ECONOMY PLAN

Hokitika Guardian, 28 April 1939, Page 2

ECONOMY PLAN

OPPOSED BY MR HAMILTON

(Per Press Association.—Copyright).

AUCKLAND, April 27

A statement that doctrines pursued by the Labour "Government had reduced New Zealand “from the height of prosperity to the biggest muddle the Dominion had ever known” was made by the Opposition Leader (Hon. A. Hamilton), in addressing National Party supporters here to-night. The hall was filled. Mr Hamilton was given a good reception. He said the Labour Party’s tactics were now reaping their harvest of hardship. There was unemployment. There was acute fin-j ancial embarrassment in the home and in business. An utterly mistaken policy on the part of the Government was responsible for a present serious crisis. There was no excuse for it. Reaping the consequences of their own foiiv, Mr Savage, Mr Nash and their colleagues had changed their tune from spending everything to saving everything. “A change of policy is no more clearly expressed than in statements of Labour leaders then and now,” Mr Hamilton continued: He-quoted a state-, ment by Mr Savage, made in October. 1936, as follows:—“This scratching, scraping, starvation system of individual savings strangles the.. economic freedom and well being of the nation We have got to stop that.” Mr. Hamilton also referred to a statement by Mr. Nash, this month, as follows: —“The position is different' no\v. Saving from the people’s actual income is necessary to counteract a possible danger, of prices rising, .and as a basis for capital expansion. , For saving now, that is withholding expenditure, to enable our people to enjoy more in the future, and to avoid

price increases, there is an unanswerable case.” Mr Hamilton said: “If there is no ottier military manoeuvre. that this Government has performed with alacrity and precision, the ‘about turn’ of its army, allegedly on the way onward and upward to a spending paradise, remains as one shining- example. The rank and file of the people are going to pay now and pay dearly indeed for the folly and futility of that march. Insulation was the sheet anchor, of Labour’s hopes and preachings. From the day that it was first mentioned as a manipulative short-cut to an economic paradise, I scorned it and criticised its fundamental flaw. To-day that theory has proved as hollow and as broken a reed as any other on which the Labour Party’s platform stood. The Na- ' tional Party is more determined than ever to carry oil a fight' 'against. lh-> Government, which is more steadily smashing the democratic structure of New Zealand.”