LABOUR POLICY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 202, 16 July 1936, Page 9

LABOUR POLICY.

VIGOROUS CRITICISM. BY MR WILKINSON. Per Press Association. ELTHAM, July 15. Addressing his constituents at Rahotu this evening, Mr C. A. Wilkinson, M.P. for Egmont, vigorously criticised the Labour Party’s policy. He said that while it was admitted that Governmental powers must bo enlarged from time to time, the Labour Party seemed to want to go the limit, which eventual}’ meant control by bureaucracy to the detriment of the people. Such enlarged powers of Government must be closely watched and vigorously opposed when it was clear that they were dangerous to the nation. Ministers had become “control minded,” and thought they could regulate the universe—absolue control over dairy produce to an extent never previously experienced in any country in the world except Russia, and over finance, with power to borrow to an unlimited extent —“the sky’s the limit.”

Ministers had rashly rushed into building railways which were to cost millions without the authority of Parliament. It must be remembered that these railways had been condemned time and again. In fact, the Government could not produce any report from any authoritative source showing that these lines could even pay running expenses. They were going on blindly at the country’s expense. Parliament would assemble next week and tho legislation would be mainly measures authorising the Government to do exactly as it pleased. Parliament seemed to have become a farce