POLITICAL SNAPSHOTS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 15970, 12 November 1919, Page 5

POLITICAL SNAPSHOTS.

Lieut.-Colonel G. Mitchell, D.5.0., who is contesting Wellington South seat against Mr R. Semple, the sitting member, got a good shot iiomo on his opponent when addressing the electors a couple of nights ago. Be turned soldiers, he said, were opposed to the disloyalists who had endeavoured to prevent the boys at the front receiving rein for cements to help them win the war. They fought for the great nia.-w of the peopk. They had won the war, and if they had not done so New Zealand would have been placed under thj heel of the Hun.

After the generous but ineffective support the Chronicle gave to Mr Frbd Pi rani when he stood in the Reform interests at last election, it would bo interesting now to get a modem criticism from that paper of the wily little Feildingite, who has found himeelf again, and is going to put all his strength into the fight as a Liberal against, those who have opposed the hi tores to of the workers.

<0 “I believe in the right to strike, but I believe also that when once a combine or union holds up the food of the people the country must step in and win. If the food supplies of the people are held up, then that is the end of constitutional government, and is the beginning of civil war. 1 believe there is a greater union than that, 'of any steamship company, trust, coal miners’ muon, or wharf labourers’ union, and that is Uie great union of the which must come out on top all the timo.”—Lieut.-Colonel Mitchell.

It is a noteworthy fact that large numbers of those who worked solidly in RaugitikeL at last election for the Massey candidate are now out to assist Brigadier-Genera! Moldrum, and they are going to win.

“dsira is not a bad port at all,” said one of his oldest friends in Wanganui on Saturday, “but I am jolly glad I am not in Rangitikei. It would hurt me to veto against him, but in the*, interests of the country and in opposition to the capitalistic crowd lip represents, I won Id have to mark him out on the ballot paj>er.”

"Semple would lix it,” shouted an interjector at Lieut.-Colonel Mitchell’s meeting at Newton, when the candidate advocated increased pensions for soldiers. “The soldiers,” retorted the candidate promptly, "don't want any favour from people who would have let, them down in the war.” (Deafening applause followed by some boohing.)

Answering an interjector at his meeting at Newtown, Licut.-Colonel Mitchell said ho believed ho started life lower down on the ladder tiian yterhaps his interrupter. “My father brought uy> seven children on wages,” was the retort- “'Well,” replied the candidate, amid loud applause, “my father brought up fourteen 1”

Discussing the question of profiteering in his address at Maranui, the Labour candidate for Wellington Suburbs (Mr A. W. Croskery) enlarged on the subject of coal prices. State coal was retailed at -s per cwt. in the town, or j£2 per ton. Coal purchased from the private dealer cost in some cases fls Od per cwt., or .£3 10s per ton. According to Mr Bishop, Under-Secretary of the Mines Department, coal cost, f.0.b., approximately 17s per ton, and the Union Company charged 9s 7d per ten for carrying it to Wellington. The company had increased its charge by 4s per ton since 7914. Under the present system the public made a present to “private enterprise” on every ton of coal it burnt of 27s 8d on the retail side, and of 53s Id on the absolute cost of production at the mine. The Labour Party proposed to eliminate these avenues of exploitation by State mines. State ships, and State deliveries.

‘'Capital and Labour are not natural enemies,” declared Lieutenant-Oolonel G. Mitchell, candidate for Wellington South, “and they should never be enemies. They have only been made enemies—(A Voice: ‘What is Capital?*)—by selfishness on the one side and the agitator on the other. (Applause and uproar.) Capital and Labour must come together for the common good, or we shall get nowhere. They arc not natural enemies. I believe the situation as we find it today has been largely created by the selfishness of Capital in tho past."