MR. TOOP'S CAMPAIGN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 66, 15 September 1943, Page 7

MR. TOOP'S CAMPAIGN

"LABOUR ON DEFENSIVE"

The Labour Party was on the defensive, it had obviously lost its confidence, and the party followers had lost their enthusiasm, said ~Mr. E. R. Toop, National Party candidate for Wellington South, at a well-attended meeting in the Newtown School on Monday night. The meeting was enthusiastic, and a vote of confidence in Mr. Toop was accepted without dissent.

Mr. Toop traversed at some length the policy of the National Party, showing the clear divergence between that policy and the policy outlook of the Labour Party. He said he would refuse to be jjrawn by his opponent's personal attacks, which were only in, keeping with the usual intolerance and gangster tactics of the Labour «Party. Intimidation by the big bosses, such as the Nathan incident and the more recent Scrimgeour brawl, was what the Labour Party stood for, and he was confident that on election day the people would show their intolerance of such degrading incidents. "The Labour Party are annoyed because I talk so much of freedom," said Mr. Toop. "Their conscience hurts them because they know that true Labour leaders of the past always held high the torch of liberty and freedom." The Labour Party of New Zealand was Labour in name only; its policy of control and regimentation was at variance with the outlook of Labour in Britain.

"The Labour Party's rent-in-per-petuity policy was in effect a cancellation of the . social security benefits, because more than the benefit would be required to pay the rent. The National Party's policy would enable homes to be bought at no greater outgoings than present rentals, and in old age there would be no rent to pay."