NO DOCTRINAIRE LABOUR

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 201, 20 May 1919, Page 5

NO DOCTRINAIRE LABOUR

' NEW ZEALAND'S ADVANTAGE. Lord Pluliket, who presided recently at a lecture on' New Zealand in the Bedford College for Women by the Hon. I'. M, B. Pisher, ex-Minister of Customs for New Zealand, and, speaking from his experience as Govoruor of litis Dominion, that its legislation was carried out by peoplo of Britisli aspirations, wlioso language and history were precisely the same as our?, and who, in religion, language, and climate, wore practically one with' us. One great advantage Ihey enjoyed was that in their' legislative proposals they were not handicapped by vested interests or by the existence of widelydivided classes or by antiouated,statutes and customs. ,In tho United Kingdom.our legislation was hampered by bitterness and tho not unnatural distrust that Labour had for Capital. He did not suggest for ii moment that this distrust: was absent from New Zealand., but tho Labour voters and the Labour representatives had not had their minds warped ijy the miserable slum conditions in which t'iiey or their parents had to live, or the poverty (hey had to endure in the face of enormous wealth daunting itself before them. Both sides in Ills New Zealand Parliament approached contentious questions in a practical way. The ].«- 'nour leaders of New Zealand were not of tho doctrinaire school. When the New Zealand peaple were dissatisfied with the price >"f coal they did not rush into schemes of nationalisation or try to re\olutionico the. whole coal industry in accordance with some doctrinaire theory. They appronchcd their members of Parliament and asked: ."U'li.v lml M Ihe state buy some coal mines, work them for the State, find out by a practical test whether tho/inine-owners are swindling us or not, and, if they are, compel lliein to lower their prices," It was a practical proposal, and it / v:as successful. (Cheers.)