"THE ONLY PLANK"

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 125, 22 November 1935, Page 19

"THE ONLY PLANK"

LABOUR AND INFLATION

"Inflation is the only plank in the Labour Party's policy," declared Mr. G. A. Monk, National Party candidate for Otaki, when speaking at the Cozy Theatre' on Wednesday. The chairman was the Mayor (Mr. T. O'Rourke).

Undeterred by cries of dissent, the candidate reiterated his contention, which he challanged Labour supporters to disprove. The electors, he said, must be beware of Labour's avowed intention to secure control of the country's credit and currency, because if such a policy did not involve inflation it was impossible to understand the meaning of words. It was a policy that meant the niching of the people's sayings. Such might not be the explicit intention of Labour candidates. But then, Labour candidates did not govern tlxemssrves; they were bound by their pledge to a party "which in Parliament was controlled from outside. The fact remained that Labour in Parliament was controlled from a source outside Parliament—controlled by the trades unions.

Proceeding amid further interjections, the speaker said that on a nocpnfidenpe motion he would vote with the Natipnal Party. Criticism was directed by the candidate to the Labour Party's project for constructing the Napier-Gisborne railway. He said a farmer seated in his meeting, who knew the country well, had assured him the proposed railway would not even pay for axle-grease. If the intention was to finance the proposed railway by a State note issue from the Reserve Bank, he would remind his hearers that State notes could only be retired by the earnings of the railway. The logical conclusion was that works of the kind proposed by the Labour Party could only lead to inflation, and depreciation of currepcy.

Referring to the Labour candidate's reported remark that instead of balancing the Budget, the Government should have budgeted for a deficiency in order to provide more adequately for unemployment, MV- Monk asked if that meant "that Mr. Lowry did not agree that the wages tax for unemployment shouM be reduced.

Touching the Labour candidate's objection to some features of the National Party's election advertising, Mr. Monk proceeded to defend a pictorial advertisement which Mr. Lowry had characterised as ''rotten electioneering," He challenged Labour advocates to deny that under Mr. J. T. Lang's Labour regime in Australia the value of the people's saving had greatly depreciated. After a period of Lang finance, numbers of depositors had offered to sell their deposits, in some cases at half, or even less than half of their face value, while public servants had been as much as six months behind in their salary payments.

A voice: What about the pound being only worth 16s?

Mr. Monk: It is nonsense to think that the £1 is worth 16s. You still get a £1 worth of goods in New Zealand for the pound note.

Replying to criticisms of the alleged lack qf an employment policy in the Government, Mr; Monk said that early in the New Year the- Government proposed to convene a representative conference at which consideration would be given to proposals along the lines of recent suggestions at Geneva relating to shorter working hours and the distribution of employment. Something would also probably be done to remedy the unfortunate results of the breakdown of the Apprentices Act, and to increase the opportunities of youth after passing through school, university, and technical college. He claimed that as it was, the' Government's plans had reduced the number of unemployed from 80.000 to about 50,000 and this without aiiy increase in the National Debt. Labour's employment policy, on the other rrand, could not be effected without inflation, depreciation of the currency, and a considerable increase in the National Debt. ■

Mr. Monk was accorded a vote cf thanks on the motion of Mr. H. L. Beauchamp, seconded by Mr. M. Simcox.