Mr. Holland Holds Electors Interest

Wanganui Chronicle, 1 November 1946, Page 6

Mr. Holland Holds Electors Interest

Big Wanganui Meeting

National Party’s plans for stepping up production and encouraging individual effort and enterprise, were described by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. S. G. Holland, M.P., during the course of a two-hour public meeting in the Opera House last night. About 1300 people heard his address, part of which was devoted to the answering of written questions submitted concerning proposals made in the party’s election manifesto.

Mr. Holland was given a close hearing throughout, and though he apologised for a touch of “speaker’s throat” at the start, he had no difficulty in keeping the audience on the alert and interested. Applause and laughter were frequent as the speaker made various points plain by anecdote and quotation. The Mayor of Wanganui, Hon. W. J. Rogers, M.L.C., presided. Also on the platform were Messrs. W. A. Sheat, M.P., Patea; E. W. Merewether, National Party candidate for Wanganui; W. E. Robbie, chairman of the Wanganui branch of the National Party; H. H. Marumaru, National Party candidate for Western Maori; T. G. Wilkes, general Dominion secretary of the National Party; A. Williams, private secretary to Mr. Holland.

Mr. Holland was welcomed to Wanganui in Maori by Mr. A. Takarangi, his remarks being translated by Mr. G. Leach. Mr. and Mrs. Takarangi covered in picturesque ceremonial cloaks, met Mr. Holland at the entrace and accompanied him to the platform. As he walked down the centre aisle the audience rose and sang “For Hes’ a Jolly Good Fellow.’’ Mr. Takarangi expressed the hope that the next time Mr. Holland visited Wanganui it would be as Prime Minister instead of as Leader of the Opposition. In his opening remarks Mr. Holland said that the pleasure of coming to Wanganui was always enhanced by the welcome he received from. Mr. Rogers and the citizens generally. He particularly appreciated on this occasion the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Takarangi had welcomed him on behalf of the Maori race.

Mr. Holland said that it was not usual for membert, for Ministers of the Crown, or the Leader of the Opposition to answer questions at meetings, but he felt that he should answer some that had been submitted. STATE HOUSE BUYING Regarding ownership of State houses, Mr. Holland said that a tenant would be allowed to buy such a house he was occupying at any time. It a tenant bought a house, rents P«M to the date of purchase would be credited to the extent of 20 per cent. Mr. Holland said double unit singlestorey State houses could be sold separately, each with its appropriate piece of land. If a tenant moved from a small State house to a larger one because his family increased, he would not lose his equity if he purchased the second house. In reply to one question Mr. Holland said that he was in favour of the importation of small tinned fish if people

had the money to pay for them. Such fish could not be produced in New Zealand. In repfy to a query as to whether the National Party would increase the a?e benefit to £3 a week, Mr. Holland replied in the negative. He gave a similar reply to another question as to whether the party would allow age beneficiaries to earn as much as they could. This, he said, would have the effect of giving an age benefit to everybody irrespective of s elr income. CONTROL OF GAMBLING Pointing out that the New South Wales State lottery produced £9,000,000 for hospitals, another questioner asked if the National Party favoured a similar State lottery for New Zealand. “My education in gambling has yet to be completed,’ said Mr. Holland. “The questioner also asks me if we will permit the licensing of bookmakers and the publication of dividends if we are elected the Government. It is a plank in our platform that an exhaustive inquiry shall be held into all forms of illegal gambling, which will be brought under strict control. Major questions arising on this subject will be referred to the electors by way of referendum.” In reply to other questions, Mr. Holland said that the National Party would reduce the radio licence fee from 25s to £l. and would appoint an independent Currency and Credit Commission. Mr. Holland reviewed the causes and effect of Labour’s coming to power in 1935, its retention in office in 1938, the real test of 1943, when, on election night, it was “an even break between the parties, but somehow or other after that there were certain votes that went astray and Labour still remained in power,’’ and now 1946, when people were weighing in their minds the merits of the respective parties and wanting to be assured that before turning Labour out and putting National in they would

