THE COMING ELECTION.

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17493, 29 August 1928, Page 9

THE COMING ELECTION.

ADDRESS AT TE AROHA. ALMS OF THE LABOUR PARTY. Mr D. C. Chalmers addressed a fair attendance of electors at Te Aroha on Monday evening. The Mayor, Mr It. Coulter, presided. Mr Chalmers referred to the unhappiness of Hie people to-day. The present industrial system, while it boasts many material advantages, has yet to solve immense problems. The aim of the Labour Parly is not to destroy, but to fulfil. Contrary to what their critics ask people io believe, the party does not consider the capitalist system bad. They accept it as a historical fact, and a s'cp in iiic progress of life. So far as it contributes to national wealtli by increasing human efficiency, they adopt it; but they would modify the faults and accommodate it better to the service of humanity. Members ■of the Labour Party are recruited from all classes, and ils theories, which are not the theories attributed to it by a Hostile press, by their intrinsic reasonableness are winning, on intellectual grounds, an increasing number of adherents every day. Social Unrest. Referring to what he styled “social unrest," Mr Chalmers said the Labour Party saw in the vast aggregation of property in the hands of the few, and the unfair division of national inco-me, the symptoms of a grave economic disease. in the Labour Party’s opinion, under the present system, there must always be strife between Ihe people as a whole and the exploiting classes. But they are accused of causing this strife, The party di’d not believe in class war; they see it, and they regard it as an essential disease of the capitalist system. Therefore the party is striving to evolve a system in which, by eliminating class war, the people may give unstinted service to the community. Mr Chalmers dwelt mainly on this line of thought. His party’s platform also included the creation of a State Bank and the .reorganisation of credit in the interests of the Dominion as a whole. In this they see the possibility of stabilising prices, of bringing down interest rates, of providing cheaper money for the producer, and so stimulating l;yid settlement and employment. The imposition of a graduated land tax sufficiently drastic to force large estates for subdivision into the market at practical prices, was advocated, the acquisition of these estates and their -closer settlement on lease providing for occupancy and use. The general reorganisation of taxation, -so as to shift the burden in some measure off the shoulders of those not capable of hearing it, and the provision of medical attendance, free to all, were desired. In conclusion, Mr Chalmers said | there wpuld be no interference with existing land tenure or the rights of owners of land. The speaker was accorded 'a good hearing, and at the conclusion the Mayor declared the only proposal—that of confidence in the speaker and his party—carried unanimously.