CAMPAIGN SPARKS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 27 October 1925, Page 10

CAMPAIGN SPARKS.

POINTS FROAI THE SPEECHES

In answer to an interjection, Air. S. Oldfield, Government candidate, caused some laughter at one of his meetings in Auckland by saying the planks of the Labour Party’s , platform were lull ot Bolshevik borer. . , , ‘ < The ideal that should be aimed at is a basic wage of £6 a week for every member of the community.’ —Air. H. E. Combs, Labour-Socialist candidate for Wellington North.

In an address given by Air. AI. L. Lyons, Reform candidate for Lyttelton, at Pigeon Bay, he said that the aims of of the Labour Party might be well illustrated by the story of a Scotsman in hospital. Sandy was sick unto death and made a last dying request that he should be permitted to hear the skirl of the pipes again before he was gathered to his fathers. A piper was obtained and Sandy lived, but all the other patients died. 1 The Labour Party wish(*d to attain their ends at the expense oi all the other sections of the community without regard to whether the cause is just or not. i

Addressing a crowded meeting at South Invercargill, Sir Joseph Ward dealt with what he called the * lying malicious rumours” circulated. The latest, about the eighth, was one told by a supporter of his of high standing, who had been asked to take part in a meeting of Air. Hargest’s supporters. He was told that even now there was a probability that Sir Joseph Ward would not go to the poll; Sir Joseph Waid would pull out because Air. Coates had been approached to offer him a seat in the Upper House. Sir Joseph gave that a straight denial. Air. Coates would not send him to the Legislative Council. It was well known he could have gone there six months after his retirement. No friend would make such a statement. He did not object to criticism, but detested untrue rumours.

“There are working men who vote against their own interests, otherwise the Reform Government would not be in .charge of the Treasury benches today. I have met one or two of these, who even complain bitterly of what the Government has done for them, and yet they vote for our opponents. They remind me of the nigger’s dog. It was howling vigorously, and a stranger asked the owner what was the matter with it. ‘lt’s tired,’ said the nigger. ‘Tired'?’ queried the stranger. ‘Yes, it’s tired. It’s sitting on a thistle and is too tired to stand up.’ ” —Air. H. E. Combs (Wellington North).

According to Air. J. AleKenzie, Labour candidate for the Wallace electorate, -people who own shops at present will not be out of work if Labour comes into power. It would be much better if the State took over the importing of all goods and sold them to the people at reasonable prices, he told an audience recently. The Labour Party had been asked what it would do with the middlemen. • It would utilise them as managers of State trading concerns.

Every baby that arrives this year has to meet a national liability of £4 per head more than last year’s newcomer, and to-day the newcomer starts life with a handicap of £l5B ,15s as against £76 Os 3d thirteen years ago'. To-day ’s arrival will not have any brothers or sisters if we allow these conditions to continue. We are still suffering from the years that the locust hath eaten, and it is the duty of every citizen to cast aside the party chains and to support national ideals and a united people. —Air. R. Cobbo (N.), Feilding.

Speaking in Alasterton, Air. G. R. Sykes related having recently visited the Mangahao construction works, where, he said, there was a splendid class of men engaged.- The men swore by the engineers and the engineers swore by the men. They were doing wonderful work, they were a happy family, and there was not a grouser in the camp. This, he claimed, was due largely to the conditions provided for the men by the. Alinister of Public Works (the Hon. J. G. Coates), who was a leader of men and respected men.

Is the candidate in favour of adjusting the cuts made in 1921 and 1922 from the salaries of civil servants, seeing that the cost of living index figures now justify the salaries' paid prior to the reduction being restored?—To a certain degree I, am. I believe all are worthy of better pay than they are receiving.—Mr. G.-E. ,Sykes (R.), Masterton.

The candidate said he had been a lifelong teetotaller, and also a non-smoker. He had always found Mr. ' Coates a splendid business man, always with a straightout answer, and no nonsense about him. Given a progressive majority of members in the new House, he was confident Mr. Coates was capable of producing a much better legislative programme for the benefit of the country than that outlined in the Reform manifesto. However, he did not think that some - others in the Cabinet had the same progressive spirit as Mr. Coates. He was satisfied, there were other good men in the Reform Party besides Mr. Coates, and he wished to see a fusion of the most capable men in Parliament. —Mr. T. Lam out (N.), Waitemata.

