LABOR PARTY'S IDEALS.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 March 1919, Page 3

LABOR PARTY'S IDEALS.

MR. P. FRASER, M.P„ AT EVERYBODY'S THEATRE,

There was a large attendance at Everybody's Theatre last night when Mr, I'. Fraser, M.J', tor Wellington Central, gave an address on the aims and ideals of the New Zealand Labor Party. Mr. I.'. B. Fitsherbert presided. Mr. Fraser addressed himself in the irst place to the difficulties of the party in account of the opposition to their uuse of the public press, which was >wncd and controlled by the capitalistic lass and operated for the purpose oi .Ucoimting the Labor Party. He said hera was no such thing as a free press, .'he articles which appeared in the uewßiaper columns, in opposition to Labor, f?rc v-'i-itten to order and did not repreent tin honest views 01 the men who vroto them. If the men who wrote the jticlea were to write their private ipiniona favorable to Labor they would ose their jobs and tiie means to mainaiu themselves and their families. There I vere journalists in New iieaiand who ; md suffered such experiences. Such j irticles were written for a living and ' lot for the cause of truth, and the j ipeaker asked Ids hearers to grasp that 'act. Whilst speaking of the press, Mr. Fraser said "Sie cable news that came Irom the other side of the world was colored by ifoe capitalistic interest 'which xmtrolled f| and was made to place the ioiugg of Labor in other lands in the ivorst possible light. Labor was made to appear as the diseipie of violence, ivhereas it stood for the legal and legislative weapon, which, if used by an intelligent community, would solve all the complex problems by which it waß confronted. The just ideal of Labor was that New Zealand and all its materia! resources should be run in the interests of the people. It Bimply meant, in a sentence, that domestic economy should be extended and made to apply to national affairs. All that the community creates by its industry and intelligence should belong to the community. Mr. Fraser then proceeded to deal with the evils of bind aggregation, the exploitation of the workers through manufacturers, and the accumulation of wealth. He referred to the profiteering in war essentials, and said it might have been expected, at the outset of the war, that the Government would have laid flown the axiom that no private profit should be made out of the life-blood of the community, but no such thing was done. Up to October 31, 1917, the proateers had made £17,000,000 from the people in exitra war profits, and £28,000,000 from the semi-starved people of Great Britain. Mr. Fraser continued with a reference to what had been successfully done in the matter of State enterprise by a Labor Government in Queensland, and mid that if a Government in New Zealand was inclined to run its enterprises for the benefit of the people of the :ovmtry they could be equally successful rhe speaker's concluding remarks were levoted to the problems of the future, ;he chief of which was the housing diffimlty. He dealt with the conditions repealed by the recent influenza'epidemic, wd gave some instances of which he limself had personal knowledge, in the :ity of Wellington. He also dealt with iducational reforms necessary, and said stood for equality of opportunity md the elevation of iife, fj that all ;hat was highest would be the mherituice of every child of the community. Mr. Fraser's address was attentively iatened to and frequently applauded. ' A few questions were answered by the peaker, who then called for cheers for he Labor movement, which were given .'itu sponUneity.