PARTY PROGRAMME

Waikato Times, Volume 132, Issue 22151, 24 September 1943, Page 4

PARTY PROGRAMME

MR G. G. BURKE’S EXPOSITION The Democratic Labour candidate for Waikato, Mr G. G. Burke, told electors that monetary reform was the first and most important plank of the Democratic Labour Party’s programme. The speaker traced the departure from the gold standard, which had begun when the Great War broke out in 1914. The only sound basis for the issue of currency and credit, he held, was the production of the country. He favoured the creation of a monetary commission which would function on the same basis as the Supreme Court. Mr Burke said he recognised the principle of debt-free money for all public purposes and suggested a Ministry of New Industries. Proved men and industries should be financed right away to get back into production, but all new proposals should be examined before they were allowed to be imposed on the people of the country. This would prevent mushroom growth of industries that would never pay. Assistance would be given to co-operatives, said Mr Burke, who described the great English co-operatives which handled over a third of the grocery trading of the whole of Great Britain. Reserves Which Lay Idle

The speaker described conditions during the depression years when all the while reserves were lying in London. It was a good thing for a nation to live within its income and have reserves, but it was a sad fact that while those reserves lay there, timber mills were closed down and carpenters were out of work. As a direct result the people of New Zealand were now short of houses. Mr Burke advocated production councils which would give equal representation to both workers and employers in the industries in which they were engaged. Farmers would have their own councils. The work and management would thus be shared, giving everyone with initiative a chance to come forward. Equal pay for women doing equal work with men was strongly advocated. The candidate also dealt with motherhood endowment, the removal of anomalies in the social security schemes, and special provision for farmers. Child Allowances Adequate motherhood endowment was one of the most important necessities, said Mr Burke. The pay 10s for each child regardless of the male parent’s income would have cost £10,000,000 in peace time- Yet today they spent £120,000,000 a year on the destructive arts of war. Democratic Labour believed that for national survival, as well as to secure a moral economy, they should aim at progressively increasing family allowances fjr each child until a minimum of £1 a head was attained. Housing was the greatest useful employer of skilled labour in any modern community. The parly envisaged the utilisation of t e public credit for: A great extension of new house building by the Government Housing Department, with homes for families of all sizes, and the largescale provision of bachelor flats and pensioner flats. The party v/ould make advances to individual citizens and local bodies at 1| per cent for ownership or slum clearance, and advances at li per cent tc farmers for rural housing. A Slum Clearance Bill would enable the Crown to rebuild depressed areas. The party would consider revision of pay in the civil service, the anomalies of superannuation and social security, pay of cadets, travelling allowances and adequate housing for transferred staffs.