HIGH TAXATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23157, 1 October 1938, Page 17

HIGH TAXATION

DICTATORSHIP POLICY INCREASED UNEMPLOYED " DREAMS OF OPIUM ADDICTS " MR. K. B. TENNENT AT HOWICK An excellent hearing was accorded Mr. K. B. Tennent, National Party candidate for the Otahuhu seat, during his speech to electors at the Howick Hall last night. He drew attention to the dictatorship elements in the Labour policy, emphasised the steepening incidence in taxation under the present administration, and the danger in allowing the Minister of Marketing, the Hon. W. Nash, to vary the guaranteed price at will. Mr. L. B. White presided. There were about 200 people present, and the candidate suffered comparatively few interruptions. Mr. Tennent gaid there was very little difference between Socialism and Communism. Socialism gained its ends by. indirect action; Communism just took what it wanted. Last month it was announced that 37,000 men were receiving benefits under the Employment Fund, actually 1000 more than when the Government came into power. In addition there had been many men sent to jobs all over the country—to keep them out of the way until the election was over. Radio Propaganda Mr. Tennent dealt comprehensively with the radio broadcasting service, the guaranteed price and the high level of taxation. New Zealand, he said, was the only country in the British Empire where the Government had seized the radio for its own ends. The Laboui 1 Government had consistently used the radio stations for the dissemination of political propaganda. It would be necessary to go to Germany, Russia and Italy to find such a parallel. The National Party was opposed to the commandeering of the farmer's produce, Mr. Tennent said, and considered it dangerous to have given the Minister of Marketing, the Hon, W. Nash, power to vary the price at any time. The guaranteed price should, he said, be one price set and not varied. If overseas prices fell and the State found it impossible to pay the guaranteed price, it might conceivably allow the fanners only their working costs and wages, without any consideration for mortgage interest or anything else. Minimum Price Mr. Tennent said that if the National Party was elected it would honour the guaranteed price commitment through the coming season. Anything exceed-, ing the price received on the London market would become the property of the farmers. Then, at .the end of the season, a stable sohems would be introduced. His party was pledged to pay a minimum price for dairy produce so that the farmer should not suffer loss. The candidate said the National Party was not opposed to social security, but it was doubtful of the financial standing of the scheme propounded by the Labour Party. There were grave disabilities in the Bcheme, which seemed akin to the pipe-dreams 9f opium addicts.

The National Party did not, he said, make extravagant claims or promises, but it would act prudently, encourage private enterprise, remove the dictatorship which threatened the country and remove many of the burdens under which the people of the Dominion were labouring at the present time. Mr. Tennent answered a number of questions, and at the conclusion he received a vote of thanks and confidence. '