MANAWATU EVENING STANDARD Circulation, 3,200 Copies Daily. SATURDAY, NOV. 25, 1905. AN ELECTION CRY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8150, 25 November 1905, Page 4

MANAWATU EVENING STANDARD Circulation, 3,200 Copies Daily. SATURDAY, NOV. 25, 1905. AN ELECTION CRY.

EiEGUtAHLY with every election the Seddon Government and its blind followers raise the cry that one of the planks of their platform is reduction of customs taxation. This year we have the Premier saying, in a desperate effort to consolidate the votes of the workers, that he will reduce the tax on tobacco. It is on the workers that the customs taxation presses heaviest since ifc increases the cost of foo^d and clothing of a man and his family". "We have to judge the value of the Government's professions of its concern for the mass of the people by its actions. And what do we find when the facts are considered: The result of customs taxation is that the cost of living has been increased since 1597. It is estimated that in that year the average wage of an artisan would have purchased food for sixteen persons. In 1905 the average wage of an artisan wjll only purchase food for eleven persons." _In ten years the customs taxation has been increased from one and a half millions to two and a half millions in the aggregate. The customs taxation is increasing at a ratio altogether out of proportion to the increase in population. In 1597 the customs revenue amounted to £2 13s per head of the population. In 1901 £'3 2s 9cl was the average collection from each person in JN Tew Zealand. There are many in the ranks of the workers who intend to cast their votes for Government candidates because they honestly believe that the Government has done well by the workers. Their honesty of purpose must be respected, but they ought before casting Iheir votes to give their earnest consideration to the figures quoted in this article. It is the prevailing nr prcssion, subtly fostered by Mr Seddon and his followers, that Seddonian legislation has raised the labourers' wages. Yet it is absolutely certain that the Government's extravagance, mal-adininistra-tion and spoils-to-the-victors policy has surely increased the cost or living. To

carry on its prodigal administration the Seddon. Government has wanted money and it has taken that money out of the pockets of those least able to pay it. Ithas used the Customs tax as a means for continuing in office by providing the money to satisfy the demands of gross extravagance and reckless expenditureAnd now election time is here. We have Government candidates talking about " free breakfast tables " and " reducing the customs on the necessaries of life." How long, we wonder, will the workers allow themselves to be gulled by such obvious electioneering ? Is it not time that the Government capable of such tactics made way for an Administration more likely to deal honestly with the people of New Zealand?