LABOUR PARTY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 874, 21 July 1910, Page 6

LABOUR PARTY.

.$ OBJECTIVE AND PLATFORM. ■PROPOSED REFORMS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) Auckland, July 20. The committee appointed by the Trades and Labour Conference to draw up the objective and platform of the New Zea- - land Labour Party presented its report at to-day's meeting, the following planks being . adopted after discussion:— Objective. To maintain upon our Statute Books all the progressive legislation that 'has already been enacted, and to insist upon its sympathetic, and proper administration ; to enact comprehensive measures and establish, such conditions as will foster and ensure equality of opportunity, also tlie moral material, and educational advancement and the general comfort and well ..being of the whole people, base'd upon the gradual public ownership of all the means of production, distribution, ami exchange. Platform. Immediate nationalisation of : „ monopolies: (a) Establishment of a State ferry service and State colliers; (b) establishment of competitive State factories. < Land reform: (a) No further sale _ot Crown lauds; (b) leasehold tenure, with right of renewal and periodical revaluation every 21 years, except for heavy bush and swamp lands; (c) tenants absolute right to . improvements; (d) limitation of area, based on value, to ensure an equitable distribution of our lands; (e) resumption of Native and other lands for closer settlement on. renewable lease; (f) increment tax on' all laud sales, to secure to the State all socially-created values; (g) the retention and direct opera' tion by tho State of sufficient land to meet the demands of. the national food supply; (h) iueroased-gTaduated land tax. Currency reform:. (a) Establishment of a State bank with sole right of note issue; .(b) cassation of .public borrowing, except for redemption of loans and completion of works already authorised ' by Parliament. Elecloral reform: (a)'Abolition 1 of the Legislative Council; (b)-proportional representation on single transferable vote; (c) initiative and referendum; .(d) 1 Parliamentary franchise to apply to the election of all local bodies; Ye) full political rights to all State employees. Industrial reform:' (a). Right-to-Work Bill; (b) insurance .against unemployment; (c) extension of State labour agencies and abolition of private registry offices; (d) a maximum eight-hour day, a sis-day week, with a gradual reduction to.a forty-hour week ; (e) statutory preference of employment to unionists; .(f) equal pay for equal work for male and female workers; (g) amended AVorkers' Accommodation Act; (ii). amended Workers' Compensation Act; (i) amended' Conciliation and Arbitration Act; (j).tlie prohibition of labour under contract; (k) a legislative, minimum wage. Taxation reform: (a) n graduaitd income tax, based on scientific' principles, with a super tax on unearned incomes; (b) a graduated absentee tax. Education reform: (a)' The maintenance- of a free secular ■ and compulsory State educational system from .primary school to university; (b) free school books.Social reform: (a) pensions, for widows and orphans and State assistance in maternity; (J)) right of the people to restrict or abolish the liquor traffic, by bare mujority vote at local and Dominion option polls.