CIVIC ELECTIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 103, 3 May 1935, Page 3

CIVIC ELECTIONS.

LABOUR'S POLICY.

MR. SAYEGH'S CANDIDATURE.

SLUM CLEARANCE ADVOCATED

Four open-air meetings were addressed last evening by Mr. J. Sayegli, Labour's candidate for the city mayoralty. At each meeting there was a good attendance of electors, and tlie speaker received an excellent hearing.

Mr. Sayegli dispelled any doubts that he was the official candidate of Labour by reading a telegram from Mr. W. Nash, M.P., national president of the Labour party, extending the party's sincere good wishes to him and all those contesting the local body elections in Labour's interest.

At each meeting Mr. Sayegh defined the policy of Labour. He advocated dispensing with all relief works, Jind held that works of a constructive nature should be carried out at standard rates of pay. He expressed the opinion that the waterfront roadway on the western side should be extended to Avondale, the cost to be borne by the Unemployment Board with a Government subsidy. He also held that there should be in the city a more central, commodious, and up-to-date swimming bath.

A campaign should be launched in Auckland for the elimination of slums. Suitable housing was one of the essentials to the health and welfare of the people. Men, women, and their families were, in numbers of instances to-day, living under housing conditions which should not be tolerated for a moment in a country described as "God's own country." The provision of proper housing conditions was one of the greatest importance, because bad housing took a heavy toll of the physical and mental health.

"In Interests'of Everyone." Mr. Sayegh submitted that Labour's policy was the only solution to the present depression. The party stood for progress in the interests, not of one section, but of the whole community. He showed that the rates paid by property owners in Christchurch were much less than were levied upon i owners in Auckland. In Christchurch, where there was a Labour council, rates had been reduced, but in Auckland, where the council was not Labour, there had been an increase. Again, in Christchurch electricity was supplied to consumers at a lower rate than it was supplied by the Power Board in Auckland. These things proved definitely that those who contended that control by Labour was not in the best interests had no grounds for their contention. In Christchurch there was all the proof necessary that Labour could not only be entrusted with the control of the affairs of a city, but that its policy was the only one that worked in the interests of everyone.