EXPLOITING THE WORKER.

Taihape Daily Times, 13 February 1919, Page 4

EXPLOITING THE WORKER.

o Speaking at the Labour meeting at the Lower Hutt on Tuesday evening, Mr. P. Fraser. M.P. r told his audience that the cost of living question had received little attention from the National Government, and that the question of Avar profits in the primary products of this country had not been dealt with at all. He ventured to say that the profiteers were first all the time, and the consumer was nowhereHe instanced the case of the sheepskins as a glaring case of exploitation of the people and the men W'ho went to the front. He stated that sheepskins had jumped up from the year 1914 from 6fd per lb to Is 41d per lb in the year 191 T. Where was the patriotism of the so-called “patriotic” Government? Where was Sir J. Ward’s promise to deal with the question of the cost of living as a part Of the bargain of joining' the “National Government?” If prices eould he fixed for export of primary products, why were they not fixed for the people 6t New Zealand? To the exploiters of the people the Government had presented £60,000,000 of war profits; to the woeful workers of the country they had presented a bill of 60 per cent, increase in the cost of living. By its policy of finance and taxation the Government had driven up the cost of living.