LABOUR ADDRESS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3825, 31 July 1928, Page 2

LABOUR ADDRESS.

AIR. PARRY TROUNCES THE GOVERNMENT.

A large gathering assembled in Main Street on Saturday evening to hear an address by Mr. W. E. Parry, Labour M.P. His Worship the Mayor presided, and introduced Mr. Taylor, the selected Labour candidate for Manawatu at the forthcoming election. The Mayor said that most of the residents had heard Air. Parry in days gone by, since when Air. Parry had been elected to Parliament. Since being elected he had done good work on behalf of the workers of New Zealand, and he trusted that he would be long spared to carry on the good work that he was doing at the present time.

Mr. Taylor was the first speaker and briefly reviewed his past political activities. He said he was once a very strong supporter of the Reform Party and strenuously espoused their cause at every opportunity, but as a result of his experience as a farmer of the continued failure of the Reform Party’s administration, so far as the farmers were concerned, ho became an ardent advocate of the Labour Party, recognising that that party Jield out the only hope for the future economic reconstruction of this country. Mr. Taylor said he was not going to talk of his political campaign that night, blit would leave that in abeyance until his opponent would have the opportunity of meeting him in the campaign. On rising to speak Mr. Parry met with a good reception. He said that he was pleased to once again have the opportunity of talking to a Foxton audience. The speaker immediately got. to grips with what he said were the glaring failures of the Government, and he felt sure that no audience would feel that what he was saying was an exaggeration, as the people from one end of the country to the other felt the pinch more keenly to-day than had beeii the case for many years. We had to-day, he said, the grim and tragic spectacle of the “doss house,” the soup kitchen, to administer to the wants of the unemployed which was a repetition of the same policy of some thirty odd years ago, which wasjhen administered by a Tory Government. We had the Hospital and Charitable Aid Boards protesting against the continued drain on their funds for the relief of poverty and distress. The ranks, of the unemployed were continually being added to by immigrants from overseas, and people who have .been forced from the land through the muddling policy of the Government. The Labour Party for a number of years have prevailed upon the Government to discontinue their immigration policy, but were told in reply that wo were opposed to our kith and kin coming from the Homeland. Since 1925, he said, over 10,000 immigrants had been brought to New Zealand, during which time • some ten thousand people had left the land to swell unemployed ranks of the cities and towns. As the result of this policy we have had 20,000 people forced on to the already unemployed army of this country. He ventured to say that had this number of'people not have been added to the unemployed our difficulties to-day in this respect would be normal. The way in which the Government had dealt with the unemployed was a disgrace to a country like New Zealand. The unemployed position has been used as a means to lower the standard of living of the people. Some of the unemployed were given w T ork at 8/and 12/- per clay for married men, but as a matter of fact they did not receive-this wage in numerous cases as proved by the debate recently in the House. Alembers produced vouchers and pay envelopes in the House containing as low.as one penny after their food had been paid for. Just fancy a married man sending to his wife and family after two hard weeks work an envelope containing one penny. Even the Prime Minister read out a list which showed that numerous men had received 4/-, 5/-, 6/-, 7/-, 8/per day. The fact of the matter was, lie said, the Department fixes the price at which the work is to be clone, and the men have no alternative but to accept, with the result that the price is so low, that they are unable to make more than has already been mentioned. It is true he said, that some men have made more than the specified 8/- and 12/- per day, hut that is no satisfaction to the men who have made very much less. AH. Parry said the Government has failed in every thing they have touched in the same way as they have with the unemployed. There first act was to raise the rate of interest on the home builder and the farmer, after which the private money-lending institutions followed suit. Through Legislation they forced over two million from the Post 'Office'Savings Bank into the private banks from which the banks loaned back to the farmers at 54 and 64 per cent., while the Government had the money at 3} per cent. The whole of their administration was a sorry spectacle of failure and the people will, within a few months, he said, have the opportunity of saying as to whether they are going to support a Government that has so dismally failed, or support a Government which will administrate not in the interest of the money-lending institutions, but in the interest of those who perform the useful and necessary work of the nation.