"PRINCIPLE AND PRACTICE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 102, 2 May 1930, Page 5

"PRINCIPLE AND PRACTICE."

MR. BLOODWOIITH ON REFORM EFFECT OF LOWERED WAGES. Various clauses of the Reform party's policy were used to emphasise the difference between political principle and practice, by Mr. T. Bloodworth, Labour candidate for Parnell, in an address to electors last evening at the school. One of the clauses in the 1924 Reform platform was: "Every section of the community should receive its share of its earnings in proportion to the value of its services." It was a fine principle, said the speaker, but it was never carried out. In 1910, wages were brought up to meet the increased cost of living to enable workers to maintain the 1014 standard of living, and this was still the policy of the Court. Up to 1923 this had been lost sight of, as times were good and employers were paying more than the minimum award wage. With hard times they had returned to the minimum. This had resulted in the lowering of the spending power of the population, and the consequent decline in all business. Another effect of the lowered standard of living was the decline in the average annual increase in population, which in 1929 was only 1.18 per cent. Meanwhile there was a steady deceleration in land settlement. Twenty million acres of land had never been touched. In New Zealand there were 6499 fewer men on the land in 1929 than five years previously. The production of factories had increased 56.9 per cent in eight years, yet the aggregate "wasres, with 12.000 more men employed, had only incieased 29 per cent. Mr. P. Fraser. M.P. for Wellinffton Central, and Mr. W. Nash, M.P. for Hutt. •-•poke in support of the candidate, who was accorded a vote of thanks and confidence.