Loss On State Enterprises: Mr Kent Explains

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 November 1949, Page 2

Loss On State Enterprises: Mr Kent Explains

“The State does not try to make a profit. Why should it?” asked Mr. J. B. Kent, Labour candidate for Westland, replying at a meeting at Hokitika last night to criticism of Stateoperated enterprises and their failure to make profits. “We are concerned only, with the operation of a utility for the general good of the country and for the safety of the workers,” he added. Mr Kent said that the cost of imI ported coal had been a factor in. the i loss made by the railways, but he pointed out that coal had been made ■ available by this means to other forms of production. Higher wages had had to be paid even after railway charges had. been increased, he pointed out. The transport of farm products in a majority of cases, had been made at a loss, but actually this was like a subsidy for the benfit of all consumers. A loss on the railways he suggested, would be preferred by most of New Zealand to a higher price for goods which would follow higher railway charges. “It is a public utility and serves the needs of the people. That is. the first thing; not the making of profits.” The Labour candidate, who spoke for almost an hour and a half to an audience which grew from 39 when he commenced his speech, to 65, gave an address on similar lines to those he had previously delivered in the campaign. He was introduced by the de-puty-Mayor of Hokitika, Mr A. C. Armstrong, who expressed the town’s appreciation of Mr Kent’s efforts in arranging for the proposed new £BO,OOO school ,for Hokitika, to be placed first on the Canterbury Education Board’s building priority list. Examine Finance “I am not here to drown you in a multitude of words,” began Mr Kent, “just to give you a few facts showing why you should support the Labour Government and reject the Nationalists who have declared already that they would examine the finances of the country.” ( The depression years and alleged “slave camps” were again discussed at length, and Mr Kent also claimed that outside capital was being used to finance National Party propaganda. The best pamphlet of all, he said, was called the “tarbrush” pamphlet, but so dirty was this that it was withdrawn from publication. Unemployment, now reduced in New Zealand to a dozen, was still 5,000,000 in the United States—the land to which the capitalists looked —and on a pro rata basis in New Zealand would be 50,000. “Is that what the National Party wants?” he asked.

Replying to an assertion by a National Party speaker that £2 a week was paid to a married man with four children during the depression years (Mr Kent had claimed it was 37s 6d)

Mr Kent quoted from a letter from a Blackball resident who stated that he, a married man with three children, had been paid only 30s less Is tax, and had to stand down every fourth week. He had lost his house and his wife had died in hospital. His recovery from that position he attributed to the Labour Party. “And that is the truth, not fairy tales,” said Mr Kent. Public Service The National Party’s attitude to public servants was referred to by Mr Kent, who quoted statements by Opposition members criticising the civil service and supporting a policy of retrenchment. Only 12 pei' cent, of New Zealand’s workers werd employed in State enterprises, stated the speaker, who claimed that more people were now being given a chance to establish their own businesses than ever before. Other sections of Mr Kent’s speech dealt with taxation (this, he said, was largely a redistribution of wealth), rehabilitation, stabilisation (described by the London Financial Times, as the best in the world) the reduction of overseas loans, full employment, social security, section 100 of the Land Act and land and the guaranteed price. He also criticised the National Party’s plan to induce pensioners to work on after they had qualified for pensions, for an extra 2s 6d a week per year of extra work, on retirement, and the proposal to induce elderly women to carry out domestic duties by allowing them to earn without prejudicing their pensions. “They should be working in their own home, not somebody else’s,” he said. The proposal to sell State houses to their occupants was described by Mr Kent as being unworkable. After making the initial payment of £l5O, interest charges, and insurance etc., on the outstanding sum would amount to £7B a year so that in the 40-year-term allotted for the paying off of the house, hardly anything would be paid off the capital sum. Proud Of Record The Labour Government was proud of its achievements concluded Mr Kent, after quoting from remarks made on New Zealand by Mr Randolph Churchill, and the planning of the social and economic life of the country would preserve the security which was so important to all. “If you return the capitalists to control, there will be misery, unemployment and the destruction of the system built up by Labour which has greatly increased prosperity and made New .Zealahd a country that is envied abroad. “It is up to us in this country to keep the light burning for those not so fortunate in other countries who are looking towards us.” Only one question was asked of Mr Kent. This was by Mr T. Haddock, who, pointing out that a sum had been placed on the estimates for pile-

driving in the Hokitika harbour, asked if it was the intention of the Ministry of Works to proceed with this work. “Yes, it is,” replied Mr Kent. A vote of thanks, appreciation and confidence in Mr Kent and the Labour Party, moved by Mr E. W. Heenan and seconded by Mr T. Haddock, was declared carried unanimously by acclamation.