STATE BANK PLAN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25852, 24 May 1945, Page 4

STATE BANK PLAN

NO ADEQUATE REASON

MR POLSON SPEAKS OUT (Special) AUCKLAND, May 23. . Defining the attitude of the National Party in a by-election speech in the Hamilton electorate, the Acting Leader of the Opposition, Mr W. J. Poison, said no adequate reason had been advanced to justify the proposed legislation for taking over the Bank of New Zealand.

The Minister of Finance, Mr Nash, had been forced to surrender to the most irresponsible elements in the Labour Party who had no other motives than the healing of rifts in their own party and the ultimate complete socialisation of New Zealand, Mr Poison said. To achieve these narrow party ends the shareholders were to be deprived of their property, and the bank was to pass under political control. It might be that the shareholders would not suffer financially, though that had yet to be seen. But in any case the National Party thought they were entitled to the ordinary right of private citizens to have their personal possessions respected. Interference with such rights for political considerations and against all prudent judgment, including the expressed opinions of Mr Nash. himself, was entirely unwarranted. The National Party’s financial policy, said Mr Poison, was that New Zealand should be master of its own house as far as finance was concerned, but ample safeguards could be provided without resort to such a drastic step as the taking over of the bank.