LABOUR'S PLATFORM

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 85, 1 December 1931, Page 5

LABOUR'S PLATFORM

final statement MR HOLLAND DECLARES GOVERNMENT'S RETURN MEANS RUIN - CLAIMS OLD LIBERAL MANTLE Mr: H: E. Holland, Leader of the Labour Party, to-day handed to the Press a final election appeal which reads as follows "The most momentous election contest in the history of the Dominion will b'e decided on Wednesday when issues of greater importance than have ever previously been before the people will he in the balanee. The two older politieal parties are now in oue camp, making a desperate defenee against the Labour challenge ; in the opposition camp. The conditions and circumstances ■ are not altogether dissimilar from those of 41 years ago. Now, as was .tben the case, 'New Zealand is suffering from the effects of an aeute economic depression, and the repercussion inaugurated by a reactionary ; government. Now, as then, we have jreduc-ed wages and are faeed with the proBlem of" hoards of un employed ; men and women seeking for work : which -cannot' be obtained. And now, as then, 'we have heen told that if Labour wins to office, New Zealand will be ruined. "That story has heen told many ' times in recent years. The leaders of ,the democratic movement in 1890 were branded as the "Seven Devils of : Socialism," and the identical bogies ' that are now being raised were then ' called into requisition to frighten ellectors. In 1925 the people were |warned by Mr. Coates and the Reformers that New Zealand would be I ruined" if Labour should win to the ; Treasury benches. On Vex*ge of Ruin In 1928 both Reformers and Uniteds made the same declaration. Labour did not win in either 1925 or 1928 and New Zealand is on the verge of ruin, due to the economic reactions of the politieal inefficiency bf the two parties now in combination.

"Ballance and Seddon and their colleagues — the "Seven Devils of Socialism"— were victorious in 1890 and by their politieal enactments they lifted New Zealand out of the economic slough into which their opponents had landed her. Furthermore, they led the world ih social legislation. To-day, every aspect of that legislation is threatened, and our prevailing conditions may have been in-

herited from the gloom of the late §0's of last century. Now we have whole townships in a state of semistarvation because breadwinners are denied the right to work, and primary and secondary produeers, and retailers as well, are being faeed with foreelosure and forced into bankruptcy because they cannot sell the goods which they have produced and have for sale. The produeers -and distributors cannot sell because the purchasing power of the people has been forced down by wholesale dismissals from employment and by salary and wage reductions. The spectre that confronts us is one of Dominion-wide hardship and hunger — one of misery in the midst of plenty." "Two great parties, rehecting opposite viewpoints, strive for the suffrages of the people. The Coalition puts forward no policy but asks for a blank cheque to be filled in after Wednesday. Their combined viewI points appear to be that the difficulties which grew out of a period of deflation can only be overcome by further deflation processes. They accentuate unemployment by limiting the people's power to purchase from the producer ,and in this they have destroyed the local market and aimed destructive blows on farmers, wage workers, and business elements alike. Labour Constructive I "Iri contradistinction to this method of destructiveness, the Labour Party puts forward its policy of reconstruction and rehabilitation. Tens of thousands of men and women now wholly unemployed or intermittently employed must be got back into industry at the earliest possible moment. Wages must be restored to a living standard, land settlement must be accelerated and trade agreements with the British Commonwealth and other countries must be sought, and a movement undertaken to secure to the farmer a guarantee of a minimum price for his products. Main and sec-

ondary highways development must be arranged, with special attention to the backblock roads. Every industry both primary and secondary which is natural to New Zealand and capable of being developed on an economic basis must be safeguarded and conS'erved. The output and distribution of coal and timber and other products on a sound basis must he encouraged. "The defeat of Labour will mean the retention of the salary and wage reductions already made. It will mean further "award reductions and wholesale dismissals. The author of the supplementary Budget has indicated that we may expect reductions of all pensions, bonuses and allowances. Arbitration awards and industridl agreements will be ended, and tbe method of bitter industrial conflict will he substituted by the Coalition. The farmers' local market will be further depleted, and ruin and bankruptcy will be brought still nearer to^ the doors of primary produeers, business elements and wage workers. "The ehoice then is between the party with no policy and a sack of disastrous promises, and the Labour j Party, with a definite and constructive programme for meeting the present economic* crisis. It is for the people to decide."