OTAKI SEAT

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 87, 9 October 1935, Page 4

OTAKI SEAT

NATIONALIST CANDIDATE

MR. MONK'S CAMPAIGN

Support for the Government was expressed by Mr. G. A. Monk. Nationalist candidate for Otaki, when he opened his. campaign with an address to about forty electors at Makara last evening. Mr. S. G. Luxton presided and the candidate received an attentive hearing, a vote of thanks being carried at the conclusion of his address

Dealing with the unemployment problem, Mr. Monk said he considered the Government was to be complimented upon dealing with it without increa* ing the Public Debt. The Government had been able to effect a reduction In! the numbers from the peak of 75,000 to .62,451 in August, 1934 and now to 55,571. Certainly the imposition of a tax of Is in' the £1 was a course not taken, he thought, in any other country, but results had justified it. Probably, too, in the near future the oncoming of seasonal work would further alleviate the position, and he believed the time would then* come for the Government to take very drastic steps to get the men;not so absorbed into occupations at standard rates of pay. He suggested ah internal loan for developmental work. .Despite-the fact that unemployment taxation had been reduced, each man going on standard rates of pay would be a contributor to the fund. • ■.;-•■

He suggested' the completion of the East Coast railway as a work worthy of further examination. . Private enterprise was willing to take the. railway over: "Surely what is good for private enterprise," said Mr. Monk, "is good for the Government." . ;

Mr. Monk dealt at length with the action the Government had taken to meet financial difficulties. Some of these measures had made the Government unpopular but they -had been necessary to keep the country stable. If rent and interest had not been reduced it was probable that many people would have lost all their savings, he said. He supported the abolition of the graduated land tax, which he described as antiquated. The conversion of loans' had helped local bodies and the. Mortgage Corporation would serve a useful purpose. He also approved the raising of the exchange rate.

Mr Monk said he did not propose to I deal with' the Labour Party's platform at length. But he warned his audience that the party had as many seats in Parliament as it could win without the small farmer's vote. To win this the party had held out the "guaranteed prices" bait, but hope of obtaining this was as Illusory as any confidence that the Labour Party, if it was returned to power, would not repeal the' Act providing, for. the country ijudta,:which was of tremendous benefit to the small farmers. ■ ' ■ '

After dealing with the provisionsl

for the improvement of many of the country's conditions made in the Budget, which he found to be a very heartening expression of recovery, Mr. Monk.answered a number of questions as to his opinion on political matters.