BIG AUDIENCE

Waikato Times, Volume 132, Issue 22150, 23 September 1943, Page 4

BIG AUDIENCE

MR J. A. LEE’S MEETING DEMOCRATIC LABOUR POLICY VIGOROUS EXPOSITION In an eloquent and forceful address, to an audience that crowded ; the Theatre Royal to overflowing, Mr J. A. Lee, leader of the Democratic ! Soldier Labour Party, propounded the principles of his party in Hamilton last night. Throughout an address, which lasted two and a-half hours, he was accorded an attentive ; hearing and his rhetorical comment : and humourous sallies at the expense ! of certain members of the Government kept the crowded theatre in excellent humour. Referring to Mrs M. M. Dreaver and her recent remarks on the Public Service, Mr Lee said she was a good “yes man” while in the House but when she went out among her own constituents it was a case of I “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary.” Of the Hon. P. C. Webb, the speaker ! said, “Paddy Webb, who had never had to buy a baby’s outfit in his life—the Peter Pan of politics. The man who would stand at one end of a tunnel, singing the Red Flag, and !at the other end haul the sacred emblem down.”

The Mayor, Mr H. D. Caro, presided and associated on the platform with M'*' T «« mtovo A.

Dillon (Raglan), Warrant-Officer A. E. Allen (Hamilton), and Mr G. G. Burke (Waikato), Democratic Labour candidates in the coming election. At the conclusion of his address and after the speaker had answered a number of questions, Mr Lee was accorded a vote of thanks and confidence in his party and in the candidate for Hamilton, Warrant-Offi-cer Allen. The motion was moved by Mr R. Taylor and seconded by Mr J. Ross. As the theatre was full before the advertised time, the meeting commenced shortly before 8 o’clock. Foundations of Peace In his opening remarks Mr Lee pointed out that winning the war was not sufficient. Laying the foundations for peace was what was required. Those foundations must be truly laid so that the men who marched and the men who fought would enjoy, on their return, the land that had been promised to them, the land “fit for heroes to live in.” The speaker said he came to them representing a party of 50 candidates, the majority of whom had served either in this or the last war. Twenty of them were on leave without pay, and in their ranks all branches of the services were represented. Further, all walks of life were to be found among them. Mr Lee referred in trenchant terms to the discrimination shown in radio facilities allocated the different parties. The speaker had addressed largely attended meetings in various parts of the Dominion, many of his audiences running into 1000 and 2000, and while his party was permitted but one night on the air his opponents were given a comparatively free rein, and were “on the air” when talking, at times, to small audiences of between 70 and 200 people. Rectifying Manpower

We were in this fight for a new world order, he said. Our manpower had been grossly over-committed and hopelessly bungled. Such, under Democratic Labour, would be immediately rectified. They wanted to win the war and all the available manpower resources of the country should be devoted to.that end Only by that could production be maintained. They had been committed to maintaining more than one division in the field, but they could not go on calling up more men. By doing so the disproportionate Labour commitments would eventually end in empty shelves. The foundation of the Democratic Labour Party was the complete control of currency and credit in the intersts of human welfare, Mr Lee continued. He personally had pressed this policy while he was a member of the Labour Party, and wherever true radicals were to be found—whether Marx, Shaw or the Dean of Canterbury—there would be found also a united front on this vital question. This was how the Labour Party policy had started, but where was the policy now? he asked. Government’s Borrowing Policy New Zealand was spending £120,000,000 on war and had called up 160,000 men to fight and produce for war. This production for destruction would cease when the war ended and the soldiers would be out of a job overnight. Mr Lee held that the Government could issue credit to deal with this position but if Mr Nash’s policy of borrowing from the private trading banks was followed the people would be paying up to 19s 6d in the £ taxation to pay the debt incurred to the banks. Discussing Labour’s rehabilitation plan Mr Lee said it was a scheme of relief undertaken on money borrowed at a high rate of interest. After this war industries could be established to absorb the working people 1 of the country, many of them soldiers, jwho would be seeking a place in civilian life again. New Zealand was proportionately one of the wealthiest countries in the world in raw ! materials and unused power, and possessed tremendous potentialities as a [manufacturing country. All that was needed was a sensible use of credit 'and a sound direction of its resources and manpower. [ Mr Lee visualised a scheme of soldier [ settlement with money available not at 4 1-8 p6r cent, but at IV* per cent, or IV2 per cent, or some rate close to that , figure. Th 3 Labour Government had been in office since 1935, but had not yet reduced the rate of interest by so much as one-eighth per cent, despite its prei 1935 pledge, and despite the speaker’s ' persistent advocacy of reduced interest rates when he was in the councils of the | Labour Party. Ensuring Cheaper Interest Rates His party stood for a complete transformation of the money system, a transformation which would ensure a cheaper rate of interest. A soldier settler should not have to work eight hours for the mortgagee before getting anything for himself. New Zealand was ideally situated for the inauguration of numerous industries which would provide ideal avenues of employment for the men on their return from overseas. Under a new credit technique it would be possible to test some of the schemes of group settlement. Those who wanted individual tenure could have it, of course. Under the new sys-

tem they wanted to establish a State stock and agency department, so that the young man whose parent had just died would have no need to say. "My father has just died and bequeathed to me all the mortgages on the farm.” Today they were buying shells etc., at 1943 prices and trying to pay for them at the 1935 standard of remuneration. If they were going on as at present, adding tax to tax, there would come a day soon when there would be no one to tax. It was vital to the country that farming and industry generally was maintained. The first thing the Government should do. said Mr Lee, was. after revising manpower, to demand, since as they paid 1943 prices, that they get 1943 value for their commodities. Then they should go straight forward with the formation of a new financial order. Under the present financial system, it might be said that "farmers come and farmers go. but the debt, or mortgage, goes on for ever." The speaker advocated a family allowance of £1 per child. They talked about morality, said Mr Lee. but what help had been given the mother toward keeping the cradles full. The working man had been placed on a 40-hour week, but what compensation had the mother received for her week of 80 hours? BRIGADIER J. HARGEST (By Telegraph—Press Association) INVERCARGILL, Wednesday Mrs J. Hargest received the following message today from Brigadier James Hargest in a cablegram from Berne (Switzerland): —“Please convey to the electors of Awarua my gratitude for their loyalty and confidence, which I will endeavour to justify in future.” Mrs Hargest had cabled her husband that he had been elected unopposed for Awarua, the seat he has held for the last eight years.