During the 1949 election the National Party tapped into public resentment about the level of state control in daily life – controls imposed during the Second World War – and promised to lift such restrictions and champion private enterprise. The cover of this National Party booklet, produced before the election, uses the image of an archetypal local grocer to assert that competition generated by private enterprise benefits consumers through lower prices. The message struck a chord and National won the election in a landslide.
Using this item
Alexander Turnbull Library, Arthur Nelson Field Papers
Reference:
MS-Papers-8615-139
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.
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