Mr. Statham went on to say that it was his earnest desire to keep clear of party politics, during the present election. Such a course made his position a difficult one, but die felt that as one who had the privilege and the honour of being Speaker in the last Parliament, and who hoped to hold the same position in the next, it was better that ho should not become embroiled in any party strife. In England it had become an unwritten rule that the Speaker should not be opposed in his own constituency. That tradition was not being followed in the present election, but although he felt somewhat at a disadvantage it was a free country, and he had no complaint to make.—Mr. C. E. Statham (I.), Speaker, Dunedin Central.

The government proposes, as soon as prices arc sufficiently stabilised, to ac-j quire estates for closer settlement. "If might be necessary,’’ said the Prime Minister in one of his speeches, "to employ the compulsory clauses of the Act. I hear some people ask why we do not employ these clauses now, and they say it is because we arc frightened of the big landowners. Wo are not frightened at all, but we realise /that it is not a bit of use putting men on land except at a price at which they can make a living off the land.’’

"There are only two parties contesting this election, Reform and Labour,’’ said Mr. W. Lee Martin, Labour candidate for / Hamilton, speaking at * Tauwharo. "Every particle of the old Liberal Party has gone, even to the name, and after November 4 they will have ceased to be a factor in the political life of this country.’’

Reform had failed to extend a square deal to the workers, and had failed ignominiously to carry out its promises. For fourteen years, with a minority of the people behind it, the Reform Party had been able through intrigue, wirepulling, and the help of a handful of socalled Liberals to carry on in office. Today that party was facing the biggest disaster that had ever faced a political party in Jsew Zealand. Not all the influence of wealth or anything else could now stop the march of the Labour Party to the Treasury Benches. —Mr. M. Connelly (L.), Chalmers.

“I am not a Bolshevik, nor a Socialist, but a Thinker,” said Mr. E. J* Howard, an Independent Liberal candidate, to his audience the: other evening at Mataura. There was no chairman. There were no questions, and Mr. Howard remarked that a paper at Wyndham had declared that he had concluded his address, in that township, with a comic song. "There was nothing comical about ‘Memories,’ ” quoth he, lifting, his voice in song The singing candidate sang the first verse of the touching ballad with ease, but, in the second, pitched nis key too high and broke down. ‘‘Although I don’t think I’ll win,” said Mr. Howard at the conclusion, of his effort, ‘‘l think it will be a good advertisement for me.” ,

‘‘A man with £4OO a year and two children pays £5 9s 6d income-tax in New South Wales, £5 7s in Victoria, £5 2s 8d in Queensland, and in South Australia £7 19s sd; and yet in New Zealand he pays nothing. On the top of that my opponent says that the Government is legislating in the interests of the wealthy only.”—Mr. W. E. Leadley, Christchurch.

Mr. F. N. Bartram (Labour candidate for Grey Lynn), at his meeting on Wednesday evening indulged his love of the lighter vein, when making reference to the rowdy reception accorded Miss Melville on Tuesday evening by Labour enthusiasts. ‘‘l want to appeal to my Labour friends not to heckle her, ” he said. ‘‘Give her a good show, hear all she has to say, judge her .policy, and then vote accordingly. I have to thank Grey Lynn audiences, both friends and foes, for the exceedingly courteous treatment they have always accorded me, and I want them to extend that treatment to the plucky little woman who me.” Of course, this brought down the house, and it will rank as one of the. best jokes of the campaign. ‘‘Little lady” was good, superlatively good, especially from Mr. Bartram, who is by no means a Goliath himself, and the audience rocked with delight. His apparent seriousness made the joke all the more palatable.

“If it had not been for* outside influence there would have been no shipping strike,” said Mr. Dunbar Sloane, Reform candidate for Welling, ton Central. “The result has been poverty and distress, and this always will be the result for those who listen to these evil influences.” In reply to a question as to the cause of strikes the candidate said they were due to the influence of people who roamed around the world using the workmen for their own ends —the Labour agitators. ;