LABOUR AND POLITICS.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 165, 12 July 1919, Page 7

LABOUR AND POLITICS.

BEPI,Y TO WELFARE LEAGUE, ;' APPEAL FOR FAIR PLAT. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) DUN-EDIX, this day. The president of the Kew Zealand Labour party., the Hon. J. T. Paul, has issued an official reply to the comments *t R Skerrett ' K-C president of the Welfare League. He says the Welfare League has come into the political arena as the opponent and critic of the New Zealand Labour party. "Members of the Welfare League and the men who finance it shall stand np and be counted, so that the'people may know in whose welfare they are primarily interested. Some of them made huge profits out of the war. Some refused to place the country's welfare first in the dark and difficult days of the war. Such men are not now lDcelv to place the welfare of the people above that of those who monopolise and control the necessaries of life. Mr-' Skerrett cries wolf. His wolf is Bolshevism and the I.W.W. I ask the electors to carefully note the method and manner of the League's attack; not'a word of criticism of the Labour platform, but much indignation and criticism of the developments in Russia. The question for the electors of New Zealand is not whether Bolshevism in Russia is good or'bad, but whether the Labour party's platform ia constructive and helpful in this critical hour. The president of the Welfare League apparently'desires to focus criticism, on Russian or American tactics rather) rfchan on the practical policy of the Labour .-party; Mr"Skerrett pleads 'for; certain plain, mat', '-' have 'ivot been, previously iepreeented.; A comparatively unrepresented class to-day are the people who are carrying on the industries of the country, and as future progress largely depends en industrial develops ment,. this class must have larger representation. " 'I ask every thinking elector ,to. .place the Labour platform alongside the-Leagup'e platitudes and -camouflage. The Labour party tiae a definite iaud policy to check the present deplorable and ruinous land aggregation and speculation, while the League's may mean anything or nothing. The League's proposal for doctoral reform will assuredly penalise every man of limited means who stands for Parliament. The Labour .party's plank for proportional representation will secure no advantage for any party, but fair play and fair representation for all. The Welfare League opposes nationalisation; the Labour party, recognises the past shortcomings .of nationalisation, and will assuredly-; improve 'on; the-'past. '.The Labour party 'recognises that nationalisation has steadied the selling price of coal, and -would hare done much more under sympathetic and sensible administration. The Labour party knows that State fire insurance has saved the insuring publio a round million of money, and would haaro done more if administered - by a Labour Government. The Welfare League is doomed to failure because the hour for fundamental reforms' iiae' arrived, and. the League is too- largely composed of men obsessed with.their own welfare, , instead of the people's welfare."