SLENDER MAJORITIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27221, 26 October 1949, Page 8

SLENDER MAJORITIES

Sir,—” Dad ” still desires to wander. Neither the Labour Party nor any of its members, as far as I can recollect, ever accused the Coalition Party or the Nationalists, as we call them to-day, of being the cause of the slump, but we have, and rightly, accused them of gross mismanagement during the period of the slump. Will “Dad" say why the Tories suffered such a heavy defeat in 1928, a loss of 25 seats, and again in 1935, another loss of 25 seats? Will he say it was good sound administration that brought about ihese heavy defeats? The public are not ‘always wrong, as “ Dad ” may think. He was right in saying that Mr Semple made the statement that the Government in 1931 had a difficult problem, but why remove that sentence from the context? If

' Dad ” was honest he would have mentioned the next sentence, where Mr Semple said, “ The method which was being adopted would aggravate the position,” which meant causing more hardship and misery for the workers. Mr Semple, in th<« same speech, advised largescale works, such as roads, electrical works and housing, but “ Dad ” cunningly avoided mentioning this. “Dad” mentioned the percentages of unemployed England 6.1 per cent., during the depth of the slump; Australia, 4 per cent., New Zealand Onlv 3.6 per cent. ' Dad is all at sea regarding the New Zealand figures. The Pocket Compendium of New Zealand Statistics gives these figures: 1926, normal year, 3.39 per cent.; worst year of slump, 73,000 unemployed, 20 per cent.; 1536, 35,774 uremployed, 9.56 per cent. So much for Tory administration—l am, etc., Facts.