THE FIRST SHOT

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 48, 25 August 1921, Page 4

THE FIRST SHOT

NEW PARTY'S CAMPAIGN

YOUNG NEW ZEALAND

LEADERS-OPENING SPEiEOH,

Tho first public, meeting of the Progressive and Moderate .Labour Party was held in tho Town Hall last night. There was an attendance of between 1000 and 1500 persons, and Mr. 0. E. Statham, leader of the party, received an attentive hearing. There were a few interruptions, but not of any moment. Councillor L. M'Konzie presided.

i Councillor M'Kenzie stated that, a3 senior councillor for Wellington, he was askod to take the chair at this first public meeting of the new party. He always thought that, no matter what their political opinions might be, they should' always be willing, to hear the views of olhers, as by so doing they gained, much wisdom. He introduced Mr. Stetham as :i Now Zealand er who owed all he had to this country, and was desirous of repaying something. Mr. Stathum was as straight as a gun-barrel, respected in Parliament even by his opponents, and with a high reputation in his home town. Mr. Statham s-aid that when they were in. the throes of the great war they were assured that the Empire would emerge^ not only triumphant, but purified, that selfishness would give way to service, and that there would be the dawn of a-new era in which each member of the community would share. Now they found' the. some old unrest, the same intensity of feeling between class and class. . They said that the time was come for the old party shibboleths to go. There must be more spirituality and leas .materialism in public affairs. Particularly appropriate to time were the line's : "God gives his men— . A time like this demands . Strong men, stout hearts, true faith, and ready hands— Men whom, the lust of office cannot kill, Men wl om the spoils of'office cannot buy." They wanted to put a platform of real constructive political reform before the country, and to represent the : great' middle party which had .been-too lons unrepresented. Above all things, they wero a young New Zealand party. The great bulk of the people supporting them were men who had been '. born in the country, and they felt that the time was como when such should take a part in the government of the country. THE PABTY'S HOPES. Their party was not formed in Parliament, and they were not going : to' canvass members to join; but without reflection on present members he would say tilers were as good fish in the sea as. over came out of it. Some present members later might choose to join, and if they accepted tho party's principles the party would be glad to have them. They hoped .to return sufficient members next election to at least claim to be the official Opposition. "Accidents may happen, and if we do even more than that we will be ready to take our responsibility." Some v of their political op. ponents attempted to belittle the party a* "one-man" or "two-men" party, but they wero going to pursue the even tenor of their way undeterred by such criticism. . ; REFORM TFE LEGISLATURE. One of the first planks in the platform was reform of the Legislature. In the .Legislative Council there were 42 members, fiach receiving £300 a year and expensea. Such a Council the country could ill afford. What they wished to do was to cut down the number .to be about 15, all of them experts in their particular branches. The Council would then be a revising Chamber to send back legislation with ' proposals for amendment, leaving the House to accept the responsibility of rejecting the suggestions. A revising Chamber was necessary to check hasty legislation. The Prime Minister now actually controlled the Legislative Council", as he could appoint new members to overcome opposition. That was one thing they objected to. There was too much tendency to a none-man Government." Tho privileges of private members had been gradually filched from them, so that now, as Mr. Wright had said when he was in Opposition, ti "they had not a feather to fly with." There was too much Government by regulation. Another reform they.desired was the Elective Executive. That would moan in effect that the dominant party would elect the Cabinet. The evils, of selection by a Prime Minister were that ho might place men in the Ministry because of personal friendship, or. service to himself, or because they would be troublesome otherwise, or there might be men who. would sacrifice principle for the glamour of Cabinet rank. "I have seen that and you have seen that in this country. If we had an Elective Executive now there are some members of Cabinet who would not have Buckley's chance of appointment." i A STATE BANK. Another plank in the platform was for a State bank, with the sole right of note •issue. They did jiot stand for such an old thing as "the bale of paper and a, .printing press", they had far too much sense for that, but they contended that the banking business should be run in ithe interests of the whole of the people. (Private bankers could' not be blamed for desiring to make dividends for their •shareholders; but banking should be conducted so as,to do what was beat for tho country, as was done by the Bank of [France now. Mr. Stathain diseased tho last balance-sheet of the IBank of New Zealand. Some people said that if tho State took ove-r the bajik it would lose all the money it now received from the Bank of New Zealand. That was not a, fact, for Hie Bank paid its taxes and dividends on the 'business done, and if tho State look .over tiro whole business ■it would not lose the part which it now ireceived. Why should the State not re-' weive the return from arranging the cuvirenoy of the country, which now Went 'to the banks ? At the present they were suffering from a. shortage of circulation, Mid while recognising tho danger of tissuing too much paiper money, he considered more could bo issued against the ■Government securities held by the banks. During the war the Government ha.d to stand by the banks by making notes •legal tender; otherwise the banks would Jiave been unable to meet their liabilities. , If the State had to do these things it should enter the banking business itself, a.s the Com.monwea.lth of Australia, had done, with good results. The Com;monw,ealth State Bank had a (total note issue <jf £58,713,251.. Australia was ren.lly getting the-use of all that monoy at a much cheaper rate than if it had had to borrow it. They wanted the (Stato to taiko over, the Bank of New Zealand on terms that were fair and <cquitoible to the shareholders. They hoped that tho services of the bank ■would be cheapened, and if profits were made they could he used to x'educe taxation. LAND AND INDUSTRIES. The Stale bank would hu a. great factor in assisting to promote land settlement, aa it would correspond to the agricultural banks established. in other countries. And a vigorous land settle- '

