“A TEST CASE”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20622, 25 November 1941, Page 4

“A TEST CASE”

BAY OF PLENTY POLL MR. SULLIVAN’S VIEW OPENING OF CAMPAIGN (Special to the Herald.) TE ARAROA, this day. “People now understand better what the present Government stands for,” said Mr. W. Sullivan, National candidate in the Bay of Plenty by-election, in opening his campaign in Te Araroa last night. There was an excellent attendance, over which Mr. W. F. Metcalf presided. Mr. Sullivan, after referring to the sad circumstances which had brought about the by-election, and paying a tribute to the work of the late Lieut. A. G. Hultquist for the electorate, said the Labour policy was one of straight out socialism aiming to bring under State control the affairs of every individual in the country. He recommended them to ask the Labour candidate to define exactly what was meant by the social legislation of production, distribution and exchange. The n\en who built New Zealand were not socialists, but men who had courage, initiative and drive. The aim of the present Government was to so dishearten men in industry that the State could eventually take over those industries. That was what the Bureau of Industries was for. Bureaucratic control had been further developed under the war emergency regulations, and now his namesake, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, had predicted an extension of that control after the war. Fish Licensing Anomaly Referring to the effect of .control, Mr. Sullivan pointed to the distribution of fishing licenses, saying there were districts on the East Coast where there was only one fisherman who had a wholesale license. A voice: And that man is a foreigner. Mr. Sullivan said that in Whakatane, his own town, a fisherman who had a shop was obliged to pass his fish through the holder of the wholesale license before he could sell it in his own shop, and the process cost him id per lb. extra.

Dealing with taxation, he said his own company, after making a careful analysis of the effects of increased taxation, found that it had to charge into its costs 7|d per hour on every man’s time under this particular heading. The action of Ministers of the Crown in exempting themselves from income tax in connection with that part of their salaries which they surrendered under the Labour Party pooling arrangement simply meant that there was one law for Cabinet Ministers and one for the rest of the community. A man who gave part of his income to his widowed mother, for example, was not allowed any reduction on that amount, but a Cabinet Minister who, of his own free will, gave part of his salary to his colleagues, was granted a reduction. Only One Farmer Mr. Sullivan said the reason why Labour had not initiated a progressive land policy was because only one member of the Cabinet, the Hon. J. G. Barclay, had any practical farming experience. He quoted from the New Zealand “Who’s Who” to show the past background of members of the Cabinet and said the record of their activities showed why the farmers got so little consideration.

The National Party had no desire to take away benefits given under social security, but the Labour Party could not claim credit for originating such benefits, as old age pensions had been introduced in 1898 and gradually increased by various Governments before Labour came into power. One weakness of social security was that the great majority of people contributed far more than they got out of it. Young people became contributors at the age of 16 years, but if they left the country they could not recover any v of their payments. Tbe Bay of Plenty by-election was a test case. It would show whether the people approved of socialism or wanted the Government to put the brakes on. Lack of Vision If the Government had had half as much vision as the four colonels whom it disrated because they issued a warning of the dangers ahead, the country would have been better prepared for the outbreak of war and the Home Guard would not have been drilling with broomsticks. Mr. Sullivan said that during the 1938 campaign he had covered every part of the Bay of Plenty electorate, and he was of the opinion that the action of the Government in establishing large public works camps prior to the election and which were subsequently disbanded soon after the election had defeated an honest vote. He regarded a proper roading system as essential to the progress of the Bay 1 of Plenty electorate, and said that if elected he would fight for that and for the electrical reticulation of East Coast towns.

A vote of thanks to Mr. Sullivan was carried on the motion of Mr. M. W. Halliwell. seconded by Mr. C. H. Clarke. He was thanked by Mr. C. Cowan, chairman of the Te Araroa branch of the Labour Party, for his generous references to the late Lieut. Hultquist at the start of his speech.