PARTY POLITICS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21266, 21 February 1931, Page 22

PARTY POLITICS.

TO THE EDIXOB, Sir, —Mr A. E. Mander, Dominion secretary of the Reform Party, in a reply to Mr H. E. Holland, M.P., recalls pledges made by the United Party. He says that in its election manifesto of 1928 there was a pledge to borrow £70,000,000 at 4£ per cent., and to re-lend £60,000,000 in the form of advances to workers and settlers at 4£ per cent. Sir Joseph Ward’s speech at Auckland on October 16, 1928, included a proposal to borrow £60,000,000 at the rate of £6,000,000 to £8,000,000 a year for advances to settlers and workers and an additional £10,000,000 to complete the main railways by a system of large, contracts, which. Sir Joseph said, would do much to relieve unemployment. Now, Sir, that great statesman never promised 14s a day, as the work was to be done by the contract system, % and there is no need for the workers to complain, as the Government has reduced the wage to 12s 6d a day for married men and 9s a day for single men. Nor can the Reform Party claim that the United Government is carrying out its plans by reducing wages. The Reform Government wis responsible for increasing the indebtedness of the country by £115,000,000, and it left a deficit of £420,000. There was also an accumulation of 4000 applicants under the Advances to Settlers Act,- aggregating £4,169,000, many of these being 18 months or two years in arrears. Since the United Government assumed office in 1928 it has added £6,000,000 to the funds in the Advances to Settlers’ Account, and has also made advances aggregating £8,000,000. Sir Joseph Ward, in 1928, succeeded in converting £27,000,000 of stock on good terms, the holders receiving £4 15s 3d per cent, for the full period of the new loan. In addition, a loan of £7,000,000 was floated in London at 4J per cent, at £95, yielding £4 16s 5d to investors. I fail to see how Mr Mander claims that the United Government failed to carry out its pledge. „ Mr Mander backs Mr Holland up by making the misleading statement that the price of living has not come down. He must know very well that the price of living has come down 25 per cent, since 1928. May I tell Mr Mander that two years age a man could not get private board and lodgings in Dunedin under 30s per week. ‘At the present time one can get the same board for 25s only, and lately I read an- advertisement in the Otago Daily Times offering board, with washing, for 22s 6d. Surely that is enough to convince Mr Mander and Mr Holland that the Dunedin landladies know their business, and that the price of living has come down. ... In connection with the territorial system, the Reform Government spent money lavishly, and the United Government has scrapped the whole affair at a saving of £300,000 a year. Mr Mander and tne Reform Party complain, however, when the Government does not spend the people’s money lavishly. . Mr Mander asserts that the United Government was kept in power with the support of Labour. I would ask how often during the last two years the Reform Party voted with the United Party when Labour failed to do so ? _ Although tne Government is in a minority, it is in a dominating position and can crack its fingers at the Reform and Labour Parties. It would also be interesting to know how many workers in Napier who received an advance from the Government to build a home were burnt out during the earthquake and laost all their life savings as well.as the Government’s share, through being insured in privately-owned insurance companies instead of in the State Fire Insurance- Office. Had those unfortunates not been misled and had they insured with the State they would have been better off to-day.—l am, etc., February 18. Queer Fellow.