LABOUR POLICY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 8 August 1924, Page 5

LABOUR POLICY

extremists denounced. WHERE MR ISITT STANDS. l (BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION.} WELLINGTON, Aug. 7. The. reasons why he would support the Government rather than let extreme Labour get into power or see the Liberals in office depending on Labour support, were outlined by Mr L. M. Isitt, who was elected as' Liberal member for Christchurch North, in the House to-day. Mr Isitt said he did not regret the position he took up six years ago. Ho did not want to see the Premier put out of office, nor did he wish to see a. dissolution. He could not see whatgood could come out of an election at this time. No party could possibly hope to come back with a- definite majority, and the result would only make the confusion worse confounded. He then proceeded to denounce the extreme Labour policy, and said he could not possibly associate himself "'ith the extreme Labour Party, whose official organ had expressed the hope that the Irish revolution was the beginning of the disintegration of the Empire, and the party who sent a cable to Lenin, who, while he professed democracy, murdered his opponents. The fighting platform of the Labour Party affirmed four things,, viz.— strikes, shorter hours, higher wages, and less production. That simply spelt mnacy, for no country could possibly nourish on a programme of that kind. Even _Mr E. G. Theodore, the Labour Premier of Queensland, had refused to sanction a 44-hour week, because it would cost £160,000 annually. That was the sobering effect of responsibility, and when the Labour Party in New Zealand talked of the confiscation of interest they no doubt did so because they had no responsibility. Mr Isitt declared that the Labour Party had no faith in God, no lovo of conntry no pride of self, no pride in thrift and no pride in industry. Their policy of “go slow” tended to make martyrs of those who followed it. It was th'e policy and teaching of the • Labour I artyr to which he was opposed. Towards the members of the party he held no personal animosity. Mr D. G. Sullivan (Labour member foi Avon) said the Labour Party in New Zealand had no relation whatever to the policy of Bolshevism in Russia.