SUBURBS SEAT

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 105, 30 October 1935, Page 4

SUBURBS SEAT

THE LABOUR CANDIDATE

ADDEESS BY MB. BUTLER

Speaking for two hours, Mr. P. M. Butler, Labour candidate for Wellington Suburbs, opened his campaign at Mornington last night. Mr. J. Russell, president of the Vogeltown-Morn-ington Municipal Electors' Association, presided over an attendance of about one hundred people. Mr. Butler, . devoted a considerable portion of his remarks to a criticism of legislative enactments by the present Government and the unemployment situation. He was given a most attentive hearing, there being not a single interjection. At the conclusion of his address he was warmly applauded and a resolution was carried, without a dissentient voice, expressing con- ■ fldehce in the candidate, the Labour ; Party, and its policy. Mr. Butler said it gave him very much pleasure to open his campaign '. in Mornington, because the people of the district always took an intelligent ■interest in. politics. The legislative Acts of the present Government, he 'contended, had affected every individual in the community to a greater extent than those of any previous Administration. His mission was not a personal one. The object of the Labour Party was to bring the greatest good to the "greatest number. The party had no personal axe to grind, and.he appealed to electors to act col- . lectively., He dealt with the adminis- , tration of the Reform Party after its return to power in 1925, of the United Party who followed in 1928, and of the present Coalition. His reason for mentioning them, ha said, was to remind the people of the power" of ' psychological persuasion. Of recent years the people had bought things , they did not want. He asked them to ■ steel themselves against the power of - the. advertising agent and to beware of ephemeral parties. A BLACK RECORD. ■The record of the present Government* continued Mr. Butler, was the blackest in the history of the country. Some of the people had voted for the "blank cheque" policy on the slogan "Keep your man in a job." In October, ( 1930, the registered unemployed in . New Zealand totalled 11,442. In twelve months it had jumped to 51,408, and by October, 1933, the number of registered, unemployed was 75,000/ That total did not include the men who became unemployed and had £10 ,or £15 in the bank, nor did it.include unemployed girls and women. The legislative acts of the Government were not only written indelibly in the records but they were branded into the minds of the people. Mr. Butler quoted a portion of a speech by Mr. J. A. Lee, M.F., in which he enumerated 41 Acts passed by the Government in 76 days. Among other things, he said, the Government had smashed the Constitution and voted itself another year in office; prosperity was smashed by wage cuts; thousands of Public Works Department employees had been • sacked; millions had been grabbed from the civil servants; the education system had been, smashed, and the school doors had beeil shut on the children of five years of age. ~ When all these legislative acts were being put through the people in -Wellington Suburbs did not know for certain which way the present member of the district was going to vote. If they had returned a Labour candidate they would have had no anxious moments. All the "panic legislation" was due to the fall-,in income which was the result bf;:?i fall.in overseas prices. Mr. Forbes-1; had;, been,honest. ■ He had TeallX'r believed ■ that' by: reducing salaries and wages more employment would be given. Instead of creating employment it had increased the number of unemployed. And yet, while altj. this was going on, the production of Nsw Zealand was greater than ever. Tljere was a superabundance, of production, and there was the greatest distress and poverty. In the midst ofplenty people were without the barest necessaries* The productive capacity of the people was the only real wealth of the people. ,]...- ---. Spine of the greatest thinkers in the worltd today, not associated with the Labour Party, were, saying what the Labour Party had advocated for years. As things were now, just because there was iiot a price in the market-to return a profit Ao someone .under, the credit and (currency system the people must go vsithout Clergymen }n Auckland, in. a statement, had pointed, put 'that in the event of war money would be ■ founift to destroy life." They contended that tnoney must be found ;to save life. . -;•■--. • - \ *HE UNEMPLOYED. Wonds .could, not describe the -unemploymient 'situation during the last four or- five years. ;For the twelve months efid^d-IMarcn last'the Unem-ployment-Board had spent £3,912,321, and it had cost. £139,000 to .administer the funds. The average relief given to unemployed amounted to £60 a year. It cost the people.£2 5s for every £60 expended on relief, The expenditure on the Prisons Department provided an interesting 'contrast. The.Prison Department's,"gross -expenditure per head of this prisoners in New Zealand for the year tended. March last was £110 and the1 net; expenditure was £59 13s, almost the same as that for the unemployed man. While, however, the prisoner, was assured of food, clothing, and warmth* the unemployed '■ man was not. One of the first things the Labour Party •would do would be to abolish the Unemployment Board and administer the funds through the Government itself. A better form of taxation for unemployment purposes would be brought in—a graded tax in accordance.with the means and the ability of the people to pay, instead of a flat tax which was but another attack, on the;wages of"the people. ; . Mr. Butler, next referred to the pegging of the exchange on London at 25 per cent. This action was to help the farmer, he said, but there were few farmers getting any benefit from the increased exchange, and if they were they received.it, when it was least required. The people of Wellington thought of the exchange rate as something in the abstract,.but,it'had cost the ratepayers £270,000 in five years, and this year the item amounted to £24,000. The exchange rate having failed to assist the farmer the Rural Mortgagors' Adjustment Act had come into force. This, Mr. Butler described \as a very poor copy of the Stevens Act in New South Wales. I/ABOTJB PARTY'S POLICY. After having dealt with the National Government's policy, - as announced yesterday.j.and with what he described as "vote-splitting expedients" of the Government, Mr. Butler gave an outline "of the Labour Party's policy, enumerating the twelve points it cantains. Among the items enumerated were; restoration of, cuts in pensions; a national System of superannuation; restoration of salary and wage cuts; the .safeguarding of-the superannuation rights:' of civil servants; control of the ;p"ublie. credit and the establishment of a 1 national credit authority with "the duty of supplying money services , sufficient to give effect to the will of Parliament; a national health service. scheme based upon universal Jnsuran'cejaAd-theguaranteeing of an ornnnmiw'.Torino -i.a- the,- farmer.

| In spite of some criticism to the contrary, he contended that prices could be guaranteed. The average price realised by produce over a number of years could be taken and an average struck from that to give an adequate return. In the good years the community would reap the benefit from such a system and in the bad times the rest of the community would be able to meet Ihe farmer. No section of the community should suffer. It would be quite easy for the Labour Partji to go before the electors with a will-o'-the-wisp policy, but the party did not tell fairy tales because its roots were embedded in the homes of the people. It was the party of the people and it could riot afford to make promises one day and break them the next.; Moreover, the Labour Party had not deviated from its policy. One of* the questions asked Mr. Butler at the conclusion of his address \vas in what measure his criticism oi the present Government applied to Mr. R. A. Wright, the present member for Suburbs, seeing that Mr. Wright is contesting the seat as an Independent. Mr, Butler said he liked Mr. Wright very much, and he was not disposed to indulge in personalities. The principles involved' were too serious. He was dealing with policies, not personalities. Th 6 questioner later contended that the candidate's criticism of the Government hardly applied in the case of the electors of Wellington Suburbs. Mr. Butler replied that the questioner was forcing him to deal with some points he did not wish to touch upon.; It should be realised that the Democrat Party had said it would not oppose Mr. Wright and the Government , had not put up a candidate against him. Were the Democrats sure Mr. Wright was going to vote with them or was the Government to have his support?