GOVERNMENT GESTURE TO FARMERS A DEATHBED REPENTANCE

Wanganui Chronicle, 31 October 1946, Page 6

GOVERNMENT GESTURE TO FARMERS A DEATHBED REPENTANCE

MR- HOLLAND’S OPINION (P.A.) New Plymouth, Oct. 30. “I read a deathbed repentance in (his morning’s paper,” said the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Holland, addressing a public meeting at New Plymouth to-night. He was referring Io the Government's announced intention to set up a tribunal, with representatives from the dairy industry, to determine the guaranteed price for dairy produce, and set up a marketing authority, with representation from dairy farmers.

That was what the dairy farmer had been battling for for years, during which he had seen other sections of the community getting what they wanted, commented Mr. Holland. It seemed like a case of “Come into the parlour.”

Statements about the national debt made in a broadcast speech the previous night by the Minister of Works, Mr. Semple, were questioned by Mr. Holland. Mr. Semple, he said, stated: “When we came into power we said we wouldn’r. borrow any more, and we didn’t. We have paid forty-seven millions off the national debt. In other years, before Labour, they built it up at the rate of four millions a year.”

Mr. Holland said the facts taken from the official publications were that the public debt at March 31, 1936, was £322,000,000. At March 31, 1946, it was £634.000.000, a total increase of £302,000,000, or over £27,500,000 annually.

There was an audience of 1400, who gave Mr. Holland an enthusiastic reception.