RALLY AT THE TOWN HALL

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 49, 26 February 1918, Page 3

RALLY AT THE TOWN HALL

ADDRESSES BY LABOUR

LEADERS

NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AND THE PRESS ATTACKED

The Town Hall was crowded last evening on the occasion of the Labour rally in support of Mr. H. E. Holland' 3 candidature for Wellington North.

Mr. W. Maddison, president of the Labour Representation Committee, occupied the chair, and, in opening the proceedings, read the names of a number of Labour bodies throughout the Dominion from whom messages containing good wishes had been received. He said that these communications showed that not only Wellington but the whole country was taking an interest in the pi'esent fight. They had the sorry spectacle of the Premier in the role of the chief mudslinger of the Dominion, and he was ably baclced up by the Dominion and The Post. The other night The Post tried to mislead the electors by telling them that the issue was whether New Zealand was to pull out of the war (if Mr. Holland were elected), or whether New Zealand was'to go on with the war (if"Mr. Luke were elected). The Premier, at a meeting at Kelburn, asked : Were we to reverse the policy o! New Zealand sending the last man and the last shilling? The reply was that the last man would undoubtedly' go, but we had not yet sent the first shilling. Mr Maseey said it would be a disgrace to New Zealand and the Empire if Mr. Holland was elected. Who had been winning the war? Not the profiteers, but the men of New Zealand and of the Empire. Mr. J. Thorn appealed to the electors to defeat Toryism and Liberalism and strike a blow for better conditions and more freedom. CONSCRIPTING WEALTH. Mr. Rod Ross said he had- been sent down from Palmerston North by some 1500 members of the Labour Representation Committee. Speaking of the candidates, he said that Mr. Poison, if elected, would have to do as Dr. Thacker said, or he would be spanked politically. (Laughter.) He condemned ths inaction of the Government in connection with the cost of living. They could have prevented the great rise in the price of foodstuffs. They could have conscripted wealth just as they conscripted flesh and blood. Mr. W. Parry (Auckland) remarked that this fight was going to determine something in the nature of democratic legislation in New Zealand. We had had some experience of despotic government in the last two or three years; and he. thought they were beginning to realise that we had arrived at. a time when there should be a change. " A TRAITOR TO FREEDOM." Mr. J. Read, president of the Trades and Labour Council) said that no man who valued democracy would be true to his principles if he did not support the Labour representative, because Labour was the one party that maintained that the people should have the opportunity of electing their representatives every three years. Anyone who refused to condemn the National Government now did not value the rights Won for us by our forefathers, and would be a. traitor to himself and a traitor to the cause of freedom in New Zealand, both now and for the future. ' • "a'bay of hope." Mr. E. J. Howard '(Christchurch) said he wanted to convey to the electors a, message from 30,000 of the men and women of New Zealand, for he was speaking in his capacity" of president of the United Federation of Labour. Never in the history of the Dominion had Labour been so united as they were at present. They chos,e their candidate in a democratic way, and he carried with him the good wishes of the working men and women of New Zealand. They were.looking to Wellington North for a ray of hope on Thursday next. .., LABOUR'S OPPORTUNITY. Mr. P. C. Webb, M.P., who was loud ly cheered on rising to speak, congratu lated Mr. Holland on earning—and deservedly so—the hostility of the press of the city. He said that if Mr. Ryan, Premier of Queensland, who had had bo fight the capitalistic press, happened tc> be in New Zealand to-day, he would be in gaol. for fighting against conscription. If Sir Wilfrid'Laurier, leader of the Liberal Party in Canada, were in New Zealand to-day he would be in gaol, because he opposed conscription. The Government proposed in Parliament to give 25s a week for a tot-ally incapacitated soldier, and told the House that it was quite impossible to give an extra. 3s a week. The Labour members forced the Government to grant the soldiers an extra 10a a week. It was to Labour and Labour alone that the soldiers could ever look for assistance in this country. Neither the press nor Mr. Massey nor Sir Joseph Ward could rob Labour of a great victory. Labour had now an opportunity, and should make the best of it by electing Harry Holland by a large majority next Thursday. Mr. E. Brindle also spoke. Mr. Fred Cook, secretary of the Tailoresses' Union, Christchurch, said he had a message to deliver from the mothers and tistere who had sons and brothers bearing the orunt of battle. They sent Mr. Holland a bill to present to the National Government for the cost of the war. The suffering workers, instead of being relieved by the Government, had rather been betrayed. MR." HOLLAND'S ADDRESS. Mr. H. E. Holland was received with cheers and the singing of "He's a Jolly Good Fellow." The Labour movement, he said, came into this fight with an unanswerable case, and with an indictment of the so-called National Government, to which the Government could furnish no adequate answer. He had from the first said. Labour would fight cleanly, and make no personal attacks on their opponents. They had carried out that policy to the letter, and they had fought on principle. Unfortunately their opponents had not been able to make a clean fight, and the reason was because their i:ase was really so bad. But they might have expected that the Prime Minister would have been able to maintain at least a semblance of- the dignity of his office, and he might have refrained from dragging politics in the slimy gutter. He (Mr. Holland) had levelled charges against the Government with regard to war profits, the treatment of conscientious objectors, the censorship, and as to the suppression of. knowledge . from the people with regard to venereal disease among our soldiers. The daily press had not dared to print any of his statements with regard to venereal disease. Why? Was the Government using the censorship to prevent the printing of that information? He thought it was. That was something which no free people could tolerate. If the Government was preventing the people knowing the facts with regard to that disease they were doing something that was criminal, and ought to be brought to account fog it. The speaker protested against the conscription of the Maoris. Ho repeated his enquiry whether the "prophet" Rua, had

