THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 2 March 1914, Page 5

THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATS.

MEETING IN THE TOWN HALL

About one hundred people assembled in the Masterton Town Hall last evening to hear Messrs Fraser and Hunter, members of the Social Democratic Party, speak on the objects and aims of the party. Mr A". McLcod, President of the local branch, occupied the chair, and introduced the speakers.

Mr Hunter, who spoke first, com- i pared the conditions prevailing during the Seddon administration in New | Zealand, when the country was right- | ly termed the working, man's para- I dise, with tho changed conditions under the Ward " and Massey Governments. The accused the Ward Administration of giving a battleship to the Mother Country without first consulting the people. The people had also had forced upon them the Defence Act, a measure which was opposed to all forms of democracy, and a direct infringe ment of the liberty of the subject."" Tho Massey Government endorsed this Act by placing numbers of -youths. in prison. The Social Democratic Party was strongly opposed to anything pertaining to war, and in New Zealand more money was ■spent on militarism than on _ muchneeded education. In concluding the speaker said the party he lepiesenfced was out to combat all forms of war as implied by conscription as m force in New Zealand, and anyone who voted for tho Massey Government at the next elections would be voting for more bloodshed and the upholding of capitalism. One of the platforms of the party was tho repeal of the' Defence Act, and the establishment of a voluntary citizen mmy. Mr Fraser confined his remarks to tho need for a social democracy, aud said tho Social Democratic Party aimed at securing control of tho means of wealth and production, in order that the workers could command full value, for their share in the production of wealth. Tho party was out to fight capitalism, and this could only be done by the workers combining, and this organisation and unity the Social Democrats were, determined to secure. The "speaker concluded bis remarks by references to the platform Qf tlv party, and the means by which they 'hoped to gain their end.