“SOMETHING UNDER THE LUG.”

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2513, 2 December 1922, Page 3

“SOMETHING UNDER THE LUG.”

ME WRIGHT AND RED HECK- . LEES'. Mr R. A. Wright, Reform candidate for Wellington suburbs is followed up by some noisy Red hecklers. This is how he dealt with some of them the other evening. Mr Wright: “How are you going to socialise the land? There are thousands of small people on thousands of acres of land. How are you going to get it ? ” . A voice: “When it comes on the market it must be sold to the Government, and .not to the land agent.” Mr Wright (perusing a Labour Party manifesto) :"“Well the first move is to have a State land valuation; secondly, privately-owned land is only to be sold to the State. Here is the position. Assume that on 7th December Labour goes into power, and proceeds to carry out its principles. Assume our chairman has a property valued at £l,000. The valuer says ‘your interest is £1,000.’ * Assume the Labour continues in power for three years. In that time improvements take place in the district, and taxes have gone up. The chairman then decides that lie wants to leave and to sell his property. The man next door is willing to buy and give £2,000 for the property, because it has become more valuable as a shop or factory site. The chairman cannot sell to his neighbour because he has to sell to the Government for the valuation of £1,000.” (Uproar.) A voice: “He will be paid for the improvements and get £2,000, and the land agent will not get unearned increment.” Mr Wright: “This is lovely. What improvements will be paid for? The house, fences, etc., have been there from the time the land was valued. The property has increased in value in the ten years, in the case assumed, solely because the district has progressed, and it was suitable for a shop or factory. 1 hat man has a right to the market price, and you are trying to diddle him out of £l,000. (Voice: ‘Rot.’) Well, we will pass that now.” Mr Wright: “Where is the Labour Government going to get the money from to buy this land? If you want to socialise the whole of the means of production by degrees, you and your children will all be in your graves before your plans are achieved. But where are you going to get the momJy? It will take millions.” Voice: “Where did they get the money for the war?" Mr Wright: “That was stored up capital, and you can’t get it now. Those who own it would not let you have it because you would not pay the interest. Besides, the idea of the Labour leaders is that the prin-' eiple of paying interest is wrong, and you can’t make a capitalist lend money any more than you can make a man work if he does not want to. A voice: “By means of a State bank, which would be backed by the credit of the people.”

Mr Wright: “Yes, and you would turn out paper money like they have done in Russia and Germany and cause a state of eliaos.” The speaker, continuing, read an extract from Mr Holland’s Denniston speech, in which lie mentioned assumption of control by the workers either by the ordinary methods of progress or by civil war. A gentleman who was described by one of the audience as a “union secretary” insisted on the candidate reading the whole reference, which he handed to the candidate. Mr Wright (after doing so) : “I submit that the latter portion of the speech w'as an aftei’-thought, and only a qualifying statement. What necessity was there for mentioning civil war at all whei> the Labour speaker said the workers would never take the action of civil war?” Voice: “It was because Mr Field mentioned it.” Mr Wright: “Well, that is a matter for him, not for me. If you are going to try and take land by force you will find that no owner is going to stand by and allow himself to be despoiled,” stated Mr Wright. “As soon as you endeavour to do that you are up against the fannex's a -. gain, as you were in 1913, and they showed you then what they could do. (Uproar.) They can do a hard day’s.work, and are not accustomed ■to go slow. If you attempt taking land under that method they will give you something under the lug which will set you thinking. They will get all over you. What happened in 1913? The waterside workers took charge of the wharves and closed x them. These fanners came down to ship their produce, and they pushed the watersiders aside like flies. (More uproar.) You will do a good turn for Mr Holland if you advise him to desist from making public statements about civil war. Civil war is only a fight between one section and another, aud in this case it will be a fight to retain something the farmeirs own.” A voice: “The land does not belong to them. It belongs to the Maoris.” (Applause.) Mr Wright: “They have been well paid for it. They are protected and enjoy themselves far more than you workers do. If you had the land, you would not give it back. You are only out for youi'selves, and the first law of Nature is self. Your leaders talk about what you will do, but they don’t do a thing for you. (Loud dissent and applause.) The first l’esult of their actions is hardship on other workers. The other workers’ wives aud children are hit first.” A voice: “Arbitration Court hit first.” Mr "Wright: “I say this talk about

them standing to their own class is all rubbish. The Capitalists they aim at are not hit anything like as hard as the other workers. Even when you get a rise, it does not hit the fat man. He merely passes it on, and the workers pay again.”