THE GOVERNMENT AND LABOUR.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 683, 7 December 1909, Page 8

THE GOVERNMENT AND LABOUR.

i !?' Prime Minister told the delegates at the ■ recent Labour Conference that "if they supposed 'he was unfriendly' to Labour they never made a greater mistake." It is a strange way .Of demonstrating I his' friendliness to the wage-earners to propose to< sell millions of acres of. the national-estate, and at. the same time add to . the which so severely oppress the workers. Wo must judge the Primo and hia colleagues'not by their words but by their acts. Actions speak much louder than words. As tho result of increasing population and expenditure ■of public money, lind values have risen over 80 per cent.' during the last seventeen years. •Why should' the : landholders be permitted to pocket this vast increase in land'.value, seeing- that it is not in the 'least_ degree^'due: to anything' they • have uone? If the Prime Minister were a friend to Labour he would tax this value instead of increasing railway faros and otherwise adding to the burdens of Labour. It is quite trueTas ono of your correspondents has pointed out, that, although- Sir. Joseph Ward has been in office about fifteen years, Labour', is worse off than ever. The cost of living is' higher than ever; employment is'soarce and '• precarious; and about' two-thirds of the produce of -Labour still jpes to the people- who. "toil not, > neither SP»- these circumstances,' , to, add ( tho burdens , of 1 . ■ the wage-earners is certainly not Liberal policy: it is tho cruellest Tory policy. The fact is, we have Tory Ministers m Liberal clothes. .: -. • ' ' I that-all classes-'of wage, earners in every constituency Assemble durino the Christmas holidays, and protest against the Tory.policy,of the present Government. -It would also be to their advantage to: band theniselves_ together urone great, democratic partv with the object of-placing a'democratic Gov. eminent, in power at-tho earliest possible date I.am, etc., -v. . HUNK EDGAR WILLIS. Kaiwarra, November 25, 1909..'.''