"ONLY TWO ISSUES"

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 123, 20 November 1935, Page 18

"ONLY TWO ISSUES"

MR. GOLDSMITH'S VIEW

DEMOCRATS OR SOCIALISM

A comparison of the Nationalist and the Democrat Parties, to the detriment of the former, was made by Mr. J. I. Goldsmith, Democrat candidate for Wellington South, to a successful meeting at Berhampore last night.

"There are actually," he said, "only two issues for the electors, the ForbesCoates party's National Socialism and the Labour Party's Socialism .on the one hand, and the Democrat Party, opposed to Socialism, on the other hand. The Democrat policy is the only one against Socialism. The issue is clear cut, and we confidently go to the electors of New Zealand with .the conviction that they will not stand for any kind of Socialism.

"The Democrat Party is put to fight the depression," said Mr. Goldsmith. "We are convinced that it can be banished from this great-little country of ours. The Forbes-Coates Government has not made any real endeavour to overcome the economic crisis. It has made things all right for its wealthy supporters. Huge sums of • money have been distributed amongst them as members of all kinds of boards, and the exchange money has been shovelled into the pockets of a large number of wealthy sheep and other farmers who require no assistance at all from the exchange money. The poorer farmers have had to struggle along without any real gain from the increased rate of exchange. Do you know that 80 per cent, of the exchange money has been distributed among about 300 sheep farmers, leaving only 20 per cent, to be divided among more than 69,000 other farmers? "And how have the general public fared at the hands of the ForbesCoates Government? The public have been submitted to the most crushing taxation in the history of this country, and the wheels of industry have been slowed down almost to a standstill. Some 50,000 workers, after four years of the Forbes-Coates regime, are practically on the breadline. And if we take into consideration the idle youths and girls who are unemployed the number of jobless totals well over 100,000. This is a startling state of affairs and is a standing condemnation of the Forbes-Coates policy. PLENTY OF MONEY. "The Democrat Party is not at ail perplexed as to where the money, is to come from. The banks are overloaded with money for which they are paying only 2$ per cent, interest as fixed deposits. The fact is that there would be no difficulty in raising an £8,000,000 loan. Mr. Coates pretends that raising a loan would be a dreadful thing. He is boasting that he has pulled the country through the depression without loans. Yes, but what a frightful wreck he has made of the country in doing so. Business men will tell you that so long as you can lift your business by borrowing (that is by getting an overdraft) and being able to repay your loan, it is a most desirable thing to get an overdraft. There is nothing harmful about such action. On the contrary, it is a splendid and advantageous move.

"The Democrat Party will raise an £8,000,000 loan and will make provision for paying the interest and establishing a sinking fund which will wipe off the whole debt in a few years." Mr. T>. W. Campbell presided. The audience, without dissent, accorded Mr. Goldsmith a vote of thanks and confidence at the end of his address.