GENERAL ELECTION.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VI, Issue 1787, 5 November 1919, Page 3

GENERAL ELECTION.

CHRISTCHURCH NORTH SEAT. X.ABOUR CANDIDATE'S ADDRESS. In the Young Men's Guild Hall, Winton Street, St. Albans, last evening before a large attendance, Mr H. T. Armstrong, Labour candidate for Christchurch North at the forthcoming General Election, delivered a political adMr A. J. Day presided and briefly introduced the "speaker. ) Mr Armstrong was received with apj plause when he rose to speak. He went j j on to say that the Labour Party had| i no need to apologise for contesting this. ' seat or any other in New Zealand. If j thev analvsed closely the affairs of the country during the last five years, and l the way the country had been run, | thev would be convinced that a change. was necessary. No other party hadj come forward with such an advanced policy as that of the Labour Party. The; candidates who were to contest seats j for Labour had been selected on a de-1 mocratic vote. He was not selected by the Labour Representation Committee as the newspapers would say; he was not forced upon them by the National Executive. Advanced Liberal newspapers said that it was a very big mistake for the Labour Party to run against advanced Liberals and, by splitting the vote, to allow the Tories to get in. The Labour Party was out to establish a real democracy. They were asked to believe that a democracy existed flow. No, they found it was a ease of majority rule because of the idiotic electoral system. When Mr Massey was returned in 1914 he took over the reins of power with a majority of 20,000 votes against him. ,How could the Government claim to be democratic! The Labour Party stood for proportional representation, not because it would be of great benefit to the Labour Party, but because it wanted to see every section represented in Parliament. He did not want to see Parliament comprised entirely of Labour men. His party recognised that every section deserved to be represented. Labour wanted "one vote one value." At the commencement of the War they were told not to rake up party differences —they must sink them' for the War period. The War was at its verv height when a political fight was held in New Zealand, and the Liberals fought the Tories and the Tories fought the Liberals. Then Sir Joseph Ward joined Mr Massey, and they had been like a pair of Siamese twins ever since. If Labour were returned with 20 or 30 members the people would see where the Tories and Liberals would be. It was doubtful if Reform candidates would contest many Christchurch seats. If they did they would split the Tory vote by their own foolish electoral system, and let the Labour men in. The people would find that the Liberals and Tories would go together as soon as Labour got anything like the balance of power. When Sir Joseph Ward linked up with Mr Massey he stated that it was because he wanted to reduce the cost' of living. The result of this "Siamese twins" Government had been the 'increase in the retail price of meat by 41.8 per cent. According to the Government Statistician's figures, there had now been an increase of 47.85 per cent., and yet Sir Joseph Ward had joined the National Government to keep down the cost of living! The struggle for existence was harder now than ever it had been before. New Zealand was pro- . ducing more than it had ever done, yet the prices of commodities were practically double what they were five years ago. One of the first moves of the , "twins" was, to come to the assist- ! anee of the wool-growers. When the Imperial Government took steps in connection with the commandeer of wool, the growers in New Zealand were offered 45 per cent, on the price ruling prior to the War. The patriotic,,flagflapping wool-growers thought it was nothing short of robbery. Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward, who were in England at the time, acted as delegates and used their influence to squeeze an increase from the Mother Country which they "burbled" about so much. They came back to New Zealand and actually boasted about the matter. At I that time they were talking about silver bullets winning the War, yet they squeezed a matter of £10,000,000 worth : of those silver bullets from the Mother- } land. The cost of. living would not be ; lowered until the people returned to i power a party which was for the i people. The Reform Party was repre--1 eentative of the land monopolists, and i the Liberals represented the eommerj, cial monopolists. The interests of the I country were being run for the benefit 1 of combines, and not for the benefit of the people. Sir Joseph Ward had said that he would nationalise flour' mills, mines, shipping, etc. Citizens could fully expect Sir Joseph to wear a red ■ tie when he next visited Christchurch. Sir Joseph had ample opportunity of carrying out his reforms. He would not hear of the suggestion some time ago of buying out the Union Steam Ship Company for £3,000,000, yet he had paid something like £7,000,000 for the use of the ships. He was urged to nationalise the mines and flour mills, but he preferred to wait till the owners demanded five or six times more than they could have been bought for originally. Sir Joseph Ward was now going for a State bank. Mr H. G. Ell, M.P., advocated that before, only to be laughed at by Sir Joseph Ward. Labour was in favour of running a State bank, and eliminating private enterprise, thus making it a State monopoly. LAND VALUES. Mr Armstrong then went on to deal with land values. He said that the unimproved value of land in 1909 was £172,759,948, and in 1918, £260,669,218, an increase of £87,909,170. The revenue derived from the land tax last year was £1,385,700, and from the Customs tax, £3,364,308. Those values' belonged to the people who created them, and not to the landholders. While land had increased in value at the rate of about £100,000,000 in nine years, the

Government taxed the people as much as 200 or 300 per cent, through the Customs. Seven-eighths of the wealth of New Zealand was ownell by 5§ per cent, of the people. Out of 600,000 people, 450,000 owned not one-fifth o*f the soil of New. Zealand. INDENTURED LABOUR.

