CAMPAIGN NOTES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXIV, Issue 17737, 10 December 1919, Page 5

CAMPAIGN NOTES.

By "Kaione.'

I went to the Opera House on Monday evening to hear the "truth about the New Zealand Labour Party's platforrV according to Mi1 Peter Fraser. And Mr Fraser told the truth, according to his gospel,. but he did not tell the whole truth. A politician wculd not be a politician if he laid both sides before an audience. Mr Fraser has all the camouflage arts of his calling. To listen

to him one would think

he had

missed his vocation. .He spoke ■with the solemnity of a parson, and his academic appearance would have graced many a' pulpit. . He would even have that qualification which all clergymen seem to look upon as essential—long vindedness.. Ho speke for nearly two hours, generally playing to the gallery with ."sentimental stuff," and the hearing, as was only to be expected, Tvas very sympathetic. No one denies that it would be a grand thing if everybody was exalted Crom squalor and penury. Humanitarianism plays a very great part in the Labour platform. No one can cavil'at that aspect. It is not the motives that people disagree with, but the motive.power. It is well wort!!1. New Zealand's while to let other countries experiment in these things before giving itself over to the sweet wishes of a few inexperlencd and mediocre politicians.

Mr Frat;er made a great deal of the housin;; problem, and of one or two cases in particular in" which he had been personally, interested. It is truly distressing to think that. respectable people should be unable to obtain a decent house in which to live.. I do not doubt -his word concerning these places, which can be nothing better, than hovels; He could even be shown some in Wan-> ganui which anyone with any selfrespect would be ashamed to* live in. There is no argument about that. But what., is the cause of it all? Who is responsible? the Government and the landlords,,.of course! , Yet in the next breath after Mr Fraser has said so he will set out the real explanation. . One particular case which he. cited conveys the whole reason. He was interested in a small family which had come from Timaru, and they secured one :oom in a certain house: It was unfortunate for them, because they were decent people. The other occupants of the building were of a sort that Mr Fraser or anyone else could not speak highly ofWithout emphasising the point too much, it may be said that the children of the respectable family were forbidden to associate with, or even to wash in or touch anything with which the neighbours had come in contact, for fear of loathsome ; disease. It was admittedly a horrible state of affairs for the family. The. placje was not,by any means, good enougn for them. But what of the other denizens o£ the house? Mr Fraser did not express an opinion as, to its suitability. It was surely good enough. Mr Fraser may. argue that to i>ut people of that class into a better house would, raise Itheir moral tone. But there again Mr Fraser's own words would silence him.. He says a house is not a home. It is only the people who make the home. He might also have gone on to say that it wa3 only the people who made the house what it was. If the disreputable people .i».e ; mentions were . located in the Governor/s home what would it be like in a week or two? Aiid if "all the people in the bad house., had been like the respectable family what a wealth of joy there, would have been- in the building. It was not, of course, Mr Fraser's place; as a politician, to give both sides, of the question, but from a .man who preached as he'did on the elevattion of the masses one expected to hear something of root principles. He could at least have given us his idea as to why these people had come to such & low state, j Instead of that he condemned the Government and the landlord because the houses had been ruined. If he had suggested that Booze was the reason for the degradation of those people he would have hit the right note—but he would have had no text for his tirade against the Government and the man who had the misfortune to own the house. If the New Zealand^ Labour Party was really sincere in its desire to raise up instead of trying to level down it would make the first plank of its platform Prohibition. When it does so it will prove its wisdom and It- sincerity. Mr Fraser never mentioned the word on Monday evening. The public would understand the meaning and the resuJt of Prohlbi'lcn better than rach things as proportional representation, initiative referendum and re all, and the nationalisation of everything.

The admitttedly bad stated into which houses are allowed to get is solely due to the renting system. The tenant does not care a tuppeny d-.r1 :;, The average tr?r»..?.' t rtrongly octets to effecting improvement*, keeping in a decent state of repajtr, or even taking care of the house in which he lives. The idea of making a "home" is quite overwhelmed lr his desire, not to improve .the property of the landlord to even the smallest extent. Hence the. utate in which many of Mr Fraser's elecr tors find themselves. It is. a'stfereiit proposition when a man owns his own house. That, however, is an idea which the Labour Party distinctly disapproves of.

The Gonville Hall was a few weeks ago the scene of a triumph by Mr Cuttle, when he made a fiery attack, in self defence, on the Herald. On Monday evening Mr Veitch seems to have tried the same thing, with the "Chronicle" as the victim, but His effort fell very flat. The best he could do was to allege tnat there was an "unholy" alliance between the editor of the "Chronicle," Mr Fraser, and Mr Cuttle. He was in what the reporter describes ac a "petulant mood.' i

A notable feature of tne campaign has been the splendid meetings addressed by Mr Cuttle. In every hall v/here he has spoken there have been very large and attentive audiences. The Labour Reform candidate is always well worth listening to. He