NEW ZEALAND'S DANGER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 103, 21 October 1911, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND'S DANGER.

LIMITATION OF FAMILIES. "Woman, Man and the State" was the subject of an. address by Mr. Edward Trcgear, late Secretary of' Labor, at Wei- ' lington recently The greatest of all problems threaten- j ing New Zealand, said Mr. 'fregear, was ' the danger that not' enough children were I being reared to take the place of those now at work. There were 2000 fewer young people in our factories to-day than a few years ago. Either children or immigrants must come to inherit the country, or the Asiatic would come. The blight which alieeted the human tree in New Zealand was due to the existence of economic conditions, which made babies unwelcome. He declined to believe that any young woman refused tp cherish the ideal that some day she would be queen of her home and mother of lovely children. But the lot of the working father and. mother was one of grinding self-sacrifice -and poverty, and he sympathised with them too much to suggest that it was their national duty to keep the State alive. Let those who were protected by the State take the responsibility, for he did not see why the low-paid workers should bear slaves for the profit-makers. About per cent, of New Zealand's taxation was indirect, therefore the man who had a wife and five children paid three times as much taxation as his .single mate working alongside. .By old-age pensions, the State had partially relieved the workers of the burden of the aged. Some attention was required at the other end of life! The people should refuse to recognise palliatives, but should steadily work to secure a system of direct taxation. When a man paid !)d for a stick of tobacco he got 2d worth of tobacco, paid Id profit, and fid in duty. The speaker declared that he would have free trade I for everything that could not be made j or grown in the country; he would not erect a tariff wall to'help local industries, but would absolutely prohibit importa-' tions of things which could be made here. If rings grew up inside the country, the Government could meet the difficulty by competing with the rings in the same industry. He was a Labor man, and had been so for 20 years. He could not stultify himself by declaring that there had been no good work done. After enumerating a long list of humanitarian measures passed by his friends in the Liberal party, he declared that he was going on while the Liberals appeared to want to stop still. For the ConscrvaI tive party he had nothing but a declaration of war. For '2O years they had I waylaid the worker, maltreated him, and stolen his dinner. No matter what their I promises—Mr. Masscv had at present a 1 Socialistic veneer—the Opposition bank closed with the elections, and their promises would not be honored.