DESCRIPTION OF BUDGET

Southland Times, Issue 23332, 16 October 1937, Page 8

DESCRIPTION OF BUDGET

“STRAIGHT-FORWARD STATEMENT” DIRECTION OF PRODUCTIVE ENERGIES (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, October 15. The claim that the Government was giving conscious direction to the productive energies of the country was made by Mr B. Roberts (Lab., Wairarapa) during the debate on the Financial Statement in the House of Representatives today. The Opposition, he said, looked upon the Budget as a staggering and mystifying document, but actually it was merely a straightforward statement of the Government’s accomplishments and of its plans for the future. “We are here,” he continued, “because for 25 years and more we have persistently proclaimed a certain line of action in the interests of the masses. The Opposition members are full of fear. They have no faith in the country. Let me remind them that fear is faith in reverse gear.” Mr Roberts congratulated the Minister of Finance (the Hon. W. Nash) on the trade agreements which he had negotiated overseas and said that cooperation and goodwill must inevitably make for more harmonious relations between the nations. Nothing was gained by international strife and in the words of Mr George Lansbury it was not a question of one nation or other going down in the event of another war. It was a question of the survival of civilization itself.

Mr Roberts defended the guaranteed prices scheme and said the marketing system today was more orderly than it had ever been in the history of the dairy industry. The producers were reaping the benefit, as was shown by the fact that the farmers were fencing and top-dressing their lands and making other improvements which were long overdue.