THE FEDERATION'S VOICE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 221, 22 October 1914, Page 9

THE FEDERATION'S VOICE.

MR D. SULLIVAN'S CANDIDATURE THE AVON SEAT. The president of the Federation oi Labour (Mr Dan G. Sullivan) is a can didate for the Avon seat, the nomine< of the new force in politics, the Social Democratic Party. Mr Sullivan de livered his first campaign address lasi evening in the Oddfellows' Hall, Rol leston Street, Linwood. There was i good attendance, and Mr H. F. Herberi presided. The chairman introduced th< candidate, and incidentally paid a tri bute to the clean and gentlemanly was in which Mr H. D. Acland had openec his campaign. He ventured the com forting opinion that there was "n< chance for Reform in Avon," whicl was a working man's constituency What they wanted was good, progres sive, democratic, and Liberal adminis tration. There was no chance oJ Labour being returned to power, bul they wanted Labour men in the House He knew mo man in Labour circles wh( was keener, brainier, or a better stu dent of politics of the day than Mr Sul livan. (Applause.) Mr Sullivan was s young man, and the younger a mai started.in at politics the better. Thej wanted young men-.to control the des tinies of the Empire. SHAKING HANDS. % Mr Sullivan was received with ap Elause when he rose to address a ful ouse. He opened with a reference tc Mr H. D. Acland's candidature, and re ciprocated the kindly sentiments ex pressed by him. Mr Acland would gel a elean, honest, and straightforward fight from him, though the campaign would probably be the most vigorous in Christehurch. It was not a fight between individuals, but between con tending schools of political thought and moral forces. After the contest he would be only too pleased. to accept the congratulations of Messrs Acland and Bussell—(laughter and applause)—oi to tender his congratulations should he lose. SPLITTING VOTES. It had been stated that his participation in the contest would split the Progressive vote, with the result that the Government candidate would be able to win the seat. That statement could not be substantiated by any appeal tc previous contests in the Avon constituency, from the time when the seat was won by Mr Tanner, 20 years ago, At last election there were four candidates, and on that occasion the Progressive vote was more divided than was possible on the present occasion. The Conservative candidate polled only 1062 votes out of 7717, and filled third place. Mr M'Combs, standing as an Independent Liberal, supported the Labour plat" form. He polled 2817 votes, and- taken in conjunction with the votes polled by Mr"W. R. Smith, who stood as a Labour candidate, the Labour forces polled 575 votes in exeess of the number polled by Mr Russell. If those figures meant anything they meant that the forces behind him (the speaker) were greater

than those behind Mr Eussell, and should put him at the head of. the poll. THE PROHIBITION VOTERS. At the last licensing poll in New Zealand a majority of 55,000 voted for prohibition, but on account of the unjust and iniquitous three-fifths majority required the Prohibition Party was deprived of the fruits of its victory. Over 4000 votes were recorded in Avon for national prohibition. Mr Russell supported the 60 per cent., Mr Acland the 55 per cent., and he (the speaker) supported the bare majority. He contended that if the contest were confined to Messrs Acland and Russell, Mr Russell would stand a very good chance of losing his seat, as a considerable proportion of the no-license people would give their votes to the Reform candidate, and get some reduction in the licensing handicap. Radicals in Avon were glad to have the chance of voting for some candidate other than the Reform candidate, and the Liberal who would continue the unjust 60 per cent, handicap on the licensing issue.—(Applause.) He supported, as he had. always done, the bare majority on the licensing question, and on all other questions, save those of religion and conscience. THE WORKERS' CHAMPION. Mr Sullivan said that he was there to represent the workers, and he was anxious to fight the battle for the workers on |the floor of the House, just as he had 'fought it in the Arbitration Court and elsewhere. (Applause.) He claimed to have been instrumental in brightening thousands of homes by securing, through the Arbitration Court, improved conditions and increased wages. The •concrete result of his efforts must have meant thousands of pounds to the workers, and he submitted that it would compare favourably with the results achieved by some of the talkative politicians in the House of Representatives. (Applause and Hear, hear.) If he was good enough to. fight the workers' battles in the Arbitration Court he was good enough to do the same ifi the House. (Applause.) FIGHTING MONOPOLIES. A good deal of "Mr Sullivan's speech was devoted to an attack on monopolists and their machinations. He said that perhaps the most audacious was the Merchants' Association, the result of whose dealings were felt in every home in New Zealand, and most keenly in the homes of the workers. It was levying secret taxation on the people of the community, and it exercised over the retailers a tyrannical domination that amounted almost to an outrage on their civil rights. If the retailers dared to sell goods at lower prices than those on the association's list, they were boycotted; their supplies were cut off, and they were practically driven out of business. They also found that the Merchants' Association were in alliance with suppliers in outside countries, and the retailers were compelled to deal with the association or go out of business. THE SHIPPING COMBINE. They had another monopoly in the shape of the shipping combine, which was growing to;such an extent.that men who had no sympathy with Labour had declared that it was a menace to New Zealand. Such was the paucity of ideas among the Reformers, and also of some of the Liberals, that they had no idea aa to how this monopoly could be fought. One gentleman—he believed it was the.

