THE NEW PARTY

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 17, 22 July 1921, Page 10

THE NEW PARTY

SUPPORTERS MEET

POLICY EXPLAINED

The Progressive Liberal and Moderate Labour Party held a meeting in the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall last night. Admission was by ticket only, and the press was not present, but an official report Mas been supplied, which, slightly abbreviated, is as follows:— "The meeting was presided over by Mr. Dunbar Sloane, vice-president of ithe party, and the principal speaker was the loader of the party, Mr. C. E. Statham, M.P., who .was accompanied by Mrs. Statham, and supported by the following on the platform: Messrs. E. Kellett, M.P., G. H. Foster (president of the Auckland District Council of the party), W. P. Black (editor of New Zealand National Review), Mesdamcs Graves, Ry-, der, Collins, Miss Brown, Messrs. Hobart, Sherwood, Williams, Ryder, Graves', Thomas, Jones, Edwards, Proctor, Benge, and Salt. An audience of about 300 friends and sympathisers attended to hear the policy of the party propounded X>y its leader. The Chairman surveyed the position of the various parties in the country today, and justified the necessity of this new party, whose object was to continue the work of that great man, the late Hon. R. J. Seddon. Production, and still more production, he said had been the cry to save the country, but"no definite policy had been put before the country to give the worker justification for increasing production, as demanded. "Our party," the speaker said", "will, through its leader to-night, propound a policy of sound, and practicable economies which will restore confidence and harmony between employer and . employee, and secure the advantages which we are seeking. The new party \yill remove by its suggested legislation the three great terrors which now assail the workers, namely, unemployment, sickness, and old age." He referred to the advantage which the party had gained by securing the leadership of Mr. C. E. Statham, M.P., whose honesty and integrity were guarantees that.the course that the new party would pnrsue would instify the motto that it had assumed, namely,; "Common/ good to all." . THE LEADER'S SPEECH. Mr. Statham, who was loudly applauded, said he made no apology for the introduction of this party into the political ranks of the' Dominion, as he was convinced that its policy was one which would mean a great advantage to the country, and be a. solution of many of the troubles under which they'were now suffering. At the same timo he was not claiming an exclusive, right to any particular plank in the_ platform. There was; however, one unwritten plank which he wished to refer to at the outset. That unwritten plank was loyalty. " All we wish to attain," he said, " we wish to. attain by constitutional means." Bonds of affection and loyalty were a sine qua non to our existence. " He referred to the Liberal Party as existed at the time of the late Mr. ;Seddon's death. It was then left some sixty strong, and had proved itself a great national asset with a magnificent tradition. The present party sought primarily to continue that work. Mr. Statham made a plea for principles before political preferment. He referred to Mr. Kellett, M.P.;'member for Dunedin North, having thrown in his lot • with , the new party, and expressed the hope *iiat other members would come in. He referred to the present; of party government, and the necessity for the good party man to vote blindly. With this the new party had no sympathy, and in order to remedy this, the first plank in their platform was an elective Executive. He rend an extract from a, speech made by Mr. Massey in 1902^ in which Mr. Massey strongly supported this principle. However,- in 1909, Mr. Massey had thrown, over this principle, and resorted to the old, lamentable system of nominating his Ministers. .With regard to the sucond plank in the platform, the reform of the Upper House, Mr. Statham made it quite clear that the new party did not, desire to v abolish the Upper House, but to reconstruct it on the-basis of introducing experts in science, commerce, finance, and law. with a membership of / I perhaps about fifteen. On the third plank, namely, State Bank,. Mr. Statham -i claimed that the primary object of a State bank would be to run the bank business in. the interests of the country. He instanced the institution of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, arid gave, 'a brief summary of its progress and success, despite the difficulties they had to contend with. GENERAL SUPERANNUATION. He then dealt at length with the party's superannuation scheme, and I stated that this was the principal item |in the party's programme. The foundar tion of the scheme was laid in taxation, of the wages, bill in the Dominion, the employee contributing two and a-hailf per cent, of his -wages,-the employer supplementing it by two and a-half per cent., and the State subsidising it by another two and a-half p«r cent. This tax would be collected quarterly, and used reproductively over a period of six years, -whoa they would arrive at an accumulated capital of approximately forty-one million pounds sterling. The interest oil tins j capital sum would result in a net annual return of approximately two and a-half million, which, with the a-imual contributions, -would permit tho Government to pay out to eighty thousand annuitants the sum of one hundred pounds per head per annum, * awl still leave a margin which could be devoted to supplementing- the present miserable allowances to widows, and make some provision for the blind and incapacitated. He did not care if the '.present Government 1 took Tip this scheme, and carried it through, as the main object of the new party was to get things done irrespective of who did them, bui he made a special appeal to tho country to seriously consider the necessity for removing the spectre of poverty from all workers, so that they can bridge that gulf which now unfortunately existed between. Capital a/ml Labour. "Somo papeTs say," said Mr, Statham, "that we'are out.to bribe the workers of the country." He did not consider this fail, criticism, because, while offering this scheme of superannuation they were demanding of the workers something in return. We had no right to have strikes and lock-outs in this country, and tho new party recognised that to solve the mawy difficulties it was necessary to offer the workers some tangible advantages which would ensure their co-operation. Mr. Statham said that at the public meeting in, August he would have more time to still further elaborate tho principles of the new party, but he thought he had given, them sufficient to convince them that, however ambitious the programme might appear, it was eminently practicable and the result of years of very close study of the industrial and commercial position of the Dominion.

he could lay claims to an old-age pension. The new party sought to_ bring more content into the worker's life, by alssuoring him some comfort when he attained old-age, and in the process give him more satisfaction in his present condition and enlist his co-opera-tion towards greater production.

Mr. W. P. Black, editor of the New Zealand National Review, and hon. general organiser for the new party, addressed the- meeting, speaking .particularly from the Labour standpoint. The speaker had been 22 years in' New Zealand, and for many years was connected with the Labour movement, ■ but about ten years ago, he said, he saw fit to revise his opinions. Labour had hurled all kinds of opprobrious epithets at him because of the courage he displayed in so changing his opinions and determining on a policy which after close study he determined was for the betterment of the country and, incidentally, of the workers. The only charge they could make against him was that he was not of British birth, but this charge was not made until he elected to forsake the fold of the so-called Labour Party. Ho was opposed to the first plank in the Labour platform, the socialisation of the means of production, and he was also, in principle, opposed to State ownership, which generally was a fraud, failure, and delusion. After referring to the failure of Bolshevism, Mr. Black said that the question of wages did not solve the economic difficulties which obtained, inasmuch as however high wages ascended no .relicf '■ could be afforded the worker, as commodities would ascend in equal ratio. He pointed out the necessity for a decent standard/of living for the workers, in order to raise the mental and physical fitness of, the people. By this means i the country would prosper. He said the new party would prove a dynamic force, and instead of Mr, H. Holland's motto of all privileges, no drities, they wanted to substitute privileges with duty.

Mr. G. W. Foster, president ol the Auckland District Council, also spoke.

'A hearty vote of thanks was extended to Mr. C. E. Statham, M.P., for his able elucidation of the policy of tho party, and Mra. Statham was presented with a handsome bouquet by Miss Ronnie Black on behalf of the National Executive Council. A hearty vote of thanks was accorded Mr. Dunbar Sloane, chairman of the meeting.