WORKING MEN’S POLITICAL ASSOCIATION.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 199, 2 August 1884, Page 2

WORKING MEN’S POLITICAL ASSOCIATION.

A meeting of the Working Men’s Political Association was held in Whinray’s Hall on the evening of Thursday last. There was a large attendance, and the Chairman said they had better start business as Mr. Locke intended to address them. The business of the meeting was then proceeded with, but was not completed when Mr. Locke appeared, and it was then suggested that all the present business be deferred in order to <give Mr. Locke a chance to explain his views. Mr. Locke now came forward, and there was some discussion as to the order of business, whether Mr. Locke should address the meeting or have the code of principles submitted one by one, it was suggested that Mr. Locke’s letter be read, which clearly defined ,

that the principles should be submitted one by one, which was the course pursued, Mt, Locke, after stating reasons for not meeting the working men prior to the election contest, which reasons he said were that he did not receive the letter in time to reply, nor did the letter contain a copy of the rules of the Association, which left him in doubt what to reply to. At the request of the president, the secretary then read the Association’s first principle and so on seriatim, to all of which Mr. Locke replied in a fair and candid manner to the very evident satisfaction of the meeting. Several questions were then submitted to Mr. Locke, outside the political platform adopted by the Association, the most important of which was that in relation to the unearned increment. Mr. Locke said, that by permission he would read an extract from Fawcett, a new and complete work on the position of land, and land values, which he proceeded to do, which reading the President said did not answer the question, as the writer argued from an unjust standpoint, since Fawcett had assumed that land was a marketable commodity, as truly as any other production of labour, and that the illustraration as given by Fawcett was an unhappy one, since it did not distinguish between that which could be produced by human agency, and that which could not, a man he said could build a table or a chair for which work he was fairly entitled to a reward, but no one had ever stretched out the fields of nature and therefore they should not be a marketable commodity, but were intended by nature for all her children, subject to equitable laws which the unearned increment was designed to meet. Mr. Locke said in reply, that nationalization was a good thing, and he had no doubt that our present system of education would result in a free and enlightened generation, who would secure the advantages it was so earnestly sought to obtain and which he believed would shortly be realized, that the movement had his sympathy and well wishes, and that it would be his aim to assist them to the best of his ability, and as he had been a working man himself he thought he understood what was required. He would support a progressive land tax if an income tax was also enforced, as he thought that one without the other was incomplete. He would support Sir George Grey in the Harbor Bill, and take the first opportunity of speaking to him on the land question. Would also support a Municipal Amendment Act, but not to the extent of one man one vote; but a radical reduction, he thought, was advisable. Mr. Tharrat then proposed that a vote of thanks be given to Mr. Locke for the very satisfactory manner in which he had answered the questions asked, which Mr. Matheson had great pleasure to second. This met with the unanimous approval of the meeting. Mr. Locke then retired amidst loud cheers.