LABOUR AND POLITICS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8740, 23 May 1914, Page 5

LABOUR AND POLITICS

OTAGO COUNCIL ENUNCIATES A PLATFORM. ■ Press Association.,; DUNEDIN, May 22. At a meeting of the Otago Labour Council last night, methods were adopted for nominating Labour candidates., A political platform was also adopted. Amongst its planks are the following:—lncrease in the graduated land tax; a graduated income-tax based on. scientific principles, with a Super-tax on ail unearned incomes; a graduated absentee tax; total abolition of the Customs duties on all necessaries which cannot bo produced in the Dominion; the restrictions of com. pulsory training to males between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one years; reduction of the military expenditure by increasing the facilities for training citizen volunteers over twenty-one years of age; the prevention of the use -of the Arbitration Act to form bogus unions; tho Arbitration Court to deliver judgments when making awards; agreements arrived at by Councils ot Conciliation to be accepted wholly by tho Arbitration Court and made into awards, except such provisions as are in conflict with statute law; further, to make it mandatory that the Arbitration Court shall make an award ia every industrial dispute brought before'it; deletion of the “pecuniary gain” clause, to enable all wageearners to have their conditions reviewed by the Arbitration Court; full recognition of unionism as the basis of arbitration in the industrial law, and tho consequent membership of all men engaged in an industry.