WELLINGTON CENTRAL

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 311, 20 September 1918, Page 7

WELLINGTON CENTRAL

THE LABOUR FIGHT OPENED MR. P. FRASER'S ADDRESS 'The Labour , campaign was opened by Sir. .P. Fraser, 'the official candidates of'the Labour Representation Committee, in the Alexandra Hall last -night.' Tliero were about 350 people present. The candidato and other speakers paid a. good deal of • attention to a. gentleman whom not one of them named, but whom they spoke of as "the Independent Labour Candidate.". Mr. A.' Parhme, who presided, said that the Labour Party regretted the circumstances which inado an election necessary for tho tfarty' had had the greatest respect for the late' Air. Fletcher. The Social Democratic Party at last election had withdrawn Mr. Holland -from-';the- contest in' order that ,the vote inight not be split. The wcig'it of tho party was .then thrown into the scale in.favour of Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Fraser had been selected by tho workers themselves. , ' He would urge' Labour people to ask . any other gentleman calling himself a- Labour candidate who were behind him—whether he was backed by any unions or by any secret societies. . ■ Mr. J. Read appealed to all workers 'to do all that they could for the Labour cause,'without any,regard to whether they approved of the candidate or i'ot. He declared that there was only one section in .the Labour movement, in spite of all that might; be said to' the contrary. There would be IndependentLabour candidates and other candidates "just as good as Labpur," but' the only-straight ■'■Labour candidate was Peter Eraser. . ;, No Room for Independents. Mr. Eraser said that-the air w;i3 'filled, with industrial strife, brought on .by the failure of the Government to deal with tho cost-of-living question. The miners had been fighting the mineowners for iwo months.. That trouble was now over, he hoped. The tramwaymen were fighting' for improvement in their totally inadequate pay. In '.his demand they were supported by every Labour man in •Wellington; Ho regretted that thero was not on the City Council'a body'of Labour men to fight the battles of the tramwaymen. It would be the duty of the workers at the election in March next to see;that Labour men were returned. There was no room for independence in the Labour movement at present What was an. independent, anyhow? If it had any meaning, it meant independent of control, and this existed al-' ready. There was a Goverme'ut which would not give the people power to.control it or even to tur,it .ijs out. There was a good deal of silly talk about "extremists." One of the objectives of the Labour Party livas' tho common ownership ; and democratic control of the means of This had beeu one of the objectives of tho United Labour Party off which the gentleman who was now standing as an "Independent" was one of tho candidates contesting an Auckland constituency. Ho repudiated the suggestion that'the Labour Party was dominated by any set of men. On the contrary, the p , arty was the most democratic organisation possible.' Anybody who would subscribe to the party's principles could get-into the Labour Party by paying liic entrance fee, and once in a personcould take his part;in the control of ■the party. Outside of the party there was no room for Independents. ■

The' Labour, people wore out to-.de-stroy the superstition known as "the power of the Press.", '• The Labour people had set out to do this, and they were- doing it. Something would bo heard from the Pi-ess in the course of tlio next two weeks, and it would be idlo to expect the Press to observe the rules-of -criticism.,-; The would tell the public of: Wellington that the Labour candidate was a Social Revolutionary and a "Bolshevik." He. would be disappointed if they did noKuse that word. There would he no fun in the fight at all! ■■' .' . .. .

■ Hβ referred to "the numerous com-, pany" .of other candidates. .. Of Mr. Hildreth-he said tliat Hildreth }vas to he congratulated on in'coming fonvr.rd to support a Government •which had four years of'.ac-c-umjilated sins against, tlio ivor Hers. Sir. Fras'or nrntested against the short timo allowed for enrolment of voters. Tho moment a Government candidate Was selected tho writ .'was issued. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people were not enrolled. Tho, system was quite obsolete. If . returned 1"! would endeavour to secure an amendment of the law to provide that enrolment should bn clone: iu much the sainis way as the census was.taken. Another electoral reform urged by the. Labour Party was proportional representation. They believed also ..in■ the referendum.'. On tlio -question of Prohibition, Labour stood for the fullest, ballot-paper and the. preferential

method of voting. Labour' believed' in tltf fullest trust in tho people. Ho'declared'that in Labour legislation New Zealand Was behind Mexico I In a fen- short months this country, left alone by the financial interests stirring up the trouble there, had passed some of tho most advanced legislation in the world. It was discreditable to this country that under our law a woman was not allowed to sit in Parliament. Against this iniquity Labour would fight. , The Source of Wealth. It had been said that tho Labour Party stood for equal division of wealth. ' This was not so. He did not see how that. could- be brought about, lint certainly it would bo possible to approximate to equality, and perhaps in time to achieve equality of income. . The wealth of New Zealand, if equally divided, would, give £300 to every person in tho country. And even if there were cqnal_ division, and every person had a credit of £300, it would not bo a bad thing. A man and his wife would have £600, and if there were three children the credit would be £1500. He went on to speak of what he formed the robbery of Labour, declaring that the workers, mental aud manual, were robbed, by tho mere investors of money in enterprises; at the rate of 120 per cent. He spoke' of land ownership and communityrcreated land values. .From 1902 .until 1916 the owners of land, without doiiiß a useful turn, had raked in a hundred and forty-six million pounds. A voice: Why have they assessed it so high? ■ . '■ Another voice: Garh, I thought you were a nark. Mr: Frafi , said that the increase in value was due to the work of the useful pernio in 'tin , corupiiinity. Another voice: Why don't you get soti'o land? . . .' Still'another v.oice: Why don't you get some sense? There was a little disconcerting laurMer. Mr. Fraser said that h» would explain if anyone was interested why he was not a landowner. ' | "... I On Labour Grievances. Sir. Frast'r spoke of war profits, cpndeiuning the Lfovcrmnent for having not only permitted but encouraged tho making of raoiioy out of_ the heavy sacrifices of the best men in the country. Equally he. condemned.' the. exploitation of the population, here, and liio starving population of Great Britain. After mentioning one special instance of war appreciation in value of a product he declared: "That is perhaps what Sir Joseph Ward calls 'practical patriotism.'"" * The two leaders of the National Government had gone. Home to "help to win the war" by getting more money for our produce from the starving people of England. Likewise lie declared that the Government's rent restriction legislation had been a complete failure. The Government had no scheme to solve tho housing problem .because they were of the party , of rank roilters and exploiters. The same applied to the City Council. , The cost-of-living problem was a perplexing one in normal times, .and, the only real solution : was. Labour's solution —tho common ownership of the means of production. But in war time it kIymUI have been tho duty of the Government to take, other measures, especially iii a country which produced food in abundance." The only reason why it had not been done was that the Government . represented .the squatters, the meat .nrbducers,' and ■ the other exploiters, There had been robbery of the people of Wellington during the recent coal crisis. He declared that the Government aided and abetted this exploitation by putting in charge of tho adniinistrjitioir a committee of. friends'or' representatives of the coal, companies. Burning Questions. . In conclusion,' Mr. Fraser briefly indicated how Labour stood on education; and other questions. He stood, for tlio. beet education, .technical or otherwise,. for the children, but the party' 'didnot' -stand for the present policy of the Minister of Education, the aim of which was to turn children into prbfitcarniiig machines. The children should hive the opportunity of acquiring all. tho culture that they could. Labour stood also, for the nationalisation of the medical service and for the nationalisation .of hospitals. A fow miestions wero asked, and answered, and on tho 'motion of Mr. M. J. Reardon a. vote of thanks and confidence was accorded to tho candidate. ' ■ / ■ "