OROUA ELECTORATE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 303, 20 November 1935, Page 4

OROUA ELECTORATE.

LABOUR’S POLICY.

TVIR W. H. OLIVER’S ADDRESS

Electors in Oroua ventured forth in good numbers last night, despite very wet conditions, to hear Mr W. H. Oliver, Labour candidate for Oroua, propound the. views of his party. The Majestic Theatre was well filled for the address, during which Mr Oliver received an uninterrupted and very attentive hearing. The Mayor (Mr T. Collins) presided and sympathised with Mr Oliver in the inclemency of the weather having kept some seats vacant. He expressed his regard for the action of the candidate in altering his meeting date from Wednesday on account of the Blind Institute’s dance in Feilding, hut was sure that Mr; Oliver’s kindly action would be appreciated. Mr Collins formally introduced Mr Oliver to the assemblage and said he knew he would get a fair and impartial hearing. Vigorous applause greeted the candidate as he rose to speak, and he thanked the Mayor for his remarks. At the commencement of his address,. Mr Oliver sounded a cordial . note, stating that he had not come to the meeting to catechise the “other man.” He announced frankly that both Mr Cobbe and Mr Fair, his political opponents, were gentlemen and finite entitled to their, views. What, however, the speaker had come to emphasise with all the force at his command was the fact that the New Zealand Labour Party’s policy was the one for the people. It .was futile for its opponents to say that Labour would never rule—the time was not far distant when Labour would rule. It was not a party composed of mere working men —its ranks contained farmers, solicitors, ministers, doctors and other men of business and standing—all of whom thoroughly and sincerely were imbued with the faculty that Labour was going to uplift and construct, not to tear down and destroy homes and prosperity of the people. The speaker went on to recount the history of the Labour

Party, its progress up to the present day and the future before it. He dealt also with the formation of the various other political parties and stated that matters had now progressed until to-day New Zealand was at the crossroads. Labour now had a plan and a policy which would bring New Zealand out of the industrial chaos and economic misery that it was in to-day. He touched on the effect in England of the economic storm which had hit the world to illustrate the point he was making—that not money but the industry of the people was the nation’s wealth. The unfair share of the national dividends held by Capital in England had meant investments overseas, and now the English worker was out of work because of the boomerang effect of the competition English capital had made on the English market by investment of capital in Lidia, Japan, the Argentine, etc. England’s economic policy was now being changed in trade agreements and, in the case of New Zealand, the speaker reiterated that to-day it stood at the crossroads and not round the corner that Mr Coates had said it was.

GUARANTEED PRICES. “That,” said Mr Oliver, “brings me to the question of guaranteed prices which Labour’s opponents say cannot be given. In opposition to high exchange, with all its disadvantages, the Labour Party stands for guaranteed prices based upon the average price of the last eight or ten years. AAR have, first of all to remember that we consume all we produce. That may seem at firs) to be an absurd statement, but it is literally true. AAR export 40 millions of goods we cannot consume in the country in exchange for those goods we can consume; therefore, we consume all we produce. Actually,, we consume 06 per cent, of our total production—primary and secondary in New Zealand—the 34 per cent, we export in exchange for other goods. All international trade is only barter. The ieda that we Jive on our exports is nonsense, but it is true, however, that in our folly we allow the price we receive for exports to dominate and determine the whole economic life of the country.

AAR are told we have no control over overseas prices, and yet we accept this as an act of God, and act accordingly. AAR positively refuse to accept that doctrine, because if we accept it—as the Government does —then we are placed in the position of having to live on the mountain tops of prosperity and happiness or down in the valleys of despair, where we have been for the last five years. AAR, apparently, have control over volume but none over value. This is an impossible position. It determines absolutely whether wo.can balance our Budget or not. AAR refuse to have our standard of living determined by overseas financiers. During the last ten years our farmers have doubled production, and yet the Government has admitted that 50,000 of them are on the verge of bankruptcy. So much for thrift and industry. AAR claim that goods made or produced in New Zealand under New Zealand conditions and costs should be paid for in New Zealand currency. All that the Lnbpur Party suggests is that the goods exported should lie brought into line with the rest of the goods produced, thus making the whole lot 100 per cent, effective. AAR are told this means inflation but if currency should equate goods then it cannot be inflation. The money so issued would bear a true relationship to the goods produced, and that is not inflation. The Labour Party will establish a Credit Board which will be empowered to issue currency and credit along these lines, and this board will be just as free from political control as our Supreme Court is free from political control at present. If inflation is an evil, deflation is a curse.

THE BANKING SYSTEM. “I will now deal with the Reserve Bank, but I want to state plainly that we are not attacking the present banking system or its officers,” said Mr Oliver. The banks under Labour would go on just the same as now; only Labour would control, the amount of currency and credit in operation. “The Reserve Bank,” Air Oliver went on, "was established at the instigation of Sir Otto Nieme.ver and Professor Gregory, the direct representatives of the Bank of England. The people of this country were never at any time consulted in the matter. it was never mentioned at the previous election. This is only another piece of evidence that New Zealand is not a self-governing Dominion, but is governed by the financial interests at Home. It would be pretty near the truth to say that we are governed ■and ruled by foreigners. It is safe to say that the appointment of Mr Lefeaux was not left to the Government, but that lie was directly appointed by the two gentlemen already named. This Government has sold the people to the financial interests, and it is equally safe to say that the whole' policy- of this Government for the last four years has been dictated by Sir Otto Neimeyer and company. The advice this gentleman gave our statesmen was to ‘produce more and starve more.’ This ‘plan’ has caused untold misery and suffering in this country. Its effects have been disastrous. The financial arrangements of the Reserve Bank are simply marvellous AA’itli actual cash of only half a million pounds it managed to buy about 20 millions of sterling, and paid off millions of Treasury bills owing to the Associated Banks. Now, how did it do all this if it was not by using the public credit? There was never at any time any need to have any private capital whatever. If the Labour Party is returned to power it will buy out the shares of the private individuals at market rates, which already show a ..fine profit over par, and will make the bank a Government-owned institution.”

