THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1914. THE REFORM PARTY AND LABOUR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16243, 28 November 1914, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1914. THE REFORM PARTY AND LABOUR.

The Reform party has been subjected to so much misrepresentation by its political opponents that ifc may not bo wholly surprising if a good many electors, particularly among the working classes, whom the Opposition has been industriously courting, have formed a somewhat erroneous judgment upon its performances. " What has the Massey Government done for the working class?" asks a woman elector in the Wakatipu district, from whom we publish a short letter this morning. " Nothing " is the reply this correspondent returns to her own question. We venture gently to suggest to her that the conclusion at which she has arrived is distinctly unjust and must have been formed upon an imperfect knowledge of the facts. Possibly she will modify her verdict if we remind her of a few of tho acts of the Government during its brief period of office under conditions, it must be remembered, of very great difficulty. We hope that our correspondent may not suffer the experience of being left a widow in circumstances that admit of her claiming a pension. If, however, she were to be placed in that position, she would be able, as the result of legislation introduced and passed by the Massey Government, to receive a pension five years earlier than was the case under the law that was in force when the Reform party came into power. In other words, pensions are payable to widows at 60 years of age instead of, as previously, at 65 years. In addition to this the law relating to women's pensions has been made of a more liberal character in the particular that a pension is now payable to a widow, who is otherwise qualified to receive it, ' in respect of at least four children under 14 years of age. For this extension of the widows' pension scheme the Massey Government is responsible. The woman elector who says that the Government has done nothing for the working classes must have forgotten this legislation in the interest of her own sex. She may further be reminded that the Massey Government is responsible for the enactment of a law which exempts a worker's chattels tip to the value of £50 from liability to be distrained for nonpayment of rent, the amount of the exemption having previously been limited to £25. Legislation entitling assistants in hotels and restaurants to the benefit of a six days' week and providing for the better accommodation of shearers, agricultural labourers, and flaxmill workers stands also to the credit of the present Government. To the Reform Administration is due, further, the enactment of legislation under which Crown defenders are provided for persons who are without means, and it is responsible for the establishment of pensions for military veterans.

The correspondent who declares that the Government has done nothing for the ■working classes'' has forgotten the increases of salaries and wages that have been received during the past two years by the members of some of the more poorly paid branches of the public service. . It is estimated that iu the case of railway servants the increase involves a total additional payment of £120,000 per annum; in the case of public school teachers, an additional annual payment of £150,000; in the case of the postal and telegraph service an additional payment of £42,000; and in the case of the police an additional payment of £18,000 per annum. Nor have other branches of the Civil Service been overlooked, for a minimum salary of £140 for married men has now been established. The activity which the Reform Government has manifested in the erection of workers' dwellings furnishes another illustration of the unfairness of the allegation that it has " done nothing for the working classes." While the Ward Government erected 210 workers' homes in six years, the Reform Govern-

nient erected 395 in its first two years of office.. We are entitled to add that the abolition of political patronage in respect of the Civil Service and the enactment of a measure under which the Legislative Council will become a body responsible to the whole uf the people, .since it will be elected by the whole of the people, are measures that are for the benefit of the working classes. Moreover, this list might bo extended. One other enactment only need, however, be mentioned. It is ail enactment which is most distinctly in the interests of the wives and families of working men. Wc refer to the Act under which an unregistered union cannot legally participate in a strike unless notice of the intention to strike has been given and unless the workers have by a secret ballot expressed themselves favourable to a strike. A " Red" Federationist of the class that is now allied with the Opposition in an effort to oust the Government from office has described the secret ballot as 'the refuge of cowards," but the wives of working men, who know how frequently their husbands have reluctantly been forced into participation in a strike, will be disposed to regard the ballot as a safeguard of their liberties. With this record of the work of the Reform Government, in so far as it affects the working classes, before her, the correspondent who writes to us this morning may be disposed to review her hasty judgment. It may also be pointed out- to her that the "baby bonus" proposed by Sir Joseph Ward is a very different thing from the maternity bonus in Australia and the maternity allowance at Home. The maternity bonus in Australia is a straight out payment to the mother of the infant. The maternity allowance in Great Britain is provided for under the scheme of national insurance, which is a contributory scheme. Sir Joseph Ward's proposal has been wittily but not inaccurately described as one under which the Government would place a bonus of £5 for a baby in its cradle and immediately thereafter borrow the money from the baby for a period of fourteen vears.