"RECORD OF FAILURE"

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 120, 17 November 1931, Page 5

"RECORD OF FAILURE"

REFORM ATTACKED

MR. J. THORN AT PORIRUA

Tho claims of Labour to the Otaki seat were advanced by Mr. J. Thorn to a largo audience at Porirua last evening, when a vigorous attack was launched against the Reform and United Parties, and when Labour's viewpoint upon various public questions was explained. The Reform Party's record, ho said, was a record of failure.

Mr. E. Windley, chairman of the Makara County Council, who presided, introduced the candidate. Mr. Thorn had been to Porirua on three previous occasions, ho said, and since the last General Election had been doing some very active work throughout tho district.

Mr. Thorn referred in his opening remarks to the extraordinary circumstances which governed this General Election campaign, first on account of the economic stress which now involved the Dominion, and secondly bocause of tho amazing union of two political parties which had hitherto bceii bitterly opposed to each other. lie assured his hearers that he intended to keep the fight clean and confined to political, not personal, issues. Beplying to speeches made by Mr. W. H. Field, Coalition candidate for Otaki, Mr. Thorn denied the assertion that the Labour Party, by an alliance in the Houso, had compelled the United Government to proceed_ with tho completion of uneconomic railway lines. It was the United Party which had at the last General Election pledged itself to the completion of the main trunk lines, for which huge sums of money would be borrowed—ten millions of it immediately. The Labour Party, on the other hand, had pledged itself to institute a thorough investigation into all lines under construction •to determine thoir economic prospects. Labour had supported tho Government until it betrayed ita promises. Mr. Thorn blamed tho Reform Party principally for the fact .that New Zealand was unprepared to face the economic crisis when it suddenly developed some time ago. Had it not been for tho extravagance and political mistakes of tho Reform Party during the sixteen prosperous years it was in office, this Dominion would have been able to handlo a crisis-even so grave as the present one, for the State finances would have been'1 in a healthy position. Tho institution of tho freehold tenure of land, for example, had been responsible for wild speculation in land, and the result to-day was a heavy crop of forced sales at tho hands of the mortgagee. The soldier settlement schome, which had had the effect of boosting land values, had produced as its principal result the breaking of tho backs and tho hearts of hundreds of farmers all ovor tho country. Tho capital value of land, and together with it the mortgage liability, had been forced up to such a point that only calamity could follow for tho farmer when prices broke. .

"CLASS LEGISLATION." Further illustration of tho Reform Party's class legislation was provided in the,, incoino. tajs-;.figurea:.over recent years. From the financial year 1921-22 ,to 1929-30 the total assessable income had risen from £38,346,000 to more 'than £65,000,000, but 'the tax paid on ' these , incomes had fallen from £6,266,000 .to £3,322,000.' Incomes had doubled and tho tax collected was cut in half.

"If the Reform Government had extracted the' just figure from these incomes," Mr. Thorn said, "there would havo been an extra £12,000,000 or £15j000,000 in tho Treasury.. .There would have been no deficit last year, no deficit this year, and therefore no obligation on tho Government to reduce wages, cut down social services, or confront the education system with the greatest hienaco that it' has ever faced in tuo past 40 years." .Mr. Thorn criticised tho transport administration of tho Right Hon. J. G. Coatcs, as head of the Reform Government, particularly his change in tho control of tho railways f rojn. manager to; board, from board to general managcrj and finally from general manager back to'board again. The establishment of tho new railway workshops meant tho over-capitalisation of the railways to the extent of £2,000,000 or £3,000,000, while the railwaymen were being sacked in hundreds all over the country to keep the railways solvent. These men wero being sacrificed to efface tho political blunders of Mr. Coates, who, along with Mr. Forbos, was appealing to the country as a Heav«n-Bent saviour of the country. During the prosperous years 1925-28 the unemployment and bankruptcy figures had reached record levels. Mr. Thorn dealt with the political relationship between the Reform and United Parties, and recalled that when th.c Economic Committee of Parliament'had adjourned for a day to allow each party to place its proposals on paper, a secret session was hold between the Reform and United Parties for the purpose of effecting fusion. Then, next day, when each party was to place its v cards on tho table, neither Mr. Forbes nor Mr. Coates was ready. But fusion had been effected, and the parties which till that time had reviled each other uncompromisingly suddenly found something 'in common. The fusion was actually in being long before this, however, as the two parties had united against Labour to cut wages and reduce social services.

EFFECT OF WAGE OUTS. Tho offect of tho wage cuts had beeii proved uneconomic. The employers had received the benefit, while the farmers had ultimately suffered. "Is it better for this country for one employer to have £50 a week more to speud on luxuries—or however he wants to spend it—or for 100 workers to have 10s a week more to spend on milk, butter, and clothes'?" Mr. Thorn asked. No commensurate reduction in the cost of living had followed the wage cuts, because tho employers could not pass it on, despite the Government's promise of a lower cost of living. Mr. Thorn covered briefly Labour's opposition in Parliament toward the wage cuts and tho unemployment taxes, mentioning also the attitude of Mr. Field on these questions. Mr. Thorn opposed any restriction in educational facilities, and outlined a policy of credit control through a State Bank, which, he said, would lead to a stimulation of primary and secondary industry throughout the Dominion. He detailed the evidence of bankersbefore the Economic Committee showing that £5,000,000 could be raised within New Zealand. He advocated supplies of fertilisers, Under a system of longterm credit, to those who could not pay for them immediately

Plans had been placed by agricultural authorities before the Economic Committee providing for an increase in production by about 40 million pounds of butter-fat and an added-income of about £2,000,000 to the Dominion, but no. steps had been taken by the Government to give effect to it.

A vote of thanks and confidence yas passed. ■