LABOUR PARTY'S POLICY

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LVI, Issue 89, 22 November 1935, Page 2

LABOUR PARTY'S POLICY

ADDRESS BY MR P. C. WEBB, M.P.

MANY MATTERS DISCUSSED AT

SOUTHBRIDGE

Some of the more important points in the Labour Party's policy were discussed by Mr P. C. Webb, M.P. for Buller, in an address given at Southbridge on Wednesday evening. There was a large attendance, and the speaker was given a cordial and most attentive hearing. The chairman of the Southbridge Town Board, Mr J. H. Hampton, presided.

In his preliminary remarks, Mr Webb said that no political party was more abused, more misrepresented and more misunderstood than the Labour Party. It was the lot of all progressive parties or individuals to be misunderstood. It was a rare thing for the big newspapers to speak kindly of Labour politicians until they passed away. The late Mr H. E. Holland was one of the most brilliant statesmen, a scholar and a student. Mr Webb said that he remembered an occasion 20 years ago when objections were raised to Messrs Holland and Semple being entertained at dinner at the House of Parliament, but on Mr Holland's death a year or two ago his body was laid in state in the House and thousands of people from all parts of New Zealand came to pay their tributes. Had Mr Holland lived he would have become Prime Minister of New Zealand, but his spirit still lived and continued to animate the Labour Party in its progressive movement for the people of New Zealand.

Mr Webb paid a tribute to the life and work of the late Mr J. Connolly, M.P., and said that had he lived and been a candidate for the seat, there would have been no candidate from the Labour Party. Mr Connolly was a man who was loved and respected by all members of Parliament. It was only after his death that the Labour Party decided to contest the election in Mid-Canterbury.

After a reference to the fertility and natural wealth of this country which offered wonderful possibilities for development, especially in secondary industries, Mr Webb said that some years ago the Government called upon the farmers to increase their production. The farmers did so, doubling the value in 10 years, yet the producers were receiving less for the larger quantity than the_. did 10 years ago, and half the farmers could be made bankrupt. There must be something wrong with the system when such a thing could happen. Labour did not suggest that the man with the big mortgage was inefficient or a bad farmer; on the contraiw, the money was in the majority of cases borrowed to improve the farm in many ways, to erect new buildings, for drainage, top-dressing, or better stock. Many farmers had to borrow money to educate their children; it cost nowadays the price of a small farm to educate a child to be a doctor, a lawyer or any one of the other professions. The day was long past when there was free education from the kindergarten to the university; it passed with the old Liberals. Now the Government had closed the schools to the five-year-olds, at the very age at which psychologists said the child should be allowed to mix with its fellows. Even conservative Great Britain had kept the door of the school open to the five-year-olds.

GUARANTEED PRICES. Mr Webb said that Labour would so reorganise the industrial system that the farmer would receive a fair price for his labour just the same way as other industrial workers did. It was not right to expect the dairy farmer and the small farmer to receive low prices which would not give him a decent return for his labour or secure for his family and himself that standard of living enjoyed by ether classes of the community. The system of guaranteed prices was not impossible, and he referred to the wheat duties, which gave protection to the wheatgrowers of the South Island. Labour members in the House had always fought for the retention of these duties, but almost every other member from the North Island and one or two from the South were opposed to the duties. Labour recognised that the protection was fair and just and would always support it. The speaker dealt with the growing competition' from Australia and from Argentina with New Zealand farm produce as pointing to the need to do something to protect the primary producers. The British market was the main market for New Zealand and trade within the Empire should be developed. New Zealanders should buy their imported goods from those who purchased its exports. International trade was based on the exchange of goods, not of money, and if New Zealand in creased trade with the East it would

have to take in return Eastern goods. New Zealand had already experienced how cheap Eastern goods had under-sold Western goods. It was necessary to face up to the new age and to discard old traditions and customs which were out-of-date. It was stated that the present Government was a government for farmers, but the position was that this country never had a government of farmers.

The farmers had been told that they were the backbone of the country, but they were not; they were merely cogs in the machine. Mr Webb deprecated the attempt to divide the town from the country and declared that one section could not do without the other and each was dependent on the other.

UNEMPLOYMENT. Dealing with the business community, the speaker declared that every business man was leaning on the other and if the props were kicked from under one this would send the lot tumbling. It was not that they were indifferent at their business, but that they had been caught in the toils of the existing system. When discussing the problem of unemployment, the speaker said that there were about 50,000 men out of work, and with their dependents, numbered about 250,000. They were not all loafers, and the large majority were ready and anxious to work. Every year about 1 25,000 children left school and they were being deprived of the opportunity of entering employment, of using their abilities, their enthusiasm and knowledge in the service of the country. The speaker declared that it was a crime against the future of the human race. The Labour Party declared that it was not responsible for these conditions, but the forces of Capitalism, and so long as that system- endured there would be poverty, distress and insecurity. The professions, too, had felt the full effect of the man-made depression. If it were possible to return half of the unemployed men to work, there would be more money in circulation, there would be a greater demand for goods, which would mean more employment, and it would not be long before the other half would be in work. Mr Webb traced the evolution of machinery and mechanical processes during the last 50 j'ears, which had produced labour-saving machines ,of such a revolutionary character

that a girl could operate them, displacing the labour of many men.

PLANKS OF PLATFORM.

When the Liberal Party enacted

the old-age and other pension schemes, New Zealand was looked upon as the laboratory of social experiments, but it had now lost that reputation. Labour would provide pensions for incapacity, medical and dental services, superannuation, open the school doors to the five-year-olds, reduce the size of classes to an efficient number, and also increase the number of teachers, increase the allowances to old-age pensioners, remove slums and build decent houses, erect new schools where necessary, and provide opportunities for employment for all.

Speaking of the Democrat Party, Mr Webb described it as the Tory wing of the Tory Party and declared that the issue lay between the Government and Labour. Labour was not out to break down, but to build

It would retain all that was

worth while, but would do away with all those things which did not work for the welfare and happiness of the people. It would build on the foundations laid down by Grey, Ballance and Seddon, and he stated that in 1905 the Liberals voted for a resolution moved in the House to the effect that it was in the interests of the colony that the State should take over control of existing industries and means of supply of the necessaries of life of the people. That was the foundation upon which Labour's policy was built.

Labour would nationalise the banking system of the country. In the Commonwealth of Australia the Labour Party had been pledged to form a State bank. Experts said that it could not be done, but to-day the bank was flourishing and made a profit of £780,000 last year. Through the bank the construction of the trans-Australian railway was financed at a cost of £5,000,000, and the line was now free of debt. The Canadian elections just over were fought out on the issue of the public control of public credit and banking, and resulted in a win for the Liberals who advocated that policy, while the recent elections in England showed that there was a gap of only a n%illion voters between the present Government and the advocates of State banking. For purposes of war the banks could find the money, so why

not for the greater purposes of peace ?

Replying to questions, Mr Webb expressed the opinion that the raising of the exchange rate had been of little or no benefit to the small farmer. Labour would favour a free and compulsory system of dental treatment for school children. He was not conversant with the position in regard to electric light charges in this district, but generally Labour would do what it could to see that the cost of electricity to country consumers would be as low as possible.

The Labour candidate, Mr H. E. Herring, who came in at the end of the meeting, also spoke briefly.

A hearty vote of thanks was accorded to Mr Webb for his address and confidence was also expressed in Mr Herring as the Labour candidate. The chairman also received a vote of thanks.