"A DAMP SQUIB"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 76, 27 September 1938, Page 18

"A DAMP SQUIB"

NATIONAL POLICY

LABOUR'S ACTIONS

ENDORSED

The contrast between the condition of the people when the Government came into office and at present was stressed by Mr. R. McKeen, Labour candidate for Wellington South, at Island Bay last night. Then, of 80,000 farmers, 50,000 were bankrupt. The unemployed had reached 79,000. No Government in the world had made such great changes for the better in three years. Every promise it had made had been carried out, and finally it had brought in the social- security scheme, guaranteeing everybody a decent standard of living in their old age. Everyone had been anxious to hear the policy of the Nationalists, and when it was announced it came upon the nation like a damp squib, with nothing new except the support of 95 per cent, of what the Labour Government had already done.

"These people are asking you for a mandate for them to retain what we have already done," said Mr. McKeen. "We can show you that economic and social conditions have gone up and up. Taking the comparison between 1934, 1935, and today, wages have increased from £65,000,000 to' £98,000,000. Income other than salaries and wages increased by £13,000,000 in the first year of Government office. ■: They say the issue is between Socialism and private enterpriser If wage earners have improved conditions so has private enterprise. Since 1934-35 the national income has increased by £68,000,000. This does not mean that amount in price increase, but in volume of production. Suppose that we increase the volume of production during the next three years by only 20 per cent., and if nothing is done to redistribute that amount throughout the whole, community in various benefits, the whole of it will go to one small section of ■the community. The fight today is between the vested interests and the people. Everyone in the community has benefited by the work of the Labour Government, even the farmers, who are now happy and contented, and able to look the world in the face. In 1935 the income of the dairy farmer was £102, or £2 a week. Today it is £295, or £5 15s a week, and at the commencement of the season farmers know what their income will be.

"The number of factories has increased by 1125, and the increase in production is £26,000,000 in factory products alone. Prior to the Labour Government the Apprentices Act was smashed. Today the number of apprentices has been increased by 6000. In 1935 the number of depositors in "the Post Office Savings Bank was 817,000; on March 31, 1938, it was 920,000. The deposits have gone. up from £49,000,000 to £63,000,000, which

shows that the Government policy,is enabling the people to save." Not only the people, but all trading concerns, had benefited since 1935, continued Mr. McKeen. Trading banks had shown an increase of profits from £ 1,300,000 .to £ 1,500,000, besides putting to reserve fund £67,000; stock and station agents from £230,000 to £470,000; insurance companies from £448,000 to £511,000; freezing com-] panics from £175,000 to £197,000; and retail stores from £121,000 to £236,----000. "So much for private enterprise," concluded Mr. McKeen.