THE GENERAL ELECTION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 45, Issue 13983, 20 November 1919, Page 3

THE GENERAL ELECTION.

MASTERTON SEAT.

MR McLEOD AT KURIPUNI.

There was an audience numbering about 150 persons at the Kuripuni Hall last evening to hear 1 Mr A. McLeod, the Labour candidate for Masterton, deliver an address.

jtfr H. J. O'Leary occupied the chair and briefly introduced the speaker. Mr McLeod said he wished to deny a rumour that the Labour Party was out as an organisation to interrupt the meetings of political candidates. The Labour Party was out to extend freedom of speech to all. The representative attendance indicated that Labour was looming on the horizon. He had been accused of being an extremist. On two occasions the people had returned him to a seat on the Borough Council, but ho defied anyone to say that he had been responsible for introducing or supporting extreme measures. Tho Labour Party was charged with being revolutionists. It was true he stood for revolution, not mob rule, but for a revolution which aimed at a government of the people, for the people, by the people. The candidate contended that the capitalistic system existing in New Zealand was causing undue hardships, and would not be tolerated in some of the older countries. He quoted fig-, ures from a speech delivered to Parliament by Sir James 'Allen in his financial statement. This showed that the unimproved land values in 1914 were £228,493,000. In 1905 the unimproved values were £122,937,000. Between these years the unimproved values had increased by £106,000,000. According to Sir James Allen, in 1914 there were 120,000 landowners in New Zealand, including town and country. Seeing that there were at least 600,000 adults in New Zealand, this meant that 480,000 were landless in a country they were supposed to be in possession of, and this in face of the fact that the Liberals and Tories were supposed to have attacked land monopoly for forty years. Of the 120,000 land owners only 40,889 paid land tax on £170,000,000 of unimproved values in land. The total tax they paid was only £170,000,000. This was only 4 per cent of the population, and this small percentage owned threequarters of the total of the land. Included in the 40,000 land taxpayers were 6100 odd who paid the graduated land tax. Qf the £170,000,000 owned by all the land tax payers these 6100 graduated land taxpayers bwned about £85,000,000. That was to say, they owned one-half of the total taxable value of the land of New Zealand, and more than one-third of the whole value of all the lands in this country. The 6100 people represented three-fifths of one per cent of the total population. Here was the actual situation in 1914 as stated by Sir James Allen. This went to show that 480,000 people owned no laud at all. This was at the end of thirty years of Liberalism, and seven years of Toryism. According to the Year Book of 1917 the total number of land and graduated land taxpayers was 35,859. That was 5000 less, and the amount they paid was £713,000, or £50,----000 less. While in the four war years Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward were reducing the number of land taxpayers and the amount they paid in tax, the unimproved value of their land rose by over £30,000,000. Thus, the unimproved value of land had risen £8,000,000 per annum. These facts proved that land monopoly in its worst form existed in New Zealand.

The speaker went on to show that the number of income taxpayers increased by 23,000 during the four-year war period. The total income of the 38,000 people assessed for taxation was in 1914 £36,645,000. The total tax paid by them was £5,619,000. Of the total number of income taxpayers—37,949—26,----321 had incomes of less than £650, or a total of £10,305,000, showing an aver"age income, of £309. Five thousand five hundred and thirty-one had incomes between £650 and £1000, their total asssesablo incomes being £4,307,000, giving them an average income of £780. Again, CSO7 had incomes of between £1000 and £10,000. This total income was £12,988,000, or an average of £1910. Two hundred and ninety people had incomes of more than £10,000 each, and their incomes last year amounted in the aggregate to £9,430,000, giving them an average income of £31,194. In 1915-16 tho total number of factories in New Zealand was 4670. Tho total number of workers employed was 57,523, and the total wages paid £6,654,000. This went to show that 290 persons received incomes valued at £2,500,000 more than all the workers in the factories. The speaker stated that the right thing should be done by the soldiers, who were not recognised in the manner they deserved. The speaker dealt with various other political matters, and at the conclusion of his address the following motion was carried:—"That this meeting, after having heard Mr McLeod, is satisfied that he does not hold extreme views, and that he is a fit and proper person to represent th o electorate in Parliament."

Cheers were given for the candidate,