ELECTION ISSUES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 246, 14 September 1935, Page 2

ELECTION ISSUES

MINISTER’S OPINION. DANGER OF UNSOUND EXPERIMENTS. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, Sept. 13. The issues on which' the impending general election will be fought will be very different from those of the election of 1931, is the opinion of the Postmaster-General (Hon. A. Hamilton) expressed at a gathering arranged by the Canterbury branch of the National Political Federation to-day.

Mr Hamilton predicted tlrat the vital issues this year would not be finance, tariffs, or position of the farmers, as was the case in 1931, but that the monetary system, guaranteed prices to farmers and unemployment relief would bo the big issues between the opposing parties. Air Hamilton also emphasised Hie importance of the young voter in the forthcoming election. He appealed to his audience as professional men and business men to play their part in moulding public oipnion, particularly among the young people, on sound lines. “A’outh is emotional and a bit sentimental, and is far more apt to be carried away than the older generation,” said Mr Hamilton, in referring to the importance of the youth vote. Attacks on the monetary system were becoming very popular, said the Minister; but while it had to be admitted that the system was not working at 100 per cent. efficiency, the monetary, reformer had yet to prove that his scheme would work better. Experiments based on unsound economics would have the effect of landing the country in more serious difficulties. The promise of guaranteed prices for tire farmers was an effective talking point and was popular in certain quarters. Unemployment, he agreed, was a “pretty tough problem . ’ ’

“It very nearly knocked me out,” said Mr Hamilton. New Zealand, nevertheless, had come through the depression as well as any other country had done, and all its recovery measures had been financed out of revenue. The national debt last year was lower than it was three _ years ago, and Mr Hamilton said _ lie thought that only one other Dominion could make that claim.