THE LABOUR CANDIDATE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 2846, 14 February 1925, Page 2

THE LABOUR CANDIDATE.

M'K R<(BRUTS' ADDRESS!. Although I lie audience was not verv large on Thursday night at the Masonic TTall to hear the Labour candidate for the district (]\Tr B. Roberts), yet those who were pres. iit expressed themselves agreeably surprised at the way the speaker handled liis subject. Mr Fred Shaw i,copied the chair and in introducing Ah- Roberts, read the following extinct from the Carterton Daily N e \v s :• — Afi- Ren Roberts leaves to-day to ;uhires-; u series of political meetings in tbe Manawatu electorate on India I f of the Labour Party. He lias la -idl'd M'Vcri years in Carterton end eight in Parkvnle. While in CarPi ton he was all energetic id.of tlir Carterton Boro--11 ** 1 1 Council for six years, and since moving to park vale he has taken a \ erv active and prominent part in farmers' affairs'and devoted a great 1 of time to dairying mailers. When the Dairy Parmers* Union lame into being during the slump time. Mr R. Roller!s was elected pre--idea*!. and holds that office up to the present lime. Most of his work on holm]f of his fellow farmers has lucn given voluntarily, except daring the Dairy Control campaign, when he was" appointed organiser for three months. Tie is chairman of the Parkvale Dairy Company, and has been chairman of the Parkvale School Committee for five or six years. As a practical farmer Mr Roberts has shown marked ability, find has consistently urged proper feeding and weeding of dairy herds, la actual practice he has proved it a paying proposition. His ideal dairv cow is the Jersey and he is a staunch member of the Jersey Association. As a speaker he is emphatic and convincing, and from the earliest has been very consistently i at and out for Labour. The Manawatu has secured an able Labour candidate in Mr Roberts, and while some cannot always agree with the sentiments so convincingly expressed. a great deal of pleasure can he obtained in listening to his able addresses.

The speaker began by explaining hmv he came to be the selected candidate. No man or woman could stand as a Labour candidate, he said, unless nominated by the members of the Labour Party in the Electorate concerned, and no man was eligible to he nominated, unless he had been on the accredited list of speakers for three "months, and no man could get on that list unless he had been six months a financial member, and must he vounched for l,v six members who had known his character and career. The speaker had no difficulty in fulfilling those conditions, and he was nominated unanimously by the whole electorate. In accepting the position, he said, he recognised t hat he had a full-sized job in front of him, blit he had ihe conviction that the dairy farmer was beginning to see that under the present system of land holding ami finance, he would alwavs be an interest slave. When w realised that there was a debt of something like fiillO millions, privale, local and national, upon which iMtnvsi had to he found annitiillv by the workers and producers, then it was time to study ways and means for its removal. The Labour Parly had done this, and had proposals which were to he the foundation of a national and cooperative effort. The farmers of ibis country could not make the hes| of the land until the financial shackles had been taken off them, and they had also been given a secure land tenure. The Labour Parly proposed that a valuation of all land should he taken, which would remain on record as the present holders' interest in the land,'plus hi- improvements. This plan would cut on! speculation values, and would secure to a working farmer Ins improvements, which was an inalienable right. The Dairy farmers needed to realise that no great change or upheaval would take place ia the community. So long as lie was using the land and was satisfied. Labour would say good luck to him, and he could leave il to his children as he liked—hut when lie wanted to sell, he coufld only do so to the Stale; no land agent or speculator would he allowed in the deal, and this proposal would also apply to town properties, whose inhaled values had caused 25,(100 overcrowded homes, involving 170,000 people. A State hank was advocated as the corollary to the land question. When we used the credit of this Dominion, said the speaker, it should he for the service of the people, arid not for proofs for the favoured few. Frenzied finance in the past had left a legacy of mortgages and debt which would require m,ore statesmanship than had been exhibited as yet to clear it a wav.

Questions were answered, and votes to the speaker and chairman concluded the meeting.