THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19142, 7 October 1925, Page 13

THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN.

MS. JORDAN AT PANMUBE, HARD WORK AS MEMBER. RESPECT FOR HIS OPPONENT. LABOUR'S LAND POLICY. The Labour member for Manukau, Mr. W. J. Jordan, addressed u well-attended meeting at Pamnure last night. Mr. P. Mai one presided. Mr. Jordan said he had.done his bestin the interests of his electorate and its people, without regard to party politics. If anyone considered that he had shown any paitv bias in local matters lie would like to be challenged with it in open meeting. Some members claimed to be not professional politicians, because they did not need to live upon their salaries. It seemed to him that such men wore professional, at all events in the sense that they took the mone >" own experience was thai }..* had no time for anything but his Parliamentary duties, which occupied him 365 days in the year. " However," he said, " 1 give you notice, as my employers, that it I am returned after this election I intend to take a fortnight's holiday." (Applause). After remarking that so far he had escaped having his personal character attacked in the electorate, Mr. Jordan said it had been suggested in Wellington that he as a Labour member had been connected in some way with a Socialist Sunday School where, it was alleged, the children were made to sing blasphemous hymns. The whole allegation about the school was confined to a pamphlet entitled " Warning against Christianity." The cubjeet-matter of the pamphlet turned out to have originated in ill-founded rumours current in Australia. Ultimately he and a representative of a women's organisation discovered, by diligent search, a Socialist Sunday School in Auckland. A surprise visit proved that the hymn book used in the school was entirely innocuous^ Money for Campaign. In a reference to the present contest, Mr. Jordan said he had every respect for his opponent, and hoped that so far as Labour supporters were concerned everything would be carried through in the most orderly v ay. If there should be any disorder, he hoped he would not be blamed. He did not propose to spend any large sum of money on the campaign. One thing that had struck him was the large sums the Reform Party was spending on its organisation. He had been surprised a few days ago to read that at a meeting held in the Manawatu district lately it had been stated that no workingman was being ;isked to pay a subscription, so that all. who desired to help the Reform cause might join in. He could say definitely that he was not a member of any organisation outside New Zealand, and that in the past three years he had received nothing whatever except his Parliamentary salary. The contest this year was one of policies. The Labour Party was working for the good of New Zealand. The Reform Party was working in the interests of capital, not only New Zealand capital but aho that owned abroad and invested in New Zealand. The reduction in income tax, which benefited mainly the large financial institutions, had amounted to £2,221,456, between 1922 and last year, ■while in the same period customs duties, which bore heaviest on the wage-earners, had increased £2,315,925. The Govern- i ment had simply reduced one tax at the expense of another. View ol Shipping Strike. Referring briefly to the shipping trouble he said he regretted it very much indeed. "Strikes and talk of strikes are about as silly as war," he declared. "Some other method of settling industrial disputes, or rather of preventing them, should be adopted." It was worth noting, however, that the P. and O- Company had paid 12 per cent., and each £IOO share was quoted at £285 on the Stock Exchange. Mr. Jordan declared that most of the present troubles were due to the Government's failure to deal effectively with the settlement of people in New Zealand. Earl Jellicoe had been about England saying there was plenty of room in the Dominion for people who were willing to go on to the land. In January last there v?ere 80,599 fewer acres of usable land in occupation than one year previously. In the same period 2681 fewer persons were employed on the land and 4000 more in secondary industries, while 9000 persons over 15 years of age entered New Zealand as permanent residents. Obviously some of them must have- joined the unemployed. In conclusion, Mr. Jordon said the Prime Minister was a fine fellow, but the fame firm was carrying on under Lis leadership. One deputation hiid addressed him for an hour and a-half lately, and then Sir Francis Beil had answered it. The candidate denied that he was connected in any way with the Communist Party, which had been refused admittance to the New Zealand Labour Party at its last conference. He believed thathy constitutional methods through Parliament New Zealand might be made the happy and prosparous country which its fertility entitled it to be. Asked whethnr he had not been in favour of dropping the Labour land policy, Mr. Jordan said it could not be tiropped, or Labour would be like Reform—without a land policy. _ He had taid that some provisions of the policy, a.s generally understood, were able. By this he meant that the policy was to extend to town sections and the homes ol the pueple. The real effect of the policy was that large estates must be j broken up and settled by working farmers. The candidate was accorded a vote of thanks for his address anu for his past services.