ABOUT LABOUR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 266, 13 November 1935, Page 16

ABOUT LABOUR

MR. J. T. HOGAN’S VIEWS A PARTY WITH IDEALS BUT POLICY NEEDS TRIMMING. PLEA FOR LIBERALISM There was a memory from the past for many who attended Mr. J. j,. Hogan s opening address in the current political campaign 'in the Wanganui Opera House on Monday night. His speech recalled the days when the late Richard John Sedduu came to Wanganui to speek against Air. Hogan because the late Mr. A. D. Willis was already in the field as a Liberal. Mr. Hogan won, and on .Monday night he opened his address by waving the telegram of congratulation he received from Mr. Secldon. Mr. Hogan said that,he had been a Liberal from the beginning. He had supported Mr. Seddou’s regime, and had been in the lie-use with him and had helped to carry on the Liberal policy founded by John Ballance, of Wanganui, and carried through by Seddou and Ward. It was evident fiom ba© tenor of the meeting that there were several Labour supporters present and they were criticised of Air. Hogan’s attitude towards that party. He showed that the Liberals were a great deal talked of to-day, and quoted the tributes paid' to them by the Labour leader, Air. Al J. Savage. A voice; Why don’t you join the Labour Party? Air. Hogan replied that he would tell his questioner why, and, afterwards if he (the questioner) thought he should still support the Labour Party Air. Hogan would be glad to hear him say so. People’s Voice the Voice of God. The Liberals, he said, believed in the principle that the voice of the people was the voice c-f God. The party had introduced t'he second ballot which gave the people the right to vote definitely lor the man they considered best. He hud come within 75 of Mr. Veitch on J;he first ballot, but when it came to the second, Air. George Hutchison, one of the mast able orators south of the line, and marched at the head of his followers to the Labour Party, and Reform, and Labour pledged themselves to vote the Liberals out. They hurled t'he Liberals from, office and voted for Air. Veitch. “Now,” said Air. Hogan to his interjectois, “will you say that 1 am wrong?” A voice: You’re quite right. That’s what did happen. Another voice: Says pou. The original voice: He’s quite correct. “And here we have Air. Bain, with his photo on the screen, talking British this and British that,” Mr. Hogan proceeded, “and you forget that one c-f the things you criticised the Liberals for was the gift of the dreadnought New Zealand to Britain, but you swelled your chests out, and blew yourselves up with pride .when you saw, with Lion, the Queen Alary and thc-se other battleships, the New Zealand in the very van of the fleet at Jutland.” A voice: And we’re paying interest on her yet. Air. Hogan: That interest is very cheap protection. Without the British Navy we wouldn’t make a good breakfast for the Japs. The voice: Stick to the battleship. Never mind the navy. You were telling us of the battleship. The Mayor (Air. Kogers) who was in the chair, asked for a fair hearing. He was applauded and Air. Hogan continued. “Now I come to Labour, ’ he said. “I have nothing but respect for men like the Mayor, who is neutral in his capacity as chairman to-night, there is one point on which he and I agree —that we are both prepared to do our utmost for the people. (Applause).” Equating Currency. Dealing with Labour’s platform in detail, Air. Hogan devoted some time to the proposal to equate the currency to the volume oL production. He wanted to know if there was any member of the Labour Party who understood what that meant. Be would like social credit reformers to definitely ask the candidates where, tihey stood on that issue. “Because,” he said, “there has been no attempt made anywhere in the world where Labour is in power to introcluce social credit. 1 want you to open your minds,” he added, “because it is no light thing to go to the ballot box and vote for or against a man. Get all the information you can, and cast your vote intelligently.” Proceeding, the speaker said that Air. Frank Langstone was the financial expert of the Labour Party. Air. Ormond Wilson had stated at his meeting at Wanganui East that Labour would use the Reserve Bank “ \Mnat a remarkable statement to make; Mi. Hogan continued, “when every member of tire Labour Party did its utmost to prevent the Reserve Bank from being established. ” A voice: And quite right, too. Another voice: They want a State Bank. . Mr. Hogan: I am not speaking against a State Bank, or the Reserve Bank but you have had a State Bank m Australia and is that country any better off than New Zealand! 1 am one c-f the few members who supported the Reserve Bank—and what 1 am trying to convince you is that where 1 differ from Labour, 1 will tell you, and why. •k voice: Hear, hear. Proceeding, Mr. Hogan said tne first Labour voted against the Reserve Bank and then said it would use it. Guaranteed prices, according to . Langstone's book, “The lust o p the March from Bankruptcy to 1 xosperity,” were to operate in this way. if butter was selling at 6d m the Old country, the proposal was to give tanner sixpence plus .Assuming that £lOOO worth of British goods were bought from the proceeds of butter sales at sixpence, Labour pro posed to sell those goods to the P CO V‘ of New Zealand for £2aoo, and thus get the ninepence “guaranteed price back that way. . “In other words it is to come out of your pockets,” Mr. Hogan said “The farmer is to get his Is od tor his butter, but he won’t buy the goods imported, so it will be you who will pay the guaranteed price by paying fhe extra ninepence for the goods yen A voice: We are doing that nonProceeding, the speaker said that Labour had made a big fuss about the

