reformers' sincerity in tho matter. He would sooner go out of politics than join the Reform Party. (Applause.) The Liberals had decided ,to go to the country as a National 1 Party, and to make a wider appeal than that of the old Liberal Party. They did not, however, give up the principles of Liberalism which they had always stood for. Dealing with the financial position, he held that the mortgage on the country in 1914 totalled 95 millions and to-day was 234 millions. He admitted that the great bulk of the money, aside from war expenditure, was being used for useful reproductive works, but said that it was necessary to-day to increase the production of the country to pay interest,-which was £9,000,----000 to-day compared with £3,000,000 in 1914.

lie dealt, with soldier settlement, quoting from Teports of land boards, which stated that money had not been well spent, the land being extremely uninviting and of poor quality. The Government had the power of taking land compulsorily, and could have prevented a boom by putting into action the compulsory clauses of the Land for Settlement legislation. As far as land settlement was concerned, they could not expect it from the present Government. . . .

The propaganda that if an elector voted for the Nationalists he voted for the Reds was characterised as a slander. Whether the Nationalists were in the majority or not after the election, they would take into consideration the formation of: a National Party and a National Government, which tho Reformers were fighting tooth and nail. A good many vested interests were sheltering behind Reform. The Nationalists stood for the whole of the people, not a section. lApplause.) • » A vote of thanks and confidence was carried by acclamation.