LABOUR’S VIEWPOINT

Matamata Record, Volume XIX, Issue 1788, 3 December 1936, Page 5

LABOUR’S VIEWPOINT

MR. J. a. BARCLAY’S ADDRESS

Control of Reserve Bank A political address was given by Mr. J. G. Barclay, M.P. for Marsden, in the Matamata Town Hall on Monday. Those present were given new light on the guaranteed price and farming problems. In moving a hearty vote of thanks to the speaker the Rev. H. Daniel said Mr. Barclay had stood up to a great gruelling in a manner which only a man with a thorough grasp of his subject could have done.

The Hon. J. Cotter presided, and introduced Mr. Barclay as a farpier and an ex director of a dairy company.

That it was easier to attack than defend was emphasised by Mr. Barclay in opening his address. Jt had been stated that the Labour Party was running away from its policy, but this was not so. The policy had not yet been put into operation, and the speaker had no fears that when it was the electors would be satisfied that the party was legislating for the people as a whole with the object of raising the standard of all.

It was also said that the Labour Party were Socialists, but that did not worry the speaker, as if they were not called that they would be called Bolsheviks or Communists or. something elsie. It had also been said that the country was being governed by a Socialist dictatorship. The speaker had always understood that a dictator did not appeal to the people. The Labour Party intended to appeal to the people again at the end of three years from the last election.

Pensions for Invalids Pensions for invalids was an enactment which should have been brought in years ago, but it was left to the Labour Party to do so. The cost would be £1,000,000, and the total increase in pensions would be £2,000,000. This money was being found by the reimposition of the graduated land tax and increased income tax. The Labour Party had never said that it would use the public credit for social services, but for other specific purposes. The biggest payer of the graduated land tax in New Zealand was the Bank of New Zealand, which paid £16,000 a year before ‘the tax was abolished in 1931. This tax did not hit the working farmer, as it did not affect him. It was only chargeable when the unimproved value was £SOOO if free from debt. Income tax in New Zealand was not as high as it was in Britain. Surely it was no hardship for a person with £IOOO to pay £75 annually ! G'ontrol of Reserve Bank The Labour Party was beginning a big building programme of houses and public buildings. The party said that if Britain could be made prosperous on a huge armament programme New Zealand could be made so on a housing programme, and it would have something more solid left afterwards. It was a question of putting purchasing power into the hands of i the people by different methods. However, purchasing must equate with consumable goods.

Newspapers had said that the financing of the housing scheme was orthodox finance. By controlling the Reserve Bank the Government had taken control of a tremendous weapon for the benefit of the people, and they should not blame a Minister of finance for moving cautiously step by step. No successful farmer or businessman had built up his business in any other manner than by being cautious at the start. The Labour Party had established the principle of using the public credit, and now the Government was offering money to local bodies for housing at 3 per cent, interest.