LABOUR'S POLICY.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 17983, 29 January 1924, Page 9

LABOUR'S POLICY.

MEETING AT WOOLSTON. About forty people, including women and children, assembled .at the Woolston school last evening to listen to the eloquence of Messrs L. Mcßvride, and J. McC-ombs, Labour M.P.'s, and C. Hill, a Labour candidate for the Woolston area of the Drainage Board. Mr Hill, who was also chairman, in his remarks dealt cliiefly Willi the matter of sewage emptying into the Heathcote river, and the efforts being made to keep the river clear. He also explained the system of working the sewage farm on the day labour principle. With- regard to the sewerage of the city he explained that the central districts were to help to pay for the work in the outlying districts. Mr L. Mcllvride, in his opening remarks, said that the presence of Labour men on the local bodies was a proved benefit to the cities concerned. .Despite what people said, they reduced rates and did not increa.se them, lheir experience effected economies. With regard to the Labour movement it was necessary that organisation should be built up. The Labour' Party was tho only one that could save the country and the Empire. The presence of the seventeen Labour men in the House was evidence of the prominence of the r Labour movement in New Zealand. Irt spite of the propaganda and. the insidious misrepresentation that went on, the movement was increasing in strength. Mi" Holland was the accredited leader of 150,000 electors in New Zealand. Tho policy of the Labour Party was sound and proved, and would be- the official Opposition after the next election. In the United Kingdom the pieopde had returned (increasing numbers of men whose ultimate goal was Socialism. The sun of Tory-Liberal-ism was setting. NotfTing was more pitiful than to hear the Reform members m the House call to the Liberal member* to help keep Labour out of power. There was so little difference between j Toryism and Liberalism that they should "be on a. The cause of the Labour Party was the cause of humanity and it would continue tp gain general support. Mr Massey had a mistaken idea that the prosperity of the big merchants and traders was the prosperity of the country, yet there was abundant poverty, even amongst returned soldiers and old age pensioners. Mr Massey knew that Britain had lost her foreign markets and wa3 in a bad way financially, and as a natural corollary there, was not a possibility of New Zealand keeping up a big volumto of trade with England. The national ' debt of New Zealand, including the

municipal loans, amounted to abdtft £2OO per head of the population of the Dominion. . The prosperity of tho country was the prosperity of the masses in their homes, not the prosperity of the moneyed few. The system was wrong, a social transformation was necessary, so that the capitalistic cut-throat system would be abolished, a system that was at the root of man's inhumanity to man. The system was responsible for making the worker "go-slow," for the employers paid as little as possible. It bred selfishness in industry, where everybody should work together for the common good. Community control was the solution, giving equal ■, chances to all. Unimproved land values had increased by about £7,000,000 from 1914 to 1921, and the private enterprises had increased in proportion. In spite of this huge wealth the Government had reduced wages which in . themselves had decreased! purchasing power. In the year of the slump the Government spent £250,000 bringing emigrants to New Zealand, when there was neither homes nor work for those that • were then in the country. The emigration was solely for the purpose of providing personnel for the expeditionary. . forces that would be necessary when the trouble came in the East. The first move was the Singapore dock to which ; the New Zealand Government had' given a sum which would have been better spent in increasing the old age. pensions. The Singapore base was necessary so thai Britain could intercept the militarisation by Japan of China. Japan at present was a natural outcast because she was blocking the Imperial aspirations of powerful Western nations. The British capitalists and financiers were helping Mr Massey to force wages down to the coolie standard. of ciivilsation in this country. 'The Government had not been in earnest in dealing with the unemployment question; The policy of the Government was to keep unemployed, go that wages might be brought and kept down. There was no liope for the worker under' any Tory or Liberal organisation. The. people would also hnive to think seriously of taking control of the nation's finance. The people must realise that the only relief from the crushing war debts was the capital levy. The policy of the party was then put forward by the speaker, which broadly was the nationalisation of all wealth. Mr McCombs said that Mr Mdlvride was available for Canterbury for a fortnight, and he felt that he had done well in arranging for Mr MeTlvride to address the Woolston people. He (Mr McCombs) would reserve his address on Australian parliamentary affairs until a later date. He would move a hearty vote of thanks to Messrs Mcllvride and Hill for their addresses. This was carried by acclamation. A vote of confidence in', Mr Hill .as candidate. for the. Woolston area of tlie Drainage Board proposed by Mr J. J. Graham, was carried.