LABOUR'S MONEY POLICY

Taranaki Daily News, 8 November 1935, Page 7

LABOUR'S MONEY POLICY

REPLY TO GOVERNMENT ORGANISERS’ TACTICS CRITICISED. ATTEMPT TO DISCREDIT ALLEGED. LEADER SPEAKS AT CHRISTCHURCH By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, Last Night. The Leader of the Opposition; Mr. M. J. Savage, addressed a meeting in the Choral 'Hall to-night. The hall was crowded, although the night was wet and wintry. The Mayor, Mr. D. G. Sullivan, presided. Mr. Savage was given a most cordial welcome, the audience singing “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow," and at the conclusion of the address a motion was carried by a show of hands, with one dissentient, expressing thanks to the speaker and confidence in the Labour Party. Mr. Savage dealt at length with some of the tactics employed by Government organisers in their attempts to discredit the Labour Party in the eyes of the electors. He stated that large and expensive advertisements were appearing in the Press, the object of which was to stampede the people into believing that their savings would not be safe under a Labour administration. Such propaganda came very badly from a Government which by its own deliberate act in raising the rate of exchange had brought the value of the New Zealand pound from 20s to 16s Id. If some of the Government mathematicians were to go into the figures they would have no difficulty in advising the electors just what that meant to the depositors in. the Post Office Savings Bank, who had £49,423,714 standing to their credit at March 31, 1935. Every person who deposited in any bank a pound worth 20s before the raising of the rate of exchange . could at present draw from that bank a pound worth only 16s Id. The same applied to the total deposits of all banks, which amounted to approximately £120,000,000. Tile raising of the rate of exchange had without any run on the banks destroyed 3s lid in every pound of the people’s savings.

Another aspect of the matter was that working men were not allowed to have savings in any bank so long as they were employed under the Unemployment Act. Before men . could qualify for relief work they were bound to use up their savings. , Government propaganda against Labour was intended to convey the impression that under a Labour administration the Post Office Savings Bank would not be able to meet the demands of its depositors. The fact was that 1 undue demands could not be met now as the great bulk of the money had been invested in other undertakings, some of them of very questionable value. All the banks were in a similar position, which did not mean that they were not solvent, but it did mean that the misleading picture drawn by the Government of the possibilities under a Labour Government would apply to-day if the banks were put to an unfair test. The. object of Labour was to make it possible for the people to have something to save and then to safeguard those savings.