merit policy was necessary if they wero to increase production. A vigorous road.mg policy was also necessary. It.might ibe said that all this would cost money, ibut it was a. business proposition. It was not a business proposition to half (build a = railway a.nd then leave it for five or six years. The Government would (have to come to the rescue of soldiers who went on the land when prices were •high. Agricultural colleges should be established, to encourage farming on (scientific lines: It was a standing reproach to New Zealand that they exported so much raw material and received it back in manufactured _ form. They stood for giving (protection if an industry was suitable to the country and should be encouraged, but they would not give protection .without safeguarding the community against increase in the cost of living. Apart from Customs, protection help (might be given by a series of, diminishing subsidies. Hydro-electric power should f.ko be developed, as this country, with its power resources, should become the manufacturing centre of the South Pacific. MORE POPULATION. When they had given af start to production - and secondary, industries, they would require more * population. They also desired more population, so that they should not be so dependent on Great /Britain for production. At the same time, a policy of bringing men to the country in time of stress, with a dearth of work, was absolutely wrong. Later on, when things got better and they could absorb moire labour, they should bring out men of the best type under a system of classified immigration. A voice: "You'want big-families." Mr. Statham agreed, and said that there must be more consideration given to the parents of large families. In their policy there were many'things they were doing because they recognised , that principle. He did not know that the Government had any definite scheme of building homes. It -was no use building ■a. house that would cost £1250. They believed that houses could be supplied at a cost of £500 or £600, which a working man could pay off. PENSIONS FOR ALL. A man who had worked hard was entitled to rest "and to have sufficient in his old age. The old age pensions system, though it, had given much relief to deserving people, was on the wrong basis, a« it could be claimed only •by people practically without means. They wanted to see a man. or woman, on reaching 60 years of age, entitled of right to a pension of £100 a yea.r. At present, most superannuation schemes in the country were under the Government and subsidised by the State. There were also some under public bodies and* private firms, but the latter were very difficult to arrange. They proposed that, all these should be united in one big scheme. At a conservative estimate the wages bill of the ; country was £76,000,000. A- contribution of 'li, per cent, by the worker, 2>, per cent, by the employer, and 2g per cent, by the State would give an annual return of £5,742,000. They proposed to accumulate that for six years" at 6 per cent, interest compounded. That would give them a capital sum of 40 millions, which would yield aai annual sum of £2,412,000. Added to tho annual, contributions this would give over £8,000,000, which would ■be sufficient to pay £100 to each man and woman over 60. The State was paying a large sum annually for old age pensions and for subsidies to various superannuation funds, and that would be saved. It was a lasting disgrace to ■Parliament that pensions for the Mnd had not yet been provided. The .'widows' j pension also should be revised, as, if' the widow were not properly provided for, it meant not only that she had a hard time, but that the children did not'have a fair chance. At present the •pension was given, not for widows, but for children. These things were quite within the realm' of practical politics, and should be carried into effect. EDUCATION AND HEALTH. They wished to liberalise the education system, to make the kindergarten a, part of the State system,. and to ensure that for children of promise there should be free education, from the kindergarten to the university. No matter how poor the parents, a child of ability, eager to learn, should be able to go' on. and