MR. COATES CRITICAL

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 144, 21 June 1930, Page 10

MR. COATES CRITICAL

GOVERNMENT'S PROMISES

Stressing the seriousness of tho present political position, the Leader of tho Opposition (the Eight Hon. J. G. Coates) stated in the course of a pre-ses-sional address at New Plymouth on Thursday ihat the job of tho Eeforni Party was to keep the Government up to its promises. Tho party on the Treasury Benches at the present time, said Mr. Coates, had got there with certain planks, but had no definite principles of government. It had got thero by making certain promises. The country had to remember what those promises were. Briefly, tho United Party had promised to bring back immediate prosperity. To do this it had set about borrowing £70,----000,000. Of this sum £60,000,000 was to be spent o. ■ advances to settlers and workers, and £10,000,000 was to bo devoted to railway development. The party had promised that thero would bo a reduction in direct and indirect taxation. There was to be less interference with private and business enterprise, and there was to be a total abolition of unemployment. In the lasf> eighteen months or two years the party had had plenty of time to get its promises at least under way. How, asked Mr. Coates,' had it carried out its promises? Had prosperity returned? Was there money in the country lying -eady for the development of land and the employment of labour? Had the unemployment problem been dealt with? Unfortunately there had been enough people in the country to swallow the bait of these promises— hook', sinker, line, and all. POLICY OF SQUANDERING. In tho meantime the job of the Reform Party was to keep the Government up to its promises. Fortunately for* tho country, tho people of Great Britain had placed an embargo on borrowing by New Zealand. The policy of squandering was not the policy that had built up JSfew Zealand; The'country had to carry the war debt and non-interest bearing investments of loan moneys. Was it possible, ho asked, for many, of the United Party's investments to pay even 1 per cent, interest? And, with the railway policy of the United Party, it,was not only a question of interest, but also of the costs of operation. : The United Party, said Mr. Coates, had continuously promised • increased land settlement. It had bought some big estates —tho big landholders were quite willing to accept cash —and one of those estates was just outside his own electorate. The land had been bought for £8 an acre. One section had been taken up and the Government: had had to. leaso the property back to the original owner at the rate of £4 an acre. He knew of many similar cases. The Reform Party was in favour of a proper system of land settlement. If the Government had put the £2,250,000 -it was spending' on railways into developing good land which was idle the Reform Party would have stood by it and helped. "FEATURE MADE OF DEFICIT." "When Parliament had met in 1928-29 a big feature had been made of the deficit of £421,000. But it had to be remembered that the United Party had been in office for four months and a half of that year. The United Party had mado no attempt to economise during that time to meet the deficit. When tho deficit was revealed the party mado \a great outcry about it. They had wiped it out, however, with money ■from the accumulated surpluses and started off the year with a fresh sheet. In 1929-30 there was a surplus of £150,----000. t Revenue had greatly increased, chiefly through the Customs. At the same time no attempt had. been made to control expenditure, and, although the revenue increased by £1,800,000 the expenditure also increased by £1,650,-. 000. Tho policy of increased expenditure was quite all right as long as revenue was up. v But then the revenue fell. "It has taken the United Party just eighteen months," said Mr.'Coates, "to run the ship of State gently onto tho sands, and it wants a big tide of £3,000,000 to float it off again." Anyone could have seen that with the fall in the value of primary produce revenue must have come down. The next thing was where was the money to come from —from increased taxation, more land tax, or increased Customs tax? The position to-duy was serious. Any call was going to restrict tho. capacity of the people to go out and create industry. Industry and increased production were necessary" to pull' the country through. These alone would relievo unemployment. REFORM AND LABOUR. At the end of his address Mr. Coates offered to answer questions. "If the United. Party-were-defeated on a division," asked a questioner, "would tho Reform Pjirty take the Government benches with'• an agreement for support from the Labour Party, as the United Party has done?" "No," saiil Mr. Coiitos. "That is im-

possible.'1