ELECTION CAMPAIGN

Southland Times, Issue 23634, 8 October 1938, Page 12

ELECTION CAMPAIGN

NATIONAL PARTY LEADER Three Addresses In Electorate UNANIMOUS VOTES OF CONFIDENCE CAMPAIGN IN WALLACE TO END TODAY The Hon. Adam Hamilton, leader of the National Party, was enthusiastically received in the rural areas of the central and eastern parts of the Wallace electorate yesterday. Mr Hamilton addressed meetings at Dipton, Mandeville and Riversdale, and at each was given a unanimous vote of confidence.

Today Mr Hamilton will conclude his campaign in his own electorate with addresses at Colac Bay this morning, Wairio this afternoon and Riverton tonight He will leave for Dunedin by the express on Monday and address a public meeting at Dunedin on Monday night. On Tuesday he will speak at Timaru, and on Wednesday at Wellington. MEETING AT DIPTON

More than 150 persons met .Mr Hamilton at Dipton in the morning. The chairman was Mr D. McDonald. Before the candidate gave his address a bouquet was handed to Mrs Hamilton and a buttonhole to Mr Hamilton. In his address Mr Hamilton covered important points of his party’s policy, and he criticized the Labour Party and its policy. He was accorded an attentive hearing and at the close of his address he was given a unanimous vote of thanks and confidence. The mover of the motion was Mr .E. King and the seconder Mr J. Milligan. / At Mandeville in the afternoon Mr Hamilton addressed a meeting of 50 electors. Mr J. Stewart presided. The audience was an enthusiastic one and frequently applauded the candidate. As at Dipton Mr Hamilton strongly criticized the Labour Government’s programme and appealed to the electors to retain the right of selfgovernment for New Zealand. The drift of the rural population to the cities was a serious matter for the country, he said, and unless provision was made for small farm settlement there was no knowing where it all would end. “If, however, provision is made for the people to live in the rural areas—and that is what the National Party intends to do—all should be' well, he added. , The most important issue of all at the coming election was whether the country was going to endorse the socialistic policy of the Labour Government or cling to British democracy, which meant so much in the lives of all true British people, said Mr Hamilton. The electors had to ask themselves whether or not they wished to enjoy the freedom of democracy or be shackled by the policy of a’socialistic Government. The Labour Government wanted a monopoly of almost everything and if it was returned to power it assuredly would carry out the idea foremost in its mind, that of making everyone a State servant “Once that was introduced we would have a lot of ‘leaners’ in the country,” he said. “We should be self-reliant, not ‘leaners,’ and be an asset to the State. That was what made the State great.”

“THE ONLY POLICY” After his address Mr Hamilton was given a unanimous vote of thanks and confidence. Mr G. Carter moved the motion and said that from the farmer’s viewpoint Mr Hamilton’s policy was»the only policy, and as far as the Mandeville district was concerned there should be little to fear about the result of the election. The motion was seconded by Mr J. McHardy. The audience sang “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.” At Riversdale in the evening there was an attendance of 325 persons. Mr 'T. McMath presided and introduced the candidate.

Mr Hamilton spoke for two hours and at the end of his address answered several questions. He vigorously attacked the legislation which the Labour Government, if returned, proposed to introduce. Its socialistic aims, he said, should not be tolerated for one moment by any right-thinking person. He appealed to the electors to support the cause for freedom, by which every man, woman and child, would have individual rights without interference of any kind. The National Party was fighting that cause and he felt sure it was going to succeed. “Today we have a membership in New Zealand of more than 100,000 strong—the best organization we have ever had,” said Mr Hamilton. “One of our women supporters in Christchurch has booked more than 700 members and she says she will have 1000 before election day. That is the spirit which marks the Nationalist movement today, and because of it we are looking forward to a sweeping 7 victory.” (Applause.)

Mr James Gilkison moved the following resolution: “That Mr Hamilton be given a vote of thanks for his address and that this meeting expresses the utmost confidence in him as the member for Wallace.” “I think that the greatest compliment ever paid to any candidate was paid to Mr Hamilton when the whole of the Government forces were concentrated on Wallace recently,” said Mr Gilkison. “It shows the calibre of Mr Hamilton and what' the Government thinks of him as an opponent.” (Applause.) Mr J. Elder seconded the nation, which was carried unanimously, the audience singing “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.” “GREAT SPENDERS” MR HAMILTON DESCRIBES GOVERNMENT ' “Our opponents, the Labour Government, are great spenders. They love to spend the money all right,” said the Hon. Adam Hamilton,, Leader of the Opposition, at Riversdale last night. “In three years the cost of running the affairs of the country has risen from £31,000,000 to £61,000,000£10,000,000 a year for three years. Money is nothing to them. If they could >reak down our money system they would be happy. That’s what they are after. They are out to establish a socialistic State where there is no capital and no interest payments. Interest is anathema to them. But they love to spend. We used to wonder where to find the money; now we wonder where it is going to.”

