REAL DEMOCRACY CLAIMS

Southland Times, Issue 25505, 27 October 1944, Page 3

REAL DEMOCRACY CLAIMS

“OUTMODED FINANCIAL SYSTEM”

“Rehabilitation as at present administered is nothing short of a national blunder,” stated Mr F. Whiley, of Christchurch, the South Island president of the Real Democracy Movement, in an address last night. “In Christchurch recently a returned soldier walked the streets for weeks in search of work. After securing a job, and it was I who gave him the job, his 15/a week which he was receiving for the loss of an eye was stopped because he was in full employment. Men back from the war and their wives are walking the streets of our cities almost begging for a place to lay their heads. I know what I am talking about, because I am in the real estate business, and they come to me every day wanting a house, a room, something that they can call their own.” A grateful Government offered these men a £l5OO loan to build their own homes. This they had to repay at principal and interest, which meant that they paid back to a grateful Government 2/3 a week for every £lOO they borrowed. A payment of £l/13/9 a week for 30 years was not £l5OO, but £2630. That was bad enough, but what about the taxes on every article that went into the building of the home? Nearly £220 of the loan went to meet taxation charges. When the taxes were reduced and the soldiers’ home was devalued to the extent of those reductions, who was going to rrfeet that cost? The State Housing Department had built 1600 homes by the issue of £21,000,000 —almost costless credit issued by the Reserve -Bank. Why impose £ll3O interest on the soldier, whom the Prime Minister stated fought to save our homes? UNCOMPLETED HOUSES Almost daily advertisements appeared in the Christchurch newspapers from returned men seeking employment. Many of them had applied for a rehabilitation loan,, only to be told that they did not measure up to the harsh standard of qualifications. All this in the name of rehabilitation. “I cannot speak for Southland,” said Mr Whiley, “but I have recently inspected a row of houses in Christ.church that have been lying in an uncompleted state for so long that they now appear to be in the process of being wrecked. Yet more and more of these skeletons are being erected. With the shocking shortage of houses in Christchurch, the Railways Department has extended the goods sheds and wrecked more than 30 occupied homes on the site of which has been erected a modern, commodious goods shed. Not content with this orgy of homewrecking, it has been on the job again. A whole street has been swept away; 81 occupied houses have been demolished and an £BO,OOO contract let for the construction of further goods accommodation. This sabotage of the homes of 81 families is called a housing policy.” . The delightful picture in the Government’s circular, depicting children enjoying their apples, brought to his mind the thousands of Cases of apples that were rotting in cool store, said Mr Whiley. That prompted the Christchurch City Council to set up a municipal piggery to. dispose of the fruit. A Press photographer, anxious for a picture of this new method of disposing of the fruit, was warned off with threats of prosecution. Shortly after this unsavoury episode large quantities of cauliflowers and cucumbers in a state of decay were sent from Wellington to a pickle factory. What an analogy! The people’s food fed to the pigs, and the pigs’ food canned for the people.

CREDIT SYSTEM ADVOCATED 13 The Nationalist Government, he said, plunged the country into the greatest slump in history. It could have been prevented if the Government of that day had carried his suggestion of declaring a moratorium on bank overdrafts. They all knew the results. The present Minister of Finance, Mr Nash, said in the House that one individual had paid in taxation £3OOO over and above his income, and that one company had actually paid £20,000 more than its income. Ay. this misery and madness was imposed on an unsuspecting public by the party dominating system, which upheld and maintained the present outmoded financial debt system. Real Democracy offered a way out. It advocated a credit system of finance, instead of the debt system. Real Democracy believed that the result desired by every man, woman and child in New Zealand was economic security and individual freedom. Real Democracy was not Nationalist and was not Socialist. It advocated the individual initiative of the people, and had been formed to act as the rallying point for- the people to decide what they wanted, to instruct their representative and to see that he got what' they wanted. All candidates endorsed by the Real Democracy Movement must have passed a severe examination on economics and finance. The candidate for Awarua, Mr Henderson, had proved during this campaign that he had the knowledge, that he had the ability, to do all that he advocated. He was well informed in world affairs, and should be a distinct asset in the House when these international conferences we had heard so much about were being discussed. His challenge to the party candidates and their invasion troops showed that he was no “yes” men, but would fight for his principles, and for the results desired by the people of Awarua., WAR EXPENDITURE Lack Of Frankness Alleged “Much expenditure from the War Expenses Account was in a purely civilian direction, and there has been a regrettable lack of frankness on the part of the Government about this expenditure,” said Mr T. L. -Macdonald, M.P. for Mataura, in an address to electors at Tisbury last night. “Mr P. G. Connolly, M.P., has commented on my criticism of that fact at an. Otatara meeting on Tuesday last. He went on to say that the Minister of War Expenditure was a member of the National Party, and implied that because of that there should be no complaint from a National member. “The Hon. Adam Hamilton is in Charge of War Expenditure, but is bound by the Government policy of silence. Mr Connolly would surely not suggest that Mr Hamilton was giving information to members of the Opposition. That would be an unworthy thought, and one which would not be given a moment’s consideration by anyone who knew Mr Hamilton. Mr Connolly evidently spoke without previous reflection. It is the Government’s silence about what is being done with much of the taxpayers’ money that is the subject of complaint by the Opposition.”

During his address, the speaker referred to criticism he had heard concerning the number of parliamentary members who had entered the lists in the Awarua by-election. When the Prime Minister and other members of his Government party entered the field, said Mr Macdonald, the National Party had to send speakers to see that a National seat was retained for them. Paying a tribute to the work of their late member for Awarua, Mr Macdonald recounted at length some of the experiences and adventures that had befallen Brigadier Hargest before his untimely death.