THE POLITICAL CONTEST.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19622, 28 October 1925, Page 4

THE POLITICAL CONTEST.

ELECTION NOTES.

Mr J. M. Mackenzie, Labour candidate for Wallace; “The war debt is still to be paid, but if the big profits made during the war had been treated in like manner to flesh and blood the debt would have been redeemed years ago.”

“I claim that in accepting the office of Speaker I was serving my country better than if I had remained a private member. ’ —Mr C. E. Statham at the Methodist Church Hall, Caver sham

“That’s a plank of the Labour Party’s you have stolon,” cried an interjector at Petone on Thursday, when Mr Veitch, who was speaking on the National platform, spoke of a fund to alleviate occupational diseases. “Well, then, you can’t object, to my making it public,.” rejoined Mr Veitch. “If it’s in the Labour Party's platform, of course, it must be good.”

“£3 19s lOd a week. Would you like to live on it?” asked an elector at one of M»r V. H. Potter’s (Reform candidate for Roskill) meetings in Auckland. “No,” retorted Mr Potter. “I would not. I’ve got brains. I get more.”

“I suppose everybody reads Hansard from cover to cover.”—-{Loud laughter.)—Mr C. K. Statham at the Methodist Church Hall, Caversham, last night..

“It was stated by one elector that I was merely standing for Parliament assail advertisement for my hair restorer. Teat is not so, and I stand before you in all sincerity as a candidate who, if elected, will do' his best to further your interests, ’ stated Mr John Howard (Independent, Liberal candidate for Mataura) at the close of his political address at Gore.

Mr Lyons, the Reform candidate for Lyt.telton, giving some advice to his opponent; “If you write a letter to the newspapers, keep it for a night and think it over. Then keep it for another night. After that put it into the fire and bum it.”

Mr C. E. Statham, in speaking at Cavershani last night, said that, it had been stated that, he had been returned' as an Independent and had gone over to the Reform Party. He no more belonged to tht Reform Party than he did to the Liberal —or the. National Party as it is now called—or the Labour Party. Ho was still an Independent.—(Loud applause. J

■‘Every person who realises that motheaten platitudes will not solve the many proaaing problems facing the country the present time must vote for Labour.” — Mr J. M.i Mackenzie, Labour candidate for Wallace, speaking at Fairfax.

“What does it cost to land a ton of Westport household coal in Wellington, and what does it cost to land a ton of Newcastle coal?” Sir John Luke (Reform candidate for Wellington North! was asked by a questioner at his meeting at Tinakori road. “It would cost a jolly sight less if the fellows in the mines would stick to their work and the follows on the ships would take the coal along,” retorted the candidate, amid cries of dissent.

“Are you a member, of The P.P.A.. Mr Slcane?” the Reform candidate for Wellington Central was asked on Thursday. “I am not,” said the candidate, “and I never have been. I was always taught to respect the religions whatsoever they may be.”—-(Applause.)

The Hon. W. Down in Stewart, claims that no Government has done more to relieve the housing position than the present one. Addressing a meeting of electors last night, he said that during the oast six years 33,365 workers’ homes were built by the Government at a cost of £20,000. No Labour Government could do better than that, and the Now Zealand Government at present was more on the way towards solving the housing problem than any Australian Government. To say that this Government had done little or nothing to relieve the position was most unfair.

“For all practical purposes.” remarked the lion. W. Downie Stewart, in the course of his address to electors in the Kaikorai Valley last night, “the issue is between the Reform Party and the Labour Party. The Liberal Party is not an effective one in this campaign, Sud ray real feeling is that it should be united with the Keform Party.” .

' Part of his address at Northland _ was devoted by Mr J. J. M‘Grath (National candidate for Wellington North) to advocating that Customs duties should be taken off various articles so as to reduce the cost of living. • “Would you take the duty off liquor?” inquired a member of the audience, when the candidate was urging an alteration in the licensing laws. “No, I don’t think I would,” replied Mr M‘Grath. “Liquor is like anything else that is good—it is worth paying for.”— (Laughter.)

Mr J. Gilchrist stated at the South Dunedin Hall last night that they were approaching the bitter stage in the present election fight. Their opponents had no case, and they were beginning to circulate what must be regarded in the mildest language as dirty political lies. Lies were being assiduously circulated against the Labour candidates in different places. Last time he had stood for Parliament it had been said that he was an atheist—which he was not —and that he was a careless sort of person, and lived by his wits. The difficulty was to discover who was responsible for starting these stories. It was an old dodge. This election a story was going round that he owned a terrace of houses, that he was a man with no heart, and that he took from the poor people who were living in these houses the last possible farthing in the way of rent. He wanted to inform them that he was living in a house that could be said in a measure to own, but there was a monkey sitting on top of it, as was the case with most of the houses resided in by those present that night.—(Applause.)

Power board rates and other levies in Southland bear heavily on many people. At one of his meetings Mr Edie gave this example as an indication: —A farmer milks five cows and it requires the produce of two to pay for excessive taxation, two for Power Board rates, i for Customs duty, and the other J to live on.

