FANTASTIC PROPOSALS DISSECTED.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16613, 10 December 1919, Page 9

FANTASTIC PROPOSALS DISSECTED.

MR. MASSEY REPLIES TO SIR JOSyPLi WARD. s FIRST'THINGS FIRST. CHRISTCHURCH, Doc. S. In an interview with a Press reporter to-day the Prime Minister (Mr. Masse}’) tool: occasion io reply to several reported statements mu-do by the Leader of tho Opposition in 7us speech at Tcmuka on Taursday night. “I don’t know that 1 have very much to say in reply to what tho Leader of toe Opposition said to the people of Tomuka last night,” remarked Mr. Massey, “but it occurred to me in reading the report of the speech that ho thinks nationalisation is the remedy for all the ills to which tho Dominion is heir. There is no parallel between owning the railways and tho post office and the proposals of the Leader of tiro Opposition. Jb is quite right that in a country like this the railways and post office should be tho property of the Government in order to prevent monopoly and exploit, tion, but it is quite a dill'ercnt thing with tho coal mines, (lour mills, banking, and in quite a number of other directions in which nationalisation is suggested. Sir Joseph Ward is evident!;, competing with the party whom wo think ox as extremjds in his expressed desire for the nationalisation of development work. Tho first point that appeals to me is this, however; these nationalisation proposals will cost- many millions to give effect to. In the meantime we want ail I'm money that can be raised reasonably for the purpose of carrying on the development work without which the country cannot progress, and the development work I speak of includes railway build'ng, road-making, bridge-building, generation of hydropice trinity. improving our present main roads, land settlement, and last, but bv no means least, the expenditure involved in the repatriation of our soldiers. If we spend tho monev that is available, or use up our credit in the schemes of not ionalisatimi which have ben suggestt d. very well. then, wo cannot do justice to the other proposals, and I leave it to line people to say which ana the most necessary. HOUSING PROPOSALS. “As for Sir J. -eph "Ward’s housing proposals, which involve taking the post office money for that purpose at a lower rate of interest than is at present being paid, I may po’nl out." said Mr. Massey, “that Sir Joseph Ward himself raid in tho House in 1912; ‘As a matter of fairness to the post office and of judicious procedure, the post office should not- he paid less than the Government can get tlir* monev elsewhere for the purpose of carrying on the busmens of the country.’ Tie insisted—l again quote his avoids—that 'it is not right that he .should give the post office half per cent below the market rate.’ The position i« this,” Mr. Massey continued, “the pest office money to-day is being used for public works purposes. If wo use it for anything else then we have to go out in the open market and raise money for public works at .11 per pent, or more than that. No business man can approve of such proposals. According to the Housing and Accommodation Art of Inst session the people who are supplied with houses, and contracts have heen let for 290 concrete houses already, will get the money at 41 per rent. ' That, is, a house and section costing .t’Bo3 would mean to tin' occupier :C3O a year nr 1-1? a week. This, of course, does not include tho instalments intended to pay off _tho loan at the end of the term, which in the ease of concrete hoi:“as. will he verv much longer firm m the case of wooden bouses. Talking about workers’ dwellings, I have always taken a keen interest in this subject. In 1912, when the present Government came into office the \\ orkers’ Dwellings Act had been live years in operation—and by the way some very important improvements in tho Act were made by wav of amendment on my motion, when the meanuro was before tho House—but for the first five Tears tho average, number of houses built was 31 per annum; for tho next seven years, when the prevent Government was in office, which includes too war period, when wo had to slacken off, tho average was 67 per annum, and for tho present year wo have let contracts tor about 200. THE COAL MINES. “Sir Joseph Ward talks nboiß making money out of tho coal mines,” Mr. Massey went on. “This country has never made ci copper out of its coal mines. As far as tho miners are concerned we all want to see, them well paid, and the working conditions made as nearly perfect as it is possible to make them, hut wo object to any ono class increasing unnecessarily tho rost of living for other classes, and that is what tho proposals of tho minors mean. It seems to mo that some of our politicians to-day include exaggeration with nationalisation. Meat, then, is the use, for instance, of talking about there being more power than that of five hundred Niagaras, or that there will not be a steam enjgine on any New Zealand railway in 13 years? As for eight million pounds completing our railways, personally. I do not think sixteen millions will complete them, but they have got to bo completed all the same, and it is more urgent that this should he done than almost anything else I can think of. STATE BANK. “As for the State bank, I can just imagine how a needy Treasurer would use it, and the quantity of paper money which would he issued in times of financial stringency. I ask tho people, of New Zealand to remember that they are senior partners in the Bank of New Zealand, and have, a most valuable interest therein, and now apparently it is proposed to take away much of its business for tho purpose of starting another bank in competition with it” which is certain to ho more or less under political control. Such schemes can add nothing to the. prospects of tho country, and will increase onr output bv a single pound’s worth. “Tho policy of this country must during the period of construction be a polici” of development. One whU 1 ' will mean progress, and which will brine- prosperity. If wo apply ourselves ouergefi-aflv for the next three years wo shall come through all right and get into ,n good nnsition to meet the responsibilities arising out of tho war If wo waste onr energies in running after fads we shall bo a long time reaching tho goal which wo have in view, namclv, building np a happy community in a prosperous country.’