NATIONAL PARTY.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13284, 16 June 1936, Page 5

NATIONAL PARTY.

RALLY AT CHRISTCHURCH. MR. FORBES ON WARPATH. Electric Telegraph'—Pi ess Association CHRISTCHURCH, Last Night. More than 300 Canterbury supporters of the New Zealand National Party, including representatives of all the electorates in Canterbury and on the West Coast, this evening endorsed the action of the recent conference in Wellington which formed the party and undertook “enthusiastically for its success at the next general election.” The meeting was addressed by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Forbes) and by Messrs S. G. Holland and H. S. S. Kyle, members of Parliament. Mr Forbes said the utmost unanimity prevailed among the members of the conference in Wellington which set up a permanent National Party. Under the Coalition it had not been possible to obtain the same organisation. He spoke ofthe economy measures the Coalition had to introduce and all the members of the Government were aware that this had not made the Government popular. However, they believed no right-thinking citizens would have wished the Government to sidestep what was done as a national duty. The electors declared that they did not like economy and did not like the people who put economy into effect. “Now we have a party in power who is prepared to go to the other extreme,” said Mr Forbes. “It is prepared to spend—-the sky’s the limit It is not concerned with the question of who is to provide the money. Its first consideration is whether there is a demand for the expenditure. The cost comes after/’ With its control of the Reserve Bank the Government had power of inflation and control of the currency. Mr Forbes continued. It had undertaken a programme of extensive public works and it had bought all the dairy produce in the Dominion. “We have come up against a state of affairs which we could never have dreamed of,” said Mr Forbes. “We cannot have things which cost money without Raving to pay for them and the bill for all this will have to be met. Without setting myself up as a prophet T can say safely that the income tax is going to get a pretty good whack. These men claim that they at least have courage. There is such a thing as the valour of ignorance, and it is to conceive their * rushing in and doing things that lust be disastrous to the country/’ The Government, he said, had no regard for the cost and no regard for the consequences.