CONFIDENT CANDIDATE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19144, 9 October 1925, Page 11

CONFIDENT CANDIDATE.

PREDICTION OF VICTORY. MR. LEE'S OPENING SPEECH. GOVERNMENT AND FINANCE. " This is not a matter of whether Labour is going to win or lose, but of \ how large Labour's majority is going to j be," declared Mr. J. A. Lee, M.P., by | way of preface to his first address in the i Auckland East contest, delivered before j a large audience in St. Benedict's Hall | last evening. Mr. Lee mentioned that the contest was I his third in the electorate, and assured j his hearers that it would be Labour's i second victory campaign. He had secured a majority of 715 three years ago against a single opponent. He was convinced that this year Labour would poll a larger vote than ever, but he would not care to prophesy which ot his opponents would take second honours. Labour had been coming more and more into its own as the older political parties left the public more and more dissatisfied. The Reform Party had functioned for I years under a leader who, whatever might be thought of his politics had certainly been an outstanding figure. He had been succeeded by an individual who had no achievements behind him, but who was largely the creation of the press, The | newspapers, from North Cape to Bluff, looked to Mr. Coates to lead Reform out !of the wilderness. He was a fine fellow personally, but he was, of course, absolutely useless as a leader. If the Labour Party had made a big gain three years ago, how much more should it expect to gain now? Labour was getting a majority of the young people who were coming on, and also older folks who were dissatisfied with the present state of affairs. It was sure of gaining at least the Opposition benches at the corning election. Taxation and Borrowing. Mr. Lee derided what he termed the Government's so-called financial I wizardry, declaring that one could not | see the country for pawn-tickets. The ! Reform Party had been put into power | 14 years ago to check the Liberal borrowing policy, bnt in that period it had ! raised New Zealand's net national debt | from £81.000,000 to £235,000,000. adding £74,000.000 more than the debt incurred by all previous Ministries put together. He knew he would be reminded that there had been a war. When the war broke out the incomes assessable for income tax amounted to £13.000,000. The "profiteering" class in the war trebled its receipts, while the soldier I had to face shot and shell at less than I the normal wage. | If the Government had taxed surplus | war profits and placed the burden where j it should have been placed there would I have been no need to increase the national debt in order to pay for the war. Furthermore, the country would have to pay £211.000,000 in interest on the war debt of £81,000,000, and even when all that had been paid the debt would still be owing. Mr. Lee accused the Government of following a Micawber policy bv renewing expiring loans at increasing rates of interest. Such a policy, he said, increased the country's indebtedness. In fact, it caused the debt to grow like a snowball. Such was the Reform Party's financial wizardry." Dealing with taxation, the candidate denounced tjie reduction of income tax on the largest incomes from 8s 9d to 4s 6d in the £, and the abolition of income fax on land, whereby a large class of squatters" was freed from all income tax. In the past four years the Government had reduced land and income tax by from £8.000.000 to £12,000.000. In the same time it had increased the customs duties by £2.100.000. and had reduced wages by £16.000.000. Basic Wage Compared. New Zealand had more wealth per capita than the Commonwealth, yet now the basic wage of £4 Is a week, which some people were not to get for two years, was the lowest in Australasia. One of the Government's excuses was that big business was languishing, bnt one concern, the South British Insurance Company, had paid original shareholders back their money ten times in ten years, and still left them with an asset worth £6O for every £lO invested. Yet enterprises like this had their taxes reduced. The wage-earners had theirs increased. Such things would continue to happen till the people sweep the Reform Government out of existence. The Reform Party had gone steadily from blunder to blunder, As a cure for j the high cost of living it bad urged more production. That had failed, and then it had reduced wages. Finally it had struck a real remedy—to reduce taxation, but had applied it "to the wrong people, namely, the wealthy. The" basic wage had just been raised by the Arbitration Court, which had probablv received orders to create a favourable election atmosphere. The Reform manifesto hinted .-at. future proposals for helping workers with more than two children. The annual report of the Labour Department showed what these proposals probably would be —to take 7s fid a week from the wages of the worker and put it into a fund for the benefit of the children. Reform wanted to find the money by robbing the workers. Labour proposed to find it by taxing wealth. Free Medical Treatment. In.an explanation of the Labour Party's programme, Mr. Lee said that Labour stood for absolutely free medical and hospital treatment. (Applause.) It did not believe that when sickness descended upon •a family that family should be saddled with extra expense. The war had shown that a large proportion of the male population had been physically unfit, largely owing to lack of medical care in their earlier lives. Last year an examination of school children had revealed that 89 per cent, were defective in some way, and over 40 per cent, had structural defects. The Minister for Health, Sir Maui Pomare, had stated that at an additional charge of 5s per capita, yielding rather over £200,000 a year, it would be possible to make all public hospitals free institutions. The Government had now decided to spend £200,000 a year more on guns and armaments. It had" the money to make the hospitals free, yet it failed to do so. Mr. Lee referred to the high New Zea - land rate of maternal mortality. He attributed it to the hard conditions under which many women in town and countrv had to live in the present state of New Zealand. The Government was taking I £7,000,000 a year from the people for interest on the war debt, but it. refused to ! find £20,000 for research into the causes of infantile paralysis. "People say. 'What's wrong with the Government?' " he remarked. " I say, ' What's wrong with the people? How long will they stand it?'" Acquisition of Estates. The Labour land policy was to acquire the 1080 estates over £20,000 n\ New Zealand for closer settlement by working farmers. It did not affect anyone with less than £20,000 worth of property, except that if a man had no home, the Labour Government would see that he got one. * The candidate caused some diversion by producing the recent Reform full-page advertisement tearing Mr. Coates' portrait and pinning it to the wall beside, the stage "Beautiful, isn't it?" he remarked. "You would think everything in the garden was lovely." He recited a list of Reform's sins of omission and commission. "What a fine manly brow!" he said, indicating Mr. Coates' portrait. "The man who reads that will say, 'l'll accept my wage reduction with a smile. All's right with the world. I don't care if I live in a hen-house.' " In conclusion, the candidate declared that Labour could not possibly cause as much of the threatened harm and bloodshed in a hundred years as its opponents had caused in the four years of the late war. Its aim was to make life better and fuller for all who worked in field or factory, with brain or with brawn. Mr. Lee was accorded a vote of thanks and confidence, amid loud cheers for the , Laboar Party.