a chairman.of the Auckland Harbour Board " —had said that it was beyond the power I of the Government to fight it. The f arml ers had taken the shipping ripg to their ; bosom as a friend and brother. They * were beginning to find that it was not a B pet lamb they were embracing, but a a roaring,, lion that was going to devour their homesteads and families- Very g shortly they would have the Liberals in

their constituencies criticising the Massey Government.' "God forbid that I: should say anything in defence of the Massey Government," said Mr Sullivan. "The sins of that Government place it outside the area of salvation. A Government that has on its conscience the responsibility ', for the Huntly disaster should, clothe itself in sackcloth and' ashes, and do penance, from now on till it comes forward for its eternal judgment." But when they heard the criticisms of the Massey Government by the Liberals, and saw them shedding crocodile tears, they Should remember that these monopolies grew up and became entrenched while a Liberal i Government was in operation in this , country. A Government which had the reins of power for 20 years was guilty of criminal negligenee when in that time it had failed to put an end to them. The Liberals had no right to, criticise the Massey Government when they were guilty of the very things they charged against that Government. (Hear, hear, and applause.) COMPETITIVE STATE SERVICES. If he went to the House he would go there to fight these monopolies. He would fight them by competitive State services that would give decent treatment to the people and bring the monopolists to their bearings. He had no blind faith in the utility of State services. Some of them failed, but so had private enterprise. He quoted the State Fire Insurance Department as an example of beneficial and successful State enterprise. LAND MONOPOLY. * The greatest monopoly, the "King Dick" of them all, was land monopoly, and it would continue until the people got tired of sending big landholders to represent them in Parliament. Of 52,000,000 acres, 40,000,000 were owned by 7 per cent, of the population. The worst feature was that out of the | 40,000,000 acres, 24,000,000 acres remained absolutely unimproved, and benefited the workers no more than if they were so many a<;res of the blue sky. There were 150,000 land owners in the Dominion. Of that number 144,000 owned land valued at £86,000,000, and 6000 owned land valued at £84,000,000. Some of the individual land aristocrats owned £200,000 worth of land,, which, at 5 per cent.,-returned an income of £IO,OOO a year, £192 a week,. £32 a day, or £4 2/6 for evisry hour of an eight-hour working day. He contended that the values responsible for these huge incomes were created by the people of the country in the expenditure of public money and public and private energy. . The unimproved land values in 1908-09 were £161,324,000, and in 1013 £212,936,000, an increase in five years of £51,612,000. This was a free gift by the people to the land-owners, and he worked it out at the rate of £IOO for every five minutes. 'lt was an absolutely just proposition that the State should take in taxation the values w r hieh the State created. The amount paid by the land in taxes was £767,451; smokers paid £600,000 on tobacco, as well as the wholesale and retail profits. If the land tax were put on a proper footing, huge areas would be brought into occupation, land would.be cheaper, employment would be enormously increased, and the increased demand'for workers would result in increased wages.. The taxation of unimproved land values was one of the most important of the planks of the Social-Democratic Party. If they had taxation of unimproved land values, and competitive State services, an economic transformation would be effected in this country by securing increased wages, which would be protected against exploitation by monopolists. OTHER SUBJECTS. He was in favour of the establishment of a State Bank. One had been successfully established in Australia. It would enable the State to control the keyboard of finance. He favoured proportional representation, which secured the representation of parties according to their numerical strength. The principle had been incorporated in the platform of the Social-Democratic Party, and the Liberals were following with leaden feet. It had been denounced by Mr G. W. Russell at Phillipstown as impracticable and undesir-

