GENERAL ELECTION— What Mr Holland Said On Social Security Scheme

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 November 1949, Page 2

GENERAL ELECTION— What Mr Holland Said On Social Security Scheme

GISBORNE, Nov. 19.—The Leader of the National Barty (Mr S. G. Holland) today quoted the‘Hansard record of his comment on the second reading debate on the Social Secur- i ity Bill on August 25, 1938, when a statement made last night by the Minister of Finance (Mr W. Nash) was referred to him. Mr Nash’s statement was that “Mr Holland cannot escape the inference that to pay out social sec- | urity benefits before the Governmenti got the. money was applied lunacy and not applied Christianity.’ Mr Nash was referring to a Hansard report that Mr Holland described social security as “applied, lunacy.” Mr Holland’s reference to “applied lunacy” in Hansard reads: “I believe in superannuation, but to pass a superannuation Bill and merely explain that we are going to hand out benefits here, there, and everywhere is one thing, while to find the money is an entirely different matter. “It is all very well for the honourable members opposite to laugh, but they subscribe to their party’s view that this scheme is applied Christianity. I say that it is applied lunacy to commit oneself to expenditure before the requisite income is reasonably assured. The public have a right to know what the superannuation scheme will cost in the various years, how the scheme is to be financed, who is to 'find the money required, and what additional taxation will be imposed. These questions are unanswered, and this House and the public are entitled to an answer.”

MR HOLLAND’S POLICY IN HANDLING OF , STRIKE DISPUTES GISBORNE, November 19 (P.A.) “Mr McLagan may think it is silly to suggest that steps should be taken to bring about the immediate settlement of a dispute which is holding up the people’s bread supplies in Auckland, but he would not think it so silly if he were in one of the 27,000 households which are being gravely inconvenienced by this absurd hold-up in supplies,” said the Leader of the Opposition (Mr S G. Holland) today. “Leaving party politics entirely cut of it,” added Mr Holland, “there can be no possible justification for employing direct action tactics which deny to the people their daily bread, and some method simply must be found to do two things—first, to provide ways and means for the examination and adjudication of disputes such as this, and secondly, to make defiance of the law a punishable offence. The present trouble with its great inconvenience to the public, is merely the law of the jungle. “Fortunately,” said Mr Holland, “we still have private enterprise in the bread-baking trade and supplies are not entirely cut off as alternative supplies are available to some extent. Had bread-baking been the monopoly of cither one firm or the State it is more than probable that the entire supply would have been held up now. I adhere to my view that our plans would, have found a solution to the problem without ail this bitterness and industrial heart-burning,” Mr Holland concluded.