DEMOCRAT POLICY

Northern Advocate, 23 October 1935, Page 9

DEMOCRAT POLICY

MR CAUGHLEY AT PAPAROA EXCHANGE RATE ATTACKED. ABOLITION OF SALES TAX. [Special to “northern Advocate”! PAPAROA, This Day. Paparoa had its first taste of the election campaign last evening, when Mr G. Caughley, Democrat candidate for Kaipara, addressed about 30 electors. Mr W. Hook presided. The candidate dealt with the exchange rate, finance and the Government’s mortgage policy. During the two and a half years of the high exchange, he said, New Zealand had sent £90,000,000 worth of produce to England, and had taken, in return £60,000,000 worth. These goods cost the Dominion £15,000,000 in exchange. During the two years and a half, £22,500,000 had been paid out to the primary producers through the exchange rate. As a result of the exchange £4,000,000 extra had been paid in interest charges in New Zealand; £1,000,000 had been paid in the same way by local bodies; and the producer had paid £1,250,000 extra as exchange on freights. At the present time, he said, the Government had £47,750,000 lying idle in England. In 2i years the exports had exceeded imports by £30,000,000, which the Minister of Finance has put into a suspense account. In that period it has cost the ‘taxpayers of New Zealand £30,000,000, in order to provide suppositious benefits of £22,500,000 to the primary producer. The farmers were supposed to have received £22,500,000, but, as the land-owners formed l-6th of the population, they had paid £5,000,000 to receive this bonus. Of the sum £8,500,000 had been paid to the wealthy wool-grow-ers, which meant that the small farmers, who really needed assistance had only received £9,000,000. As a result, the exchange policy had cost New Zealand £30,000,000 to give, £9,000,000 benefit to those who needed help. The Democrat Party proposed to abolish the exchange rate and to bring into operation an export bonus on a graduated scale, which would give greater benefit when prices are low and correspondingly less benefit when prices are high; The bonus would be graduated according to income tax returns. Mortgage Policy. The speaker then dealt with the Government’s mortgage policy. The Mortgage Corporation, he. said, took ovbr approximately £60,000,000 of mortgages, but refused to accept any liability for any‘unsound propositions. Sir W. D. Hunt had said that the Corporation would take over 4-sths of the present Government mortgages, which meant that the Government would still have to pay the interest on the remaining £12,000,000., The Government could easily have continued to administer the "whole £60,000,060, and saved the farmers 10/- per cent., as, under the new system, 15/- per cent, was charged for administration costs, against 5/- per cent, under the Government. The Rural Mortgagors’ Final Adjustment Act, passed early this year, Mr Caughley said, removed from the struggling farmer the vital provisions of the Mortgagors’ Relief Act, and had been condemned by Farmers’, Union branches from one end of New Zealand to the other. Under the Act, said Mr Caughley, there will be more farmers put off their land during the next five years than there had been during the past ten.

The Democrat Party would bring control of mortgages under the Government, and consolidate all State lending departments and run the corporation without any share capital. They would, by borrowing at a low rate of interest, be able to lend money to farmers at less than 4 per cent. Dealing with the surplus shown in the last Budget, Mr Caughley said £1,180,000 was owing by the Consolidated Fund to the Public Debt Repayment Fund. The speaker dealt with individual amounts scheduled in the Budget, and stated that the majority of the amounts were inflated. The Auditor-General’s report, he continued, said that individual accounts showed a higher balance than really existed, and the whole position was misleading, and the budgetary position shown as being much more favourable than it really is. It is only during Mr Coates term of office, said Mr Caughley, that such an auditor’s report has been presented to Parliament. During the past three years not one of the auditor’s reports has been discussed by Parliament. During the past four years, continued the speaker, New Zealand had drawn on its reserves to the extent of £6,000,000, and over £13,000,000 in extra taxation had been wrung from the people. Returned Soldiers. Dealing with the settlement of returned soldiers, Mr Caughley said the Government should have settled men on smaller sections of good land, rather than on big blocks of rough, unaccesible country. The Democrats favoured the pooling of farm implements and stud stock in the interests of economy and efficiency. The inequalities in the granting of soldiers pensions were then dealt with by the candidate,' who said that under the Democrat regime it would be the duty of the Pensions Department to : prove that the, applicants’ disability was not due to war service. At present returned soldiers had to prove their case while the department had to prove nothing. Mr Caughley dwelt briefly on the hopeless position Independents occupied under the present party system of Government. No private member, he said, had ever yet put a policy measure through the New Zealand Parliament, and an Independent’s policy was useless to himself and his electorate as he would never have an opportunity to bring it into action. In answer to a question the candidate said the sales tax would automatically be abolished with the exchange rate and that he was in favour of restoring the graduated land tax. The Democrats, he replied to another question, would not support the Labour Party if they were in power as a minority Government. The meeting closed with a unanimous vote of thanks moved by Mr T. C. Aickin.