SOCIAL SECURITY SCHEME FINANCE DISCUSSED MR HAMILTON CRITICIZES LACK OF INFORMATION Comment on the sparsity of information in the social security pamphlet about the financing of the scheme was made by the Hon. Adam Hamilton, leader- of the National Party, in addresses at Mandeville and Riversdale yesterday. “The Government issued this pamphlet,” said Mr Hamilton, “and they took good care not to give us top much information about what the scheme is going to cost. There are 30 pages in the pamphlet—29 pages tell us ail about the wonderful benefits we are to receive, but only little more than half a page is devoted to the financial part. They are not game to let us know what it is going to cost, but many electors want the information.” Mr Hamilton said he would tell the electors the cost. It would be £20,000,000 a year, he said. The first £7,000,000 would come from the . Consolidated Fund, £5,000,000 would be taken from the unemployment fund and £3.,000,000 would come'from taxation. That accounted for £15,000,000. There was still £5,000,000 to be found, and it did not require much imagination to discover where it would come from. Further taxation would be necessary, he said. “It is a drastic tax, totally uncalled for,” said Mr Hamilton. “The services they say are to be free do not justify such a tax embarrassment. If the Bill becomes operative there is no doubt whatever that the people will be asked to find another £10,000,000 to provide these free benefits they talk about.” Mr S. G. Smith had been taken to task for saying that everybody, pensioners and all, would have to pay the 1/- in the £1 tax, but it was quite true, no matter how much the Prime Minister opposed it, sdid Mr Hamilton. The old age pensioner who was to receive 30/- a week would get only 28/6. One shilling and sixpence would be deducted in tax.

“Nobody at all is exempt,” he said. “The law of the land, as laid down in the Bill, exempts nobody. Everybody must pay the tax. There is provision in the Bill to exempt classes, but at present no class is exempted in the Bill.”

SOCIAL SECURITY PROVISIONS CRITICISM CONDEMNED BY MINISTER MR SULLIVAN DISCUSSES BENEFITS (United Press Association) . WAIROA, October 7. A statement that . the . propaganda being issued by the National Party in Hawke’s Bay against the Social Security Act was “the most rubbishy assemblage” he had yet come across in “the welter of dishonest propaganda” that had been issued about the Act, was made by the Minister of Railways (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan) in the course of an address in Wairoa today. Mr Sullivan said that the National Party’s amateur statisticians had been free in computing the proportion of people who might; qualify for any of the benefits, and the people were being asked to vote against the Government and this Social Security Act on many different grounds. The arguments used by the National Party were an argument against every friendly society and every provision for life and accident insurance, he said. National Party members talked of exempting- young people from 16 to 20, but what they were actually proposing to do was to deprive those young people of 10/- a week when they were sick, 10/— a week when they were unemployed, and £1 a week when they were invalids. The same thing applied to their proposal to exempt women from registration. They were simply depriving them of the benefits of the Act, including 30/- a week when they were invalids. TAX ON BENEFITS DENIED MR NASH QUOTES SPEECH (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, October 7. A denial that the benefits under the Social Security Act would be subject to 1/- in the £1 tax as suggested by Mr S. G. Smith in a broadcast at New Plymouth was issued tonight by the Minister of Finance (the Hon. W. Nash) speaking at Woburn, Wellington. Mr Nash quoted from one of his speeches in the House of Representatives as reported in Hansard, in which he had stated that it was possible for a wife to pay five shillings a year registration fee and yet receive 30/- a week at the age of 60 years and at 65 years receive 30/- a week by right. Mr Smith had interjected: “Less 1/6 tax” and Mr Nash said he had made it quite clear then that the benefits would not be subject to the tax. That point, he added, had been made abundantly clear in the committee stage of the Social Security Bill and a dozen times during the debate on the Bill,. yet Mr Smith had tried to deceive the people by saying in his broadcast that the benefits would be taxed. It was a last-minute move to try to deceive widows and old age pensioners.

EXPLANATION OF AGE BENEFITS DR McMILLAN REPLIES TO CRITICISM (United Press Association) OAMARU, October 7. Speaking on the age benefits under the Social Security Act at the Opera House tonight, Dr D. G. McMillan (member for Dimedin West), stated that all cash benefits were exempt from the wages tax. Broadcasting from New Plymouth, Mr S. G. Smith had stated that old age pensioners would not receive 30/- a week, but would receive 30/- less a wage tax of 1/6. Mr S. G. Holland had said the same thing. In Oamaru last night, Mr Smith challenged anyone to show where the pension was exempt in the Act, stating he would publicly apologize if he was wrong. Dr McMillan read from the Act, page 7, part 2, clause 10: which states: “Income does not include any benefit received under this part of the Act,

or any pension or allowance received under any Act repealed by this Act.” If the National Party, said Dr McMillan, spent only half the time reading the Act that they did in concocting criticism there would be no criticism. He hoped that Mr Smith would apologize, and admit that he did not know what he was talking about.