enter any of the learned professions; and they believed "that there should be free school books, and some arrangement should be made to supply midday meals at as" low a cost as possible. ... They did not wish to nationalise the medical profession, but they desired to provide that no person should be unable to receive proper medical attention. There should be a State nursing service, ajid maternity homes should be quite free. These were proposals to; help the men with families. LABOUR LAW. They wanted more production, but they wanted, wherever possible, to pay by results. They wished to fix a basic wage, so that there should be no attempt at sweating, but over and above that wage, if a man produced more, he should receive more. They had no time for strikes and lock-outs, which, were no good to the workers in the country. In return for what the, workers would receive, they were asked to surrender the right to strike. Strikes and lockouts should be made absolutely illegal, and a system of compulsory arbitration instituted^ ' , TAXATION. The taxation per head of population, last year was £19 lls Id; a total of £22,000,000, and an increase of nearly £6,000,000 over the previous year. Customs duty and income tax were 'both heavy, owing to over-importations, which had now ceased, and the big incomes, which, wero not being mad.c as before. Tho country was faced,with a great reduction, of "revenue from taxation. Mr. Mnssey had' said ho wished to reduce taxation by 10 per cent., but Mr. Statham did not see how he could do it without reducing his expenditure in a way that was not possible. Five years ago he had. advocated a war levy. Mr. Maes«y and Sir Joseph Ward; scouted tho idea, but it was a right one, as people would have paid when they could do so. Now they had an annual bill of £7,800,000 for interest and sinking fund. The high taxation on companies was crippling industries. It really amounted in many cases to 10s in the £. Since 1913 the cost of all administration Departments of the State had increased from £7,589,000 to £15,834,000. There was Certainly this explanation, that the Oivil servants got higher pay, which no one grudged them, to meet tho high cost of living, but there was a strong case to answer. There certainly appeared to be faulty organisation, and there was extravagance, for example, in the housing of Government Departments in scattered buildings at a great expense for rent. The Government was following a wrong course in : increasing chaTges when a service showed a loss. A business man would endeavour to popularise his goods and increase his business. The Government was following a policy of drift. The great trouble at the present time was that there was no man. in the Cabinet with a business training to fit him to handle the finance of the country. OTHER. PARTIES. The Government Party in the House was strong, but it was no good without ' a strong opposition.. The old Liberal

Party had dwindled away. . The new party had no, connection with the Official Labour Party. "There is one unwritten plank of our platform. We stand for. unswerving Jayalty, to. the British flag, and the Official Labour Party does not. . . Wo shall fight against the Official Labour Party." THE BRITISH FLAG. There were interrogations at the back of the hall. ' Mr. Statham (addressing interjectors) : "It is all very well, but we have no time for your song, 'The Red Flag.' The British flag is good enough for us. Those who don't appreciate the protection they got under the British flag should find another country to_live in, and we would be glad to get "rid of them."" In conclusion, Mr. Statham said the party was not necessarily out for office, but was out to secure the reforms outlined, and would assist the present Government if it would put them into operation. Written questions were invited, and many were sent up. In his answers Mr. Statham said the party was neutral on the liqnor issue, would not give State aid to denominational schools, and stood firmly for a white Now Zealand!. The Chairman thanked the audience for tho attentive hearing, and' the proceedings ended as they began, with the National Anthem. Afterwards cheers, were given for Mr. and Mis. Statham.