LABOUR IN OFFICE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23054, 3 December 1936, Page 10

LABOUR IN OFFICE

REVIEW OF ACHIEVEMENTS ADDRESS BY MR C. L. CARR (Per United Press Association) TIMARU, Dec. 2. During the course of a post-sessional address to-night Mr Clyde Carr, M.P., national president of the New Zealand Labour Party, said it was a tribute to the statesmanlike methods of Labour in office that its opponents, particularly the ultra-reactionaries with Fascist sympathies, had retained and secured so little popular support. The speaker said that there was an urgent need in these days of revolution, civil war, and dictatorship for the maintenance of constitutional government. Answering the criticism of those who claimed that the Government was proceeding with undue caution he pointed out that the Reserve Bank had been made a State institution under the direct control of the people. The Prime Minister had recently made it clear that the conduct of the trading banks during the coming year would largely determine the policy of his Government regarding their future status in the community. Referring to industrial legislation, Mr Carr said that though the results in many cases left much to be desired these were merely difficulties that remained to be overcome, either by a change in the personnel of certain administrative and judicial positions or by an assumption of more direct powers by the Government itself. Some of the public works engineers and heads of departments had become innoculated with conservative ideals and had found it difficult to adapt themselves to the new spirit and new ideals. Where it was found that those responsible for the administration of the policy of the Government were attempting to break down the efforts being made on behalf of the people they would be sent “ down the road.