N.Z LOSING ITS GOOD NAME?

Southland Times, Issue 23823, 22 May 1939, Page 6

N.Z LOSING ITS GOOD NAME?

Statement Made By Mr Hamilton

DOMINION’S “CREDIT ON BLACKLIST”

NATIONAL PARTY’S AIM TO RESTORE PRESTIGE

“New Zealand used to be the ‘whitehaired’ Dominion of the Empire, but I think we are losing our good name,” said the Leader of the Opposition (the Hon. Adam Hamilton) in a short address at the annual meeting of the Mataura branch of the National Party on Saturday night. “Our name and credit are on the black-list and we are talked about in a strange way.” It was the National Party’s job to see if it could not restore the good name of the country, said Mr Hamilton. It had to win the majority of the people to support the National Party, and, with this end in view, the members were starting to organize early. It was their job to educate the people not to fall for baits and to see that they were thinking along the right lines when the time came to vote again. ■ “We are going to disgrace those who laid the foundation of this country,” said Mr Hamilton, “if we cannot manage the affairs of the country better than they are being managed today. People take politics as a joke and this is the spirit that has got abroad. When you elect a Parliament you put into its hands the life of the people. That is a serious thing and the people have got to be made to realize this.” Mr T. L. Macdonald, M.P. for Mataura, and Mr J. A. Roy, M.P. for Clutha, also spoke briefly.