LABOUR FERVOUR AS STRONG NOW AS IN 1935 ELECTION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23314, 25 July 1950, Page 6

LABOUR FERVOUR AS STRONG NOW AS IN 1935 ELECTION

"Speakers for the Government have said that I have been travelling about the country stirring up discontent. The fact is that I have spoken only where 1 have had invitations to speak, and those invitations were given because discontent with the . present Government’s programme was already there,” stated Mr. W. Nash, M.P. for Hutt, in an address to Labour Party supporters in Gisborne on Saturday evening.

He stated that the meeting he had attended had revealed a remarkable fervour for the Labour cause. He had not seen such enthusiasm in the movement at any time since the late Mr. M. J. Savage had led the party to victory in 1935. “1 should like to see that fervour manifest itlelf about two years from now,” Mr. Nash commented with a smile. “We have the support of the people. I ■ believe, and I have no personal doubt that the election in 1952 will restore the position wc had prior to that of 1949.”

The Labour Party in Parliament had no feelings of resentment concerning the result of the last general elections, he assured the audience. What they did resent was the means by which their opponents gained their victory. In any case, it was right that the people should have the opportunity to express their opinion on what was being done, and incidentally it was recognised that the present Government had delayed the opening of Parliament until the last possible day allowed to them. Even then, he claimed, the new Government had not made a very good showing. The Imprest Supply Bill had been introduced without details, and Ministers who were questioned revealed a complete lack of information on the provision made for their respective departmental needs. Monetary Situation

The former Finance Minister dealt with the Government’s claims that the Labour administration had over-spent by £28,000,000 and had left the country in a state of serious monetary inflation His reply to that allegation was that under Labour the country had record trade, record production, record income, and a record amount of money in the pockets of its wage-earners after taxation. Two-thirds of the overdraft from the Reserve Bank had been spent on State houses, and if there had been no borrowing for this purpose the country would not have had its 32,000 rental units, valued today at £53,000,000. Mr. Nash also dealt with the abolition of subsidies and its effect upon the wage-earners of the country, and criticised the Government's policy in offsetting the additional costs of living by adjustments which he regarded as entirely inadequate. The people of New Zealand were not likely to starve, he said, but they would not enjoy the margins of comfort they had achieved under a Labour administration. Import Licensing The Government had attacked what its speakers called rackets in import licensing, continued Mr. Nash. They had produced a letter which they suggested showed that an applicant had been given a license to import £IO,OOO worth of unassembled cars without any previous connection with that business. The applicant concerned had previously been an importer, said Mr. Nash, but during recent years he had devoted his business to reconditioning vehicles brought back from the Islands. That business was now completed, and he asked for a license to keep his organisation going. There was no racketeering in regard to import licenses, said Mr. Nash. There might have been some cases' in which returned servicemen who had received licenses for goods, about which they knew nothing, had peddled the licenses; but in general there was no traffic whatever in the right to import goods. “I was proud to be charged in the House with being responsible for the ‘mess’ the country was in," said Mr. Nash. “I wish that 'mess’ had continued for some time; and I hope that in two years and five months’ time we will go back to building a Government which will take care of the worker.”

The speaker was accorded a vote of thanks by acclamation, on the motion of Mr. W. W. Jonasen. The meeting was presided over by Mr. E. C. Richards.