POLICY EXPOUNDED

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19702, 9 October 1935, Page 8

POLICY EXPOUNDED

INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE. MR J. H. PENNIKET’S VIEWB. ADDRESS AT TE AWAMUTU. (Special to Time-3). TE AWAMUTU, Wednesday, A large gathering of electors assembled in the Te Awamutu Town Hall last evening to hear Mr J. H. Penniket, (Independent Country Party) a candidate for the Waitomo electorate. The Mayor, Mr G. Spinley, presided, and in introducing the speaker, detailed the circumstances that led to a representative gathering waiting on Mr Penniket in Hamilton, with a request that he would contest the Waitomo electorate free from all party ties. Mr Penniket said he proposed to analyse the existing situation and indicate brielly the broad general nature ■of the remedy to be applied. He said that the present drift could not be allowed to continue, that it was useless to wait for a lead from outside and that New Zealand must solve her own problems. The speaker went on to say that no individual could be properly regarded as a free citizen if he were denied the full fruits of his labours and was confronted with a mass of regulations at every turn, which was the position into which New Zealanders were developing. So. also, no member of Parliament could properly be regarded as free if he were tied to a party machine. It was for this reason that he insisted on Independent status as a candidate at the election.

Tariffs Too High

The candidate stated that the economic problem was the most pressing one with which the country was confronted at the present time, and the present unsatisfactory situation was due to a faulty money system which was unable to function as it should in. an age of power production. As far as New Zealand w T as concerned the problem was aggravated by needlessly high tariffs. There were two principal schools of thought which considered that they had the remedy. One favoured monetary reform to stabilise price levels at a higher figure than that experienced in the immediate past, and the other pinned its faith to reduction of costs. He considered that in a primary producing country like New Zealand with a relatively large export and import trade, the two ideas were complementary. The monetary system should be reformed to bring about the first, and drastic reduction of tariffs, particularly on British goods, would achieve the second.

The depression was not caused through any event that happened in 1929 or 1930, but has quite evidently been accumulating for many years; in fact, one might almost go back to 1844, when the present banking system was beginning to be stabilised. At that time the production of gold kept pace with the requirement of the various duties assigned to it; however it was soon found tiiat it was not necessary to hold enough gold to meet all their liabilities as only a small percentage would ever be required at any one time. This led to the coming into existence of what is now knowm as “paper money” and the establishment of credit.

Monetary Position

During the Great War gold was withheld from circulation and large amounts of paper. money came into ■being to replace it. When the war was over more money was required for the rehabilitation of soldiers and industry iu general. One of the cries at that time was to get back to the 1914 position, a thing that was clearly impossible then. If expenditure was to be cut down, the natural corollary was a fall in prices, and this fact has been proved in the last few years. Tlie election of 1931 was fought on the psychology of figures, and the promises then made could not be fulfilled. Unemployment came into being and its figures started to mount at an extraordinary rate. The question of the raising of exchange was brought up. The Prime Minister was asked if the exchange was going to be put up, and he made the definite statement that it was not to be interfered with. Six weeks later, however, the rate went up without any further notice. Naturally many people were badly hit by it, and at least one minister, the Hon. W. Downie Stewart, resigned from the Cabinet on that account. The higher rate helped the farmer most when he needed it least, and it helped him least when he needed it most. Dealing with the last Budget, the speaker said that last year New Zealand was round the corner, and now was on the upward trend, but according to the Auditor-General, several amounts were very much overslated. and as regards the surplus, the sale of the gold taken over from the trading banks bad given the Government a handsome profit. The control of the money institutions should be in the hands of the people; not in private hands. 'Pile speaker suggested fhe inauguration of a -stabilisation fund to regulate the price of exchange in the same manner that is being tried in other countries. Another point that he claimed would help things was tlie reduction in tariffs, especially on British goods, and lie quoted figures to show that at tlie present lime, £IOO worth of goods at British sterling would rise in value till it came to the consumer in New Zealand at a price out of all proportion to its cost. Dealing with primary products, Mr Pcmiikct asked his audience how any business could balance ils income with its expenditure when it never knew what its income would be. That was the present case with the farmers. He declared that the extension of the life of Parliament by one year had nothing to recommend it in any shape or form; it had been fundamentally wrong botli in spirit and principle. A motion of thanks to the candidate for ills address was carried by acclamation.