WELLINGTON NORTH AND MR. LUKE'S MEETING

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 123, 11 February 1918, Page 6

WELLINGTON NORTH AND MR. LUKE'S MEETING

Sir, —As one' who strongly advocated, in speech and in writing (long before our Parliament dealt with the question), an "equitable" system cf conscription; as one who still considers it the only fair system of providing for the defence of our hearths, homes, and country; as one who offered his services at the beginning of the war to this Dominion in any capacity in which it could avail itself of them; as the father of sons, three of whom volunteered (two before they were _ twenty years of age) for military service, and somei of whom are already on active service, it cannot be suggested that I am not strongly in favour of a "win-the-war" policy. At the same time, to suggest that unless I (<yi elector of Wellington North) am prepared to support the candidature of Mr. J. P. Luke (the nominee and tout of the National Government), who coolly urged the other evening, in a painfully unconvincing way (at intervals when "sour milk" and "stinking fish" were not trailed across his path), that the National Government has as good as done all it could for our soldier sons, has done much to keep the cost of living within reasonable limits, and has put the "burden of the war" on the right shoulders—to suggest, I repeat, that unless I (an elector of Wellington North) am prepared to support such a candidate, I am a disloyal subject playing into the hands of the enemy, is surely a .splendid example of defective or perverted intelligence. For Mr. Luke, as a man and a citizen, and even in large measure as Mayor, I entertain very considerable respect, but we electors of Wellington North are anxiously looking for a candidate who is prepared to do'all in his power to support a "win-the-war" policy, while demanding from the Government a square deal: (1) For our soldier sons and their, dependants and their relatives; (2) for the majority of families and "consumers" in _ New Zealand who are suffering gross injustice because the Government is acting as agent and protector for. middlemen exploiters; (3) for the income taxpayers, with wives and families to maintain, who (notwithstanding the demands made upon them by a monstrously cruel system of indirect taxation, through the necessaries of life) are called upon to pay as "direct" war tax and super-tax exactly as much as the bachelor (enjoying the same amount of annual income) who has neither homo nor family to maintain., [Lest I should fail to do justice to the Min- I ister of Finance; let me observe that, in his exceptional generosity to married men, he allows a. reduction of about fifteen shillings (!) a y-ar from the "ordinary" income tax for every child under 16 years! As fifteen shillings will go a long way toward meeting the expenses incurred in the course of a year in bringing up a child, the familv-raiser's gratitude to the Minister of Finance must be profound!] Surely the candidate that will undertake to use every effort to induce the i Government to give us an absolutely | square deal in those connections is tho i candidate who deserves our support. Is he not? 1 attended Mr. Luke's meet- . ing as an elector of Wellington North, | expecting to be accorded' the usual privileges of such an elector—the meeting was advertised as a meeting _ of, electors. I was, by quite unconstitutional and irregular procedure on the part of mv friend the chairman, denied my privilege. I did him the courtesy 1 to' inform him in the forenoon of the day on which the meeting was held that I intended moving that evening a resolution to the'effect: "That this meetin."- of Wellington electors, while loyal to* the Empire and its Allies, and anxious to do everything possible to further their interests, declares that it has no confidence whatever in Mr. J. P. Luko or any other candidate who commits himself to supporting the general policy of the National Government as at 'present constituted." . _ For iny courtesy in informing him beforehand, he did me, and many of my fellow-electors, the discourtesy or denying us our ordinary, legal, and traditional privileges in connection with such meetings. Was there, Mr. Editor, anything unreasonable m my proposed resolution? Was Mr. Luke, or his chairman, afraid of the result of a vote on the resolution? The "temper" of the meeting, which was on the whole good-natured, seemed to me decidedly against Mr. Luke, though it is possible that a large number prosent were not electors of Wellington North—l am, etc., HUGH MACKENZIE.