Hislop in Fighting Mood

Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 249, 22 October 1935, Page 7

Hislop in Fighting Mood

Will Chase Coates All Through Country

Per Press Association. INVERCARGILL, Last Night. Except for a few seats in the gallery the Civic Theatre was filled when the leader of tho Democratic Party (Mr. T. C. A. Hislop) opened his South Island campaign and expounded in detail the party’s principles and programme in a fighting policy speech. Mr. Hislop was welcomed with applause as ho took his chair on the stage and at the conclusion of his speech a motion of thanks and confidence was carried.

Dealing with the exchange Mr. Hislop declarod that ho had believed at the very commencement that it was wrong in principle and he still belioved that. He had believed that farmers had to be helped in the period of depression but tho Government’s qiolicy was not tho right one and Sir Alfred Ransom when speaking in the North Island had stated that in the last exporting season the exchange had been worth 59,000,000 to tho farmers. That statement, however, was grossly misleading and utterly incomplete. And against that 59,000,000 what had happened, asked Mr. Hislop. Tho Dominion’s interest bill in London had gone up by nearly 52,000,000 a year, every single service from the farm to London had gone up, tho sales tax of 5 per cent (which was about 12 per cent, when the man in the street paid) had been put on and prices wero up all rouud. Of the 59,000,000 not one penny had been clear profit to tho farmer at the expenso both of improving the Dominion’s reputation in the Old Country—New Zealand’s best market—and of putting up costs all round. “Once the exchange had been put up it was difficult to rotriCvo it as ouc silliness leads to another,’’ declared Mr. Hislop. “Wo believe wo should get away from these artificialities and we should get our money into tho proper relationship with sterling,” he continued. “But we aro not silly. We arc not going round crying ‘off with the exchange.’ Tho Government brought in a higher rate against tho advice of its own Minister of Finance and its own Treasury. W'e say this Government put the exchange up and it can’t bring it down without the admission that it is not prepared to make, and if that rato stays up then the debt of this country to London is increased by £40,000,000.

“Our view is that tho exchange should be brought to its true level with sterling. Wc would require the Reserve Bank with the co-operation of other banks to bring about a reduction by the method, by tho time and by the degree that they may think best in the interests of tho whole Dominion. It is a delicate matter and we do not intend to interfere but leave it to the banks. We say the exchange rate should be brought down and can be brought down. Then we’ll get back our good name in the Old Country and we’ll be able by savings in the exchange to pay to the farmer on his production a bounty at least as helpful to him as tho exchange. W’e are not proposing unlimited bounties for whe" prices aro restored to a paying level then there will be no necessity for them.”

Concluding, Mr. Hislop declared that the Government had gone to the people in desperation for candidates offering to pay all their expenses and £250 afterwards. He criticised Mr. Coates’ budgets and said that for every pound the Minister estimated to get ho was £2OO out. He was not afraid of Mr. Coates and was going to chase him through the country as hard as ho (Hislop) could.