not be jumping from the political frying pan into the political fire. Mr. Holland asked whether or not lessons had been learned from the depression days, when goods were in over abundance, money in short supply, and Governments in every other country tried to meet the emergency by methods similar to those applied in New Zealand. To-day the experience was the reverse of what it was in 1935, and the task of the next Government, whether Labour or Natiqnal, would be to reduce the gap between money and the goods that money could buy by taking the level of production of goods up to the level of money in circulation. The National Party’s policy was specifically designed to narrow the gap by increasing the supply *of goods and making purchasing power have a real value. COUNTERNG COMMUNISM. “Communism is a real threat to this country,” declared Mr. Holland. “We will never defeat it by calling it names. We must provide a system more acceptable to the people, one in which the seed of Communism cannot develop. “Our policy in this respect is to provide the means for as many people as possible to get their roots into this country, by having their own homes, farms and businesses and a personal interest in the general production of the country. We want everybody to have a stake in the financial system.” Mr. Holland explained that was why a National Pariy Government would restore the Banti of New Zealand to the public by offering the public two-tnirds of the shares, but with a limit on the amount of individual holdings. The National Party would retain a measure of State control by reverting to the system of having four of the six directors appointed by the Government. People sometimes asked how subsidies on food were paid for said Mr. Holland. The answer was that they paid for it themselves through taxation.

For every £1 worth of coupons banked by a butcher he received 2s from the and the total was £1,000,000 a year. For butter which was sold retail for Is 6d a pound the primary producer received 2s a pound and this meant £1,500,000 in subsidies vearly. When people paid Is for a loaf of bread they were only making a deposit because they still had to find another £1,750,000 in taxation for a subsidy. Similar conditions attached to the purchase of sugar for which the public had to find £1,000,00 in subsidy. The future prosperity of New Zealand depended entirely upon her capacity to increase production, Mr. Holland said, adding:—“We are only fooling ourselves if we think we can work less and have more by creating money as a substitute for goods.” In this country, he said, we must not only lift up the quantity of goods to the level of money, but reduce the cost of production by reducing taxation. Whereas in 1935 taxation on the production of goods was £5,000,000 in respect of £55,000,000 worth of goods (a ratio of £9 10s per £100), in 1939 it was £31.000,000 in respect of £125,000,000 (£25 per £100), and in 1944 it was £100,000,000 in respect of £175,000,000 (£57 per £100). Although he did not think Mr. F. P. Walsh was ever likely to vote National, said Mr. Holland, he did heartily commend to the audience the re- : port he had prepared on production. Mr. Walsh’s plea for increased productivity was supported by the lact that between 193 b and 1944 there had been a decline of 155,000 in the milking dairy cow fopulation of New ZealantL equal to 4000 farms of 40 cows each, a decline of 230,000 In the pig population, a decline of 14,466 in the number of suppliers to dairy factories, and a decline of 83,000 acres in the acreage of wheat planted. One bright spot was meat production, which rose between 1936 and 1944 by nearly 100,000 tons. The drop in wheat was scarcely to be wondered at when the Government paid the grower 7s 6d a bushel against 9s 6d for Australian and 13s 3d for Canadian, or if diarying was less popular when the Government, ignoring the recommendations before it, fixed its own basis for the original guaranteed price and then commandeered the farmers* produce which it proceeded to seii for £16,000,000 more than the producer received.. I The first essential to increasing production was to elect a Government that was in sympathy with the farmer and understood his problems,” Mr. Holland said. ’The Government was not performing its functions if it continues to widen the gap between the industry in the town and the industry in the country. It was easy to say a five-day week for all, but it was the I bounden duty of every government to ; ensure that the services to which the public was entitled were available to it. He believed in a 40-hour week, but we could not have a universal fiveday week. “The National Party wants to encourage more people to produce more goods,” declared Mr. Holland. “I have always favoured a 40-hour veek, but one must end the fallacy that more tan be got by doing less. To encourage increased production the National Party proposes to compensate any worked who continues in 4iis job after he is entitled to retire on an age benefit.” Mr. Holland said that if we wanted a higher standard of living we must create it for vurselves. There must be better relationships created between employers and employees to end needless bickerings. The National Party had plans to accomplish that, and he was sure that progress would be rapid once private enterprise was again permitted to operate. At the conclusion of Mr. Holland’s address a motion of thanks and confiddhce was moved by Mr. R. I. Sewell, seconded by Mr. George Leach.

Mr. Merewether replied on behalf of Mr. Holland, and thanked Mr. Rogers for acting as chairman of the meeting.