LABOUR CANDIDATES

Taranaki Daily News, 2 May 1935, Page 7

LABOUR CANDIDATES

SEATS ON LOCAL BODIES POLICY OF PARTY OUTLINED. MEETING AT NEW PLYMOUTH.: ADMINISTRATION OF HOSPITAL. “Labour makes no apology for entering municipal politics as a party,” said Mr. S. Flood introducing. Labour candidates for borough and other local body honours at the first of a series of election meetings at New Plymouth last night. The party has been participating in local politics for years. Other people stand as independents but generally go over to the side of vested interests when the whip is cracked. Labour represents the vast majority of the community—not merely those people who wish to grow fat at the expense of others. We can safely say that if our candidates are returned at the election, they will actually represent 80 or 90 per cent, of the population of New Plymouth. *

■ Stating the policy on which they offered their services as representatives of the ratepayers, three of the four Labour candidates who will contest election for membership of the New Plymouth Borough Council agreed that they did not come forward with any hard and fast plan. Their intention was to see how borough affairs stood and endeavour to remedy certain phases of municipal control with which they were dissatisfied. Each stated that he was adverse to the contract system of doing borough works and stated that, although no instructions had been received from headquarters of the New Zealand Labour Party, he would feel himself obliged to advocate party principles whenever they became directly involved with a policy. Mr. B. Thome voiced trenchant criticism of present methods of hospital control, which he stated could be conducted on more humane lines. CHANCE OF WINNING SEATS. Mr. W. Falconer said he was confident Labour .had an excellent chance of winning four seats at the forthcoming election and, if so, would be in a position to make its voice felt in local affairs. Personally he believed that award wages ' should be paid to all men in Borough Council work at all times. The position in this respect was not as bad as it had been some months ago, but the fact remained that the No. 5 scheme had been “thrashed” at New Plymouth as well as at other towns in the Dominion. He was against contract work and intended, to advocate that' all borough work should be done on day wages.

As an instance of the alleged unsatisfactory results from the contract system, Mr. Falconer stated that the breakwater tram route done by contract was unsatis-' factory.' It was an altogether different story on the Westown 'route where the work had been done by workmen employed by the borough. Mr. Falconer also ■ advocated closer cooperation between local bodies and departments and said he would insist that footpaths be given more attention, It was notorious, he said, that where roads were excellent for the passage of motorists, very often footpaths were in shocking condition for the use of pedestrians. Rates, he considered, were unneces-. sarily high. It was notable that a Labour council at Christchurch had during its period of office,- reduced the,- rates, electricity ■ charges and tram • fares. Thames, where Labour was not represented on the ’council, paid a rate of 2s 6d in £l.

COMMUNITY-CREATED VALUES. Labour was against community-created values and it was held in authoritative quarters that Germany , had laid the foundation of her industrial greatness on a policy of purchasing land municipally and making it available' as factory and home Sites at a cheap rate. Electric light charges at Ney Plymouth he considered unnecessarily high and saw no reason why a charge of 4d per unit would not he good business. It would certainly mean a big saving to working people. Mr. G. Fleming agreed that Labour need certainly offer no apology for entering the arena of local politics. There was no intention that Labour men should look after the interests of the Labour section alone. They would represent the borough householders as a whole. “There is no reason,” he said, “why a Labour man, that is to say a Socialist, should not exercise as much commonsense and justice as anyone else. It has been stated that if Labour gets four seats on this next council that New Plymouth will be done as a town. The same thing has been said about New Zealand as a country should the Labour Party be returned to power in Parliament. It is utter nonsense. As far as ability is concernedwell, I wish to cast no aspersions on this last council or any preceding it, but I can promise that we will endeavour to give all the service possible to the people of this town.” The New Zealand Labour Party, said Mr. Fleming, had laid down no rules regarding what it expected its representatives to do, but it went without saying that they would be expected to. support any policy on socialistic lines. At least the Labour candidates had an authority to answer if their actions were questioned in any way. He was not standing as an individual but as a Labour Party candidate. A certain section of the community was represented by ratepayers’ associations and their candidates. Labour offered men who would represent not a section but the whole.

PRIVATE ENTERPRISE. “I don’t know what I can do to make things better in this town,” said Mr. Fleming, “but I will never lend myself to any proposition that will make things worse. Wherever possible private enterprise will be cut out—where it is practicable to do so.” ■ . Mr. Fleming expressed himself in opposition to a policy of doing essential business in committee. It was hs opinion that, except in rare cases, the council’s business should be discussed openly so that the ratepayers might have a full report of deliberations. He expressed himself in favour of developing the tourist resources of the town. He thought that approaches to the towns beauty spots might certainly be improved. He realised that finance was a diffi--culty in effecting desirable improvements, but he would familiarise himself with the position and do all he could to expend available, money wisely., Mr. B. Thorne said that he was not going to pretend that he did not represent a section of the community. If elected he would represent the poor and the working-classes to the best of his ability. Private enterprises sat on local bodies to represent their own interests. “They are all,” he said, "on the side of the class to which they belong. The Chamber of Commerce has representatives. on various bodies who look at things entirely from an angle of profit.” The recent exemption of £3OO in rates to the Taranaki Jockey Club was a black mark against the Borough Council, . Mr. Thorne alleged. No working man in a similar position to the club would have received one quarter the consideration. He would have been forced to pay the rates he owed so long as he possessed any property at all. „■ “Further,” said Mr. Thome, “I would

never ask a reporter not to take a note of anything I said.” There was a long-overdue reduction in electric light charges, said Mr. Thorpe, and tram fares should be cheaper.’ It was better to have full trams all day long at a cheap rate than have three or four passengers on a car who were willing to pay 8d to go from one end of the town to the other. Mr. Thome criticised the Borough Council contributing to the cost of the aerodrome. It was a project the cost of which should have been borne entirely by the. Defence Department, “We will have whiskers to our knees,” declared Mr. Thorne, “before we see overseas mail planes arriving at the airport regularly." The administration of the Hospital Board was another matter in which Mr. Thorne expressed decided views. The hospital should be administered -sympathetically in the first , instance and the class of people who preferred a private hospital should be required to pay for their radiological and bacteriological work. , . One of the most heartrending sights imaginable, he said, was to see old people staggering away with the parcels they received from the charitable aid department This should certainly be remedied. The welfare officer’s duty was to ascertain how much patients could. pay immediately ’ they left the institution—instead of waiting until they regained their health before worrying them. He alleged that a judgment for £l6 had been obtained by the Hospital Board against a 70-year-old soldier. Nor should the Old People’s Home be forgotten, he said. It was shocking that the inmates should not be provided with light in their cubicles, that there should be no fire hose in the building and that certain windows should be nailed up. Such a state of affairs was badly in need of remedy.