The Grey River Argus SATURDAY, June 28, 1947. HYMN OF HATE !

Grey River Argus, 28 June 1947, Page 4

The Grey River Argus SATURDAY, June 28, 1947. HYMN OF HATE !

GENERATION of electricity is in this country <• entirely a State industry. That doubtless is the reason why the National Party has made it the first object of attack in the new Parliament. It was a former Government Avhich made the service a public enterprise, and it was the last Government which left it so much an undeveloped enterprise that the leeway amounts to a big task for the present Government. Before the war, the Opposition professed much concern lest any orders for equipment should he sent anywhere except to Britain. During the war it was useless sending orders anywhere. No credit is allowed the Government for extensions which were made in Avar time, but there is an Opposition suggestion that they might have been even greater, so as to have been equal to all demands during the long period, of the drought. It is true that industry has greatly expanded during the term of this Government, increasing the demand for poiver, and that a further demand has resulted from the great improvement in housing equipment. Consumption has groAvn indeed by leaps and bounds, in a manner nobody foresaw in {.he days before Labour came into poAver. But the equipment has also been enormously extended. A comparison betAvecn the Avork in that direction Avhich this Government has done and the Avork of all of its predecessors combined demonstrates that it has the finest record in the matter of electrical progress. Going back, hoAvever, upon their professed policy of pre-Avar days, the National Party has since the stringency been demanding that American oildriven equipment on a very costly scale shall De instantly obtain-

cd. As a matter of obvious fact, such plant is not obtainable. The Opposition is not concerned with the facts so much as with the idea of fault-finding and exaggerating such shortages as there have been, talking of a “famine I ’, when every consumer has been getting a regular share, and discounting industrial continuity by harping upon domestic reductions. If it were possible—and it is utterly impossible—to instal all the foreign plant and work it with all the foreign fuel suggested by the Opposition, New Zealand not only would run to-day out of dollars, but remain short of dollars in the future. The debate on the granting of supply yesterday, which was mainly carried on by the National Party—until they ran out of propaganda last evening—was aptly described as a sort of hymn of hate. The rain had come a little too soon for them! As the Prime Minister remarked, it recalled their outcry about oranges or some other unprocurable commodity last year, especially as they shied clear of such things this time, since the supply has meantime grown so much. It is prudent of the Government to consider a number of smaller hydro propositions, as indicated, until the big Maraetai and Coal Creek schemes are fully developed, and the West Coast offers scope for such schemes more reliably than any other part of the country, for it is never without a fair flow of water in localities where water can be harnessed. The Opposition say industries should have been cut down, and prevented from starting, until such time as there is power to spare, but the Opposition also relishes the idea of cheap labour and to that end a seasoning of unemployment. The Government actually has provided for the exceptional droughty interlude with great discretion and success, the industrial and domestic handicaps having been kept at a minimum. It may thus be imagined that the Opposition is rather exasperated because the period of stringency has so successfully been negotiated.