LABOUR’S POLICY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12571, 7 March 1919, Page 3

LABOUR’S POLICY.

COMING MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS. A general criticism of the Christchurch City Council for its revocation of proportional- representation was one of the features of a meeting of tho Christchurch East branch of tho Labour Party held last night in tho Waltham Hall. Mr E. E. Langley occupied the chair, the other speakers being Mr H. T. Armstrong and Mr H. Hunter. Mr Langley stated that the proper, tional representation system gave tho People the representation to which they were entitled, in which all shades of opinion were represented. Speaking of the slum conditions of Christchurch, he stated that the recent epidemic had shown that there were « lot of dwellings in Christchurch which were not fit for pigs to dwell in.. Tho City Council had boon asleep to allow these things to go on, and if Labour members were returned to the City Council they would wipe out the slums. Betiveon 70 and 75 per cent of the people of Christchurch were workers, and if they voted accordingly Labour would bo strong on the council. Mr Hunter stated that proportional representation was essentially a ‘ fair system which-gave every section, of tho community a- voice in the council. Ho lilted that in place- of the present franchise system there should be a residential .qualification similar to that which obtained in Parliamentary elections. Speaking of tho success of -the hydroelectric system at Lake Coleridge, he said that the city owed it to Mr T. E. Taylor, who had advocated harnessing the Wuimakariii. Municipal- enterprises shoula bo worked for the benefit of the,community and not with the object of profitmaking. Regarding-. the housing question, he stated that (hiring tho recent influenza epidemic he had helped to carry a coffin out of a heftiso in Christchurch where the passage was so- narrow that it was necessary' to open the window and put the coffin through. Ho concluded by saying that as tho workers in the city were in an overwnelmmg majority the people should' return them in a ' majority to the City Council. . Mr Armstrong stated that the wageearner.-, constituted SO per cent of Hie country, and that : out-'' of -sixteen• councillors in Christchurch only five represented the So‘ per cent, while, eleven represented the remaining'2o per cent. If the working class continued to pub their employers into thefOity Council, labour laws would continue in their present groove.- Wherever Labour had been given : a'tehrinpe in. New Zealand it had justified its existence. Regarding proportional 'representation, he stated that Labour . considered that even though the whole of the. people Plight not favour Labour, yet, Labour considered that all shades of opinion should be represented, and Labour did not wish for . more representation, than it was entitled to. He instanced Runanga as being a town in which the council was run by Labour, the result being that it. was the only town in New Zealand which had not. a penny of public debt. -Christchurch had a yearly income of £90,000. a large proportion of which, he claimed, wag devoted to paying wages to many citizens who could very well bo done without. Continuing, the speaker referred to the Progress League, whdse ideas, he claimed, were very different from those of the. Labour Party. The.object .of the league Was to create a boom in laud, values, to establish factories and to increase the population of the country and to make New Zealand a fine country- for the manufacturing millionaires. Ho claimed that ‘ at; ■ present, after deducting the time in which the worker was absent on account of bad xteather and illness,; hit average, wage did not exceed £2 15s. It..was' abso-. • lately necessary for the average, man with - a family to receive a-Wago, of not less than £4 11s a. week. : I . ,