HUTT

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 131, 30 November 1922, Page 11

HUTT

MR. PRITCHARD AT EASTBOURNE.

Mr. D. K. Pritchard, Labour candidate tor the Hutt electorate, addressed about a hundred electors in the Grown Theatre .at Eastbourne ' last evening. There was very iittle'enthusiasm shown, though his address was occasionally punctuated with applause. In his opening remarks, Mr, .Pritchard stated that the Ruform candidate's speeches throughout the electorate had contained very little political matter, but had mainly been confined to a denunciation of his two opponents. In fact Mr Bennett had gone so far as to blame the Leader of the Opposition for the present state of the Day's Bay road, though it was i difficult to see how Mr. Wilford could have improved it unless he had taken a roller and a barrow and put in a few days' work on it himself If the Reform candidate's only recommendation for the approval of the electors was

that ho Was a, self-made man, as he has constantly informed the electors, it was not much on which to base- his claim for Hutt suffrages. He regretted the attitude of the Liberal and Reform parties towards Labour Each, was accusing the other of being in collusion with the Labour Party, but as a matter of fact he had direct evidence proving that an understanding existed between Mr. Massey and Mr. Wilford by. which they were to use every effort to defeat Labour at'the polls. Referring to land aggregation, Mr. Pritchard declared that the Labour Party was against big estates, and.-when the Prime Minister was in opposition he, too, had declared against such a state of things. -Mr. Massey had gone so far in those days as to say that when he occupied the Cabinet benches legislation would be introduced to bring about a remedy. But tackling the land question had proved top great a problem for Reform, and ndthing had been done, though, the present Government had been in power for ten years. Though the present Government■■■ had placed several thousand soldiers-'on the land the number of. farmers was!.'to-day actually less than it was in 1919. . Five estates in the Hutt Valley had been, purchased in .1905 at an aggregate cost of £94,345, and the aggregate loss to date .-on these was £114,732. What right" had the Liberals to' challenge . Mr. -.. Massey's policy when their own administration ted been responsible for such a substantial loss?

The candidate reviewed at length the Civil.Service "cut." Here agair the Liberals were attempting to gloss over the bait "that they had Voted with the Reform Party. Mt. Wilford had referred to the Prime Minister's "brutal majority" as being sufficient to, push the matter through the House, but this should not have been sufficient excuse fol' the Liberals to vote with the Government when it came to voting a "cut" in the lower-paid officers', salaries. Voting thus with_ Reform, who couid say with any juetice that there was any great difference between Liberalism and Reform' .-■'.,

The meeting concluded with a vote of thanks to the candidate, moved by Mr. Kinvig and carried by acclamation.