MAKING CAPITAL

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 126, 23 November 1935, Page 18

MAKING CAPITAL

PAMPHLET EXAMINED

MR. MAZENGARB'S CAMPAIGN

A pamphlet Issued this week to the electors of Wellington East with the compliments of Mr. Semple was given some attention by Mr. O. C. Mazengarb, the National candidate for this p electorate, in his address to a crowded Iri meeting at the Hataitai School last I d night. T The candidate had a most enthusi- n astic meeting. Some 300 people at- n tended, and at the conclusion of his c address a resolution of thanks and con- tfidence in Mr. Mazengarb, moved by £ Mr. E. J. Lezard and seconded by Mr. £ C. Pinnock. was carried with musical honours. Mr. H. J. Searle* presided. Unless he was colour blind it was 2 a yellow pamphlet, said Mr. Mazen- 5 garb. He criticised the statements made in the pamphlet regarding the F unemployed situation. The point Mr l Semple did not make, he said, was that before any cuts were imposed n there were 42.000 unemployed. Mr. 1: Semple also did not say that the num- v ber of unemployed at the present time c was 40,000. Although there were 58,000 r registered as unemployed, approximately 18,000 were fully employed in I private enterprises by' private people c and were receiving full standard rates c of pay. (Applause.) r Why, when Mr. Semple" criticised r the Government and the Unemploy- i ment Board, could he not be fair? Mr. c Mazengarb said that today builders t and contractors were advertising for c carpenters. There were jobs waiting c for carpenters. ] Mr. Mazengarb passed on to make a t critical examination of Mr. Semple's t statement that as a result of the pre- \ sent Government's operations thou- , sands had lost their deposits in the , Post Office Savings Bank. A week , or ten days ago Mr. Semple had said , that 80.000 had been affected in this . way. Mr. Semple had been able to quote that figure at that time, but in his pamphlet that had been left out. ' Why had Mr. Semple left it put? It was because he (Mr. Mazengarb) had been able by looking up the, returns to establish where the 80,000 came from. Mr. Mazengarb explained that in 1333, under the provisions of the Unclaimed Moneys Act, the accounts of people over a period of 25 years who were unable to be traced were closed down by the Post Office. The total number of such accounts was 80,000 and the total sum in those accounts] was £00,000. If there were people! alive whose accounts had been closed j down in this way they could get their money if they made application to the Treasury. "A perfect gem," said Icr. Mazengarb, was the contention by Mr. Semple in his pamphlet that as a result of giving the Coalition Government a free and unfettered mandate or a blank cheque at last election the asylums were full. The candidate's audience laughed heartily and derisively. The statement, continued Mr. Mazengarb, that the asylums were full might have been made of any political party at any time since 1389. The report of the director-general of the Department in that year stated that the accommodation in the mental hospitals was seldom or never in advance of the; needs and was often gravely behind, i Every head of the Department since then had complained of the lack of accommodation for those people who j were unfortunate enough to be re- , quired to be sent to a mental institution. . Mr. Mazengarb said he had taken the trouble to look up the records of ' the Department to see what the facts ' were. He did not make wild, extravagant statemens copying from some '_ speech or from some other Labour r speaker, or some other irresponsible. 2 In his investigation he had found that • instead of the number of inmates in - the mental hospitals increasing, as one f might be tempted to expect, from the - distress arising from the economic difficulties it had actually decreased since the depression commenced. (Api plause.) Mr. Mazengarb quoted from - the report of the Director-General of 1 Mental Hospitals for 1933, in which - it was stated that the total admissions, f including voluntary boarders, were ten z less than in the previous year. He f said he had taken the matter further 2 and had found that in 1934 the number of people in mental hospitals in .. New Zealand was actually 113 less than it was in 1930. (Applause.) Indeed, said Mr. Mazengarb. the ~ whole pamphlet was a base and cont temptible attempt to capitalise the misfortunes and sufferings of people, ■^ however they were caused, for the purs pose of securing political power. The ■" whole scheme of the Labour propaganda was to play upon the discontent ;" of the people in order to usher in an era of socialisation and the confiscas tion of the savings of the people.