MR BRADY ON THE ART OF LYING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2498, 26 October 1922, Page 2

MR BRADY ON THE ART OF LYING.

(To ilie Editor.) Sir,—A man who charges other people with-lying should he careful to tell the truth himself. Tn your issue of the 21st in-t. Air E. P. Brady is reported as saying in hi- address at the Town Hall

"from now on all sorts of propaganda will be di-tributed by the various Reform organisation- such as the Welfare League, Civic Leagues. P.P.A., Rotary Club, etc., all vicing with each other in lying like ga- meter-.’’ Now that .statement of Mr Brady’s is a threefold lie. First of all it is false (o suggest that the bodies named are associated together in any party; -econdly ii is positively untrue to suggest that the Civic League- and Roiary Club lake any part in Parliamentary politic- and thirdly it is a lie straight out to say that the Welfare League is associated with the Reform party, or any other party. As Mr Brady indulged in plain speaking we are doing the same. Tn his speech he said his parly “stood for a land tenure based on occupancy and use which shall secure to the working farmer the full fruits of his labour and exert ions.’’ That is a false representation of hi- party’s platform, as far as the words ‘‘secure to the working farmer the full fruits of his labour” are concerned. The platform (copy of which is now before ns) in clause 2, of the land (dank declares for llie-e three principles (which destroy the latter part of clause 2)

(a) 'flic Stale shall lix the men--are of present land holders interest in the land bv valu-

at ion. (I>) That privately owned land shall not be sold or transferred except to the Stale.

(i-) The owner shall have the right to surrender his land on the value under sub-clause a.

Applying tliesp principle- to the working farmer’s ease they clearly mean that if the value of his interest in the land were fixed no matter how hard he toiled he could not secure the fruits of his labour. Again if he wanted to part with his holding under (h) lie could not sell or transfer privately, and he could not aeipiire any other holding as till land could only be sold or transferred “io the State.” That policy of the Reds plainly means confiscation of the working farmer’s and every holder’s right of disposing of their j property. It i- a lie to sav that j this policy would secure to the working farmer the fruits of hi- labour. ; If would roll the working farmer j and every, other worker who owned | a plot of land. j What' is aimed al by this J Red Revolutionary parly i- to create a state of thing- such as exist in Soviet Russia where all land is owned by the State and the Monjiks (peasants) have a tenure of u-e and occupancy only. To represent that as a democratic labour condition i- a political swindle nothing more. We are. Yours, etc.. N.Z. WELFARE LEAD EE.