ELECTION CAMPAIGN

Southland Times, Issue 23624, 27 September 1938, Page 8

ELECTION CAMPAIGN

LABOUR’S CLAIMS ADVANCED

Mr W. M. C. Denham At Sylvan Bank

PROFESSOR R. M. ALGIE AND FREEDOM

WORK DONE FOR CITY IN TERM OF OFFICE

The status of Professor R. M. Algie as a speaker on freedom was discussed by Mr W. M. C. Denham, M.P., the Labour candidate for Invercargill, in an address to electors in the Sylvan Bank hall, East Invercargill, last night. Mr G. Dempster presided over an attendance which filled the hall. “Professor Algie appears on the scene and talks about freedom,” Mr Denham said. “Professor Algie talks of the freedom of the Press, the preserving of Christian doctrines and the right of free assembly. The New Zealand Welfare League used to write anonymous letters all over New Zealand in the metropolitan Press, and I wrote several times to ask who the president and the secretary were, and no one could tell me. It was always blackguarding the Labour Party, and it would ‘sool’ on to me. That was its Christian virtues. Don’t think for one moment it is any different. It means to defeat Labour, and is something like the National Party, always changing its name, but still the same old gang.” The Auckland Provincial Freedoip

, Association, Mr Denham said, guaranteed Professor Algie £l5OO a year for 10 years. Who was paying this? A voice: The half-crown Tories. The candidate said that the guarantors were the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, Sir Henry Horton, the keenest champion of Professor Algie to date, and New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. “Well, I suppose they are losing a pretty good wad because of the advertising in commercial broadcasting,” the candidate added. He allaged that the directors of The New Zealand Herald had shares in two insurance companies. PROFESSOR ALGIE’S GUARANTORS “These are the people who have guaranteed Professor Algie £l5OO a year for 10 years to go round advocating freedom —but it is a non-political body! Do you think it was a nonpolitical speech? It was propaganda against the Labour Party, and all Professor Algie is is a propagandist for the people he represents and for the National Party. They talk of freedom, but it was a pretty good sample of freedom they gave you for a long time. You are going to judge whether you are freer under our Government or theirs.” , . , . Mr Denham said he agreed with his opponents when they said they liked a clean election, and as far as he was concerned it would be clean, but already one of his political opponents had said something to which he took exception. His opponent, in a speech at Otautau, had said that many people held the view that if Labour was successful this would be the last free election in this country for many years to come. That was pure bunkum, and it was absolutely wrong for a responsible man to make a statement like that. The democratic principles enjoyed today were th* outcome of a democratic movemen*;. Unlike their predecessors 'who gave themselves an additional year in office, breaking the constitution to do it, they were coming before the electors after three years for the electors to say whether they were on the right path or not. This was in spite of the fact that they now had the right to remain in office another year. DIFFERENCES IN POLICY Commenting on the policy of the National Party, Mr Denham said that his opponent had claimed that if the National Party was returned it would “clean up the Labour record.” As far as the policy was concerned he would leave it to the candidate and the Hon. Adam Hamilton to straighten out the differences. He took exception to references which, he said, had been made to the Labour Party. He knew his colleagues and there was nothing “muddy” or “foul” about them. He knew every member of the Cabinet, and there was no man with higher ideals than Mr Nash and his colleagues. “I have lived in this city for 25 years,” Mr Denham said, “and I object to any candidate casting reflections about my life being ‘muddy,’ or ‘foul’ or that I am a ‘red’.” The candidate claimed that the Government had established a record and had a policy that it did not hide, and he wanted the electors to know all about its policy and its plans. The more they understood Labour and its ambitions, the more they would applaud its aspirations. The National Party’s candidate, Mr F. G. Hall-Jones, had referred to the Labour Government as gangsters. He thought he was justified in saying that Mr Hall-Jones was representing a party tHat stood for money and. vested interests, and if he was to look after all that money interests meant he was going to get the better of the deal if his party got into power. “Before the last election they told you I was not an educated man, and that I had not gone to a university,” the speaker continued. “I admit I have not had a university education, but I want to tell you I can get my point of view over just as well as my opponent can, and I want to tell you he will need to be a good speaker to justify his party.” The candidate said that the Invercargill newspapers would not publish in big headlines what he had done for Invercargill. There was not an ounce of egotism in him, but he thought it was only right he should give some account of his stewardship. WORK FOR CITY He had, he thought, done something for Invercargill city. The city had had more done for it in the last three years than in the previous 20 years. A really good Post Office was in the course of construction. He had seen the previous Government’s first plans and had objected to the little two-story, flat looking place- with nothing to recommend it. Tbat had been scrapped and Invercargill was now getting a Post Office that was worthy of it. A new court house was being erected also. Grand juries had passed resolutions on frequen* occasions condemning the old building, and representations had been made, but nothing had been done. The Tories had not the money. Little children at North Invercargill school were studying in sheds. Two good rooms had since been

