Nationalist Gathering

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 47, 25 February 1938, Page 2

Nationalist Gathering

ADDRESS BY MR. MAZENGARB The Foresters ’ Hall, Pahiatua, was fully taxed when on Wednesday evening over 300 people attended a political address given by Mr. O. C. Mazengarb, the well-known Wellington solicitor, who spoke under the auspices of the New Zealand National Party. In his address the speaker drew a vivid picture of the country’s unfavourable reactions to the Labour Government’s socialistic legislation, and expounded various points of the National Party’s platform. The Mayor, Mr. J. D. Wilson, was in the chair, and associated with him was Sir Alfred Ransom, M.p. for Pahiatua. At the conclusion of the address the speaker was accorded a comprehensive vote of thanks, and the meeting pledged itself to support the National Party at the general elections. The mayor, in opening the meeting, stated that Sir Alfred Ransom would be standing in the interests of the National Party. Mr. Mazengarb said that there might be among the audience some who were not won over to the National Party, but he welcomed a difference of opinion. Mr. Mazengarb then recalled a statement made by Mr. Savage at the last elections to the effect that the Labour Government would not interfere with the rights of the people. He He went on to admit that there had been a general air of prosperity afterwards which had caused people to say that things were not so bad after all. Mr. Mazengarb followed this by showing that the feast of good things that had been provided by the Labour Party had not come out of their pockets. People were beginning to wonder whether the benefits they were having were going to last for ever, he claimed, quoting a speech made by Mr. Nash in England, who had intimated as an excuse for refusing migration to New Zealand that the present boom would come to an end and a slump would follow. The speaker went on to say that Mr. Nash had said he would insulate New Zealand against the effects of a depression. If it were possible to insulate New Zealand against the effects of a depression the speaker wanted to know why New Zealand could not be insulated against a rise in the price of petrol in a time of plenty. Mr. Mazengarb then mentioned how Newfoundland, which had adopted legislation similar to New Zealand, had been obliged to allow its constitution to go, a step brought about by increasing the purchasing power of the people. The position which had arisen in New Zealand was similar to what had taken place in Newfoundland, explained the speaker, who was asked to keep to New Zealand. Mr. Mazengarb gladly consented, and proceeded to read a statement made last year by the member for Kaiapoi when he complained that his party’s legislation was driving the farmers ’ wives into the cowshed. “A proper regard for tho aged, the feeble and the very poor must ever be a dominant consideration in statesmanship,” said the speaker. “But there is no justification for the type of Socialistic economy now being preached under which, whatever a man may earn above his immediate needs, will be taken from him and given to those who do not try to support themselves. A longing for leisure must not be confused with the leprosy of laziness which afflicts some people. Thousands of men in this country would sooner be fed than bo free and earn their own bread. They glory in their Prime Minister’s condemnation of thrift and in his sense of social justice. No one decries altruism and kindness. But the question before us to-day is whether the spirit of social service should be carried so far that a man should not be allowed tfP save for the support of himself and his family in the evening of their lives. No Government in the world has ever encouraged unproductive energy and idleness in the way the New Zealand Socialists have done. Indeed there are even cases in which the Labour Government has deliberately abused the employment funds by placing men on sustenance as a temporary relief from embarrassing party situations. “Only a few days ago Hon. Mr. Nash declared that * there is no sphere of life other than home life into which the Government should not at some time come.’ The Minister of Labour would, of course, go further by entering the home itself in order to direct domestic service. And this management of every sphere of life is being attempted in the first place mainly by a group of watersiders and miners. Outside the Cabinet the head of the Watersiders’ Federation is president of the Labour Party and the president of the Miners’ Union is president of the Federation of Labour., Inside, we have the Hon. Mr. Webb’s authority for the statement that ‘ there are five miners and two watersiders in the .Cabinet. ’

And Mr. Webb has further stated that ‘the roughies who laid the foundation of the Labour movement look askance at the so-called intelligentsia’! “In marked contrast to all this, the policy of the National Party is to encourage industry and initiative, to see that merit and ability have their fair reward and to protect the just savings of the individual from the attacks of those who say it is wrong to save. The National Party will restore the right to work to all l;hose men, women and young people who can now stay in their jobs only by ]paying tribute to a union whose methods and political ideals are anathema to them. The National Party will abolish altogether the employment tax on the wages of women and will reduce the tax on men to the bare limit of what is neicessary for the mainteu ance of those for whom work cannot be provided. The National Party is being encouraged in its platrorm work by the fact that men and women of all classes, all parties and all creeds are joining the organisation and aiding in the selection of new, young and virile men as their Parliamentary candidates. The candidates of the National Party believe that, junder right direction, the individual working on his own account in co-operation with tho agencies of the State (and not as a mere cog in the machinery of State Socialism) will be able to make and to keep this country a groat nation.”