DR. ADAMS’ VIEWS

Taranaki Daily News, 26 November 1935, Page 16

DR. ADAMS’ VIEWS

CRITICISM OF GOVERNMENT.

HAWERA MEETING ADDRESSED. Criticism of the stewardship of the National Government in relation to various State Departments was made by Dr. G. J. Adams, Democrat candidate for Patea, when he addressed about 300 electors at Hawera last night. The Mayor, Mr. J. E. Campbell, presided, and Mrs. Adams was also on the stage. Dr. Adams’ address was uninterrupted and at the conclusion a vote of thanks was carried. The Government was now proposing to spend the best part of £500,000 on the Okoia hill on the Taranaki- Wellington railway line, said Dr. Adams. He considered this was an uneconomic work. When something had to be done the Taranaki-Waitotara deviation would be more economic. He had been asked by a Minister, said Dr. Adams, to stand as a National Government candidate, but he had refused to do so because he thought he could' serve his country better with the Democrats. Dr. Adams dealt in detail with the Parliamentary machine and its. component parts, showing what the National Government had been doing with the trust and confidence reposed in them at the last election and taking the more important departments in detail following similar lines to those of an earlier address. The Public Works Department, he claimed, showed the most flagrant evidence of lack of foresight and consideration. Many major public works had been undertaken before they have been adequately reviewed and were half-finished and then closed down, with plant and material valued at millions left to go to wrack and ruin on the spot. There was another aspect of the department which would not bear too close an inspection—the manner in which and extent to which it competed with private enterprise in smaller contracts.

The Health Department erred on the other side. There was gross lack of appreciation of tlie fact that the public health welfare of the people was one of the most economic and essential factors in any country. The National Government had displayed a barrenness ot thought in regard to this. The Education Department showed evidence of the National Government inconsideration and legislative inefficiency. To think that the National Government should consider that education was merely a luxury and the first thing to be exposed to the pruning knife of economy to the drastic extent of about 33 1-3 per cent, was hard to conceive. Inadequate provision had been made for the 40 per cent, of the children, who should be encourage on to the land; 40 per cent, of the people were engaged on the land and therefore educative encouragement should be given to 40 per cent, of the children to go in that direction. The Mining Department was a monument to the destructiveness of the National Government. The gold industry in 1860 saved the Dominion from distress, and yet now the industry was throttled by a gold export duty. Practically every other department, presented much the same state of affairs as- those just outlined, and if investigated might reveal even more serious factors. In the Finance Department lay one of tlie greatest monuments of unfairness and irregularity ever erected in the history of British constitution and the most astonishing revelations heard of in Parliamentary finance, Dr. Adams claimed. The National debt had been directly increased at London by £40,000,000 through exchange manipulation, and exchange costs in New Zealand by way of direct and indirect taxation had virtually doubled the national debt' within the country. This was hard to conceive but nevertheless was true. Annual State expenditure had. increased deplorably and taxation had reached its highest level in history and was likely to increase next year by over £1,000,000 if the Budget was anything to go by. Furthermore, since the Budget was issued millions of pounds worth of promises had been made over and above the estimates, just before the election, which could not do other than increase taxation by millions if they were carried out. Other criticism levelled by Dr. Adams at the finances of New Zealand was on the lines of that traversed fully by the party leader, Mr. T. C. A. Hislop. He was opposed to the introduction of chain stores by overseas or other manufacturers, Dr. Adams told a questioner. “What do you think about Munro?” he was asked.

Dr. Adams: I would much rather not enter into personalities. Mr. Savage has dealt with Mr. Munro pretty adequately. (Applause.) Mr. G. R. Horsburgh drew attention to the manufacture and sale of margarine in New Zealand and asked if a Democrat Government would prohibit the manufacture and sale internally. Dr. Adams said that if New Zealand could find a market overseas for margarine it should exploit it. Its manufacture as a by-product "■os permissible but extensive sale internally would be wrong. Internal consumption of cheese was a question that would receive immediate attention from a Democrat can?didate. The trouble was that the cheese supplied for internal consumption was not of the standard of export cheese. All should be alive to the potential internal market and provide cheese of the fine standard of export. He criticised the waxing of cheese and urged that there should be varying tastes and colours.

Asked if he favoured “wasting money” on voluntary military training or favoured substituting physical or citizenship training, Dr. Adams said he would support voluntary training only where specialist instruction was given.