LABOUR’S PLAN

Hokitika Guardian, 24 June 1930, Page 3

LABOUR’S PLAN

ADDRESS MY AIR H. HOLLAND

Mj telegraph—Per Press Association)

WESTPORT, June 23

In tin? course of a presossiorml address in the Town Hall this evening, Mr H. E. Holland, Leader of the Labour Party, said that the forthcoming session promised to lie one-of the most biteresting in the history of the Dominion by reason Of the position ot the three parties and the questions that would he inolved. He recalled the statement of policy handed to the press after the special meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, held in I'Obni.iry last, and said that, while Die re would, of necessity, be a general atmosphere of uncertainty over practically every stage of the session, there would be nothing uncertain about every point of that statement being pressed to its logical conclusion. One of the main questions that would be before Parliament would be that of unemployment and provision for permanently handling the problem. The day for temporary methods had gone, and a. basis for action along effective lines was provided in the report of the Unemployment Committee set ip) under Sir Joseph Ward’s administration. It was of very great significance that the Committee, which included representatives of the employers and the wage workers, should have come to the unanimous decision that the solution of the problem of unemployment is a social responsibility to be shouldered by the Dominion ns a whole. No sounder principle Had ever been written into the of i select committee or a royal commission. Equally sound was the committee’s recognition of the fact that ‘ lie ‘aiding of work was of first and supreme importance, and this, was s'lnulemented and strengthened by the declaration that the work provided for Dm vn]; o f 0 f the workless must be of a useful and productive character, and that standard wages should be paid for all such work. Other valuable no|U ions of the report were the renommendiitions Umt-n permanent Em-nlo'-nmnf Roard should be sot no.

and that wlmre no work was available,

a sustenance allowance should be provided, These proposals were in' line with the principles advocated by the Labour Party lor many yeans, but it was win n they came to the incidence of .-the: proposed taxation .that differences would be found to exist. The

proposed flat rate tax on persons lb Vears of age and over was to provide .OiTo.ooo out of a total of £700,000, ■'in! it went without saving that overwhelmingly the major portion.of this would be paid by persons with small incomes. The man with £SOOO a year would pay only his 24s a year along with the worker whose income might not reach anything like £2OO a year. It was true that persons with incomes "> excess of £3OO were to pay an additional tax of one penny in the £l, but here again the man with an enor-

mous income would only pay at the same flat rate per £ as the man with a small income. The principle of graduat'd taxation, for which the Labour Movement stood, was preferable. However, notwithstanding: the taxa*W: defect, the report was a most valuable one. and the Labour Party would press for legislation based upon M ’o foundation principles embodied in

the committee’s recommendations

Referring to the railway inquiry, Air Holland said that representatives of the organisations of railway employees should have been included in the personnel of the commission. Men who were conversant with the working ide of the system, and who know both its advantages and its defects *o say the least, would not bo loss capable of making useful recommendations than some of the gentlemen who Lad been appointed. The Labour Party would resist any further attack on the wages and pollutions of the Public Service, and would also offer opposition to any at tempt to apply the guillotine to the

Hueatioii vote or to any interference with hospital subsidies that would handicap those engaged in hospital work throughout the Dominion. When the House met the Labour Party would press for the fullest investigation in regard to Arapuni, and would insist on every fact in relation that scheme being made public. It seemed to him that not only the Pub- ’!{: Works Department, but the Reform Government and its Minister of Public Works responsible for the undertaking, bad in noli to explain. The auditions of employment on the vnri‘o’ss public works of the Dominion, and ''specially on the relief work Joss, would be raised by the party with a

\ iew to securing- a reversal of somefeatures of . the policy ..adopted by the late Minister of l-iiblic Works.