A LABOUR MEETING

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 3, 29 September 1919, Page 5

A LABOUR MEETING

"RALLY" AT PARAMOUNT THEATRE A public meeting called by the Labour Party was held in the Paramount Theatre last night. Mr. A. A. Agnew presided, and the other speakers were: Mrs. J. Aitken, Messrs. H. E. Holland, M.P., R, Scmple, M.P., P. Fraser, M.P., and W. Nash.' • .

Mr. Holland said again that/there could "be no alliance between the Liberal Party and tho Labour Party,. The Liberal, as mucli as the Reformers, had been responsible for "swinging tho gaol gates against ninny' members.of the Labour Party" during recent''years. Tho workers were fooled by -the Liberals, in 1914 and betrayed by them in every year that followed. Labour was fast becoming self-reliant, and tho emancipation' of tha workers could only be- achieved by tho workers themselves. The Labour Party stood for a straight-out Socialistic objective— tho socialisation. of the means of production, 1 , distribution, and " exchange. Tt intended to secure an economic trans-' formation. His experience in Parliament had been that oh*nlmost every occasion when Labour clashed with ..the. Reform Government the Liberals voted .with tho Government. ..Mr. HoSland proceeded to tell tho meeting of his work in tho House, of Representatives, and stated that tno labour .members alone had voted to give the soldiers the full gratuity, they asked, for. Ho added that he believed tho political method of fighting Labour's battle was tho best method, because it was : the Intellectual''method, but the industrial weapon was also necessary; Ho jnvited the workers to read Hansard and see what a great fight the five Labour men' had made, a fight that had been largely ignored by tho newspapers. Mrs. Aitken said that Labour .representation was required not only in Parliament, but also on tho Hospital Board arid other bodies, Sbo referred to the work of the board,'and urged tlie need of incicased provision for widows <md children. ■ ' . --.-•:'■ , '■• Mr: nnsh told the meeting.dliat. a merchant had said to him recently. "I don't care how high tho prices higher they go the more profit I.'make." Ho was invited to give the name of the merchant, but did not respond. Ho explained how prices aiid profits were raised by tho assessing of retailers' profits on whole-, sale prices at the old percentage rates. He admitted the retailers, were bound by the economic system, but urged that Labour's Socialistic objective offered the remedy. Mr. Nash mentioned some inequalities in the payment of the pensions to tho dependants of epidemic victims. , Mr. Scmple referred to the .war gratuity. Ho said it had been charged against opponents of the Is. Gd. per day that they were seeking the soldiers' -vote,; .-This charge was not true as far as tho'Labour members were concerned. The.gi'atuity of 4s. per day did not bring the.'soldior's wage up to the artisan wage demanded by Labour men in an anti-conscription manifesto in 1916. The soldier's wago under that definition would have been 16s. a day instead of ss. The soldier had been told'he was fighting for a new.world and now ho was offered Is. Gd. a day. Mr. Massey represented the interests' 'of the squatters, while Sir Joseph Ward .represented the commercial interests. Thq Labour Party was fighting them •■both,' and Labour members; fighting against tremendous power, dreamed of the day when thev would be all-powerful in Parliament. * Mr. Scmple told his audience that nineteen men.who had died.dming the war had left wnllh to the amount of ;f!9.100.00D. New Zealand was a very wealthy little country, and it could afford'to treat the soldiers generously. Millions of nomids had boon taken by profiteers, aided and abetted by the Government, and if.tho soldiers had asked for a gratuity of 10s. a day they would have' had his sympathy.. ; The money ought not to be take" out. o'f the'pockets of tihe taxpayers. Tt should be. taken from the peonlo who had .rcalherod ■ .wealth during the war. He quoted Customs fiinres showing the great increase? in importations of motor-cars and silk dining the Wealthy neonlo hnd lived «■ more luxurious life dni'i"t 'ho war Winn prior to the' war. On .the other hand, the percentage of 'deaths of women at connu< , it)ent had almost doubled, the reason hein? that the working mothers could not nO'ord prwr medical attention. -Mr.-Scmple asked the electors if they were going to perpetuate "their own misery, degradation, wretchedness, snualor and sorrow" by voting for the old political parties. Mr. Fraser said he could put his hand on boys within the Labour movement who knew more about economic matters than tho editors of the Wellington newspapers. He declared that the soldier ougtht to be paid what he asked out of the war profits. Parliament ought to deal with the coal question. The whole community was being affected, and tho Labour members demanded a compulsory conference of the parties for the settlement of the present dispute, with nationalisation of the mines to follow. If Parliament dissolved without dealing wilh the housing question, it would bo criminally neglectful. The housing question could be. solved, and he wanted to ' sec Sir Joseph Ward's scheme for sriying tho workers good homes at 10s. 6d. per week. If the nmnuW Housin? Bill did not provide ,£1,000,000 at least for immediate expenditure, it would merely tamper widh a vital issue. . If .06.000.000 could be found for. soldiers', gratuities, surely JM.000,000 could be found for linnsing. Another question demanding attention was that of the widows' pension, Hf knew of a widow with tivo children, who to ceived .£l2 a year for the first child nnr ,£S a year for each other child. How could she live?