CRITICAL MINISTER

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 63, 24 October 1928, Page 5

CRITICAL MINISTER

SIR JOSEPH WARD’S PROPOSAL. DESCRIBED AS EXTRAVAGANT. DUNEDIN, Last Night. -Iho Minister of Finance (the Hon. W. Dovvnie Stewart) opened his compaigu to-nighjb, being well received by a large audience. The problem in New Zealand, he .said, was not, as was so frequently alleged, the. problem of land aggregation and laud monopoly but of restoring) stability to farming conditions and restoring financial confidence in farm securities. In thi srespect he disagreed with Sir Joseph Ward when he said that it was necessary to import £60,000,000 for farmers’ finance. MAY BRING INFLATION. In Mr Stewart’s opinion there wore large sums of money al Ithe financial institutions awaiting investment if they could bo assured that land values were stabilised and that the seburify was adequate. To lend vast sums of money at less than market rates would only produce fresh inflation of land values) and re-create the artificial conditions from which the country was just escaping.

This led the Minister to an attack on Sir Joseph Ward's borrowing policy. He described the proposal as extravagant and spendthrift, and stated that Sir Joseph Ward was too much of a plunger for the prudent people of New Zealand. LABOUR BRITICISM, The Minister went on to reply to recent criticism by Mr Holland, refuting the allegations made by the Leader of the Opposition, particularly 'in. regard to tax reduction. No fair critic who examined the facts, he stated, could deny the Government had carried out a very active programme irt the interests of all sections of the community and at the same time kept within the limits of what the Dominion could reasonably afford.