OUTSIDE INFLUENCES

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 66, Issue 5605, 14 April 1943, Page 3

OUTSIDE INFLUENCES

DOMINATION OF PARLIAMENT CASE OF MR C. G. SCRIMGEOUR Domination of Parliament by Trades Hall must cease, said Mr S. G. Holland, in his address at the Auckland Town Hall. He referred to the recent case of Mr C. G. Scrimgeour as an example of Government policy being reversed at the dictation of outside influences. Whether the method adopted in getting rid of Mr Scrimgeour was right or wrong—and he certainly did not agree with the methods adopted—it did not improve the position when the Prime Minister and his colleagues had to back down as soon as the big trades unions exerted pressure. The first plank in the National Party platform, he said, was a full war effort in every field. There should be closer supervision of war expenditure so as to promote greater economy and efficiency. The news and publicity service should be reorganised, and political censorship ended. A special Ministry of Rehabilitation would be established, and advisory councils of ex-servicemen would be' attached to it. Servicemen would remain on service payrolls pending re-arrangement in civil life, and there would be no denial of the pensions of fighting men on the grounds of nonattributability. Land settlement would be an essential part of the rehabilitation scheme, but the guiding principle in all land settlement must be settlement at the productive value and no more. Roads, electric power, transport, educational facilities and health services should be considered essential to land development work, and should not be left until after settlers were actually in possession. Strict control would be exercised over the sale of land thus developed, in order to prevent speculation and inflation of values. Mr Holland contended that the cost of living was unnecessarily high and said the avoidable causes of high costs and shortages of goods would be removed. Departmental dictation and interference would have to cease. New Zealand must play her full part in establishing the new post-war world order, and increased diplomatic and trade representation in the chief countries was essential.