MR. WRIGHT'S CAMPAIGN

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 107, 1 November 1935, Page 14

MR. WRIGHT'S CAMPAIGN

MEETING AT KARORI

.Mr. R. A. Wright, M.P., Independent candidate for Wellington : Suburbs, opened his campaign 'in the Parish Hall, Karori, last evening. In spite o£ the bad weather, there,was a large attendance. Mr. B. G. H. Bum presided.

, Mr. Wright said it was true that tliere 'was an improvement an New Zealand today, and the Financial I Statement had disclosed; a surplus of £1,621,400. That was a. very/fine surplus, but it was only fair to remember that it was made up "by. a -very" fine windfall of £1,364,000 which was obtained by the Government from the. sale of gold formerly held by the banks. The Government paid the banks the face value for the gold, and sold it at a profit. , Then, there were also death duties, but'it had to be remembered that an amount' of tnat description was uncertain. Had it not been for the abnormal items the surplus would have been reduced to a very small item. In the next year, there was an additional amount of £626,000 which.would become liable oh the Consolidated Fund because of the reduced interest the new Mortgage Corporation was giving •to its mortgagors. ' ' UNEMPLOYMENT. Mr. Wright said that .the farmers' plight had been stressed, but what about the people who had lost their homes? Many were in the sranks of the unemployed. Unemployment .was a problem that had been baffling the best brains, and the 40,000 registered unemployed in New Zealand did not reflect the entire number. But in.spite of that, there was a bigger tragedy— the tragedy of the young men who were unemployed. There were scores of young men who had not had , a chance. They had left school, and had never had a steady job, and morfr over had no chance of getting a steady job. Further, there was a danger of these men becoming unfit for their work if they had a chance of being employed again. He knew of a case where men had said that 'they were afraid to take a job because they had been put of employment so long that they felt that they would not be able to perform their work, but the employer had helped them, and they had found their skill again ■' in due. time; But the.young .men could-, not learn trades. >

A voice: What are you going to do? Mr. Wright: If they can't learn, trades, then we will. have to start classes and let them learn their trades. When the revival of, industry comes it would be a sorry thing if we had to import tradesmen. ..-.-■ --■;..--'• He said that the technical schools should be equipped with sufficient plant to enable the tradesmen to go right-through -their course and receive the-benefit'they were? not receiving through their inability to be employed. ■ , ■ ■

• A voice: Who is going .to employ them? '. . ■■■■;■■-'■

Mr. Wright: They will be employed when things improve.- I don't: think things will remain- like this for all time. If they do, ;theh civilisation .is j going to break down:'; If the nations! of the world don't come together arid bring about an alteration, then the whole of our civilisation will break down and we will go back again to where the race was thousands of years ago. ■ . . , T '.'" i . '■' He, said'that the. position could be improved if the nations desired. Today, '. there were 20,000,000 registered unemployed in the world, but that figure under-stated the position because1, all the nations did not keep a j faithful record of their unemployed.

REMUNERATIVE WOEE. lii New' Zealand, he believed that the Unemployment Board had done its best, but all that it had. been able to do was to give some little alleviation to those.on t*ie unemployment register The question was, could men be placed on remunerative work? He ventured to say that the country would be

justified in borrowing money to carry out remunerative works. It was essential that remunerative work should be found in New Zealand, and such work could be found in reclamation work, for instance, new land being brought into use. The solution of the problem should be above party, and an attempt should be made to sea whether the unemployed could be placed on remunerative work at standard rates—work which ultimately would bring a return to the Government of the country. He considered

that an investigation should be macie along that avenue. , Another question of moment was the displacement of labour by machinery. If machinery continued to displace labour, then half of the people would become idle. The only remedy was a shortening of the hours of labour, and that must come.,. > .. Mr. Wright said that the allowances paid to. the unemployed were unwarranted and unjustifiable.The fund had never been short of money, and how could the average of 25s per week, or the sum of £2 for a married man, be justified? CONFIDENCE NEEDED. Touching briefly on monetary matters, Mr. "Wright said that whether people believed in the capitalist system or not, .the capitalist system was here, but money was lying idle in the banks and other institutions. One reason for that was that people were afraid to take their money out. Accordingly, a restoration of confidence would alter the position. If fear could be removed, it would help in a restoration of conditions. " '

The sales tax was trenchantly criticised by Mr. Wright, who said that everybody in business knew it was costly, worrisome, and vicious. The sales tax should be considerably reduced or.removed altogether. If the money was absolutely needed, he would suggest some other form of taxation. Primage • duty would be better for the business community.

Mr. Wright said that he was a supporter of a national insurance scheme. The universal pension was not a llew scheme, as it was introduced many years ago by a statesman far ahead of. the time —Sir Harry Atkinson.

At the conclusion of his meeting, Mr. Wright answered a number of: questions. On the motion of Mr. K. H. Martin, seconded by Mr. J. H. Thompson, the following motion was carried:—"That this meeting of electors thanks Mr. Wright for his informative address, at the same time placing on record the highest appreciation of the valuable services rendered by him to the electorate for many years; and also affirms its continued confidence in him as a Parliamentary representative."