CUT AND CUT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 268, 12 November 1935, Page 10

CUT AND CUT.

GOVERNMENT ACTS.

"NO RAY OF HOPE."

LABOUR ITf PAB.NEM*

Occasional heckling by supporters of tlie Government tended to liven a recital of Labour's hopes, ambitions and policy by Mr. A. G. Osborne, Labour candidate for Parnell, who addressed a large audience in the Peerless Theatre, St. Helier's, last night. A vote of thanks and confidence was passed "almost unanimously." Mr. Dawson Donaldson presided. The Labour party should be judged on the- policy that it placed before the electors, said Mr. Osborne at the outset. It brought into the field of practical politics the doctrine of human effort. Something was wrong with the social system where, in a land of plenty, people wcro going without and in some instances four and five families living under one roof. Ministers Carry the Banner. "Labour has been accused of being a class organisation," declared Mr. Osborne. "You have heard, friends, that if the Labour party got on to the Treasury benches, their policy would be dictated in the trade halls of the Dominion. But Labour is in the proud position to-day of having seven ministers of religion carrying the banner of the party. We have* doctors, solicitors, trade unionists and relief workers and a relief worker, I am going to boaet, will be in the proud position of representing the constituency for which he stands when the numbers go up on November 27." New Zealand was at the cross-roads In the most critical period the country had ever experienced, politically, the people must make a decision once and for all. Did they want a change? Voices: Yes! "The Labour party makes an honest and courageous attempt to grapple with the questions of the day," continued the oandidate. "Have the Government faced up to the responsibilities with which they have been faced?" • Voices in unison: No! The Candidate: They have been expecting the problems to solve themselves. They have permitted the position to drift. The currency question of this country must be carried on fearlessly, so that the finances of the country can be carried on debt-free. The Labour party presents a way out of overseas and internal indebtedness. The money system plus unwise taxation is responsible for the position the country is in to-day. Think of the misery and suffering that has been caused. Labour asks for a mandate, asks for the opportunity to place on the Statute Book laws that will bo for the majority and not for the few. A Policy for the People. A Voice: You want another blank cheque. . Mr. Osborne: No. We are definitely going to present a policy for the people. If you are going to support the Government that was in the position they were in with a blank cheque, then you deserve all you get. Y'ou talk about the blank cheque. Why, £7,000,CR)0 is hidden in * suspense account. I claim that'there is a deficit of £7,000,000 and not a balanced Budget. Do you know that? Voices: He's too dumb. He wouldn't know. The Voice: Well, let's have some proof. The candidate went on to describe the actions of the- Government in attacking the pensions of the aged, "some of whom have given the best years of their life." They had cut pensions of 17/6 a week by 10 per cent. That was what the Government, who now asked for a renewal of confidence had done. They had cut the widows' pensions and the economic pensions of the returned soldiers. Had the supporters of the Government ever thought of what had been done? He did not suppose they had. "When the bands were playing and tho flags wove flying, the returned soldiers were promised that they would be Koked after," said Mr. Osborne, "but on the eve of Anzac Day an attack was made on the pensions of the men who had gone overseas. And then, on Anzac Day iteelf, Gordon Coates, the man who had been responsible for the measure, inarched to the Cenotaph to pay tribute to the men who did not return. And the next day Coates and Forbes and Endean and the others voted for the measure." No Justification. "Are you going to justify that on the score of economy?" shouted the speaker. "Well, I am not." Shouts from all over the hall: Hear, hear. No! Not one penny piece more had been circulated in New Zealand by the raising of the exchange, continued Mr. Osborne. All it had done was to divert the money from the pockets of the people into the pockets of somebody else. The introduction of the sales tax by the Government had beeYi responsible for thousands of small shopkeepers being driven out of business. The sales tax was eating into the small profits of the small man. All New Zealand had had over the past four years had been a policy of "cut, cut, cut," instead of a policy of "build, build, build." That policy of cut had been responsible for the army of unemployed. What Ray of Hope? "What ray of hope is there in the return of the present Government?" asked Mr. Osborne. "No longer can we consider New Zealand essentially a primary producing country. Our secondary industries should be protected and given every opportunity to be safeguarded. Under Labour, we are not going to be a country of primary producers only. The Government tries to tell us that happy days are here again, but there are thousands still suffering. Here is the proof. Over 100,000 insurance policies liave lapsed in the past few years and there are 80.000 fewer Post Office Savings Bank depositors than there were when this Government took over a few years ago. "The Labour party has the men big enough and bold enough to put _ into operation the policy of fixed prices," concluded Mr. Osborne. "If it is right for the Arbitration Court to guarantee the wages of the labourer and skilled mechanic, it is right to determine that the farmer should be guaranteed the same standard of living. All sections of the community should have the security of a guaranteed income."