THE EXCHANGE RATE. The matter of the exchange rate was singled out for criticism next by Air Oliver. “The Government,” he said, “stands pledged to the lugli exchange, and as someone has said, they arc up a' tree and don’t know how to get down. The Labour Party is opposed to the high exchange and believes in guaranteed prices instead* High exchange defeats its own ends because it gives most benefit when it is least needed. As the market price rises, so does the amount of exchange, and that is why butter is sold in London for tenpence a pound, while we in New Zealand have to pay Is 4d for it. To say that the high exchange has riotincreased the cost of living is pure piffle. New Zealand not only pays the exchange, but we have to pay the re-

tailors’ profit thereon. The exchange js a direct tax upon living costs. If the exchange has not increased the cost of living, it must be very obvious that without P the cost of living i would have been that much lower. Air Coates has defended the high ex- ■ change on the ground that it has increased his taxing ability. In other words, ho is giving the farmers sometiling with one hand and taking it back with the other. It is true that by the conversion of loans at Home, interest rates were reduced, but the benefit gained was more than offset by the rate of exchange. Public bodies throughout New Zealand were all badly .‘stung.’ Reduced interest rates injured the lender, and high exchange injured the borrower.” Touching on defence matters, Mr Oliver said he agreed with steps being taken for the defence of New Zealand, i He believed that the building of aerodromes and the buying of aeroplanes were necessary, but what was the use, lie asked, of leaving the vital question of oil supply, without which neither ’planes nor lorries could run? He advocated the development of the oil resources of New Zealand and also the extraction of petrol from coal on the same lines as Britain had recently installed. In New Zealand were valuable shale deposits which could be developed economically and incidentally be the means of placing thousands of unemployed miners back at work. This was only another thing which Labour would do when it got into power. He urged the audience to forget their old prejudices against Labour, and to regard it as it really was—the medium by which life in New Zealand would be lifted to a higher plane. The flax industry was touched on by Air Oliver, who deplored the fact that New Zealand had ever sold flax plants to Japan. Surely, he said, it was wrong to let a keen trade competitor develop a plant which previously provided one of the most important industries in New Zealand. Already the result of Japan getting hold of New Zealand flax had been found in the return to New Zealand of handkerchiefs of the texture of silk, made from flax fibre. If Japan could do this, surely the same could be done in New Zealand, and nothing appeared more certain that in a short time New Zealand would be strangled by Japan with the woolsacks and hemp made from our own flax. Air Oliver said he disagreed with the Democrat policy of borrowing, and, touching on returned soldiers’ pensions, he stated that most of the men who were now unemployed were those who had once marched to the defence of the country. _ AA r as it right or fair that the pensions of these men should be reduced? Unemployment was not a new problem to mankind, but Labour could and would solve it by absorbing the unemployed in the secondary industries. Immigration schemes would be considered only when all the unemployed were brought back into useful and permanent occupations. Referring to taxation, Air Oliver said the Labour plan was to place taxes on those best able to pav. Income tax would be on a judiciously graduated scale and not imposed in a manner to contract the spending power of the people such as the Government had done when it had cut the wages throughout the country. Concluding, he summarised sonic planks of Labour’s policy. They would restore wages to the level of 1929; increase pensions and introduce a national health scheme and introduce a guaranteed price system for farmers. He appealed to the electors of Oroua to throw off all old prejudices against the Labour Party. There was nothing revolutionary in its policy and when it got into power it would carry out the promises made and lift Now Zealand soundly on to the road of progres and social and economic development.

QUESTIONS. Answering Air P. G. Guy’s inquiry as to the Labour Party’s intention in regard to the electrical undertakings in New Zealand, Air Oliver said they would nationalise the system. “You should know that, Air Guy,” added Air Oliver. “I do, replied Air Guy, “but Air Hodgens iii Palmerston North does not seem to.” (Laughter.) Replying to Mr G. AA’att, Air Oliver said it was the intention of the Labour Party to give a pension to all after they attained the age of sixty years.

Answering another question, Mi Oliver said it was no fault of New Zealand’s if flax would not grow in

Japan. However,-he had every reason to believe that it would he made to do that—the industry of the Japanese would see to that. On the motion of Air J. Cummings and Air Leggo, a vote of thanks to Mr Oliver for his address was carried.

AIR E. FAIR’S MEETING. Owing to heavy, drenching rain,only a small number of residents attended Air Fair’s Alangaonoho meeting last night. Mr Fair addressed those present, outlining liis party’s platform. At the conclusion of his talk, on the motion of All* Powell, seconded by Mr Dalziell, a vote of thanks to the candidate was carried. After the meeting Air Fair was entertained at supper at the homo of Air and Airs Powell.