THE NATIONAL CAUSE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 243, 14 October 1938, Page 8

THE NATIONAL CAUSE

“FATE OF A COUNTRY AT STAKE” LABOUR’S ELECTION BRIBES TAXATION KILLING FAMILY LIFE MR. ADAM HAMILTON’S MESSAGE [ Per Press Association.] WELLINGTON, Oct. 13. “To-morrow you will decide the fate of a country,” said the Hon. Adam Hamilton, Leader of the National Party, in a statement to electors thought detailing the issue before the Dominion on which votes will be cast to-morrow.

I “In this personal message to you at the close of a remarkable campaign, I wish to state a clear case. The so-called ‘free benefits’ offered in the form of an election bribe by the Socialist Labour Government will have to be met out of the pockets of the 40,000 families of the Dominion,” he said. "Your family is one of them and I scarcely need point out the common sense of the fact known to every man and woman who has budgeted for anything—a holiday week or a month’s household expenses, or a business—that the more moderate your means the more harshly you are affected in ordinary living by heavy additional taxation. That is why the National Party will not increase taxation, but will reduce it Socialist Labour has produced an election ‘stunt’ in the Social Security Bill. It is hastily thrown together, ill-consid-ered, unbalanced and impracticable. For the great majority a better an-i cheaper provision can be made by voluntary personal arrangement. For the minority a better arrangement for a complete and not partial free service could be made, and the National Party will make it. Costs Vitally Important. “Socialists throw up their hands in hoiror if I or any of the thinking electors of New Zealand mention the word ‘cost.’ But, ask yourse'f, have not you, has not your family, have not your friends the right to tsk what the so-called 'free benefit’ will cost? That is what you would do if you were buying clothes, or food, or anything else. Here we are to-day within a few hours of an election and

still the Socialist Labour Government is silent as to the total cost of all the provisions it will have to make, and is ominously silent on the question of how much this will cost you, your family and your friends in taxation. It is admitted that there is a very big gap between the millions in sight with taxation already announced and the millions more required to meet other necessities that are part and parcel of the proposals. The social security extravaganza, which is actually only partial in many of the things it provides, will cost you Is in every £ you earn each week. That is an increase in taxation of 50 per cent., but it does not include any provision for real unemployment—that will require millions more. It does not include superannuation that will require millions more again. How much more will you, your family and your friends be taxed to bridge the huge gap which the Socialist Labour Government itself admits is present?

“3s in the £ in 10 Years,” Says Mr. Maddex. “The cost to you will immediately be about 2s in the £, as the National Party estimates it, and here is the further unimpeachable evidence of Mr. Maddex, the British actuary specially brought out to New Zealand to advise the Government on the scheme. He state: "The Government's scheme will cost 3s in the £ on the national income in 10 years’ time: and he said again: ...‘The financing of the scheme depends not only on the maintenance of production but also on the maintenance of markets and prices.’

“How can any country flourish under free and happy conditions if it increases and increases the taxation burden on its people, particularly its young people, from whom future progress and inspiration is expected? The State is being made the be all and end all of everything under the Socialist regime. "Sugar-Coated Pills.” “The individual and the family, with ail their virtues—encouragement of individual loyalties, self-reliance, thrift and enterprise—are being slowly strangled. To-day the socialist State squeezes you while it hands you sugar-coated pills that deaden you to the squeezing process. Soon the State will own you—and soon it will think for you and act for you, and your say will have disappeared to dwell with the shades of the former previous rights under democracy—free speech, free press and free radio. If the people are not awake to the threats to all that to which their precious heritage entitles them, then my confidence in a sweeping National victory is indeed misplaced, but I know that they are aware. I know that no enticement—however cleverly baited by subtle socialist distortion—will prevent them from sweeping socialism from the Government of this fair Dominion. The National fight is a great fight for justice. It is a fight to

the death and it is a fight worthy of the support of every forthright and courageous Britisher in the Dominion. Members of the Socialist Labour Government—who have truly earned the description of ‘the greatest tax-gath-erers in the world’—must be swept from the Treasury Benches. You will find nothing in the Labour policy anywhere that suggests reduction in taxation. Reduction of Taxation. “The National Party will not only give the farmer the ownership of his produce, besides an advance without recourse, but will give taxation relief to every section of the community amounting to nearly another million and a-half, at least. In the issues today between British democracy and State Socialism, there arises the fundamental issue of race preservation based on family life. I cannot believe that New Zealanders have so far departed from the spirit of their ancestors as to embrace socialism. You must realise that a victory for the National Party is not to go backward but to go forward with opportunity for all. “The National Party’s policycarries a practical message of inspiration, hope and reconstruction for all. Its purpose is sound progress built on family life, encouragement and help for young people and protection for the aged. It promises the extinction of State dictatorship and compulsion and restoration of British democratic principles. I appeal to every patriotic New Zealander to support the National cause, a cause of British ideals and British freedom, and I promise you, one and all, on behalf of my party, that every pledge of the party's policy will be honoured in letter and spirit.”