THE LABOUR PARTY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 April 1938, Page 8

THE LABOUR PARTY

ADDRESS BY MRS. J. A. LEE A POPULAR RECEPTION An entirely friendly reception given to Mrs J. A. Lee when she delivered an address in the interests of the Labour Party in the Opera House last evening. Mrs J. Robertson presided over a large attendance. Mrs Lee was given an excellent hearing and was frequently applauded. In the opening part of her address, Mrs Lee dealt in detail with the conditions which ruled during the depression years, attributing responsibility for these conditions to the late Coalition Government and claiming that the Labour Government had effected a most beneficial transformation. To read the daily papers, she said, one would think that New Zealand was h - insolvent. If it was, it was the most prosperous looking insolvent country she had ever seen. She quoted various statistics of increases in production and employment since Labour had taken office.

Mrs Lee said that as a representative of the Labour Government she claimed the right to talk about the years of depression, because that Government had taken over almost at the depth of depression and almost immediately things started to pick up. “It would not have happened,” she said, “if you hadn’t put the Labour Government in.” Thousands of young people, she went on to observe, had been thrown on the industrial scrap heap who should have been trained in trades and professions. This was the greatest tragedy of the depression. The number of apprentices had fallen" from upwards of 10,000 to something over 3,000 in the years of depression, but under the Labour Government it was hoped that the total would be about 8,000 at the end of the financial year just closed. Mrs Lee quoted figures in support of a contention that many other countries were more highly taxed than New Zealand. People who complained about taxation, she said, were those who had big incomes, so that they had nothing to squeal about. The people who had reduced wages, Mrs Lee went on to declare, still wanted to do it, but now they said “reduce costs.” Mr Hamilton was continually talking about reducing costs and by costs he meant, wages. Reducing wages in this country had nearly reduced us all to nothing, but Mr Hamilton was perfectly sincere about it. It was his idea of good government.

Mrs Lee enlarged in detail upon the unjust and unfair treatment of unemployed women and girls during the depression years. Women had to pay the wages tax, but when they were unemployed they were assisted only by social workers, accustomed to deal with unemployables. While she recognised that these social workers were animated by the best intentions, they did not know how to deal with proud and independent women and girls who only wanted an opportunity to earn a living. No one would object to paying a shilling in the pound, Mrs Lee declared, for the medical benefits, pensions and superannuation the Government intended to provide by legislation during the coming session. She maintained that these prospective benefits were criticised today by opponents of the

Government in the same spirit as animated critics of old age pensions in 1898. It had been said in those days that pensions would be given to the unthrifty and the dissolute. Actually many who had qualified at that time for pensions were pioneers who had done good work for New Zealand and often had had no opportunity to save. In concluding her address, Mrs Lee appealed to her hearers to defend and support the Labour Government. There should be no talk of want and scarcity in a land of teeming production. Their aim should be to make New Zealand the most efficient and the most joyous country on earth. (Applause).

In concluding, Mrs Lee answered some questions and then was accorded a hearty vote of thanks on the motion of Mr R. N. Shaw, seconded by Mr G. Hansen, who was introduced to the audience as the selected Labour candidate for Pahiatua. The vote of thanks was carried by acclamation, and cheers were given for Mrs Lee, and for the Prime Minister.