THE PRIME MINISTER

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXX, Issue 274, 25 November 1935, Page 3

THE PRIME MINISTER

In Explanation ISPIBIT OP LIBERALISM LEGISLATION OF RECENT YEARS (Per Press Association). CHRISTCHURCH, Last Night. On 'his long election tour the Prime Minister, Mt Forbes, has rarely spoken with the same spirit with which he replied to a questioner at his meeting at Woodend on Saturday, who claimed that the old Liberals would mot have done such things as abolish the (graduated land itjax, fix a flat rate unemployment levy, and suspend find Arbitration Court. “The 'true spirit of Liberalism is to meet its difficulties squarely, to he equitable and just to everyone, and to move on,” Mr Forbes said. “You are speaking the most stark Conservatism there is.

“Seddon would have done what I did. Seddon was a progressive man, and a fair one, and he did not anchor hilmiself as you suggest we should have done. Those who believe that Liberalism is founded on the sarnie Acts of Parliament have no idea of what Liberalism is.

“I have been told before that in abolishing the graduated land tax we did something against the true spirit of Liberalism. My reply has beien that Liberalism is a political process that is above all progressive. Now you say ■ that because' we abolish an Act of 40 years ago, and one which af the time was pressing very heavily am landowners big and small, who were strugglrig in the Severest of depressions, we did something the Liberals of the past would not have done. True Spirit of Justice “Do you mean to tell me that Liberalism is tied to an Act of 40 years ago and cannot move on? I say that is the most conservative thing I have lever heard. Liberals have always stood for even-handed justice, and certainly when we dealt 1 with the graduated land tax we acted in the true spirit of justice,. We took a similar view over the Arbitration Court system. ” Mr Forbes defended the attitude taken over this question, and said that the employers were in a position where they would not have bedri able to carry on their employees had they had tjo maintar|n, during a severe depression, the high standard of wages set by the Court. It was better to have a friendly Spirit in industry than a spirit of comlpnlsion, where a man was compelled to do something his business could laot stand. The Prime Minister, dulring his address, repeated ia former statement that because of the buoyancy of trade and Revenue he hoped to be able to restore to the full the reductions in Salaries of civil (Servants, and to do .sonielflhing to reduce the heavy taxation which had been made necessary by the heavy falling l n Revenue during the depression.