SO HUMOUROUS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 269, 13 November 1935, Page 10

SO HUMOUROUS.

AND YET, SO TRAGIC.

THE GOVERNMENT POLICY.

MR. JOHN A. LEE'S APPEAL

Rich in metaphor and given an added sparkle by a series of entertaining anecdotes, the address by Mr. John A. Lee, Labour candidate for Grey Lynn in the Grey Lynn Library Hall last night won the appreciation of a crowded audience and when the end came he received a vote of thanks and confidence and cheers rang through the hall for the Labour party. • •• j r./ Every part of the hall was packed and an overflow listened throughout, amid moonlight and showers, to Mr. Lee's analysis of the existing situation anjl his exposition of Labour's remedies. A section, of the audience attempted mildly-organised heckling, but the speaker treated their remarks with scorn and sarcasm.

"With the exception of the sriiall delegation from tlie Auckland Junior Chamber of Commerce, we have got on very nicely to-night," said Mr. Lee at tlie end. "I will now. ask all, including the interjector who attempted to back loop slam me, to join in a vote of thanks to the chairman, Mr. E. V. Douglas." Long applause and cheers followed. The parties opposed to Labour, were like the celebrated pickle-makers —there were 57 varieties, said Mr. Lee. But there were really only two issues, that between Labour and Coates and Forbes. The depression was not an act of God. If the people were ill-housed, in poverty and in misery, it was due to the refusal of the human family to avail itself of the Creator's bounty. The Churches Protest. "Is it any wonder that all the Christian congregations of the country unite in protest, unite to call upon the people to throw this Government out once and for all?" asked Mr. Lee. "The Government will say that there is a world crisis, but a world crisis is the sum total of a series of national crises;. Are we going to wait on the Virn of the moon or the spots on the sun to . change all this? Labour will do its bit to attend to this world disease. Deflation was dealt with at length by the candidate. "Three prqblems were faced by Forbes and Coates,", said Mr. Lee. "In the first place, Forbes said we had to solve the unemployment problem. He said the amount of our income had to be reduced so that the money would go further. Then came his wholesale policy of deflation: Then New Zealand had to repudiate, and we crowned everything by taking a bit off the old-age pensions. Tlie. national Budget had been thrown out of balance, and'then Forbes and Coates said the wages of tlie people liad to be cut so that we could achieve budgetry equilibrium. "What did they do to achieve a remedy? They broke the constitution and pillaged an extra year of the life of Parliament from the people. They sent thousands of men out of public works. They sent the unemployed to camps. They excluded children of five years of age from the primary schools, they applied cuts to the civil servants, they reduced the hospital vote, they abolished the Arbitration Court and they applied taxation of half a million pounds to the women of New Zealand. .Women Unemployed. Tlie Minister of Employment, Mr. Smith, had said the other day, continued the candidate, that there was no unemployment problem among the women of New Zealand. A Voice: Humbug. Mr. Lee: Yes. Rats! Outrageous! With the poppies of Flanders in their lapels, the Government had marched on to reduce the pensions of the s'oldiers, and next day, still with the poppies of Flanders in their button Jioles, they had marched to the Cenotaph, said Mr. Lee. "The Government repudiated all debts and contracts and confiscated the income of the people who were getting little more than old-age pensions," he continued. "They broke apprenticeship contracts, and they smashed the highways by taking -half, a million from their funds. y That half a million could have been .'used in the employment of 2500 men at £4 a week. This 'gang' set up a boafd of so-called wealthy business men, known -as the. Economic Commission, that brought down a scale of recommendations all of which* have not yet been brought into operation. That commission recommended that the Government should double the cost of birth, marriage' and death certificates." When the Government started in 1930 to Teduce wages,-Said Mr. Lee, the unemployment figure stood at 11,400, but after the first instalment of the Government's so-called cure, the number grew to 51,000, after the second instalment to G9,000 and after the third instalment to 79,000. On the March. "But New Zealand is on the march as never before, wherever Labour men go," continued the candidate. "Farmers are joining the Labour party in hundreds. We are going to lead this country back to prosperity and happiness. After November 27, Mr. Savage, the leader of the Labour party, will be sent for by the Governor-General to form the first Labour Government. Every act performed by the break-down gang, the Caolition Goverment wreckers, has only put the country in a worse position Four years of alleged cure has only added 8000 more unemployed to tlie disease." In a wave of insincerity, said Mr. Lee, the people had lost more than their jobs. "It is all so humorous, but all so tragic," said Mr. Lee dramatically. "Again, the returned soldiers," continued Mr. Lee. "There are 5900 of them in arrears of interest and principal." A Voice: How do you know? Mr. Lee (scornfully): How do I know? Because I read the official figures issued by tlie Government. Don't make an ass of yourself, or, I should say, don't betray that you are an ass. New Zealand had the lowest birth rate on record, said Mr. Lee. There was an army of unemployed containing many single men who should be bringing up families — "How do you know?" came the voice again. "''Mr. Lee: It is only necessary to have the assinine interjections of two or three and my audience will realise the quality of my opposition, realise the stupid futility of these puerile interjections. (Loud cheers!) "For a long time now," concluded Mr. Lee, "Labour has had the honour to be His Majesty's Opposition. On this occasion we hope that you will give us the opportunity to be His Majesty's Government and we will lead ypu on a march that will inspire the whole of the earth."