THE COMING ELECTIONS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 320, 6 October 1908, Page 8

THE COMING ELECTIONS.

. WELLINGTON EAST. ADDRESS BY MR. D. M'LAREN. , Mr. D.. M'Laren, a candidato in the Labour' interest for the Wellington East seat, addressed a meeting of electors in the Clyde Quay' School last night.» Mr. F. Browri occupied the cliair, and about sixty electors;' including several ladies, we're present. : • The candidate prefaced his remarks by stating that when he was invited to contest a Dunedin seat against the Hon. J. A. Millar; he was almost tempted to■' do so, in' view of'the fact that the Minister had been anything but true to the; Labour interests .which had been placed in his hands. - The Real Issue.: In connection with the election, the real v issue was, he continued, Liberalism on the one hand versus Labour on the other. There were four candidates for 1 the seat 'wlifeh; lie was contesting, but the other three were really Liberals —Mr. M'Lean was a Govern-' ' ment Liberal, s Mr. Winder was an Independent Liberal ■ and Mr. Atkinson was an OpV ■ position Liberal.: As a matter of fact, there were no Conservatives in the Dominion nowadays. : There were men" in the House who professed to have the Labour interests at Heart; but who/had given, and . would give,: no pledge. He wag prepared to pledge aim-, self to' maintain the interests of the Labour party. / The difference, between. Labourism' i and-Liberalism''was this: _ Liberalism was simply _ the principle, of individualism in politics,, whilst' Labourism recognised the principal of .collectivism. The policy of the present Government differed. materially from the policy of the late Mr. Ballance... From 1890 to: 1895rrduring the.Ballance the national debt, dropped from £60 ,ss.',', 3d., per head to ,£57 9s.'9d. On the other hanfl,. the debt per capita, which stood at '£60'2s.' 4d. in 1896, had -increased .to £67 Is. in 1907. .It was., to make up.', the', ground that had been lost that, ho .1 and others had taken the field in tho Labour interests., Since. 1891 the national debt had been augmented to the extent of 25 millions. This year and next year> loans totalling '.£8,428,000 had to be met. At no other time in the history ■of 'New Zealand was more care needed in connection with the "financial . position. ' Notwithstanding what appeared'to be the high .wages that were ruling, '■ money■was very scarce in the Dominion; in-fact; he ventured to say that .there we're 'tens 'or thousands of people who were within-five or" flix weeks of starvation point. . -. ' . ; Need for Self-reliant Policy. What, was wanted, continued the candidate,'was that/a self-reliant policy should be"i adopted. A question which he would like an ; : Bwered was tnis: If the Dominion borrowed each' year just/what it had to pay out in interest, how much was left to invest? Constant borrowing led to the inflation of land'. values', and to land gambling. A largely dis- ; proportionate share of the revenue was being j paid by the wage earners. He would advocate that the largest portion of the revenue should be raised by direct taxation- on ,the | land. On the transference of blocks of laii'd 1 from buyer to seller there should :be, a revaluation of the land, and fresh taxes should be levied, so that the unearned increment ■would go to' swell the public revenue. Referring to '-the'-immigration- policyvof 1 'the I Government, he said that the.Dominion was being flooded with workers—fit and unfit. He doubted very: much whether ■' the tions; ' which were. madeas.) to} the i f capital possessed by assisted immigrants: were true. - 'He ■ upheld the. proposal 'Jthaf ;: docalworks should be carried; out ■ on,; the basis of a • proportionate: . subsidy - from ;. tho 'General Fund. In Wellington, where, the' population was increasing; a new railway . station was needed, .whilst. „in Dunedin, where the ; population was decreasing, ;a' palatial , station ihad.-been ,greeted; Unaer the system which he, advocated the Dunedin people would'have had, to pay, say, half the cost' of, the new station there-if thej[ wanted , it. Industries which .were -J&' coming private monopolies shoiild be made, public;monopolies. Referring to 'the "gag". .•: clause in the Second' Ballot. Bill—which' he, was gla'd to see had'been, deleted-rhe as. serted that it was an attempt,. in the. name, of . Liberalism, to assassinate Liberty. The measure ,in question' should, in ' his, opinion,' have been submitted 'to a referen-.' dum., . ' vV-Vm,

\ Views on Other Questions. With regard to defence matters, it would have been better, instead of increasing 'the' subsidy to the Home Country, to have initiated a purely local -system:' He 1 preferred the establishment of a-citizen army to the creation of a professional class : of military people. Combination oh'the'part 'of Workers throughout, the world would, he ■thought, lead to the prevention of war. The Labour , party had a constructive - policy; but lie did : not think it should give the, fullest' details until it had attained to greater . power.-i In' his opinion,' there should.'be a reduction of duty on-foodstuffs, which -were not grown in the Dominion, and on goods I which • had :to be' imported. 1 The-'establish- ■ ment of State farms and-State dairies would be one way of . solving , the unemployed diffi-.-culty. Regarding the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment. Bill, he declared, that there was no lawyer in the Dominion who could understand it; He himself had made • valuable suggestions on 'the question which, if adopted, .would have resulted in the production of a more'practical measure. The latest- rumour was that the 'Attorney-General intended to' bring down a sheaf of amendments, which were opposed to the views of the Hon. J. ■ A. Millar I It ; would'be better toloave it to the employers' \ and the workers' representatives ; to find a way out'of 'tho difficulty.' The candidate con-' cluded'by stating that, if elected; he would use his best endeavours in the interests of the electors as a whole. Replies to Questions. ' ' In reply to questions, the candidate stated.that he was in favour of-the establishment of public markets; that an'export ' duty would be justified on butter at the pre-, sent time; that' he did not -thing the duty on articles produced in the Dominion should, be taken off for' some time; that the industries should be socialised as early as possible ; that before prison labour was placed in competition with free labour ori any occasion, the matter should be carefully considered; that is was wrong to refuse farm labourers protection in law, especially seeing that immigrants were being introduced to compete for the work available; that ho was ,a supporter of the leasehold system. l ■ On the motion of Mr. \V. Whyt-e, seconded by Mr. D. J. Conchie, the candidate was' accorded a unanimous vote of thanks and confidence. ' ■■■• ' '-. v-