LABOUR IN ACTION

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 34, 3 November 1928, Page 25

LABOUR IN ACTION

Sir, —In their sphere as private citizens I express no opinion of the merits or demerits of those clamouring for the loaves and fishes attached to the Parliamentary benches; well aware, however, that not a few successful candidates would be in receipt of a much inferior income as the result of their own unaided efforts outside the House.’ It is when, the communistic element of the population seeks to impose its unwholesome practices upon the State that we are compelled to demur.

To suggest to the head-lights of the Labour faction here that N.Z. members of the corporation were either morally or intellectually the superior of their comrades oversea (say in Queensland or in New South Wales) would,. I imagine, be scouted as an insult; and for my part I should say they were right. Unfortunately for the brotherhood the situation has unavoidable implications, one of which is that iu view of the disastrous results of Socialistic rule in Australia, what- security have we that precisely the same attitude would not be adopted by Labour-Socialists in N.Z. were the reins of office within their grasp? Not the remotest; a danger signal I would strongly impress upon the minds of those in doubt as to how best record their vote at the coming election. It is indeed more than probable that under a Labour regime, N.Z; would in a very brief space be reduced to the disgraceful condition o± those already halfruined States. With fifty years’ experience in the Dominion, from which to draw trustworthy conclusions, I counsel my fellow citizens to avoid the experiment of a Labour Government as they would shun the plague. Of Socialistic home-rule, the recent plight of N.S. Wales affords an illustration ; while the weakkneed, short-sighted policy advocated by the present Leader of the Opposition here, in respect of Samoan matters, bad surely, were it given effect to, have led to the cancellation of our mandate there altogether. Neither in the internal nor in extra-mural administration of any country has Socialism registered a success. That the present writer' adheres to the party so long led by the late Mr. Massey goes without saying. That party is in truth by no means'perfect (as a matter of fact perfection in politics does not exist) but under its sway we are at least assured of stability, integrity, and progress, along with—and that means much in the judgment of us older settlers—a name among other- nations of the earth for which we have no reason, to be ashamed. Regardless of the preponderating interests of the people as a whole, Mr. Holland would undoubtedly legislate favourably for a section of them alone, and that section the Labour one. "What effort has he and his coterie ever put forth to quell the many strikes that blast the commonweal? We are not all blind. His assumed concern for farming folk comes with a very bad grace in view of the fact that his Labour emissaries have both countenanced and encouraged, repeatedly, the raising of agricultural wages until the man on the land has found it impossible to employ .any but absolutely essential hands. Hence has followed a large mass of unemployment. Of course the Government in office is 'always blamed for that, whereas they are in reality as guiltless as the man in the moon. And the Labour men know it, but the charge makes excellent electioneering clap-trap of which many candidates are not above making use. No plank of the Socialistic platform as we have it contains measures in any wise preferable to those enunciated by the present Government whom we are invited to supersede by an untried, dubious, and ill-equipped federation of selfaccredited talent. There is surely sufficient good sense still left in the community to frustrate such absurd procedure. To those engaged in manual toil and yet free to' form their own judgment and record it at the polling booth, I recommend a close survey of Labour activities amongst us in the past.—l am, etc. A GENUINE COLONIST. October 23.