RANGITIKEI SEAT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 278, 26 November 1935, Page 8

RANGITIKEI SEAT

MR. CRAWFORD AT DURIE HILL DEMOCRAT POLICY OUTLINED. SEVERE CRITIC’ISAI OF LABOUR. With lhe exception of one persistent interjector, who was finally asked to leave the hall, Mr. \V. .1. Crawford, the Democrat candidate for Rangitikei, was accorded a good heating by a large attendance in St. (Barnabas’ Hail, Durie Hill, last night. The speaker outlined the policy or his party and devoted lhe closing stages of his address tu a severe criticism of the Labour Party. This party, Air. Crawlord declared, was j setting oil to start where Lang finished in New {South Wales. “Labour to-day it just as rotten with socialism as ever it was before. 1 can show you from some of their official remits that lhe whole thing is alive with socialism. And they have clouded this thing with guaranteed prices and a 10l of ballyhoo, ” the speaker asserted. In outlining the policy of lhe Democrat Party, Mr. Crawford laid stress on lhe importance of developing secondary industries. New Zealand had excellent opportunities of making linen from flax that would be equal to lhe finest produced in Ireland. At one lime the Dominion had produced 30,000 tons of flax per annum. To«day she was putting out only 5000 tontf. This was simply because lhe Government had not taken the trouble lo investigate lhe matter. Newsprint was an other item which New Zealand could manufacture with profit to herself. Golden Bay had rich deposits of iron ore, while there were 32 copper depesils in different parts of the country, but not one of them was being wo.Led. ‘‘So far as manufacturing industries are concerned there is almost unlimited scope,’’ said Mr. Crawford. “We iecognise the paramount importance of our farming industry, but rhe day vvh -r. we considered ourselves the ‘eow yard’ of the Empire has long since g.ne. The tendency of all the countries in the world is to become more seli-ion-lained, and New Zealand also must recognise this all-important fact, in th? industrial field alone we can place 25,000 men at standard rates of pay within the first .12 months. N 't. only that, but these men will be pliced in industries which can stand oa their own feet.' ’ “The first thing we undertake to do is to get our workless men a.i ) women back into employment and t:» restore the spending power of the-people. It is obvious that the policy of Iho t'ialition Government, has haci the effect of impoverishing our country and every class is still nursing its I wounds from the worst Government ithis country ever had. Jt seems in;credible to think that-in a country with (the greatest per capita favourable trade balance we actually have the greatest per capita number nf unemployed. This sorry slate of affairs undoubtedly has been brought about by the blundering legislation we have had foisted upon us during the past four ■'ears, and it is clear to any thinking {n’.an and woman that this Dominion ‘would never have suffered to anything {like the same extent had we. a Gov (ernment in power which knew how to inn the affairs of the country in a fair and businesslike manner,” said Mr. Crawford.

i I “By taking the spending power from I the people with their silly wage-cut-I ring, pension reductions, etc., and the crippling taxation put on every section of the community, we have filled our country with ‘hard-ups.’ The Democrat Party, therefore, undertake lo increase wages, to reduce taxation, and tu give more practical assistance to the farmer, and generally to bring about a better state of affairs by bringing in legislation which will make a more healthy progress in all our industries and commerce. “Another party, to a more or less degree, have, much the same idea, but the sad experience of other countries prove beyond doubt that on the assumption of office by a Labour Government confidence immediately vanishes and instead of progress trade of all kinds come to a deadlock. To say that the Coalition also chased confidence and stability from us is but, stating the obvious, for to-day we have millions of pounds lying idle, hundreds upon hundreds of works to be undertaken, and about 60,000 unemployed, simply because people have lost confidence in the present Government. They have broken contracts as fast as they have been made. They have put impossible impositions on to every kind of enterprise until nobody—farmer, business man, worker, financier, or anybody else will put lheir trust in them. With the coming of the power of lhe Democrat Party a new confidence would be born and that would be the first essential to putting our country on (he right ’road.” At the conclusion of his address Mr. Crawford was accorded a vote of thanks and confidence.