DOMINION’S POSITION

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 September 1928, Page 12

DOMINION’S POSITION

PRIME MINISTER OPTIMISTIC.

(Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, September 28. ; In. an address at. Kilbirnie last night, the Prime Minister, referring to the country’s trading position, said that in eight months of the present year, the Dominion was seven and . a-half millions ahead of the corresponding period of last year, and there had been records in every form of production. There was a definitely improved demand in the labour market, he said. Unemployment insurance would not provide a solution of the unemployment problem. The Government had done a good ’ deal to relieve unemployment, but it was not its responsibility to rind work for all the unemployed. It was not the Government's policy to encourage men to go on relief public works. A man could ' get a job on those works to tide him over a difficult, period, but it was relief, and not wages. That was the difference. Dealing with the country’s finance, ho said that the Dominion was borrowing money at a cheaper rate than other countries, and hud the confidence of the financial world. There had been no decrease in the salaries of civil servants, rather had there been ,an increase. In conclusion, he said there were two political parties, Reform and Labour, and if there was any other party, it should state where it was,

and whether it supported Reform or Labour. There was no room for a third party.