ON THE PLATFORM.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1292, 22 November 1911, Page 8

ON THE PLATFORM.

WELLINGTON CENTRAL. MR. FLETCHER'S THIRD MEETING. NOISE AND INTERRUPTION. In point of numbers, the audience which Mr. R. Fletcher, Government candidate for the Central seat, addressed at the Druids' Hall last night was eminently satisfactory. Thero must havo been nearly 600 people in tho hall, 100 of whom had to stand. While the meeting was generally sympathetic, thero wero frequent interruptions, mostly irrelevant, and, at times, much noise. Mr. W. Hildreth presided. Mr. Fletcher began by outlining his record as a member of . tho . Harbour Board and the City Council., claiming for himself a small measure of credit for his stewardship. Ho had at length decided, after being many times approached on the subject, to seek election to Par- | liameut, and having decided to stand, he proposed, if, elected, to ally himself with the Liberal party. He did not believe in party government, but he realised that a man, if he wished, to achieve anything in Parliament, must belong lo some party. He had chosen the Liberal party as being the party. which stood for the masses, as against tho party that stood fqr power, wealth, and privilege. Mr. Fletcher reviewed the doings of tho Liberals since thoy had been in power, t:nd accused the Opposition >f doing nothing but wrong. The Opposition' had-made charge after charge, against the Government, and their administration, but not one of those charges had been proved, and he instanced the Hihe ' charges - . These charges had been proved groundless, and thousands and thousands of pounds had been spent fruitlessly in proving them baseless. He said that ho was a leaseholder, and did not believe that a s : .nglo acre of Crown land should bo al : cnated. -If returned to Parliament ho "ould advocate the imposition of the highest possible tax on land 'V.ned iy t:.rgo holders' who did not nso it..

Very soon after tho meeting commenced a section of the audience bad begun to make some, noiss by interjection and otherwise. There was nothing approaching a disturbance at. any time, nor was tlio interjection always intelligent, but there was a good deal of it. The candidate was frequently interrupted when he was trying to declare his views in favour of compulsory military training, the interruptions coining altogether from a small .Socialist faction. He also declared in favour of free, secular, and compulsory education. He argued that the taxation, in New Zealand was not so heavy on land and small incomes in New Zealand as it was in some of the European countries, nor was the ..taxation through the customs excessive. Personally he was in favour of the remission of all Customs duties. Ho would make tho land pay. (Applause and "Hear, hear.") There was an interlude hero whilo a noisy person at tho bock of the hall was being persuaded to behave a little better. Mr. Fletcher was permitted to finish bis speech without very much serious interruption. A section of tho crowd was not always orderly. When tho timo camo for questions the crowd was uproarious at times, but more on account of the questions and the. questioners than of anything Mr. Fletcher Eaid or did. The candidate said ho was not in fiivour of Prohibition, and not in favour of State aid for denominational schools. Ho also said that he thought tho Government had made a mistake in not taking over the Bank of New Zealand when the opportunity offered. There'was more noise and disorder when a vote of thanks and confidence was proposed. The motion was received with applause and booing, and when cheers were called for fh<Te were cheers and more liooing. Cheers wore railed for Mr. Fisher, and again there were cheers and morn booing. Tho balance was in favour i of Mr. Fletcher, and the chairman de--1 clared. the vote carried, bv acclamation.

ADDKIiSS BY JIK. AV.'T. YOUNG. Jlr. \\\ T. Young, Labour candidate for the Wellington Central seal, ;i<uirc;>ed a well-anemieit meeting ot electors in lliu Willis Sired School mst evening. Jlr. t\ Tester acted as chairman. Air. Holing was given n quid and attentive hearing. fn upening, lie contrasted Uio career of the present llovcriiment with that of the Administration controlled by Air. Balance. Hud tho latter lived lh» country would have, boon l'urlhcr advanced, and would certainly not have keen in the hands of the London moneylender. The Labour party held dial it was l.e.st for the country thai borrowing should cease and that 'a. State bank, with the sole right of note issue, shoiild.be established. Through this medium, the. whole of the public, works and undertakings should lie carried out. As showing what could be dono in this way, Jlr. Young stated that tho Australian Commonwealth had not one farthing of national debt. The whole of its works were paid for ''»'. of revenue. It was now engaged in building a, narr, and had already spent, three millions upon if out of revenue. Ono of (ho last acts of (he Dcakin Government was to pass a. Loan Bill of ono and a half millions, but the Labour Government, on being returned to power, repealed the Bill. So long as the Labour party remained in power the Australian Commonwealth would never hove a national debt. Jlr. Young advocated the acquisition of tho Bank of New Zealand by the Government, and its conversion Into a State bank. He denounced the actiou of the Government in withholding from Parliament information in regard to loans. AVhilo admitting that provision must Ijo made for defence, Jlr. Young condemned tho compulsory system as worthy of Russia and utterly unnecessary iu a country where every young man and every old man, too, should the need arise, would tako up arms in defence of his country. If tho Labour party were re--turned to power, it would not bo very long before the Government would be compelled to pay women in their employ the same salaries as wero paid to men doing equal work. The Labour party stood for majority rule on all questions, and supported the principle of the refer-., endum. Mr. Young said thero was no* truth in a rumour about aiv alleged compact between the Labonr party and the Tories led .by Jlr. Massey. The parties were diametrically opposed on the .vital question of land tenure. Mr. was generally outspoken and.straight, but bis viows were not- those- of the mass of the. people. Ths Labour.party bad no qna--rel with the producer, in town or country. -AA'hat it desired to do was to el-', minaf.o tin profits'of tho middleman. Th» proposal to fester the iron industry by offering a bonus was wron?, because private monopolies slionjd not be. built un with public money. Mr. A'oung claimed that if the butter industry wero nntinnalis"d its product would be obtainable by !"oa! consumers nt about Sd. per lb. At the sirhe time Better condition's and wages could be <rrnnti>d to workers in the industry. Jlr. Young advocated an extension of State aid in maternity cases. The establishment,of the State co.il deoots bad brought down the price of coal from 3Ps. fid. Tier ton to 275. Gd. but more should be done. The Government paid the Union Company ss. Bd. a ton for carrying coal.' If two colliers were bought— they, would cost 4"f"o.oofl—the coal cftuld be carried nt a c:st of 2s. Gd. ner ton, and the price of coal correspondingly reduced. Having dealt with the land question, and that of Native ' lands, Jlr. Yonn» appealed to his hearers to sunport Labour at the coming flection. He. believed that, neither Tory nor Liberal, was sufficiently advanced in his views to meet the needs of the democratic city of AYelliiffton. The only alternative was the labour party. At the elos? of his address, Jfr. A'ounu was unanimously accorded a vote .of thanks and confidence.