“New Zealand stands right out on its own, with the greatest exemption from direct taxation in the world,” claimed Mr T. Forsyth (Reform candidal© fot Wellington South), at Newtown. “You have nothing to say against that. You can’t, if you speak the truth,” he told an interjector. “The New Zealand income tax exemption limit,” he continued, “is up to £3OO a year; and the various concessions on account of children and other dependants, insurance, etc., had the result that the married man. with dependants, earning £425, paid no income tax. There was only 35.000 income tax payors; and of these. 21.000 paid only £lO and under.” voice: “You are wrong!” Mr Forsyth: “I" did not know that we had a parrot here. You have said that more than onc©_ before. I think we*havo a parrot on the right there; and I think he comes from the other side. Wo would not like to have him on our side.”—(Applause and laughter.)

That the Anzacs were indebted to the Reform Party for their farms was the claim of his opponents. They were—and so heavily were they indebted that the Government had to reduce land values by over £2,000,000. —Mr J. E. MacManus, Labour candidate for Dunedin South, speaking at Concord last night.

“Friends, you have the muscle and the brain to do the world’s work. For God's sake use that muscle and brain to produce the requirements of the world for ail ami not for a few.” —Mr Webb concluding his address at the South Dunedin Hail last night.

“If you are returned " commenced a questioner at the Hon. R.' Bollard’s meeting at Glen Massey. “No, no,” said Mr Bollard, interrupting, “don’t put it that way; say ‘WIIOS. you are returned.’ ” The candidate’s sally created a good deal of applause.

Mr Webb stated at the South Dunedin Town Hall last night that he hoped the electors would roll up and vote for the man who had the big tie and no hat.— (Laughter.)

When they hear! the capitalistic press saying hard things about a man let them realise that he was a man who was doing things worth while. The late Mr Tommy Taylor had said: “Thank God that I still deserve the hostility of the capitalistic press. The day the 7’ress boosts me up 1 shall feel there is something wrong with ma." And there was something wrong with poor Tommy when the Press did boost him up (said Mr Webb at South Dunedin last night). He was dead.

“We’re' giving the bachelor on £6OO- » year a golden opportunity to save up and marry a spinster.”—Mr V. H. Potter, M.P., Reform candidal* for Roskill, speaking on income tax at Auckland.

They had been told that Mr Seddon was an uncouth, ungrammatical miner. So he was, but that was one of his virtues, because in spite of that he stood and won against those men who had the best education modern science could give them. — Mr P. C. Webb at the South Dunedin Tows. Hall.

Any business man who worked against Labour, but who relied on labour to j his works going was a maniac, said_ Mr Webb at South Dunedin last night. “Business men, if you are wise to your own welfare,” he went on, “you will stand to Labour always in order to get a fair ( deal, and you will get a fair deal in return.

The men they cried out against some years ago for their extreme views are still fighting tsaid Mr Webb at South Dunedin last night), and whether they have been fiung into prison or otherwise dealt with, they are still being returned to Parliament. The Labour policy was practicaUy a sane policy, and gave expression to the great wants’and opinions or the masses of the people in, this country.

Mr Webb stated at the South Dunedin Eall last night that a party of miners which was working a mine on the West Coast on the co-operative principle was making 20 per cent, to 30 per cent, more wages than they could have earned under the old system in this country, and that they had brought down the retail .price of coal 10a per ton. The Hon. Mr Anderson and the Under-secretary pf Mines (Mr Kimbell) were the most sympathetic men the miners had in this country. They had played the game to the co-operative plan. These miners had adopted the only possible method under which strikes could be removed. They had removed the cause. The strike must go. When the workers owned and controlled their own industries and .worked on the co-operative plan, there would be no exploitation and no hovels.

“ This battle is the kind of battle that we in the Labour movement like to take part in—a battle of intellect, a battle of ideas, and if we cannot win out on the intellectual plane, we have no hope of winning out by the adoption of any other method.”—Mr P. C. Webb at the South Dunedin Hall last night.

Why should you vote for Labour, asked Mr Webb at the South Dunedin Hall last night? Simply because the other parties had failed them, he answered. Both of them had been got at by uie very wealthy influences of this country.

Mr Gilchrist stated at South Dunedin last night that he was a prohibitionist and that he always voted for prohibition. His personal altitude was not necessarily the attitude of the Labour Party. His party left it free for any Labour to take up a stand for or against prohibitionA woman in the audience asked Mr Gilchrist if he thought by having prohibition they were going to help the worker. Mr Gilchrist replied that ho would say if drink were abolished they would find a ’ larger percentage of clearer intellects than they found at the present time. He was going to say from a long"'experience of the Labour movement that very, very seldom did they find a sober worker letting them down in an industrial trouble, and that the great majority of the men taking a leading part in the Labour movement to-day did not drink. He was not going to say that drink was the root cause of poverty, but it was an accentuating factor. The capitalistic system was, of course, the root cause of poverty. Mr Webb said he would not like them to form a wrong impression on the prohibition question. He did not drink, but he on the other hand voted

against prohibition. If any man desired his glass of beer let him vote for continuance, r.nd if he wanted prohibition let him vote for that, but let them vote as one on the policy of the Labour Party.— (Applause.)

During the course of his address at Concord last night Mr J. E. MacManus, Labour candidate for ,Dunedin South, referred in sympathetic terms to the great bereavement sustained by Mr T. K. Sidey through the death of his mother, and said that he know that he voiced the opinion of the whole party in extending his sympathy to his opponent.