PRIME MINISTER

Hokitika Guardian, 28 September 1928, Page 5

PRIME MINISTER

COUNTRY’S TRADING POSITION. (By Telegraph—Press Association). WELLINGTON, September 28. In an address at Kilbirnie last night the Prime Minister (Hon. J. G.. Coates), referring to the country’s trading position, said in the eight months of the present year the Dominion was seven and a-half millions ahead of the corresponding period last year ahd there had been records in every form of production. There was definitely an improvement in the' demand in the labour He said the unemployment insurance would not provide a solution, of the unemployment problem. The Government had done a good deal to relieve unemployment, but it was not its responsibility to find work (for all unemployed. It was not the Government’s policy to encourage men to go on relief public works. A man could get a job on those (works to tide him over a difficult period, but it was at relief wages. That was the difference. Dealing with the country’s finance, he said the Dominion was borrowing at a cheaper rate than other countries, and had the confidence of the financial, world. There had been no decrease in the salaries of civil servants. Rather had there been an increase.

In contusion, he said there were two political parties—Reform and Labour, and if there were any other party it should state where it was, whether it supported Reform or Labour. There was no room for a third party.