Mr" Armstrong stated that a writer in The Sun had drawn the attention of the "foolish agitator" in New Zealand to the fact that indentured labour under New Zealand administration would be altogether different from indentured labour under any other administration. That writer, however, had touched on the real point when he said that Samoa could be made more I productive if labour were imported. . What he should have said was that not I enough profits would be made by the '' money burglars'' unless indentured i labour were brought in. People were told that Samoa was not a fit country . for whiter people. That argument had ■ been exploded in the case of Queensland, where a Labour Government sent '■ the Kanaka labourers to their homes land produced more sugar by white laI bour. If coloured labour were to be imported to Samoa, the conditions should be made worth while. The candidate then went on to refer to New Guinea, where coolies were paid 5/- per month, and Where flogging was in vogue. That was under the British flag. A voice: Shame! Mr Armstrong referred to the I squalor, vice, and wretched condition of the native workers in Fiji. Trusts would reduce the people of this eountry to the same state as that of those unfortunate islanders. If the people had any love for liberty they must remove from office those responsible for the Samoa business. PRUSSIANISM. The people had been told that conscription won the War; that as soon as the War was over there would be no conscription. Sir James Allen had told the people that if he were returned to power he would introduce a system of juvenile conscription. He would thus saddle this country with a curse that had been the bane of Germany and other countries for generations. JThe people must see that nothing of the kind was done. The excuse was "The Yellow Peril." Sir James Allen was introducing Prnssianism to keep the Chinese and Japanese out, and at the same'time passing legislation to brifcg them in! THE NATIONAL DEBT. The National Debt was £172,000,000, an increase of £84,000,000 since the War started. The Government's own figures proved conclusively that it was not necessary for New Zealand to borrow in connection with the War. Every penny could have been paid out of profits. Instead of that, monopolists were allowed to exploit the people, and the Government had borrowed from monopolists and was paying 4J per cent., free of income tax, for the money taken from the people. The Government was now going to tax the children for generations to pay ''for the money robbed from the people of the country. Was there any wonder why the cost of living had gone up? BUTTER, COAL AND WHEAT. The candidate then went on to refer to the generous treatment meted out to tlie farmer for his wheat and butter, as compared with the resistance shown to the miner who asked for an increase in his pay. New Zealand was in the grip of trusts and combines. The people had had 25 years of Liberal administration and were getting a very much smaller share of the wealth produced than at the commencement. STATE ENTERPRISE. Mr Armstrong, in support of State

enterprise, referred to the lesson of Queensland. On August 28, 1919, there were 39 State butcher shops supplying 77,000 customers weekly. A comparison of the retail prices in the State and private shops was as follows, with the New Zealand figures:— Private New shops. State. Zealand, d. (I. d. Roast sirloin .. .. » 6* 9 Roast rib 7 <H ft Rump steak .... 11 7} 11J Corned round .. 8 5i 8} Accident insurance was run by the State in Queensland and large profits were being made. He quoted figures to show that the amounts paid to insurance companies for every £1 paid out are:—New Zealand £2 1/6, New South Wales £3 1/9, Victoria £3 13/-, Queensland £1 4/3. State enterprise was the solution of the high cost problem. Mr Armstrong concluded by stating that Labour would stand or fall by its platform, and would keep to politics in the fight ahead. The other parties would talk about lack of patriotism and loyalty, but they would not. speak of their own stewardship. A unanimous vote of confidence in Mr Armstrong was carried. CAMPAIGN IN AUCKLAND OPENS. Press Association. AUCKLAND, "November 4. The political campaign opened tonight. Mr F. Bennett, Reform candidate for Auckland West, delivered a spirited speech criticising the members of the National Cabinet, with the exception of Mr Massey and Sir James Alien. The speaker said that the time had come for young, energetic men in the Cabinet to carry out the Massey policy. Replying to an interjector, he said that Mr Massey had been taking the hurdles for years, and it was time to give him a run on the flat for a change, with good Ministers. The speaker denounced extreme Labour. He received an excellent hearing. Mr T. Bloodworth, Labour candidate for Parnell, also had a good reception. He defined the Labour Party, which, he said, was not revolutionary. Thoughtful speakers had stated that the government of the country had passed from the hands of Parliament to the hands of Cabinet, and it was Labour's objective to restore the government to the people. ,