LABOUR CANDIDATES

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 88, 13 April 1923, Page 7

LABOUR CANDIDATES

MEETING AT NEWTOWN

The Labour campaign for the Mayoralty and the various local body elections was advanced a furtljer stage last night, ■when Messrs. P. Fraaer, M.P., A. L, Monteith, M.P., R. M'Keen, M.P., W., T. Young, and L. Glover addressed i very large meeting in tha Newtown Lib-* rary. Mr. -A. Blaok presided. Mr. Fraser said that the Labour can*. didates were pre-eminently qualified to serve on public bodies, for they under*, stood the needs of the workers. Those who were not of the working class wera not qualified to understand the needs of the general mass of the people.'. Labour would fight the election battle.without indulging in personalities of any. kind. They offered no apologies for coming forward, because they believed their programme was in the interest's o£ the vast majority of the people. . Labour' could not hope to make progress without incurring opposition, and it ; knew that it could not solve the housing problem without meeting the unrelent-i ing hostility of land agents and housa owners. In no circumstances would Lab-, our ever agree to minority representa--tion, and all it desired was that ib should be representative according to the votes polled. Labour wanted pro-, portional representation in the election' of the council, with preferential voting for the Mayoralty. At the present time, however, to avoid vote-splitting, Labour's opponents would dearly love to hay« the Mayoralty determined' by the preferential voting\ method. Personally, ifc would suit him infinitely better to fight the- contest straight out with. Mr. Wright. He ventured to predict that before the day of" the election one of the anti-Labour candidates would withdraw.: ABOUT MB, WRIGHT. All the anti-Labour candidates for the Mayoralty had said some very true, things about one another. (Laughter.) ' Although Mr. Wright treated Mr. Mitchell with scant courtesy, Mr. Mitchell rushed to make way for Mr. Wright. Mr. Wright was determined that who-t ever was to be eliminated from the contest ifc was not going to be him.. Several times he had been drawn- to the water, but would not. drink. "You can lead a Mayor to water, but you can't always make him drink," remarked Mr.. Eraser amidst laughter. When Mr. Wright had counted heads, and saw that he could win in the selection ballot, he agreed to go to that ballot with Mr. Mitchell, and) was now the candidate standing on behalf of nine citizens who had voted in his. favour—nine people who- were no better and no worse than anybody else in the city. Mr. Wright had..claimed to be a great financier. It was not strictly courteous for a Mayor to criticise adversely the administration of a. previous Mayor., The speaker, recollected, however, that Mr. Wright had publicly been most fulsome in his,', praise of Sir John and Lady Luke, but when the council was in committee he had said some harsh things about Sir John Luke. Labour's platform' was. calculatedto raise the conditions of the people and to make the burden for them lighter to carry. Mr. Fraser claimed that, municipal enterprises could be conducted successfully in the interests of the people. The Civic League advocated a search-' ink inquiry into the administration of the city's affairs, and Mr. Wright was agreeable to this proposition. What an extraordinary confession to .snake after two years of office that he should be willing to have an inquiry as to how he had managed affairs ! Mr. Wright had criticised Labour's proposals as " wild-cat schemes," but they were eminently practicable, especially markets for the sale of fish, fruit, aod vegetables. Councillor Norwoodi agreed with this vievi, and had stated that if he had his way the whole of the land behind the milk station, running back to Ghuznee street, would be acquired as a site for city markets. The" Wellington tramways had been wonderfully successful, and were a.testimony to the succesa of municipal enterprise in connection, with big concerns. Labour did not propose to give houses for nothing, and, whatever Mr. Wright' said_, there was not a decent-minded man in the, community who would dispute the necessity for providing more houses. Coming to the question of rating, Mr. Fraser said that anyone would be a fool, who advocated a rise in rates. Labour claimed that to rate on the unimproved yalus would lead to a reduction in rate 3. Such, a system would have to be introduced by a poll of the ratepayers, and one of the first things Labour. would have to do if it secured a majority on the council would be to arrange for a poll to be taken. Vacant land held for speculative purpfises would have its rates increased under Labour's proposal, bub rates an houses would be reduced, and yet Mr.'Wright said that if Labour got in the rates would be raised. Before concluding, Mr. Fraser referred to .Labour's proposal for a municipal bakery, and said that it was most practicable. Any expert baker would tell them that. At the conclusion, of his address," Mr. Fraser was cheered. "PLUNDER AND ROBBERY." Mr. M'Keen dealt with the question of housing, and snid that unless present conditions improved there would-be another epidemic. People calling themselves town-planners had not long,,;ago' decided to make Wellington a city beautiful, and were coiner to raze old and, insanitary dwellings, taking advantage of State Advances Loans to build modern homes. The town-planners on the local authority, however, had done nothing to remedy the evils existing. To take rent for such housea as he himself had seen in Newtown was she.er plunder and robbery. \ Mr. Young said that there, seemed to be a conspiracy between builders and landlords to keep up land values. The Hataitai tunnel and the extension of the tramway system to Kilbirnie had resulted in a great rise in land., .values. The expenditure of public money had been responsible for those increases, therefore the community should have the benefit of the unearned increment end not the landowner. Legislation should be passed prohibiting landlords from, keeping houses vacant until they could find buyers for them. DISCHARGING COAL CARGOES.. Mr. L. Glover, a candidate..for..th» Harbour Board, as well as for the City Council, contended that the board'should take over the control of the discharjro of coal cargoes. Labour was not goinsr to etop at that, but coal would.jo to start. with. .A public body having" provided machinery for unloading coal cheaply, Labour maintained that the benefit accruing should go into the pockets of. th_e general community, and not thpae of a few shipping companies. It only cost 3d a ton to discharge-coal in Wellington, because of the Harbour Board's special plant, and yet the people had to pay 3» 6d, 3s 3d, and even 4s per cwt. AYhere. did the difference between these amounts go to? He favoured municipal coal wagons- running right on to the coal-discharging wharf, so that the .coal could afterwards b»

listributqd economically, and with, dis>atch. ■■•■', Mi. Monteith spoke of the need for >r<>yidinK ; more .children's playgrounds, md.. ■urged that tepid swimming baths ihotild.-be'. provided. Wellington' was one >f -"the niost con|feated_clties in the Dbninion, and should have more nlajrrbuhcV;for the children. Alter dealing with tramway finance, and. etating that it woiild be financially possible to extend the workers' conoewkm ticket* to 9 aim., Mr. Monteith said be was jure that the Wellington City Oounoil had not put any; "ginger" into its housing scheme. He waseatisfied of this after having recently visited a borough where horiees were being built by the municipality for £750. The meeting oloied with a vote of thanks and confidence in the. Labour candidates.