THE NATIONAL PARTY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 81, 6 April 1938, Page 5

THE NATIONAL PARTY

ITS PURPOSE AND ITS POLICY MR. JENKINS’ ADDRESS AT BULLS “The National Party represents a point of view which has the endorsement of experience. It stands for tne administration of public affairs with the same caution which is exercised by the prudent head of a family,” said Mr. Hugh C. Jenkins, addressing a public meeting in Bulls Town Hall last night. Liberalism. In essence the National Party Is a Liberal Party. What do we mean by Liberalism? Liberalism means the freedom of the individual to develop his ability to the best advantage to himself and to the community. Liberalism recognises that men will not labour for no reward at all. That is why slavery as an institution went out. It was uneconomic, it was better to reward people for their effort. “It is the hope of reward that sweetenetn labour.” Private Gain and Public Benefit. When Edison invented the electric light bulb he sought private gain. When Bell invented the telephone he sought private gain, when Marconi invented wireless he sought private gain. But all inventors have, in seeking their own advancement, added to the public benefit. When McCormick made the first reaper he helped the North to win the American Civil War, but he did more; he made it possible for agriculture to be carried on at lower cost and so brought about lower prices for bread, thereby increasing the standard of living for large masses of people. The makers of the modern motor-car have made it possible for comparatively poor men to own motor-cars and motor-bicycles and who will deny that Lord Nuffield has benefitted mankind as a manufacturer as well as a philanthrophist? Would the world like to go back to the horse-and-buggy days? That would mean a tremendous loss of employment. Engineers and repairs men, service station workers, and roadmakers would not be necessary and it would be difficult to see where they could secure employment. Invention changes the character of employment, but it raises the standard of living and increases employment. The spur of all this is private gain. Why not encourage this process? That is precisely what the Socialist Government sets its face against, and it is precisely what the National Party stands for: Progress through profit seeking.

The Gains of Capitalism. Capitalism has been denounced so vehemently that people have come to believe that there is something wicked in it, and it represents a sort of wolf-eat-wolf state of affairs. The reverse is the case. By increasing the quantities and the variety of goods, and by enriching the whole community the social structure which we live in today has been made possible. Let us look at the gains of Capitalism: It has supported an increasing population. In the United Kingdom the population was under 9,000,000 in 1801, but by 1870 it had increased nearly threefold to 23,000,000. To-day the United Kingdom supports 45,000,000. This five-fold increase in population has also been sustained at a much higher level of comfort. It has been estimated that the standard of a working-class family has improved by 150 per cent, in the century: When you multiply this by the population Increase you see the gains of capitalism to the working man represents a gain of 750 per cent. There must be some virtue in a system which provides such results.

Private Enterprise. The Government to-day takes its hat off to private enterprise when it wants anything done. Take housing for instance, the Government imported the machinery for a State joinery factory. Then it lost its faith in its own doctrine, handed the plant over to a private concern and asked private builders elsewhere to build its houses for it. Could there be a greater tribute to the value of private enterprise ? State Pensions. The Government has gone a step further in its recognition of the value of individual enterprise and that is in extending old age and other pensions. Here they recognise that the individual is capable of managing his own affairs better than the State can do it for him. When the old age pension was introduced into England H cost 35s a week to maintain a poor person in a State institution which was the collectivist principle being applied. It was better to provide the pensioner then with 10s a week and allow him to carry on as he wished with the other members of his family. Why does not the Socialist Government of New Zealand apply its collectivist principles properly and abolish pensions and herd old people into State institutions? Finance. The National Party stands for sound finance. We believe that in good times such as we have been enjoying recently, provision should be made by way ot savings so as to have something to fall back on when adversity comes. This saving can be achieved in two ways; one by adding to the reserves of the Treasury and two, by reducing taxation so that private enterprise can invest the money saved in improving the efficiency of industry enabling it to produce more at lower cost. This stands in contrast to the policy of the present Government which is spending more. It is budgeting for a total estimated expenditure of £34,728,000 during this year, the highest revenue expenditure in the record of the Dominion. Is there a head of a family with a sense of responsibility who would spend the whole of his income during a fortunate year when he knew that such good fortune was only a temporary phase? That is what the Government is now doing and what the National Party would not do. Meeting A Depression. Obviously the position of New Zealand after a period of the present Government in office will be less favourable to meet a depression than it was in 1929-1930. Then the Government could and did hypothecate securities and saved the demands of the State wholly falling on the taxpayer during the lean years, but what do the present Government intend to do. It intends to increase the indebtedness of the country in good.

