QUIET EVENING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 228, 27 September 1938, Page 13

QUIET EVENING.

SUBURBS' ELECTORS.

LABOUR'S WORK REVIEWED.

HOK. H. G. *. MAtOH , pEAKg

Hrm H n n ° U L and thN * liters the Hon. H. OR. Mason Minister of Justice and member for Auckland Suburbs, "poke to an audience of about 300 |„ the Town Hal,, Henderson, w hjsn he opened his campaign last evening. From the moment he began to speak til. He could have heard the proverbial «pi n » drop, and only twfc, did the speaker have to pause while some of his l.Hteners accorded him applause. The chairman was Mr. W. T. Blacklock h T ti,,s in relating the work the Labour party had done during the past three yW and emphatically expressing the' were in much better circumstance* wrin Wh o e m ce the «"~

Dealing with unemployment, the can't h t.r'r \ hftt u was th * P"»£ which the Labour party was first confronted with, and no time was lost m doing something for the then thousand »'unemployedl who were on sustenance, and those who were receiving relief work such a, it then was. The number out of work was a tragedy, and the Labour Government at got busy to improve the position. Relief p« y Increased. A Christmas bonus was granted, he •aid. then the scale of pay to those on relief increased, and an increase was made in the sustenance rates. But that was not sufficient to satisfy the Government, and the object wi, to provide permanent work for those anxious and able to work, and to enable them to provide a reasonable standard of living for themselves and their families. As quickly as possible public works activities were extended, and to-day 23,000 men were engaged on public works. The money paid to the men was soon in circulation; it went over the counters to shopkeepers; wholesalers had to replenish the good* pn the shelve* of the shops; manufacturers had to meet the demand for orders from the wholesalers and retailers, and everybody reaped a benefit.

The previous Government had eliminated the Arbitration Court, but the Labour Government restored it, and wages were restored. Money which had been lost to eirculation through the action of Labour's predecessors came back, with the result that business was speeded up.

The Labour Government lost no time in settling down to meet the problem of the housing shortage, which was then acute. There were not nearly enough houses, and many people were crowded into, and sharing, one house. When good wages came the people began to look for a house for themselves. "I don't wish to say anything against landlords,'* said Mr. Mason, "because I think, during the depression most of them treated their tenants fairly. But with increased wages there was a demand for houses, and the possibility of rents soaring to big rentals was not lost sight of, so the Government passed the Fair Rent* Act. That wasn't a cure for the problem, but it was the next best thing.** The cure was to provide sufficient houses, and the people need not be told of the scheme the Government had launched. Private enterprise might have erected bigger dwellings, but the standard was not better than those erected under the State Housing plan. So rabidly had the scheme been developed since actual building commenced, that to-day the State was erecting a I house.- at the rate of one every 40 minutes of a working day. Houses were being built in various parts of the j Dominion, and provision had been made to build at Henderson. (Applause.) Broadcasting Debates. Some criticism had been levelled at the Government for having Parliamentary debates, broadcast, but he could, not see .that the criticism was at all warranted. He did not find fault with the newspapers, but newspapers were not Hansard and could not be expected to publish everything said in the House. Space in a newspaper was limited, and the Government decided that the' people should be placed in that position that they could hear all that was said by their representatives. Dealing with the marketing of farm produce, Mr. Mason detailed the agreements made by Mr. Nash on the latter's visit to England. Prior to the Government taking over, the marketing was done through a middleman, but the middleman had been now eliminated, and the farmers saved many hundreds of thousand* of pounds. Mn Mason referred to the guaranteed price and detailed how it had been arrived at, and said that the new guaranteed price • for this year, so' far as the Government could see, would be more than the probable market price for the coining /ear. The farmer would thus be on a win, but no one would be more pleased than the speaker, because he recognised the farmer was entitled to all he gets. letariei Pxefrses. The National party, through the Railways Board, had retarded progress in the railways, and when the Labour Government abolished the Board, progress came again and the railways were now working full time. "I think the whole country rejoiced to see the end of the Board," said the Die Law Reform Act, which gave an injured person the right to sue the personal representative of a deceased person who was responsible for an accident was another item which he considered the Labour party right in passing, and the Mortgagors' Rehabilitation Act was further legislation the party waa responsible for and which had removed from the minds of thousands of people the fear that they might lose their farms or homes as the case might be. "That nightmare hanging over the heads of those thousands of people will he forgotten by the end of the year, because it Is hoped that the work of the Mortgagors' Adjustment Commission will he completed by the end of November. The applications for relief filed totalled M.OOO. ? The candidate what,, the Labour Government, had line in the way of increasing pensions, end OaEtE cularly stressed the granting #jfg invalidity pensions, somethmg whicMkd previous Government Bad not glanced. At the conclusion ©f Me lution expressing eoh»dene*?j» «B* Mason and the Labour party was carried by acclamation and unanimously.