LABOUR WOMEN'S VIEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 86, 12 April 1927, Page 13

LABOUR WOMEN'S VIEWS

Mrs. A. H.Gault writes:—"Having noticed that some evidently cross-grained pefson has, through your columns, suggested that certain of the Labour women candidates for the Hospital Board lack the intelligence to hold views of their own. but blindly state those dictated by the N.Z.L.P., might I be permitted, as one of those candidates, to suggest that it would' have been more sporting on the part of the correspondent had he attended the meetings referred to and questioned the candidate instead of making an attack based upon the very meagre outline of the speech reported. Being members of the N.Z.L.P., and having been selected to stand, as representatives of the party, it would certainly call for remark if we failed to enunciate the party's programme. However. I: can assure any who may be interested that the Labour women candidates hold views to which they would still adhere should the N.Z.L.P. cease to exist. We are also prepared to support those views: by intelligent argument and statement of facts. We do not suggest that we are the only persons capable of doing valuable work on the Hospital Board, but we believe there is badly needed an antidote to the commercial mind that appears to dominate'members who are at present in the majority." Mrs. Gault proceeds to submit arguments in favour of free medical and hospital treatment. She condemns the Hospital Board's debt-collecting policy as inhumane, and urges that people in need of attention should be encouraged to seek it in time with no monetary bar in the way.