PEOPLE'S SAVINGS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22261, 8 November 1935, Page 13

PEOPLE'S SAVINGS

RAISING OF EXCHANGE MR SAVAGE REPLIES TO CRITICS [BY TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION] CHRISTCHURCH, Thursday The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. M. J. Savage, addressed a meeting in the Choral Hall to-night. The hall was crowded, although the night was wet and wintry. The Mayor, Mr. D. G. Sullivan, presided. Mr. Savage was given a most cordial welcome, the audience singing. " For He's a Jolly Good Fellow." Mr. Savage dealt at length with some of the tactics employed by the Government organisers in their attempts to discredit the Labour Party in the eyes of the electors. He stated that large and expensive advertisements were appearing in the press, the object of which was to stampede tho people into believing that tneir savings would not be safo under Labour administration. Such propaganda came very badly from a Government which, by its own deliberate act in raising the rate of exchange, had brought the value of the New Zealand pound from 20s down to 16s Id, said Mr. Savage. If some of tho Government mathematicians were to go into figures they would have no difficulty in advising electors just what that meant to depositors in the Post Oflice Savings Bank who had £49,923,714 standing to their credit at March 31, 1915. Every person who deposited in any bank a pound worth 20s before the raising of the rate of exchange could at present draw from that bank a pound north only 16s Id. The same applied to the total deposits of all tho banks, which amounted to approximately £1!20,000,000. The raising of the rate of exchange had, without any run on the banks, destroyed 3s lid out of every pound of the people's savings. Another aspect of the matter was that working men were not allowed to have savings in any bank so long as they were employed under the Unemployment Act. Before men could qualify for relief work they wero bound to uso up their savings. . Government propaganda against Labour was intended to convey tho impression that under a Labour administration tho Post Oflice Savings Bank would not be able to meet the demands of its depositors. Tho fact was that undue demands could not be met now as the groat bulk of the money had been invested in other undertakings, soino of them of very questionable value. All the banks were in a similar position, which did not mean that they were not solvent, but it did mean that a misleading picture drawn by tho Government of possibilities under a Labour Government would apply to-day if the banks wero put to an unfair test. The object of- Labour was to make it possible for tho people to have something to save and then to safeguard those savings. At tho conclusion of Mr. Savage's address a motion was carried by a show of hands, with one dissentient, expressing thanks to the speaker and confidence in' the Labour Party.