good times, for in the Finance Bill it has sought authorisation to borrow £6,000,000 for Public Works and £2,000,000 for roading. These operations should be stored up to enable the unemployed to be absorbed when adversity comes. That is the policy which the National Party .would follow.

Insulating New Zealand. Mr. Nash’s claim that he would insulate New Zealand from the effects of a world depression is a spurloua one. Mr. Savage asserts that they have their plans laid to do this insulating trick. I say that they have no such plans. I declare that they cannot produce them because they have not got them and I challenge any and every member of the Labour Party to produce any semblance of a plan to insulate this country from the effects of a world depression. Further, I say that such insulation cannot be achieved. Experience of Labour, Why do I issue this challenge? First because 1 know it won’t be accepted. Second because no Labour Government has been able to achieve such a feat. Mr. Forgan Smythe, the Labour Premier of Queensland during the election campaign just concluded said that provided the prices for export products kept up there would be no serious unemployment problem within his State. Look at the proviso, “provided the prices for exported products kept up.” Then what did Labour do in New South Wales? When Mr. Lang was in office he was ruthless enough in all conscience and yet he could not insulate New South Wales. The Premiers’ Plan. The Premiers’ Plan to meet the depression which was adopted by Australia was signed by four Labour Premiers. Mr. Scullin, the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth Government, Mr. Hill, the Labour Premier of South Australia, Mr. Hogan the Labour Premier of Victoria, and Mr. J. T. Lang the Labour Premier of New South Wales. The proposals included in that plan were the same proposals as were put into operation here in New Zealand. The Labour Parly in New Zealand had no contribution to make. Mr. Ormond Wilson, speaking in the Wairarapa admitted that Labour's policy was not fashioned to meet the depression but was drawn up at the Easter conference of 1932. Inflation, When a Government meets a depression it must do either one of two things, reduce its expenditure or reduce the value of the money it uses which is worse for the worker than for anyone. Mr. Scullin, speaking in November 1930, said “Inflation is a desperate remedy and will react seriously on all sections.” Mr. Theodore, the Labour Commonwealth treasurer, speaking in Sydney on January-

30, 1930, declared that “the issue of paper money would be an evil, infinitely worse than the remedy and would rob every worker of employment.” Mr. Theodore was speaking with the evidence of Germany before him, where workers starved even though they worked because the value of their wages deteriorated as they “walked from the factory pay office to the shops. Inflation robs the worker of his savings ,it robs the insurance policyholder of the value of his provision, it destroys all accumulated wealth and causes all taxation to be levied on property and consumption goods, burdening farming and industry and lowering the standards of living. Yet the logical outcome of the. present Government’s policy must be inflation in New Zealand with all its attendant evils and ills. The National Party desires to save the country from the experience of France and Germany and Austria in respect to inflation. The Witness of Russia. Time was when the members of the Labour Party in New Zealand held up the Soviet Russia as the example for us to follow. Then the Marxian doctrine of “From each according to his ability; to each according to his need” was being preached. But Stalin has found that a country cannot be run on that principle and he has been compelled by an experience running over 20 years to alter the fundamental of Soviet faith. In the recently promulgated Constitution the following principle is incorporated: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his work.” Twenty years of experience has taught Russia’s leaders that the doctrine which is being followed by the Government of New Zealand to-day won't work out. Men must be rewarded for their work, they must be protected in the enjoyment of their earnings, and they must be permitted, when they pass on, to benefit their children. These are the basic principles of the National Party in New Zealand, its purpose is to preserve those inalienable rights which cannot be flouted without slowing clown the whole machinery of production and doing both injustice and injury to each and every member of the community.