able in this country, but it had since been supported by Sir Joseph Ward. He (the speaker) had no doubt that by this time Mr Russell might have changed his opinion. (Laughter and applause.) The Social-Democratic Party also supported the referendum, and the right of electorates to recall representatives who had broken election pledges. The party stood for full political rights for Civil Servants, and for the removal of all the political disabilities of women. The influence of women on the politics of the country had been for the best. The greater power they gave women the greater would be their progress on social and humanitarian lines. ' PUBLIC FINANCE. Mr , Sullivan skirted this subjeet judiciously, naively explaining that he, like most of those present, was more used to counting pence by the dozen than pounds by the million. " He had sufficient confidence in the political parties to believe that whoever had control of the reins of Government would do his best in regard to public finance. The country need not be alarmed about the national debt. Sixty-four per cent, of it was invested in interest-bearing securities. Since 1891, 79 per cent, of the loans of the country had been invested in interest-bearing securities and was reproductive. Mr Sullivan added that he was in favour of the residential qualification for pensions being reduced to 15 years; endowment of motherhood; free hospital care; medical aid to maintain the national health; and pensions for widows, orphans, and blind, and incurably helpless. "DEFENCE. '< Some people say that the Social-De-mocrats would meet an invading enemy on the beach waving olive branches and offering no resistance,' ' said Mr" Sullivan. "That is a false estimate of the Party, as our planks provide for the establishment of a citizen army on a volunteer basis, with a standard wage while on duty, the army not to be used in time of industrial disputes. In the ! ranks of the Expeditionary Force are members of the Federation of Labour and men who were associated with the Social-Democratic Party." The tragedy that was being played out on the battlefields of Europe was terrible—it was beyond adequate expression, and revealed the unthinkable atrocity of "war. Their sympathy must go out intensified a thousand fold to the brave Belgians, the people who had preferred death to dishonour. (Loud applause.) They would welcome the declaration on the part of Britain that she was going to see the wrongs of Belgium righted. When the war had been fought to its final conclusion the people would remove the War Lords of Europe from their seats of power. Out of the vast conflagration a new world would be evolved, in which the dominant note j would be peace and, social justice. In conclusion Mr Sullivan referred to the success of the Labour Party in Australia, and invited the electors of Avon, if they thought he could successfully represent their views, to place him at the head of the poll. He resumed his seat amid great applause and cheers. QUESTIONS. A number of questions were asked and answered. Mr Sullivan said that he was opposed to the naval policy of the Government, and favoured contilbuting a subsidy to the Imperial Navy. In regard to the Civil Service, he did not think that there was now one tithe of the political patronage that previously existed. He hoped that some scheme would be found to secure to Parliament full power over the Civil Service, but would still prevent a recurrence to political patronage. He was not in favour of State control of the liquor traffic. He favoured a scheme of national insurance, and the nationalisation of accident insurance. The Social-Democratic Party was running only seven or eight candidates. They were not out for vote splitting. They had not a great deal of faith in the Liberal Party, but preferred it to the Massey Party. They would run candidates where they had a good fighting chance of winning the seat. He did not support a referendum on the Bible-in-Schools question. If a sys-

tem of Bible instruction, could be devised outside school hours, ,ihat would not? outrage the consciences of taxpayers, he would be prepared to support it. Again on the question of the Defence Act, Mr SuUivan said that even in her hour of trial Britain had not departed from the-voluntary system. The carnage of to-day had been built up out of the military spirit developed in Germany by a conscript system. Probably a war tax would be necessary at the end of the war. It should be put on the shoulders of the people who were best able to pay- it—the men Who pocketed the increase in land values caused by the expenditure of the country. A vote of thanks arid confidence, proposed by Mr Stewart, and seconded by Mr Martin, was carried unanimously amid cheers and applause.