A GENTLE REMINDER.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 December 1920, Page 11 (Supplement)

A GENTLE REMINDER.

TO OUR LABOR PARTY FRIENDS. QUEENSLAND ONCE AGAIN. (Contributed by the New Zealand Welfare League.) 'When the New Zealand Labor Party candidates were on the hustings at last general election, some of.-them indulged in very tail talk about the success of the Queensland Socialist Party led by -Mr. Ryan. The New Zealand people had this bright and shining example of the Ryan Government held up to them and n-evc advised to go and "do likewise." We do not say anything against Queenslaud and its people, and w only return to it is showing what poor guides the Red misdeadws of Labor in this Dominion really are. Mr. Theodore took on the mantle or "old elothea" of Mr. li.vaiv, but Ihc party still remains Bed. For eight months Mr. Theodore's Government has been trying to sell debentures carrying li per 'cent., and the subscriptions total only .C-fiO.OOO. The attempt to raise a loan of £0,000,000 in London was a failure. Mr. George Pollock, M.L.A.. the lied candidate for

Gregory, in a speech during the recent election, said: "We are stonv-broke, and «e admit it," It is reported that the railway accounts are nearly £4,000,000 t& the bad.

FACING THE COONTRY-AND THEN. Mr. Theodore's party has general election recently with these results. Before the election his party had a majority of twenty, and now has only four of a majority. In 1918 his party polled 180,000 votes.against 16C.000 oil the oilier Hide. At the recent election Ms parly polled KJ4.OUO. whereas the other sicTe polled 185,000. In other words, Mr. Theodore's party lost sixteen votes in Parliament and '1.i.000 in the country. But for the division amongst the parties in opposition the Red Government must have gone. In any case, R is beyond dispute that the majority of the electors declared against the Government, and if the party in power were true to its profession of belief in majority rule it would resign. It is stated that, the election was contested on "inflated rolls and a grossly undemocratic distribution of seats.''' Rolls showed '35,000 more electors Than the Federal electoral officers were able to discover nine mouths before. As regards the distribution of seats, these fact* have but to be stated to show that the divisions are execrably bad. Voters in ten Ministerial constituencies polled 2r,.2!U votes, ami voters in ten Opposition constituencies polled 78,026 Remember, it was a so-called Labor Government that went to the country on such a rotten basin of election, because it could steal ;in advantage from the rotten state of affairs existing. It could have altered (his glaring state of injustice, but it preferred to benefit by it. J

This was the .ihodftv" nondescript faction that our New Zealand Reds held up as an example to the workers of New Zealand. If any p a ,.j V \, nt a Ho . oa u e d Labor l'art\«rtid that soft, of thing what a howl would be made about the wicked capitalist politicians. Not for a moment do we believe that the majority of the workers either in Queensland 'or here sfuml for this policy of no principle, no conscience, deceive and grab. The lesson is plain, however, that men will lie cheat and deceive in the name of Übor. and thai a political party ..ailing itself Labor is capable of stabbing democracy to the heart. Queensland has been the reddest centre in Australia, and its experience of recent years has been an example to the workers. Not an example io copy, but a glaring example of wlm» to avoid. The first, thing to avoid is the silly political das* superstition of falling down and worshipping whatever is presented as "Labor," which blind superstition is what the Reds are seeking to instil into the minds of die people of Ney- Zealand, Men who Irish-ad yon one,, are apt to repeat the process, s0 he warned against the false guides who tried to deceive vou at the last elections.