A BIRTHRIGHT TO PROTECT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19435, 22 October 1925, Page 6

A BIRTHRIGHT TO PROTECT

The Labour speakers are still asserting that their land policy does not interfere with the right of inheritance, but is really a most mild and benevolent attempt to benefit the holder of land. It may be that the Labour speakers, or some of them, are inclined to believe this pleasant fiction, since it is contained in the typewritten manifesto of the party and their habit is to take the party’s literature and instructions without question. But we have previously pointed out that the written constitution and platform of the Labour Party, signed by every one of its candidates for election, contains no ambiguity, making it perfectly clear that the ultimate object is the complete nationalisation of the land and the abolition of private ownership. It cannot be too strongly impressed upon those electors who are perhaps rather led away by the specious promises of the Labour speakers that the “usehold” land policy means the end of private ownership and the loss of a birthright. Mr. Glenn put the position very aptly in his address at Durie Hill on Tuesday night. The grandparents and parents of the'electors to-day came to this country to make homes for themselves under new conditions, to escape the burden of landlordism, to gain possession of something for themselves. They faced danger and privations, they toiled hard and long, and they denied themselves much comfort and pleasure in order that their dreams might be realised. Will those who have come after them give away their right to the fine heritage left them? Will the generation of to-day not protect this birthright?

The possession of “a bit of freehold” was always the aim of the pioneers, whose hard work did so much to place New Zealand in the position she is in to-day. Labour would shatter the achievement of the pioneers and dispossess the freeholders of today. Labour would nationalise the land and let it out to “occupiers” and “users.” Would the rental go to swell the funds of the Moscow Treasury? We wonder.