NEW MEMBER'S SPEECH

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 57, 5 September 1945, Page 9

NEW MEMBER'S SPEECH

LOCALLY-MADE GOODS

' One of the topics discussed by Mr. R. Walls (Government, Dunedin North) in his first Parliamentary speech, made on the Budget, in the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon, was that of the birth-rate. While a larger population was needed, said Mr. Walls, parents could not be asked to bring children into'the world unless they were to be secure from unemployment and poverty. Immigrants would eventually be required when New Zealand servicemen had been rehabilitated. Wool was a great industry of the Dominion, and New Zealand should be able to manufacture a good deal more from it instead of sending wool away and buying back the finished fabrics. Carpets and rugs, in particular, ought to be made in New Zealand. The country's factories could make all the footwear New Zealand people needed, and he would prohibit the importation of all footwear, though he realised that that would necessitate a more highly finished article if some of the present imports were excluded. Some women grumbled at the lack of variety in design.and the finish of New Zealand shoes, but that could be remedied by bringing out a few experts to train New Zealand's own workers who were highly skilled and adaptable". The primary industry was most important of all, and closer settlement and more intensive farming was one of the things to be faced in the' future. OWNERSHIP OF HOUSES. . Every man should be encouraged to own his own home, said Mr. Walls, amid Opposition applause, but he added that the Government plan for building homes and not allowing them to be sold was correct policy. State houses would be traded in if they were allowed to be sold. It was not the Government's intention that State houses should change hands at a profit. However, there was nothing to hinder a working man getting a loan from the State Advances Department and building his own home. Mr. A. J. Murdoch (National, Marsden), disagreeing with Mr. Walls on the question of footwear importations, said,the new member apparently had been instructed and had been a pupil of a very bad master, the Minister of Industries and Commerce (Mr. Sullivan). • He was-glad to. heax.-Mr. : Walls favour the owning of homes, but he wished to point out that the State Advances Department lent money at 4 1-8 per cent., whereas money used in building State houses was at 2 per cent., and "in some cases lj per cent.