"BUNGLED"

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 65, 14 September 1943, Page 7

"BUNGLED"

MAN-POWER POSITION

The Minister of Industrial Manpower (Mr. McLagan) had had the audacity to come into the Wellington Central electorate to try and help Mr, Fraser, said Mr, Will Appleton, National Party candidate-for Wellington Central, at his meeting in the Methodist Church Hall,. Webb Street, last night. As a member of the Legislative Council Mr. McLagan should not be going around the country electioneering at the country's expense; instead he should have had the courage to contest one of the electorates.

"Mr. McLagan would be better employed looking after* his own affairs as Minister of Man-power," added Mr. Appleton at a later stage. "Still the more outsiders who are imported into the electorate the |vorse Peter Fraser is going to be off on pollirig-day." At his recent meeting, continued Mr. Appleton, Mr. McLagan had had a great deal to say about production under the Labour Government, but had quoted figures of a few years ago. Mr. McLagan had endeavpured to establish that the man-power position had been handled marvellously, that production had gone up, and had generally tried to paint a rosy picture. The more recent figures showed declines in the number of horses, dairy cows, sheep, pigs, and in areas planted with various crops, the total area of land under cultivation having fallen by over 100,000 acres in the last twelve months. There was land going back to bush and scrub today because of the lack of man-power to work it. The man-power position had been bungled by the Government,

In 1940-41 dairy production had declined by 20 per cent, and in 1941-42 it went down another 12£ per cent. No wonder New Zealand could not respond to the Old Country's request for more butter. It was a disgrace to the Government that it had not done, more to help Great Britain out in that connection. Immediately after the election, Mr. Appleton predicted, the Government proposed to act, in the same way as it had done after the 1938 election, when the import control system was introduced. He added that at the Government Printing Office any amount of coupons were being printed at the present time, and he forecast that they were for.. butter rationing and probably for meat rationing also. "I challenge Mr. Fraser to tell us what all these coupons are about," said Mr. Appleton.

THE PEOPLE'S WAR EFFORT.

The bungling of the man-power position could be understood in the light of the records of members of the Government in the last war. Most of them had had no experience of war. It was all very well for Mr. Fraser and his party to commit the flesh and blood of this country; it was all very well to be jolly good fellows at home and be told that New Zealand had not put a foot wrong. But it was not Mr. Fraser who had not put a foot wrong; it was the people. It was the people who had found the men, and it was the manhood and young womanhood of the country who were responsible for our achievements, and they had been reared and brought up before the Labour Party ever came into office. (Applause.)

The meeting was presided over by Mr. H. R. Searle, and there was an attendance of over 100 people. A vote of thanks and confidence in Mr. Appleton was carried unanimously.

ENGINEERS SUFFER MOST O.C. STH. PACIFIC BASE, Aug. 27. Probably combat engineer casualties exceed in proportion those of the infantry, although their work is often devoid of glamour and recognition, says an intelligence officer, a U.S. colonel, speaking of the battle of New Georgia. "The other day," he added, dodging into a foxhole as sniper bullets whistled overhead, "I saw a bulldozer crew ambushed by about 15 Japs armed with two light machineguns firing at 30 yards range. Four of our men were killed and eight wounded."