LABOUR RALLY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 288, 1 September 1919, Page 6

LABOUR RALLY

OPENING THE ELECTION FIGHT

CANDIDATES TAKE THE PLATFORM -

■ A Labour rally, under the auspices of tho Wellington Labour Representation Committee, was held in tho Paramount Theatre, Courtenay Place, last night. Mr, P. Frasor, M.P., presided/ Tho hall was filled, and nn overflow meeting was held in the street. Mr. Eraser said .the Labour Party had pet out as no party had gver.done u'eforo to make its principles understood by (lie people of tho Dominion, becauso it believed., that when its objects were understood,' the workers at any rate would rally to its support. He referred briefly to tho "disgraceful" housing conditions in tho City of Wellington. Mr. IPraser welcomed soino of the Australian seamen strikers. Mr. 11. Holland, M.P., was the first speaker; He said the political issues of the moment were now before the people, and he expected in the immediate futuro to take part in the fights in Parliament.' A bigger fight would come later, and ho believed that the Labour Party was going to beat not only the Massey Party but also the Ward Party. There had been much talk of coalitions and alliances. He could say definitely that neither inside Parliament nor outside,of it would th&re be any alliance between Labour and Liberalism. The Liberals could never live down the record of the last four years. Sir Joseph Ward knew there was no crime in the political calendar thftt' could be charged against Mr. Massey that could not also lie chargcd a»ainst Sir Joseph Ward himself. Hand in nand they had made the War

Regulations. Hand in hand they imposed consoription .on the country, nnd liand in hand they opened the gaol gates to every man who loved human liberty. Liberals apd Reformers alike were responsible for tlio injustices to the soldiers, and. still hand in hand, they would go into political oblivion when labour came into its own. The two old parties, standing against) one another, could never mate the people believe that they not interests in common; they had interests that were opposed to the interests of Labour. Mr. Holland jibed at the Liberal Party for its inconsistency, and its belated attempt to repair its worii political garments with disoarded scraps of Labour- cloth. The State bank proposal was simply an attempt to repair a gaping gap in the Liberal garment. Sir Joseph Ward had been the one man more than any other responsible for New Zealand's war finanoe. The public credit of New Zealand had been placed behim. au inflated issue of bank notes, and the credit thus created had. been borrowed by the Government at'4j per cent.' tree of income tax. If it was good enough to put <£7,003,000 worth of public credit liehind the notes of private banks, surely it would be good enough-to use this credit to support State banking, aimed at abolishing interest-making altogether. Sir Joseph Ward proposed State-owned collieries; the Labour Party wanted a State shipping service that would run tho Union Company off the coast altogether. Mr. Holland added that the. Labour Party was tho political expression of organised industrialism and the other elements of Labour's organisation. Labour 'membera were going to fight against extension of the oppressive war legislation, and were going to drive Reformers and Liberals before their masters, tho people, at the poll. Mr. A. W. Croskery, Labour candidate foivWellington Suburbs, said that lor tho past four or five years the Dominion had by a cruel and tyrannical Government, which had kept its heel on democraoy in the interests of vested interests and profiteers. The Liberal Party had been associated with the Reform Party in responsibility for this government. TheNLiberals had done nothing at all to bwng about legislation that was lieccssary f&r the workers. Now, the Liberal leader Bad issued a manifesto that was really the "5.0.5." signal of a sinking ship. The Dominion bad suffered five years of profiteering and exploitation, and tho solo: remedy ever" offered. was , a ' fruitless inquiry by the Board of Trade. The people had suffered a coal shortage and a butter shortage, and no remedy was offered. Sir Joseph Ward was just as much to blame as Mr. Massey, because the Liberal Leader, had said that unless tho Board of Trade was set nip to deal with the cost of living ho would not enter the National Government. How much had the Board of Trade ever done for the people? Mr. Croskery invited all the democrats in tho country to enter the Labour Party and assist to 'bring peace ans contentment to the Dominion. Mr. A. L. Monteith, Labour candidate •for Wellington East, • said the National Government had come to the end'of the "long, long trail," and Sir Joseph Ward had begun to talk of what he would do for the country. He had talked in 1912 and again in 1914 of a national ferry service, but in the House of Representatives he had dono nothing. A Liberal newspaper had said that the Liberal readers wore "too cowardly to fight, and too fat to run." That was precisely the position. Sir Joseph' Ward was "only a peanut politician."

Mr. J. Head, Labow candidate for Wellington North, spoke of class distinctions and commented on the fact that many Wellington .people had not been invited to attend Lord Jcllicoe's ball. Bo asserted that a member of the Welfare League had stowed away sixteen tons oi coul at liis residence last Easter. The prominent members of the league had never given much attention to the welfare of the working people in the past. There was no manna coming from Heaven for the workers. They would get nothing more than they were able to win for themselves.

Mr.'R. Semple, M.P., told the audience to beware of the political carrots 'that were going to be dangled by the old political parties. He believed most of the Labour donkeys had -disappeared. Labour's objective was , the ownership of the means of production by the useful people, the abolition of the parasite, and "the dungarees for everyone." Mr. Semple spoke of "tho pomp and ceremony, hypocrisy and pifflo" of Parliament. At the opening of Parliament he had seen a plush carpet laid on top of coconut matting up the concrete Bteps with'a roofed tunnel erected so that no 'drop of rain might reach tlie_ person of an important personage. While carpets were laid in the mud for thi3 person to walk on, there were men, women, and children lacking the necessaries of life. There was no need for that gilded hypoorisy in this young country.. New Zealand needed a common Parliament, where common men epuld perform a common duty for common folk. Tho gold braid, the Wing and _scraping, would have to go. Ho believe? hi the equality of men, and ho would take off his liat to "no gilded squib." ' Mr.Seiupic referred to the housing problem, which was to. suiting in the outlawing of tho children of tho working people. Meat and butter were in the grip of monopolists. The solo remedy was one that oould not be advocated by Sir Joseph Ward. It was the objective of the Labour Party-the na. tiona.l ownership of tho means of production, manufaoturo and exchange. All sorts of organisations wore going to appeal to the people. But ho did not bs lieve the people would listen to them. The demon of religious bigotry was going to be employed in order to separate tho people in tho interests of capitalism, but tho people were thinking harder to day than thoy had ever done before. La»jour had every reason to be optimistic, and he was convinced that when th: goneral election camo along tho elector-* 'not, and daro not, vote for any other party than the Labour Party. Lam" j monopoly, shipping monopoly, food mono, j poly were tho products of Liberalism and Toryism. Any electors who voted for suchpeoplo deserved to bo robbed U tlieir very shoe-laces. Mr. Semple madi, an appeal for funds for the support of the Labour oampaign at the general election. He charged tho newspapers with ondeavouring to stifle tho Labour ca;> paign by denying, publicity to Labour speakers. Mr. TYaser put the following motion the mating: "That this meeting pledges itself lo give whole-hearted support, financial and otherwise, to the Labour Parly from now ■until the general eleotion." The motion, was carried and the meeting closed with cheers for the' Labour Party.