usehold of farm lands. It did not matter what the type uf holding was so long as the Government had the power to enforce taxation. “Usehold of land” was not included in the Labour platform to-day, yet the party had made a great fuss about it not very long ago. The Price of Bread. The price of bread, the speaker said, was an example of what the people would get under a guaranteed price scheme. It was 4d a 41b. loaf too high, and he quoted the difference in price of flour in New Zealand and in Australia. He had fought against t'he wheat duties in this country, but got no help from Labour. ‘‘What is Labour doing about the price of bread ” he asked. “Nothing.” He quoted the Leader of t'he party interjecting when he (Mr. Hogan) was striving for removal of duties on wheat, asking whether “the Hon. Alember was iu favour having the duty removed from egg pulp?” “This injustice should be swept off tihe Statute Book,” Air. Hogan- said, “and Labour should be in the forefront, lighting for amending legislation, but what is Labour doing? Nothing. That is why lam not supporting Labour. Now do you see where your guaranteed prices will get you, and they will get you just the same with butter as with bread. The world is progressing, and what more progressive policy is there than proportional representation or preferential voting, togive the people the right of voting lor whichever candidate they want? But you don’t find that plairk in the Labour platform. Why is Labour not prepared to let the people have the man they definitely want? There’s another nail for you, by friend,” Air. Hogan rounded his criticism off to his much persistent interj-ector. “Another reason why 1 am not supporting the Labour Party.” Mr. Hogan criticised Labour in Australia—Billy Hughes’ ships, the butchers’ shops, fish shops and other shc-ps, which Labour had established in Queensland. “If these things were so good, why have they been swept away?” he asked. A voice: Who’s in power in Queensland now? Air. Hogan: Will my friend tell me whether t'he people have been any better off in Queensland than they were in New Zealand under the Liberals? He will not. Who was it who saved Australia? . It was the Premiers’ conference —a conference c-f the leading financiers and commercial men. Not Labour. A voice: A Labour man was at the head. Air. Hagon: Yes, there was a Labour man at the head, a man, -who to-day is talked of as a Labour renegade, and what did Labour do to my namesake in Victoria—Air. Hogan—for what he did at the Premiers’ Conference? He knew what was best for Victoria and he voted for it, and Victoria is prospering under what he voted for. It was the premiers’ Conference which saved Australia, not Labour.

Only Party with Ideals. “I wish 1 could fall in with Labour and help to improve the conditions for the people of this country, for there is nothing to expect from the National Government, nothing to hope for from tne Democrats, The only party with ideals is the Labour Party, but it has a policy which wants a lot of trimming and I feel that it has not embraced the opportunities it has had—the best opportunities any party has ever had in the history of this country.” Here the speaker quoted from the Liberal Policy, a policy which he stood firmly behind to-day: (1) Universal superannuation. (2) Cheaper coal. (3) Cheap bread. (4) A laud system for the people. (5) Progressive policy of public works. He would capitalise a quarter of the money collected in unemployment tax and thus carry on public works, such as the planting of sand dunes, as had been done by Mr. Dave Dustin, and those supporting him, at Ixaitoke. He would stabilise prices on the 1913-14 values and when values rose above that level the surplus would be paid into a fund to build the values up when they fell. The whole question which was seriously affecting this country to-day was the price at which kind had been bought, he said. People were looking at the whole thing from the wrong end. He would sweep away three and a-half millions of unemployment taxation and capitalise half ainillion. The speaker concluded by saying that lie had no newspapers behind him., Therq. had been live newspapers against him when be contested the Rangitikei scat. Before people voted he wauted them to remember the Wanganui of 1911 and think of the little they had had in the 24 years intervening, “This is the fifth city of the Dominion” he said. “Before you vote take a walk down and look at the town bridge. Palmerston North could get a good bridge on a main highway, and largely paid for by the Alain Highways Board. This is a main highway, but go down and look at our bridge, the way it has stood there neglected these last 20 (xld years. And when you have done that go over and have a look al the Eastown Workshops, once a hive of industry, now almost neglected. Then come back and look at the Post Office, divided into two sections. If you want a money order you (have to walk almost two blocks along the street. Then, after looking at the Post Office, go along and have a look at the Courthouse. Voices: Never on your life. No thanks. . Air. Hogan: When I ceased to be a member for Wanganui there was £7OOO promised for a Court-house. But what have you got these last 24 years? Nothing. Have a look where the State Coal depot used to be, and after you have visited all these placed, go and vote, and I hope you will vote to put Wanganui on the map again.” (Applause). Concluding, Air. Hogan said that he stood for the people and he believed the old Liberal policy could be revived. There were 40,000 men looking for work. “I say God bless the party which will assist them to win their daily bread,” he concluded amid pro longed