WELLINGTON NORTH

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 65, 10 December 1919, Page 8

WELLINGTON NORTH

MR. .7. HEAD AT DIXON STREET

A well-attended meeting was held by Mr. .T. Read. Labour candidate for Wellington North, at tho corner of Dixon and Willis Strec's last night, Mr. AA . Atkinson being chairman. Mr Read said the Liberal Party showed by its attiluoe during the present election that it. was suffering from senile decay as a progressive factor in the political life of tho community. Tt had been compelled to adopt tho lactic of asking the people (o support it because of what its greatest lender had accomplished long ago. On the other hand, having no defined policy of their own. and no proper machinery such as the Labour Party had for aefining'its policy, they had descended, ro the iviint: where t.hev had to take portions of the Labour platform to appeal to the public The candidate thought that the public wore finite wisp enough to recognise tho camouflage. He personally preferred a straight-out opponent such as those standing under the Tory banner, to those who professed to be friends merely because thov imagined they could win hv such tactics. As a contrast between the attitude of candidates on the question of the position of Civil Servants, Mr. Read pointed out that Mr. Luke had seated "that he was in favour of the Oivil Servants being represented on classification boards." The Labour "Party was certainly in favour of such a wfasure of mere iustice also, but in addition the Civil Servants must recolloct that lie and his party were committed in their platform to giving the Civil Servants full civil aiKV political rights, a thing which had b c en consistently denied them by both the Liberal and Reform parties, and advanced no further bv their conjoint innrtion while a. "national" Government. Dealincr with indentured labour for ?n----mon. "Mr. Read quoted the Rev. C. F. Andrews with regard to the recruiting of Indians for T'iii. The reverend gentleman had said it recalled "the wo''--t featnre= nf 'lie nV: el'»vo system." "Was it possible for New Zealand to carry mi a svstem of indentured labour in a different manner to what it hml been in the nasi? Pe said "No." and Ihe best thing to do with indentured labour was to do without, it The world had progressed a long way from slavery, did no 1 iiro«a=e to introduce some of its worst featur»s with regard b labour for Samoa. M tho conclusion of Hi" meeting cheers wore "iven for the candidate and the Labour Partv.