WANGANUI SEAT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 208, 3 September 1943, Page 4

WANGANUI SEAT

NATIONAL PARTY CAMPAIGN OPENED /ADDRESS BY MR. E. J. KIRK' Introducing himself to a large and enthusiastic audience in the Opera House last night as a newcomer t« politics, Mr. E. J. Kirk, National Party candidate for Wanganui, said he did not pretend to know all about politics, but as a newcomer and a member of a new party, with a policy, he was more concerned with future trends of Government, than with sectional differences of the past. Paying a tribute to the Leader o£ the Party, the speaker said that political opponents of Mr. Holland tried to depict him as the foe of the working man, but Mr. Holland's own employees knew the answer to that. His concern for their well-being had been shown in practical fashion in the profit-sharing scheme which Mr. Holland and his brother had operated in their business for the last 14 years. No person could have heard Mr. Holyland’s broadcast speech on Tuesday l night without being impressed by his obvious sincerity and human approach to all problems. “It will be the endeavour of the National Party to promote a greater spirit of unity in the government of this country,” said Mr. Kirk. “The National Party has, ever since the commencement of the war. persistently and consistently advocated the dropping of party politics and the formation of a truly non-party government. We will endeavour to form such a government, composed of the best men in Parliament, regardless of political affiliations, and with only three simple conditions: A full war effort in every field; no contentious party legislation; no outside domination of Parliament.” Free To Vote. But in the meantime, said the speake!’, non-party government, had been blocked by the government of the day, and whether we liked it or not, there was no satisfactory alternative to party politics. However, the National Party, through its Leader, Mr. Holland, had made a considerable compromise in this matter of party politics. Mr. Holland had declared, that the members of the Nationalk Party in the House were free to voter'as t heir consciences might, determine, subject, only to voting on a no-confi-dence motion. This was possibly the most important change in political practice introduced into the Parliamentary life of New Zealand.

Before all else, however, came the country's war effort. This fell into two divisions: Firstly the winning of the war. and secondly the organisation of rehabilitation and reconstruction.

Regarding rehabilitation, evidence of a carefully prepared plan was lacking. In the National Party's proposals provision was made for adequate training schemes, pending the absorption of servicemen into civilian life, the men to remain on the service payrolls during the training period, with dependents' allowances continued. “It would be far better to spend at the commencement of the programme the millions that were wasted after the last war. and wasted after the hearts of many of the men had been broken," said Mr. Kirk. The War Effort. New Zealand’s war effort called for a complete overhaul of manpower and production commitments. We were • strategically placed in. the Pacific, and by reason of this and also by reason i of our production capabilities if givenz' r the opportunity, we had been asked for greatly increased quantities of goods. At the present time we were not keeping our Lend-Lease slate balanced, and it was estimated that by the end of thc financial year we would be owing the United States about £40.000,000 in our exchange of goods with that country. It should be remembered that the money borrowings of the last, war were widely believed at the time they were incurred to be merely a formality, to lie turned into a gift after the Armistice. But it did not turn out that way. We had a duty to our Allies and a duty to ourselves to step up production here. But first of all we would have to rearrange our commitments, and what was equally important, we would have to gain freedom from the controls and regulations that were strangling production We also had a duty to see that we did not play a part in damaging post-wai reconstruction by injuring this great plan for the exchange of goods between the nations. The Lend-Lease Scheme.

“To-day, in Lend-Lease, we were witnessing one of the greatest currency reforms in history. The argument had wieen removed from the monetary plane to the plane that really mattered —that was the exchange of goods and service. The achievement of Lend-Lease was the .proper use of money. Money was being used as a measure only. There were some people who wished to add to purchasing power by the equivalent of printing press methods; and this in spite of the fart that recent, statistics showed that we had an excess of purchasing power over goods available, totalling £100,000,000. The Prime Minister had admitted that this excess purchasing power was swamping the Government's price controls. The speaker pointed out that that was exactly what the present inflationary policy of the Government was bound to do. To-day, without reducing the number of pound notes in the pay envelope, the Government was cutting wages. “The true basis of national life is happy family life in the people's own homes,” said Mr. Kirk. “The National Party is pledged to encourage family life by tax remissions to the family man, a graduated wage tax according to family responsibilities, abolition of taxes on household devices that help mothers and housewives, and the set- j ting up of training schemes for house- / hold aids." The Giants of Want. What had been termed the giants of want, sickness, squalor, ignorance and unemployment, must be energetically attacked, and the National Party'! policy indicated a maximum effort la ties direction. Every country in the world suffered from the 1930-35 slump, and governments of all shades ol political opinion tried to cure it by cutting wages. From that experience all governments had learned that similar slumps could and would be avoided. Statesmen the world over were now agreed that the collapse of what was termed the ' economic price level brought nothing but unnecessary misery to innocent people. There was no remedy except in the balanced price relations which enabled the people as a whole to buy everything that could be produced with everybody fully employed. Price relations must be properly balanced without reducing wages. That was the lesson of the slump. Another 1930-35 slump must not be allowed to happen again in this country. That was definite and positive, said Mr. Kirk in conclusion.