ADDRESS BY MR SKINNER

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 79, Issue 7138, 28 November 1949, Page 5

ADDRESS BY MR SKINNER

ACHIEVEMENTS OF LABOUR FARMING MATTERS DEALT WITH Mr J. R. Burfitt, Labour Party candidate for Waikato, is to address a meeting in the Te Awamutu Town Hal. to-morrow night, the eve of the elections. As no good purpose would be served by the publication of Mr Burfitt’s address, the following report of a speech made by the Minister of Rehabilitation and Lands, Hon. Mr Skinner, is used:— Claiming that the National Party had changed practically overnight in a desperate bid to gain the Treasury benches of New Zealand, Mr Skinner, | in a political address in the Theatre I Royal, Hamilton, spent much time in r pointing out how bitterly the National Party had opposed most of the Acts Labour had put on the Statute Book. Mr T. G. Reynolds, chairman of the Hamilton Rehabilitation Committee since it inception, was in the chair and there was a fair attendance. There were two persistent interjectois early in the evening but when the speaker produced National Party pamphlets issued for the 1938 elections, read out pieces from them and challenged anyone in the audience to defend them, he silenced the interjections. Achievement of Workers Mr Skinner said that right from the start he wanted to deny the National Party’s parrot cry that the Labour Government was always claiming that it had brought prosperity to New Zealand. The Government had definitely not built the thousands of homes, increased production from the farms, or milled so much more timber. The workers had achieved all this but the Labour Government did claim that it had created the conditions that made the workers’ achievements possible. He emphasised that the Labour Government was the first Government that had the foresight to see that the basic necessity for any country was complete economic and social security. Previous governments had many oportunities to do all the things Labour had done but they had never even thought of them. In fact they opposed every progressive measure that had been put on the Statute Book. “There are many people who say the National Party had nothing to do with the slump, so I will not talk about the early 1930’5,” added Mr Skinner. “The National Party was re-constituted in 1936 and they opposed all Labour’s humane policies. They did not believe in guaranteed prices, social security, higher wages, or all the other benefits in the 1938 elections, 1943 elections or 1946 elections, but now that the 1949 elections are to be held they do not want to be left again so they have suddenly changed their minds and written our Acts into their policy. What for?” Unemployment Pool Mr Skinner said that he would refer to New Zealand’s previous greatest boom year of 1927. In that year there were 7200 houses built but two out of every seven tradesmen were unemployed. The governments of those days did nothing to bring economic and social security to the people of New Zealand because they were not interested. Under the private enterprise system of orthodox finance it was not considered out of the way if unemployment did not exceed seven per cent, of the working'population. “The private enterprise system is based on a pool of unemployed labour to draw on at will,” added Mr Skinner, “and that is what the National Party wants again. They have not changed but they have embraced all the things they previously opposed just to gain power.” Labour’s Land Policy Three main objectives of a land policy were enunciated by Mr Skinner. They were maximum production, the maintenance of soil fertility, and a maximum rural population. Mr Skinner maintained that Labour had framed its land policy accordingly, and steadily worked towards the development of these objectives. “There are three main conditions necessary for the development of those three objectives,” he said. “The conditions are economic security, security of tenure, and the requirements to do the job. Like the rest of the country, the farmer enjoys economic security under Labour’s administration. There are the overall provisions of social security, and besides the farmer knows he will get a reasonable guaranteed price for his produce, which is marketed under longterm, stable, bulk contracts. “As for security of tenure, it is only necessary to remind you that today more farmers than ever before own their own farms. Since 1935 there has been an increase of 1,750,000 acres in farmland held on a freehold tenure.

“The third condition, requirements to do the job, includes adequate finance on reasonable terms, materials and machinery as required, technical advice, and land at its productive value,” said Mr Skinner. “Quite apart from the £46,000,000 we have laid out on land settlement and development under the rehabilitation scheme, we have lent millions of pounds to farmers to purchase and improve their properties; and after rehabilitation we shall settle young civilian farmers under similar conditions. More People as Farmers “The Government is enabling the farmer to obtain machinery, fertilisers, fencing materials and so on, in spite of world-wide shortages. Farmers own five times as many tractors to-day as they did when Labour came into office. Noone can deny that under Labour research into farming problems and techniques has gone ahead by leaps and bounds. “Finally, under the Servicemen’s Settlement and Land Sales Act, land is available at its productive value for genuine farmers. By our policy we have made it possible for more people than ever to become farmers on their own account, and for farm production to rise to record heights. “Many members of the National Party have become farmers since Labour was elected and put its policy into effect,” said Mr Skinner. “That shows the confidence they have in. our policy and the conditions we have created, in spite of their opposition

in Parliament.” Land Sales Act “The Labour Gdvernn<|ent would retain the Servicemen’s Settlement anl Land Sales Act for as long as it was necessary,” said Mr Skinner. The Act had two main objects—to facilitate the settlement of ex-servicemen on the land, and to stabilise land values at an economic level. Mr Skinner claimed that the Act was reasonably successful in both aims, and it would be a tragedy to have it removed prematurely. “If the Nationalists are sincere in thinking the Act a bad law, why don’t they promise to remove it altogether, instead of tinkering with it?” said Mr Skinner. “It would be unfair to remove control in stages, as Mr Holland intends to do if he gets the chance. There should be control of all properties, or no control at all. Why penalise the owners of properties between £750 to £3000? Questions for Mr Holland “What I should like to know—but I don’t suppose Mr Holland will want to answer such awkward questions—is who will decide whether a property is below £750 or above £3OOO, and so not subject to control? Will the vendor of a property worth no more than £2500 simply ask for over £3OOO and get it? And how will Mr Holland prevent £749 from becoming the minimum price? How will he stop vendors of sections worth, say, £2OO from demanding anything up to £749? And yet the Nationalists talk of inflation, and how they are going to stop it.” “In Australia, after the release of land sales control a house costing »£2OOO, with a black market value of £5OOO, could now be bought for £3500. A cottage previously valued at £lOOO, with a black market value of £3OOO, was recently sold for only £2OOO. Rises of 75 and 100 per cent! Do we want that sort of thing, in New Zealand, where the Nationalists say there’s so much inflation already?” he asked. At the conclusion of his address the Minister was accorded a vote of thanks and confidence in the Labour candidate for Hamilton and the Party.