THE ELECTIONS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22519, 29 September 1938, Page 9

THE ELECTIONS

ro M| EDITOR Of m» PRE**

Sir. —I read with considerable amusement two letters at the your correspondence column this morning These epistles attempted to explain the deliberate attempt made by an organised band of young National support* ere, led by several heads of the National. Party. t 9 disturb the big meeting at Pananui on Monday last. They wore outside the, hall-.at 7 p.m.. and when the doors, were opened lone hour before the time for ,the meeting to com-

mence) they occupied two of the front seats on the right hand side of the stage. Remarkable keenness on the part of definite National Party members in a Labour Party meeting! They did not show the _ ordinary courtesy due to a chairman." The moment I opened the meeting they commenced to interrupt. Their tastes in this connexion have lost them many votes in the Papanui district. I understand that Mr Holland, at the Rugby street meeting on Saturday mentioned the meeting to be held at Papanui and advised his friends to attend. I have also, unfortunately for the Nationalist organised interrupters seen the list of instructions sent out to members. In this area attempts have been made at Kirwee and Tai Tapu to disrupt Labour meetings. I affirm What I said at Papanui that the National Party have set out on an organised basis to disturb meetings of certain Labour candidates. I understand that I am to be especially honoured bv these tactics.—Yours, etc., R. M. MACFARLANE. • September 28. 1938.

[“I give an emphatic denial to Mr Macfarlane’s statement that the National Party has set out on any organised basis to disturb meetings of certain Labour candidates.” said the chair■nan of the executive of the Nationa’ Partv (Mr T. Millikenl. commenting on this letter. “It is foolish to blame the Nationa] Party when some of his electors express their disapproval of thr statements made by any of the speakers. I know nothing of any alleged instructions issued to National Party members to attend his. or any other Labour member’s meeting. I should 'ike to make U clear that I did not attend the meeting.”]

Extracts from other letters on the subject read as follows;

. “One Who Saw Them Walk For Work.” (Women’s, branch of the Labour Party, Rangiora)— Mr W. H. Hall, Nationalist candidate for the Timaru seat, is quoted in “The Press” as follows, when speaking of the unemployment question in Timaru; “In the depths of the depression the largest number we had at one time was 202.” We all know the reason why. The hundreds, possibly thousands, of other unemployed were tramping the roads with swags on their backs looking for work that the Government would not provide for them. Men and boys, college-bred and factory hands were brothers then in the one search for work. Tales are still told of the terrible hardships they endured, tramping the roads, hounded onward by Coalition sympathisers, and most of them starving and in rags. While we live who tried to share our thinning crusts with some of the wayfarers, we will wofk for the end of the Tory system and the furtherance of the slogan “Life, liberty, and a chance for all.”

“Worker.”—May I say a few words in answer to the letters over the nom-de-plume "Spinster.” First, I should like to say that if "Spinster” is indigent, unable to work, and having ;treatment from a medical man. she can apply for an invalid’s pension and Will have no trouble in getting it if she is a fit and proper person to receive it. Second, “Spinster” is not man-wise, or she would know that the promises made by these charming young men who are canvassing the districts and by the capitalist candidates themselves, are the usual clap-trap used on the Opposition platform. made to be broken and to get silly women’s votes. Does “Spinster” forget just over three years ago when women and children went cold and hungry and afraid for the morrow?_ Does she remember the dozens ox tired, hopeless working women who climbed the stairs to all the employment bureaux twice- a day? Does she forget our, boys who had to work for the farmer for 5s a week, and experienced men, Who received £1 a week for the drudgery of farm work, up at 6 a.m. and working in all weathers until -7 and 8 o’clock at night, the worst fed and housed and treated men in New Zealand? Does she forget that as soon as Labour _ got into power and money started circulating there was work for girls and women, boys and men?”

“Social Security.”—A short time ago I was talking to a group of people who were all about 40 years old. They were complaining about having to pay the tax lor the social security plans, when I pointed out that each one of them was alfeady two-thirds eligible for it. There was blank silence when they realised this fact, and so selfish is. human nature, I was amused but not surprised, later on, to hear that several of them had already changed their minds.

“Elector.” —To my mind one of the most disappointing efforts of the Government during its terms of Office has been its housing-scheme. It elaborates a great deal on-what it-has done, quoting the number of houses which it has erected. However, what is much more to .the point Is that it has not by any stretch of imagination done what it promised the electors before the last election that it would do—in fact, from the point of view of such promises and pledges its whole scheme has been a signal and cpmplete failure. . Any person or group of persons could buy up sections and have erected thereon houses regardless of cost, provided, of course, they had the power and right to make the general public paj for them, and to assume the responsibility for any future loss which is bound to accrue. This is what tne Government has done, so there is nothing very wonderful after all in its much -talked-about housing scheme We all remember the election propaganda—houses to be built at a cost or £6OO. such homes to be provided at a rental equalling one day’s pay. Well, as an elector, I wish to ask a straightout question: Where are they?

“West Coast Worker” (HokitikaL—I was an interested listener to the broadcast addresses of the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage and the Hon. Adam Hamilton which were delivered last Thursday and Friday respectively. One could nol but be struck by the fact that Mr Hamilton definitely outclassed the Prime Minister. • Mr Savage again could not refrain from making poluicai capital by reference to the years of the depression. Mr Savage might have elaborated the point a little and told his listeners of the record of Labour governments In office during that period. Mr Savage’s hope is that the people of this Dominion will infer that had he and his colleagues been.in control at that time this country would have sailed along quite serenely and no hardships would have been suffered by the people. If this was Mr Savage’s desire he might have made his point more clear by telling New Zealand how wonderfully all tne Labour governments at that time managed, and how the Australian Labour governments cut wages and cut pensions and inaugurated soup-kitchens and clothesshops. Mr Hamilton is indeed a great leader, and it is quite evident that he has a wonderful knowledge and splendid administrative ability. Wlth_ the progressive policy which the National Party has produced I have no reluctance this year m voting in that direction. The Labour Party Is undoubtedly frantically endeavouring to hide its real objective—Socialism, and many throughout - the country will vote for the National Party, which stands for private enterprise and freedom for the individual

“Inconsistent.” —After listening in to the Hon. R. Semple’s speech last night, 1 noticed a point that apparently had escaped the Minister’s attention. Early

in his address, he had occasion to applaud the Hon. Mr Naah’s efforts overseas, when he, with some 200-odd others, visited Germany to make a study of methods of road-making and improvements. Good results were obtained, and altogether some sound knowledge was brought back from Germany by Mr Nash. Later in his speech, Mr Semple was at great pains to try to discredit the Hon. Adam Hamilton and the £IOO subsidy which, the Minister said, was not original at all, but was filched from Germany. Maybe Mr Semple can adjust that slight lapse in his speech to suit himself, for apparently, so long as Mr Nash brings some German ideas into force in New Zealand, Mr Semple does not object.

“Ajax.” —Mr Herring, M.P., said at Hororata that “the average rate of interest was 6J per cent, in 1031, and had been decreased to 4 3-5 per cent, in 1938.” This is a half-truth, because it is meant to convey the impression that his party reduced the rates. The whole truth is that this reduction was made in 1933 by the last Government, and the rate has been maintained at the figure established by its predecessors. It must be a poor case which has to be bolstered up by such tactics.