The Christian Labourite.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18425, 4 July 1925, Page 12

The Christian Labourite.

On one or two points in the speech by the Rev. J. K. Archer at Timaru the necessarily condensed report sent by our correspondent did not do the Mayor full justice. He was reported as having said that "confiscation had "no part whatever in Labour's pro- " gramme.'' The fuller reports in the Timaru papers show that ho did say this; but that he added: "The Party "believed in compensating people for " their rights, but they did not believe "in giving compensation for com- " munity-ereated values, or what was "termed unearned increment." Since practically every increase in the value of property of almost every kind is due to the growth of population, and nothing can have any value unless there is a community, Mr Archer's offer of compensation is an offer of nothing at all. Labour will say, when or if it is in power, " We shall con-"fisca-tc nothing to which you. have any "right, but in our judgment your "rights are nil." Few people have really doubted that this is the real attitude of the Labour Party; doubt, indeed, is forbidden by every manifesto which Labour issues, and by any logical interpretation of Labour's policy* But it is characteristic of this particular type of Labour leader that he should endeavour, in the roundabout way we have indicated, to mislead those whom he wishes to gather into the Labour fold. In. Mr Holland, or any othor layman in the Labour Party, weak and, sinful like the rest of us of all Parties, Ave should not find this equivocation offensive, but one can think it unpleasing in a Labour leader who comes forward as a teacher of the gospel of Christ. "All who were "thinkers," he said, ought to be in the Labour ranks, and such a saying is harmless, and asks for no further comment than the suggestion that Mr Archer might do well to ask himself why most people who think remain outside. But he went on to say: " All " who were Christians, men and women "who wanted to see the teachings of " Jesus Christ incarnated in social, industrial, national and international "life, ought to be with the Labour "Party, because they could not for a "moment imagine that Ho sanctioned "the selfish system under which the "people now lived. He was the real "leader of the Labour" Party." Mr Archer can hardly be unaware that there could not well be a more grotesque misinterpretation than this of the spirit of Christ's teaching; and what, therefore, are wo to think of his standard of what is proper in political advocacy? /One more point in his speech may be briefly noticed. His rancorous dislike of the late Mr Massey—which found expression, when Mr Massey died, in a statement so acrid and grudging that wo withheld it out of consideration for the. feelings of our readers —prompted him to say that the late Prime Minister "had never " represented ■ the interests of 50 per " cent, of the people " but had " always "represented the interests of the "minority." We should not be showing to the memory of Mr Massey the respect we have for it if we thought that it required defence against a critic of Mr Archer's quality, but we may correct the mere .misstatement of fact in the phrase* we have quoted. Mr Massey represented, in his legislation and administration, the interests of the vast majority of the people, Reformers, Liberals, and Labourites. He could not have remained in office had he not done so. He served the interests even of those who voted Labour far more effectively than any Labour Government ever can or will.