added to the school. He had promised to do his best to get a school for the east end. He had had the Minister of Education (the Hon. P. Fraser) out, and plans had just been completed; the work had been held up for some time because they had been unable to get draughtsmen. There were also to be at least two intermediate schools in Invercargill to relieve overcrowding. One of the difficulties the Labour Government had to contend with was the problem of accommodation for school children, and it was doing its best to relieve the situation. He also hoped that ‘there would be a new Technical Collego after he was returned at the next election. The sum of £5OO had been obtained for playgrounds at St. George school. The Tories had no money for any of these things. A voice: They are going to buy furniture though. “We have got 50 or 60 new cottages on the way—Jack Lee’s houses, the speaker continued. What does that mean for Invercargill? It means more business and more money in circulation. You can thank the Government for a saving in rates in its generous subsidies for the City Council, and we are offering 100 per cent, wages. Only last week I took the Deputy-Mayor (Mr J. R. Hanan) *to see the Hon. H. T. Armstrclig after the local Labour Department had declined his request for assistance with work on the gas mams, and I understand now just as a'result the money is coming from the Government to go into wages. If we did not have that tax oh the higher incomes and on the companies we would not be able to do that work. Mr Hamilton intends to reduce taxation. If he does the City Council will get less money and less money will be in circulation.” , v . The candidate claimed that if that taxation was removed and the money was left in the hands of the investors they would invest it how they liked and when they liked. The Government let it out to local bodies and everybody benefited. Grave predictions were made when the Government went into office and people spoke of red ruin, socialism and Russia. He did not know what Russia had to do with the Labour Government, but if the present form of government was one of the “isms” it was a very good thing for the country.

Invercargill led the Dominion as far as building was concerned. . For two years this city had had the highest expenditure a head of population, leading by £l2 10/- a head, with Hamilton second. One of the Government’s policy planks was the redistribution of money, and it had instituted the graduated land tax, while the income tax scale had been raised. Unemployment funds were not given to private individuals as before, when the Southland Frozen Meat Company obtained £lOOO and one insurance company £4441 from unemployment funds. The Government contended that public money should be used in a public way, and not by private individuals. The Southland F. ozen Meat Company was doing well to come out of the slump unscathed. CONTROL OF RESERVE BANK One of the most important enactments by the Government was the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Amendment Act which removed the element of control of the Reserve Bank from private interests. It was now purely a State institution. The result of that legislation gave the Government power to have some control over currency and money, and it had not borrowed one penny outside of New Zealand (applause). The effect of that policy had been to reduce interest rates, which had been reflected in savings in overseas interests. The Government refused to have the interest rates raised with the result that local bodies got money cheaper. The Minister of Finance (the Hon. W. Nash) took the stand that if private lending institutions would not lend to local bodies at 3| per cent, the State would do so. Had it not been for that the public would have been paying several thousands more for its loan indebtedness.

“We don’t believe in cut-throat competition,” he continued. “If you have no awards you will have one employer paying 10/- and another 8/- until the standards of living will be reduced so that people will be cutting each others’ throats. We believe in the guaranteed price, not only for the farmer but for the wage earner in industry so that we will have order, and not the chaos that the competitive system leads to. If you put back the representatives that have been in charge of this country’s affairs for the 20 years before Labour took office—their record you know only too well—they will do the same thing over again. They are not going to reduce wages! They are going to be good boys next time! Even if there is another slump Mr Hamilton is not going to reduce wages. Then why did he reduce them before?” Mr Denham claimed that after all Mr Coates was the real leader. He was the outstanding man of that party, and was the best man it had got to represent the things it stood for. He was quite sure that the National Party itself was not altogether satisfied with Mr Hamilton’s leadership. He remembered the time when its parliamentary committee met and Mr C. A. Wilkinson, the Independent, joined forces with the idea of becoming the leader. Mr Hamilton was appointed by one vote. “I see now that Mr Wilkinson has seceded and is again an Independent,” Mr Denham added. “The National Party is not too happy about Mr Hamilton’s leadership, and I think it has every reason not to be.” Mr Denham contended that if the guaranteed price were put to the vote among the farmers more than 86 per cent, of them would vote for its retention.

Discussing Housing, the candidate said that in the National Party’s manifesto it was stated that the Government did not favour people owning their own homes. That was quite wrong. The Government had offered the Dunedin City Council money at 3 per cent, which was lent to people to build their own homes. Invercargill could have done the same when there was an acute housing shortage. Although the houses had been criticized they were built of the finest materials. There were two departments dealing with housing, and the State Advances Department catered for people who desired to build their own homes, lending up to 90 per cent, and sometimes 95 per cent. To say that the scheme was a failure was absolutely wrong.

“Here’s our friend. The Southland Times,” said Mr Denham, producing a newspaper. “Here is a picture of a house in South Australia. That picture appeared in nearly all the papers in New Zealand. It is strange how they got the idea together. The photograph is of a cheap home in Adelaide built for £450 and rented at 12/6 a week. We had suspicions about that and Dr McMillan and I talked about it, and here’s a copy of a letter we got from the South Australian Housing Trust. The total cost was £9OO for the pair, not £450. The particulars show that the South Australian houses are nothing compared with the specifications of our houses. What notice can you take of such stuff as that? What notice can you take of a Press publishing such stuff?”

Mr Denham, after answering one or two questions, was accorded a hearty vote of thanks and confidence.