THE LABOUR PARTY'S POLICY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23222, 21 June 1937, Page 6

THE LABOUR PARTY'S POLICY

TO THE EDITOR Sir.—" Nationalist" evidently is a past master in the art of twisting his words to convey different meanings. He says that I did not understand his reference to Spain when he stated in his first letter that "There is a potential Spain in New Zealand." In his explanation of this statement he talks about a "few farmers in the North Island who wanted New Zealand to forfeit its status of an independent dominion and revert to a Crown colony on similar lines to Newfoundland." No, this will not do. If " Nationalist " meant Newfoundland why did he mention Spain at all? This may be politics, but it is not altogether honest. In regard to my question whether he would care to have his income tax return made public property, "| Nationalist" replies as follows: —" Well, if it is published in the official Gazette, is it not public property? " This may be an answer from a politician, but "Nationalist" knows quite well that income tax returns are not published in the Official Gazette, so that's that. " Nationalist" says that I should note that his first letter centred round the words that "The people would not be able to listen-in to anything that was supposedly not good for them," and condemns the Labour Party for it. I would draw his attention to the fact, that it was the Coalition Party that passed this measure, and that also carried it out. Hence my reference to the refusal of an American religious lecturer to broadcast in New Zealand, a refusal of permission to the Leader of the Opposition to criticise a speech over the air by the Minister of Finance which had been broadcast, and the deliberate jamming of IZB, Auckland, as recorded in Hansard last year. The Coalition Party certainly were not in favour of the parliamentary debates being broadcast, and it is to the credit of the Labour Party that it enabled the electors to listen-in to the debates and form their own opinions on the subject under discussion, and thousands are now taking a keener interest in politics than before, and are realising how they were hoodwinked in the past by the party politicians, who changed their name so often that it is difficult to remember all the names that they have had. I am honestly convinced that the Labour Party has a policy that is worth a fair trial, and the other party has nothing but an old mess of pottage to serve up to us, and I do not think that it has anything to be proud of with its past muddling and the chaos it has wrought. "Nationalist" says that "we have to be thankful that the Government pulled us through the depression as successfully as it did." In his first letter he stated that "Anyone with a knowledge of slump affairs will know that a country will right itself gradually if left alone." He also advises " Labour Again " to go to a Nationalist meeting to hear about the mistakes of the Labour Party. "Nationalist surely is a humorist or is he not aware of the fact that the working classes can now do their own thinking and have awakened to the fact that they have been hoodwinked quite long enough? , "Nationalist" is greatly concerned about the liberty of the individual, but during the depression years the only liberty some people had was the freedom to starve. By a strange coincidence, beside the letter (in to-days paper) from " Nationalist" is an article about a wealthy woman named Mrs Horace Boot, of Pinkey's Green, of whom it is stated that "when her 17-year-old rabbit died recently it was buried in a carved oak coffin, studded with brass nails." Oh, ye gods, and we are supposed to be a civilised and Christian country, with children starving in a world of plenty, and then deploring the decline of the birth rate! "Nationalist" appears to be afraid of Socialism. Will he tell us what is wrong with it, because to my mind Socialism is only the teaching of Christ brought into practice every day in the year, not just talked about one day a week; and when he tells us what is wrong with that let him inform us what system he has to offer us in its place which would be better.—-I am, etc.. Ex-Reformer.