THE UNITED PARTY

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVIII, Issue 207, 31 July 1928, Page 2

THE UNITED PARTY

SPEECH BY MR VEITCH.

Per Press Association. NEW PLYMOUTH, July 30. The Reform Party and its methods were attacked by Mr W. A. Veitcli whon he addressed about 100 people of the Taranaki electorate to-night; The speaker also dealt with several planks in the platform of the new United Party, and intimated that the party leader would be selected in the near future in Wellington at a meeting of candidates selected to contest seats at the election. The three great problems facing tho country today, said Mr Veitcli, wero land settlement, unemployment, and finance which were so closelv correlated that they must ho taken together. Since it had been in power tlie Reform Party had spent £107,000,000 in capital expenditure exclusive of £82,000,000 spent on tho war, and they had very little to show for it. The trouble was that money had been spent on popular amenities, not in helping farmers to increase production. Great sums had been spent to make good highways with tho result that motor competition caused railways to lose £780,000 last year. The huge expenditure on the new railway works at Auckland and Wellington did not produce another box of butter or crate of cheese. It was not picture shows that lured country people to the town, but high interest rates, excessive taxation, and loss of land values. The Reform Party’s schemes of rural credit, rural intermediate oredits, and rural advances provided the farmer with everything ho wanted exoept money, which was the only thing lie did want. The whole system of finance required amendment, said Mr Veitcli, and the present system of commercial hanking by the Associated Banks should be replaced by a triple system, including agricultural banking, industrial banking and banking as carried on to-day by the chartered banks. All three were required. The present system catered really for commercial interests alone, resulting in over-importation when times were good and unemployment when times were bad. The new party proposed to establish agricultural banking on sound lines that would not inflate currency, hut would attract money to farm lands. The land policy must be aggressive. Rural lands should be divided into three classes: Class A, lands urgently required for subdivision; class B, land suitable for subdivision, but not urgently required ;class C, all other rural land. Money, should be taken from the State Advances’ and Rural Credits’ funds to start a land settlement account in an agricultural bank. A group of settlers wanting to buy class A land could purchase at a price agreed upon, or if tire owner was not agreeable a price to be fixed by arbitration. The land could .then be either purchased by a deposit on the amortisation principle of payment over say 30 years, or if tho individual was without capital he could lease until in a position to pay a deposit on the purchase. ii’ ir A further reform was needed in tho electoral system, both the second ballot and proportional representation being worthy of consideration. Immigration was a good thing, but must be stopped until unemployment ceased, 1 and then only encouraged along with an encouragement of a flow of British capital into the Dominion. . The new party intended to do something in the way of humanitarian legislation, especially regarding workers’ compensation, but this must not be hurried oil or more unemployment would result.