LABOUR RETORT.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20362, 20 July 1934, Page 8

LABOUR RETORT.

Criticism of Administration of City. • STATEMENT BY MR ARCHER. Criticism of the Labour administration of the Cit3' Council and Tramway Board by Mr 11. D. Acland, president of the Christchurch Citizens’ Association, was replied to this morning by the Rev J. K. Archer, Deputy-Mayor and chairman cf the Tramway Board. “ Hat© of Labour Movement.”

“ I am very pleased to be able at last to congratulate the Citizens’ Association upon doing something positive,” said Mr Archer. “I am referring, oi course, to its protest against the sustenance rates. Hitherto, so far as its policy" is concerned, it has been one of absolute negation. Possibly Mr Acland is right in saying that the members of the association are not required to take a pledge, but the onlv principle, it seems to me, by which it holds its members together has been hate of the Labour movement. Furthermore, its only" policy" seems to have been that of opposition to the Labour proposals. Mr Acland, I suppose, takes himself seriously, otherwise one might be inclined to treat his speech as a joke.

“ I would remind Mr Acland that, even so far as prophecy is concerned, the real function of prophecy’ is to encourage rather than to discourage. ITis lengthy" denunciation of caucus rule is rather amusing, coming as it does from the president of the Citizens’ Association, firstly", because it was the custom for quite a long time, and as far as I know the custom may still prevail, for the representatives of the association on the City Council to hold a caucus prior to every council meeting. I am told that they preceded the meeting by taking tea together, and that, I suppose, was intended to put them in a good humour. Politically, I understand that Mr Acland is a supporter of the Reform Party, and it is frequently reported in the newspapers that the Parliamentary representatives of that party have their own caucus which meets from time to time in Wellington, and that, also, the same people unite in caucus meetings held by the Coalition. such meetings the policy of the Government is decided on and dictated. I am told that no Government member of either partv dares to defy the caucus. So far as the Labour caucus is concerned, it is a conference of men and women holding the same views on all public matters, and they" meet for the purpose of shaping a policy" in harmony with those views. “No Violation of Judgment.” “ No member of the Labour caucus is ever asked to violate his judgment or his conscience, and on matters of administration he fights for his own view, but agrees to decision of the majority. We have an illustration of that matter in the question of proportional representation as recently discussed and decided by the City Council. So far as I am concerned. I have never considered proportional representation or any other method of voting as a matter of principle. To me methods of voting are of quite secondary importance, and so far as I have agreed to proportional representation, I have done so because it .seemed to me to be the means of securing representation for the minority. I believe that the minority ought to have representation, but as to how that can be best secured is a matter of opinion and policy, but not of principle.” The Tramway Rate.

With regard to the tramway rate, Mr Archer said that it was necessary" because of the actions of previous boards, all of which were dominated by the Citizens’ Association. Nobody regretted the necessity for a rate more than the Labour representatives on the present board, and great as it was it was thousands of pounds less than the amount recommended by the two accountants who made an investigation of the finances of the board.

“ As to the special policy of all-round economies which the Citizens’ Association seems inclined to adopt for the next municipal elections,” said Mr Archer, “ there is nothing new about it. By its wholesale economies in regard to wages and salaries and other things, the Government which Mr Acland supports has made the slump in which we find ourselves far worse than it would otherwise have been.” “ Stupendous Fallacy.” Mr Archer described as a stupendotis fallacy Mr Acland s idea that New Zealand’s prosperity' depends upon the prices that it receives for its exports. What New Zealand had to do if it was going to get out of the slump, he said, was to treat itself more and more as a self-centred and self-suffici-ent entity. Exports should be incidental and not primary’. “So far as the business affairs of this Dominion are concerned,” he continued, “ I will not say that Mr Acland consciously is insincere in denouncing politics as the dominating principle of our public life but will say without equivocation that whether he knows it or not he is a politician first and last and all the time The tragedy’ is that his politics are for the benefit of the minority’ and to the disadvantage of the majority" and are being repudiated by every" progressive nation under the (Mr Acland’s statement is reported on page 6.)