THE LABOR PARTY’S PLATFORM.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 April 1921, Page 8

THE LABOR PARTY’S PLATFORM.

To the Editor. Sir, —In your issue of the 13th instant some anonymous correspondence appears containing many wild and whirling statements which are intended tp discredit the New Zealand Labor Party. I won’t deal with the bad taste displayed in them, but I would like to put before your readers, in the absence of a verbatim report of the speeches delivered by the Labor leaders on the 10th inst., some corrections of the jumble of inaccuracies contained in the above-mentioned correspondt *e. In the first place, Mr. iMcCombs did not make sweeping denunciations of all other political parties, but dealt witli specific incidents. As a matter of fact, he commended the old Liberal legislation, and alluded to the late Mr. Seddon as the greatest statesman New Zealand ever produced. The point he stressed was that Reformism and Liberalise of the present day were very much akin, the only difference being that the Reformers sought to protect the interests of the great land-owners, and the Liberals the commercial houses, the deduction being that she workers’ interests cannot well be served by either. Then it was said that Mr. McCombs gave an unintelligible explanation of the working -of proportional representation. Well, it may have been unintelligible to your correspondent, but I venture to say that many of the audience were considerably enlightened regarding this system of election. Taking your correspondent’s own figures, it appears that 360,000 votes were cast for anti-Labor candidates, and 150,000 for Labor at last election. From these it certainly does appear that our electoral system requires some reforming, as these figures show that well on to one-half of- the votes cast were for Labor; yet Labor only secured one-tenth of the total seats. Clear as mud, isn’t it? Wading through the verbiage, we find that the proposal of the Labor Party to conscript wealth to help to bring the war to a successful conclusion is designated a stupid question. Yet the British Government seriously considered a levy on capital, and, of course, we all think it is just to impose a levy on the capital of our late enemies by way of raising an indemnity; but to win the war, that would be stupid. The boot is on the other foot when it comes to sweeping denunciation. Take State shipping, for example. Everyone

"knows that the Labor Party is not alone in advocating this; yet your correspondent, though he has done so, apparently considers this another “stupid suggestion”. so unreasoning is his hostility, and ignoring the probabilty that the New Zealand Government may before long introduce such a service. The great objective of the Labor Party is to secure the fruit*; of labor to the producer. The New Zealand Dairyman knows what it is talking about when it states that the articles of Mr. McCombs were the best statement of the dairy farmer’s case. Apparently he has been sufficiently intelligible to earn that much praise from such a source. The Labpr Party well Knows just how the working dairy farmer is exploited, and desires his co-operation to end the exploitation of all workers. In conclusion, there is no mention of the great fight put up by the Labor Party to promote international understanding in order to make war impossible. Towards that end Mr. McCombs certainly denounced what he termed “the ridiculous competition in armaments” now proceeding, exposed how “the people had been betrayed by the cry: “This war is a war to end war.” I thank you in advance for the privilege of correcting your correspondent’s jaundiced and inaccurate criticisms.—T am, etc., A. J. FAIRWEATHER. Koru. April 13.