LABOUR AT HAMILTON

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 233, 2 October 1925, Page 8

LABOUR AT HAMILTON

MR. LEE MARTIN OPENS CAMPAIGN.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

HAMILTON, Wednesday

The first shot of the Labour campaign in the contest for the Hamilton seat was fired last evening by the Labour candidate, Mr. W. Lee Martin. The Mayor (Mr. J. R. Fow) presided. There was a fair attendance.

Mr. Martin, who was received with loud applause, spoke fluently for an hour. The speaker dealt with the Labour platform. He felt that a wave of advancement was going round the world, and even if Labour did not reach the Treasury benches this year, it was not far distant when they, the Labour party, must come into power.

Had they ever paused to consider whither they are drifting? Had they ever given one serious thought to the heritage they were building up? Land in .iwn and country 'had been boomed 1/ -he aid of borrowed millions, until now the bubble was stretched- to bursting point, and soon a reaction must follow. It would not matter so much if the after effects could be confined to those who were responsible. All the talk about the prosperity of the Dominion was pure camouflage. In spite of the fact that the private wealth of New Zealand had reached the enormous figure of £723,203,----000, or an increase of £400,000,000 in ten years, the working people generally and the farmers were not enjoying the benefits of the increased prosperity, and from one end of the Dominion to the othe. there was a wave of discontent and dissatisfaction. And this was not confined to any one section of the community; it permeated also the Government departments as well, and be ventured to say that when the ballot boxes were opened on election day the people would record in no iineertain manner their verdict against the party who for so long had mismnnaged and misgoverned this Dominion. (Applause.)

The speaker dealt at great length with the land question from a Labour point of view, explaining the term "usehold," or, as Mr. Lloyd George had recently put it in a new term, "cultivation tenure." The reason the Labour party was placing such stress on the land question was that it was the most pressing problem before the people to-day, for it would be many a year before we would be a .manufacturing country. Trafficking in land had placed the farmer in the position he was in to-day. and the moment the Labour party got on the Treasury benches they would stop land speculation. The party were out to settle the land, and did not want the men there to walk off their land. The Labour party wanted a satisfied farming community.

In regard to finance, the party wanted a State bank. The six banks operating in New Zealand during the last six years had made the enormous profit of £9.105,089. This should not go into private coffers, but into the pockets of the community, and it would do so if the State had its own bank.

The Reform party, before they reached the Government benches, attacked the Liberal party for extravagant borrowing, but they —the Reform party —had out-Heroded H?rod, for they had borrowed in 13 years £227,016,361, an increase of *"4;" ?62,448.

On t>*» c«u» : m question, the Labour party w:e 4i< for true home life, so that every mm, woman and child should have clean, healthy conditions in which to live. Before any more emigrants were brought out, homes should be provided for them.

The speaker also dealt with education, holding that more attention should be given to agricultural training. A well-appointed college should be set up to deal with the difficulties that the farming community were up against. (Loud applause.)

One questioner was persistent in wanting to know whether tho Labour party were prepared to throw overboard the Communist party, lock, stock and barrel. Mr. Martin said that Labour would not allow- the Communists into their party. The Labour party believed in constitutional methods. At their last annual meeting the party had decided by 103 votes to 9 to keep the Communists out. The speaker believed that if the Labour party got into power they would be able io reduce tiie National Debt.

A vote of thanks and confidence in the Labour party was carried by acclamation.