been promised his freedom from. gaol if he would agree to undertake recruiting. Reference was made to the vxiv profits made by the producers in New Zealand, and Mr. Holland quoted evidence given before the Defence Commission ad Palmerston North, in support of his contention that there had been extravagance and. maladministration. A letter was lead from the wife of a

soldier complaining of inadequate allowance made to her and her children. He had been accused by The Post of being a "pacifist, a Red-Fed, a Revolutionary Socialist, and a Bolshevik," and contended that the terms were contradictory. Bolshevik in Russian meant "a majority," and he added, amidst laughter, "Well, that is all right. If I have a majority next Thursday that will be right." (Laughter.) Mr. Holland read several quotations from a leading article in The Post of last evening, ending, "Such, is the ideal which will be promoted by the patriotic electors of Wellington North-who do not sink every minor difference in order to vote against Germany and the Bolshevik candidate!" | "That," he added, "is dishonourable j journalism. I am not going to attack them in the same language they attack me, because I do not want to come down to their level." (Applause.) The speaker proceeded to read further quotations from The Post article in which his (Mr. Holland's) attitude was compared with that of Ben Tillett, Hyndman, Blatchford, Henderson, Barnes, and Hodge. The best words ever written about him were written by Ben Tillett. If Hyndman came to Wellington there would be no name under the sun strong enough for The Post to call him. That showed how ignorant The Post was of what Hyndman stood for. He (Mr. Holland) stood for exactly what Arthur Henderson stood for, and if Arthur Henderson were here ; he would be supporting him (Mr. Hoi- ] land) in this campaign. Mr. Holland J then dealt with the question of the conscientious objectors, on the same lines as in his previous addresses. He contended that the contest for Wellington North was a fight between the forces that stood for liberty and human progress against the forces of autocracy and despotism. He would fight to drive the discredited Government and Parliament to the country, and on the day they faced the constituencies the people would clean out the Parliamentary stables of the senility of conservatism. He concluded by asking the electors to march with Labour to the polls on Thursday, and to a victory that would bring joy, not to Berlin, but that would bring joy to all the people who stood for human progress not only in this country but in Australia, and even in England itself. (Applause.)

The meeting concluded with "Three cheers for Holland."