CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 89, 12 October 1938, Page 21

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

LABOUR'S POLICY

MR. WRIGHT'S CAMPAIGN

A critical analysis of the Government's policy, with a commentary upon general political conditions in New Zealand today, was undertaken by Mr. R. A. Wright, Independent candidate for Wellington West, when he spoke

to an enthusiastic audience at the Gardens Store, Glenmore Street, last evening. He claimed that the Government was heading directly for Socialism.

. Mr. Wright, who was introduced by , the chairman, Mr. A..H. Hunt, as "the . soundest business man and the most upright man I have ever met," said at ' the outset that he wished to correct a , misstatement that was being persisj tently made against him, to the effect [ that he had voted in the House in favour of the wage and salary cuts and pensions reductions. This was .absolutely incorrect. Far from voting for : the wage cuts, he had consistently i voted against these measures, includ- , in.? the third and final reading of the I Bill in itg passage through the House. i He had always believed, the speaker > added, that it was* a matter of sound - business to pay wages and salaries as • high as a business could stand. It was . a foregone conclusion, however, that an employer could not pay wages in- [ definitely out of capital. "There would : not be half the existing friction bei tween Capital and Labour if employers ■ were fair to their employees and" the i employees did their duty similarly by i their employers," he said. [ AN UNDUE BALANCE. • Mr. Wright contained of the man-' , ncr m which the Government had ar-j , ranged the pre-election broadcasts. By • refusing to acknowledge certain Inde-; ■ pendent members as Independents—! , presumably because they were critical of the Government—the Prime Minis- . ter had created an undue balance of i broadcasting time in favour of the Gov- ; ernment. The result was that, with one . exception, the Independents who spoke ;in the election broadcasts were sup- , porters of the Labour Government. ; "It is not playing the game," Mr ; Wright went on. "I consider that the 1 broadcasts should have been arranged ion the basis of speaker-for-speaker." , Then there was Mr. Scrimgeour . who took a hand in the game on a ; Sunday evening and under the guise of i Christianity and religion delivered a skilfully-veiled political address showing the Government in a favourable light. These tactics were extremely unfair. But the Government did not look at the matter in that light. The Ministers appeared to feel that any methods that could bring them victory at the elections were fair. The practice of trade unions in imposing a compulsory levy upon members to assist the Labour Party's election campaign was condemned by Mr. Wright, who produced a card signed by the secretary of the Auckland Hotel and Restaurant Workers' Union to 1 prove that this levy was being arbit-rarily-collected. This was a form of coercion which should not be allowed '■ to exist. The basic purpose of trade unions was to gain justice and good conditions for their members, not to advance ihe political aims of any particular party. SOCIAL SECURITY. In dealing with the Government's social security proposals, the candidate said the operation of the scheme would sound the death knell of the friendly societies, which had , been severely affected by it. "I cannot see how the friendly societies can exist side by side with the social security scheme," he went on. "They depend upon young men to join the ranks and take the place of the older members. It will no longer be worth while for young men to join friendly societies, which will be gradually killed by the , operation of the new scheme." When this happened it would mean the dissipation of between £4,000,000 and £5,000,000 of investments which comprised the capital holdings of the friendly societies. Ultimately these funds, would be taken over by the Government, as the societies would gradually die through dwindling membership.

In order to prove the socialistic aims of the Labour Government, Mr. Wright quoted from Ministerial utterances, official policy statements, ahd from Mr. J. A. Lee's book, all of which he claimed proved that the first and basic plank in Labour's policy—the socialisation plank—still represented the direct aim of the organisation. In the socialisation of the means of production in New Zealand, the first to feel the effect would be the land, which constituted the Dominion's principal means of production. This did not mean merely farm land, but included the suburban house and section, which would be definitely jeopardised under Labour's socialising programme. The method of passing over the land to the State in New Zealand would be accomplished according to the orthodox socialist theory, as advocated by G. D. H. Cole, and others, of imposing excessive taxation and forcing the owners off, or by direct expropriation. In any event, it was agreed by Socialist authorities that the owners could not expect compensation.

Industrial enterprise in New Zealand! also would come within the orbit of Labour's Socialistic organisation. In fact, a start had already been made by the passage of the Industrial Efficiency Act, under which the Government had power to prevent any new business starting and even to squeeze out businesses which already existed. The ultimate effect would be the reduction of businesses to a point at which it would be a simple procedure for the Government to take the whole industry over. This proce*s had already begun in New Zealand —the Act had laid the foundations of Socialism and had revealed the Government's intention to crush out private enterprise altogether. A RASH EXPERIMENT. The Government's proposals to undertake the development of the iron and steel industry as a State enterprise, with a capital of £5,000,000, was a rash experiment which should have been given much deeper consideration in consultation with experts before any commitments were made. The New Zealand market for iron and steel would not keep the works going continuously, while the prospects for an export market were poor.

The trouble with the present Government, he said, was that one did not know where it was going to stop —the Prime Minister's statements that the sky was the limit possessed a cryptic note which might mean anything.

At the conclusion of the address a resolution was passed thanking Mr. Wright and "wishing the old warrior success on election day."