“HASTY AND DRASTIC LEGISLATION”

Southland Times, Issue 23376, 7 December 1937, Page 9

“HASTY AND DRASTIC LEGISLATION”

To The Editor Sir, —In your issue of December 6 an article appears headed “Hasty and Drastic Legislation.” In it you say, “and New Zealand—whatever the Labour Party may think to the contrary—is not in the mood for a dictatorship.” I would like to know what you mean by the above assertion. I have before me figures of the last General Election and this is what I find. Labour polled in all 389,905 votes, the Tories polled in all 272,763 votes, Democrats polled in all 65,219 votes, Liberal 5994, County Party 16,612, Communists 600, various others 8102, leaving the Independents with 68,538 votes. Add all the votes except the Independents together and we find that 369,290 votes were cast against Labour, which means Labour has a majority of 20,615 votes over these six other parties. At the last General Election four Independents were returned, Messrs Atmore, McDougall, Wilkinson and Wright. These four gentlemen have placed themselves on side in the House as the divisions show. Assuming we give 38,538 of the Independent votes to the Tories and 30,000 votes to Labour we find Labour with 419,905 votes and Toryism with 407,828 votes or a total majority of 12,077 votes in favour of Labour. So you see, Mr Editor, Labour has a definite mandate from the people. ~ Now, sir, let us come to this dictatorship. Did we not have dictatorship in the Tory Party when it was in power? Did not the Tory Party pass legislation prohibiting any section of the community from holding open air meetings without a police permit? You term members of the Labour Party dictators because they carried out one of their election pledges and intend fixing the prices of a few food lines. Just think for a moment and turn to the front page of your paper. You will find there a fixed price of twopence a copy. You will also find on your travels around this city that when you buy a pound of tea there is a fixed price on it. There is also a fixed price on tobacco and cigarettes. Did the Labour Party fix These prices including that of your paper? No, these prices were fixed by those persons concerned while the Tory Party was in power. In conclusion uray I say your article 1 is wholly misleading and is typical of Tory methods.—Yours, etc ” GROCER. Invercargill, December 6, 1937.