Grey River Argus MONDAY, May 2nd, 1932. MAY DAY.

Grey River Argus, 2 May 1932, Page 4

Grey River Argus MONDAY, May 2nd, 1932. MAY DAY.

Less than a generation ago within this country the significance of May Day was for the general public no more than the free and unfettered public declaration of the rights and wrongs of Labour. There used, at the same time, to come from overseas the echo of something more than a mere verbal assertion of those rights, when the ruling class used the force behind the law to check the demonstrations of the proletariat. It was in New Zealand as elsewhere affirmed at that time that unless the denials of distributive justice inherent in modern indistrial capitalism were remedied, and the power of monopoly checked, the suffering in those countries most sebverted to industrial slavery would inevitably extend to those countries which then were least subject to such condition. To-day in New Zealand it is not difficult to see the vindication and proof of the prophecy that re-echoed from many a Maj’ Day platform in the Dominion. Not only is the hardship, the want and the unrest present, but in the meantime the State has passed a law designed precisely to cope with demonstrations, the inspiration of which is no longer onlj’ an apprehension as to the possibilities of want that the future may hold, but <a perception that poverty stark and undisguised is rampant in our midst. Where the communities that used to be quoted as the worst example stood in the last generation, this young country, it is sad to have to confess, stands to-day. A member of the New Zealand Labour Party draws a comparison between the emergence of extreme want in New Zealand and the existence for a long time past of submerged classes in other lands, classes in parts of America and South Africa which are denominated “poor whites,” people who have lost much of their self-respect and their will to wage the battle of life, who simply don’t care, and have become virtual outcasts. At the Cape, he says, these number an eighth of the European ele-

ment, who are below the social level even of the black natives, and whose like in the Southern States of America have similarly ranked for decades on a par with the black element also. That_the past demonstrations on a day such as this in New Zealand have not been very wide of the mark, but have been authentic manifestations of a truth that deserved speedier and fuller recognition has been already borne out on all sides by what has come to pass in the Dominion. Those hitherto disinterested should, therefore, regard with less scepticism and aloofness on this occasion the gathering of working class crowds to give united expression not only to their feelings, hopes and aspirations for the welfare of their class, but likewise to their discontent at the manifest denial and rejection to which their rights have been subjected repeatedly in very recent years by" the powers that be. The distribution of wealth is becoming unquestionably less and less fair and even in the Dominion, and now there are tens of thousands who are propertyless and unemployed, and for whom the spokesmen of wealth and employerdom would decree a lower standard of living than has ever before been seen since the first days of our colonisation. In the face of such a prospect, it is no sinister sign when the unemployed and other workers foregather in order to hold up for all a true picture of the situation. It is rather a proof that the proletariat have refused to lose heart, and are determined not to sink into a state of dejection and to accept for the future a state of existence such as gave meaning to that saying, “the submerged tenth.” In the absence of any attempt to better permanently the lot of the poor, those in possession of the means of subsistence cannot complain if there is a strong condemnation of their control or use of the means of wealth production, and especially of the money that represents the product of labour, nor rightly rely upon pure repression when their philosophy and their attitude towards the wage earners is challenged. It is for them rather to take heed than turn a deaf ear. In every instance where interests of traders, primary producers and other commercial classes are involved, there are organised agitations for special State consideration, and it is given every time. Economic as well as political considerations have on the other hand, been allowed by the Government to come between the working class and their rights, until a spokesman of the administration is not ashamed to acknowledge the State is no longer paying for work done any semblance of a fair wage, but that the object aimed at is only to prevent the dissolution of soul and body. Be Parliamentary majorities ever so subsequent, there is still such a force as that of public opinion, apd the object of to-day’s demonstration is an appeal in that direction. It is not when such an appeal is made that anything in the nature of what occurred at Auckland is to be feared, but only when there is a use of legal force to prevent any such appeal beingmade. The Government will thus be well advised to take seriously the manifestations of injustice that are to-day being made, and either make an honest effort to remedy it, or let somebody else do so.