"PRACTICAL POLITICS.”

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 29, 17 January 1912, Page 3

"PRACTICAL POLITICS.”

MR. WITHY ON PROTECTION TA RIEES. Mr. Arthur Withy addressed a tneeting under the auspices of the Hastings branch of Hie New Zealand Labour Party, in the Council Chambers last evening on practical politics for the people. About sixty people were present, .and Mr. A. H. Robson presided. In the coUr-e- of his re-marks, Mr. Withy said it. was time attention was given to politics affecting the bulk i f the people- of New Zealanel. The •ost of living was far greater than it ought to be. wages were lower and for every shilling spent the- eon-s-.’.mei- received only about ninepence value in return. This meant that wages were 'reduced liy taxes. Although many workers thought the ip'i-csent, Customs tariff was in their interests such was not the case. It placed th e power in the hands of the manufacturers, and kept down the rate of wages. The wages in the protected industries were more than in the nori-protected industries. In the building trade wages wore /airly :iigh because it was not possible to import such a thing as a house, but ie heavy taxes on boots and shoes prevented decent wages being paid in this class of labour. The taxes on •voollen goods placed a burden on die public amounting fo .£69,000 more than that paid in wages by the whole industry, and the tax on flour was equal to ,£lOO,OOO more han all the wages paid in the flourmilling industry in New Zealand. The tax on clothing burdened the rnoplc with a tax of over £360,000 above the wages paid bv the iitdusry. When this was the case it -.hovved that protective tariff was a vastcful way of protecting indusies. If protective tariffs were abolished and in their place State bonuses were given equal to the ’mount paid in wages, the result

r>’i]d be that instead of an jnrrea?e in prices there would be a considerable reduction. In three out of four industries the manufacturers would 2,ct more State aid than at present •d the cost would be less to th? iccple. State, aid by means of bonuses would guarantee workers getting the benefit, because before he bonuses were given it would be mde a condition that workers were to receive a reasonable wage and

cork reasonable hours. At the preent time in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Germany and in England, vhere there was a heavy tax on the necessaries of life the worker was in the position of being squeezed beween the labour landlord and the monopolist and these must be got id of. It had been said that the present system of taaxtion in New caland was a fair and just one, and hat it places the burden on the shoulders best able to bear it. But protective tariffs hit hard the necesaries of life and it was absurd to say the worker is best able to bear this tax. The Customs tariff for rears past had been at the rate of ibout £3 per head of the population, with an average family of five persons. The average wage of the work* ng man in New Zealand was fiom 5 - to £2/10/- per week or about £l2O per year. This worked out that every worker has his yearly Gainings'reduced by £l5 in taxation, or at the rate of one-eighth m the £■ What, the speaker asked, would the rich man have to say if they were made subject to an income tax of 2 6 in the £’■ The Customs tax was even greater because the wholesale man charged the retailer bosoms duty and a margin o profit, and the retailer charged the consumer, the wholesale man s profit. Customs duty, and a profit tor himself. This totalled about -10 per een t., or 36 in the £. When the worker paid taxes indirectly he diet net realise what he was doing, but if he had to pay a direct income tax of sixpence in the .£, which he real!.' , did pay indirectly by way of Customs. there would be a revolution. The bulk of the Customs revenue came from the necessaries of life. It a heavy working man's income | tax, graduated the wrong way and: put on the wrong shoulders. He did not believe in abolishing State aid to industries, but it should be in a cheaper form, which would guarantor better wages for workers. (Applauic.) At-the present time i'

one-third more to build a house than t should, owing to the tax on timber and the consequence was that ■ent was one-third higher than it should be. The reason for the inireascd cost of living was land monopoly. The Hon. George Fowlds had shown in a speech delivered at Grey Lynn in October last that the inc-ame-d increment during th? past 10 years had been increased by over £6,600.000 per year, making a total )f over .£16.090.000. which the vvork'•rs of New Zealand were’ worth to .he land monopolists. But the nionipolist was worth nothing to the vorkcr. The land held by large aolilers had increased in value at the rate of £3,000.000 re:- year during .he past 2:> years, which was accounted for by the fact that the Go-.-ernntent had borrowed and spent £43.000,000 in public works. The 'and tax amounted to £600,00'0 per wear, while the workers contributed £3.000,000, showing that five times the amount of taxation came out of the earnings of the workers than out af the unearned increment. It was about time the land tax was increased, and the Hon. George Fowlds' proposal was to make an increase of one penny in the £ on land values. This would return an extra £626,000 mil mean a reduction of 18 9 per head in the cost of living, or 93 9 m the average family 7 of five. In answer to a question, Mr. Withy said he was not altogether apposed to the system of assisting immigrants to New Zealand, but he did not believe in too much assisttnce being given. New Zealand should be made such a country that immigrants would come out without icing assisted. At the request of the chairman, Mr H. H. Hill, of .Naoiir. briefly addressed the meeting. Air. Hill strongly urged on the workers the need of working unitedly, and said ..hat at the recent elections they had had an object lesson in the necessity of such a state of affairs. In a recent issue of the Hawke’s Bay "Tribune” he had read an address delivered by the Dean of St. Paul’s, London, and could not help feeling sorry that the speaker uid not know more about the conditions of labour in his own country. If he had been where he (Mr. Hill) had visited during his recent trip to the Old Country, he would see how the workers were exploited in the black country. A hen he (the speaker) saw eight girls making from 5060 to 6000 buckets weekly and receiving a weeklywage of about £2 between them, he iiicl not think the slaves who built the pyramids of Egypt were worse created, and he asked himself, was this going to happen in New Zealand I Almost, everything was the output of the working man’s intelligence (applause), and why was he not paid for it I Mr. Hill, who ban to leave by the 9.20 p.m. train f- X pier, concluded by wishing the Labour movement in Hastings (>oilspeed.”

On the motion of Messis. E. Stevenson and Moulton, the following resolution was passed : —"That tlie Hastings Labour party deeply regrets the defeat of such democrats as Messrs. Fowlds. Hogg. McLaren, and Bedford at the recent elections, and strongly 7 urges the adoption of proportional representation, and an immediate reduction in the. 'cost of living by substantially reducing railway freights and Customs taxes on nectsarises, and taxing land values instead.”

A further resolution was passed, “That this meeting requests the Press Association to convey this resolution to the newspapers.” Mr. Gavin Allan, organiser for the Hastings branch, explained the platform of tlie Labour [’arty, and after a number of new members were enrolkd the meeting terminated.