COMMUNISTIC DOCUMENT

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11438, 7 February 1923, Page 5

COMMUNISTIC DOCUMENT

A MAGISTRATE’S COMMENT. “A NOXIOUS WEED.” In fining a Communist Party member £25 for selling “The A B O of Communism,” Mr Poynton, S.M. (Auckland), referred thus to the document:— “ ‘The A B C of Communism’ was, from beginning to end, a sustained appeal to class hatred and violence for the overthrow of the present condition of society. It distorted historical and contemporary facts to Suit propaganda and was the 6ort of rubbish that would make rabid fanatics of ignorant persons or those with a mental ‘kink.’ ” , Referring to the claims of the hook, Mr Poynton said that what might be a necessary purge in pre-war Russia would he fatal in this country. Nowhere else were the people so well off. We had no ruling class. For the last thirty years our public /men in the highest political position had nearly all been workers in their early manhood, A list of the Ministers, as well as Prime Ministers, for longer than that period would show the opportunities that the workers (the proletariat) had in this country. “Any poor child may reach the highest position in New Zealand;” said Mr Poynton. “All the heads of the great State departments began in very humble positions, and many of them are the sons of workers. The poorest child in New Zealand, through our education system and generous scholarships, can advance rapidly to any position he is by nature fitted for. Most of our wealthy men (the hated ‘capitalists’) were also once poor, and many actually workers. AVe have no ‘bourgeoisie,’ and will not tolerate ‘dictatorship’ by any ‘class.’ As for the difference of laws favouring one class, in this country they certainly favour the poor. “We know what has recently been attempted by the believers in the plans .advocated by the writers of this book in South Africa and other countries. We see in Ireland the consequences of a minority trying to impose its will by force on a majority. Literature of thiß kind is like a noxious weed, wholly out of place here. The constitution of the New Zealand Communist Party shows that the false and brutal teachings of the' authors of the larger book have been assimilated by the party. “The overthrow of the capitalist State,” concluded Mr Poyton, “on the lines advocated in the ‘A B O,’ which the party hod sponsored, meant the confiscation of every bit of property owned by each individual New Zealander, and the putting to death of all who resisted.’’