The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 30, 1918, Page 5

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\ Labor Government in New Zealand ‘Workers’ Victory at Polls in 1890 Saves Country From World-Wide Hard Times—State Enterprise Prevented Panics and Bread Lines . The third of a series of 10 articles by Mr. Mills, well-known writer and lecturer, on “New Zealand Before the War.” BY WALTER THOMAS MILLS defeated in the six months’ gen- eral strike, they made their ap- geal, immediately to the ballot 0X. in Australia they elected strong minorities in the several parlia- ments. In New South Wales they elected 36 members of the 45 candldabes nominated by the new party. In New Zealand no independent party was organ- ized. This was because of the leadership of men like John Balance. He had come to New Zealand from the north of Ireland for the express purpose of undertaking to carry out in a new country a labor program which he believed then to have been im- possible in Ireland. Under his leadership a Liberal-Labor league was created to cover those districts where the labor vote was strongest. Out of the 72 members of parlia- ment, elected from parliamentary districts, 20 were elected as Liberal-Labor men, five as outright Labor candidates, and the rest of the Liberal-Labor ma- jority, which was then secured for the first time in the New Zealand parliament, were elected as simply Liberals. Most of these, however, in the words of Mr. Reeves, who was made thé first minister of “abor under the new government, “owed their elec- tion to the labor vote.” At that time New Zealand “had been a self-gov- erning country for 35 years and during these 35 years the government had changed hands from one party or faction or combination to another 25 times over. Some governments had lasted.only six weeks; the longest period that any had continued in power had been three years. During all this penod there was the most re- markable mxxture, and in some instances the mix- ture took form in the same cabinet, of the most _radical with the most conservative of all the varied elements found in a country whose settlers had been so largely composed of university graduates, dis- charged army officers and inmates from fthe British workhouses. NEW WINE IN AN OLD BOTTLE A new elemert, however, had entered into the life of New Zealand. Everywhere on earth the placer mining communities develop a peculiar population of their own. An old Californian said to me re- cently .that he could not understand why the old- ume personal independence which characterized the "Where Australia’s Sons of Freedom Fdl » ‘l‘his monnment marks the slte of the Eureka stockade, where the free settlers-fought against England’s convict police as described in Mr. Mill’s first. story. The revolting settlérs lost their fight on this spot, but their action forced Englang to make reforms, thus estab- lishing free government in that continent. In New Zealand the workers' were ,able to'eshbhsh iustxce and regmrd for the' common man by means of the ballot. s PAGE FIVE - JHEN the working people had been In each of the provinces early life in California had so largely disap- peared. The old-time Californian to whom he referred was a placer miner. He tcok posses- sion of a small piece of ground by getting there first. He drove his stakes, put up his tent, held possession with a rifle, and worked his claim with a pick and shovel. He did not have to sell his products in order to be able to buy supplies; gold dust was the medium of ex- change and he was a producer of gold dust. His opinions could not affect his economic in- terests and without per- sonal courage and dar- ing he could not protect his claim. Such conditions have always produced the high- est type of self-reliant manhood. The Ballarat miners who made the beginning in Australia were placer miners. Gold had been dis- covered in New Zealand. The placer miners from all the earth rushed to the new gold fields. When the largest city in New Zealand had only 15,000 people, the West Coast Mining Camp had a popu- lation of . 65,000. BUILDERS AND DESTROYERS Richard Seddon was a native of Lancashire, in - England, and like most Englishmen of his time,- grew to maturity without being able to read or write. He had been a miner at Ballarat. At the beginning he was a miner in New Zealand, became a saloonkeeper, then an alderman, then mayor of the mining camp town, married a woman who taught him to read, which he was anxious to learn for the sole purpose of being able to read the litera- ture of the labor movement, was elected to parha- ment, and the West Coast Mining Camp, to all in- tents and purposes, became the political capital of . New Zealand. On the triumph of the Liberal-Labor combmatmn, John Balance was made prime minister. He lived only a few months and Richard Seddon became his successor, and the Liberal-Labor combination con- trolled the country, without once losing the ma- jority vote in parliament on a government measure, for 21 years. Prior to the rise of-the Labor party very many radical measures had been adopted, but the irregularity -and uncer- tainty of - all previous administrations had made ‘the administra- tion of these radical measures very ineffec- tive. For the first 10 years Labor was the senior partner in this Liberal-Labor combina- tion and radical meas- were finally made fruit- ful' of the desired re- sults. John 'Balance had furnished the building program. Richard Sed- ter builder and the placer miners had fur- nished the fighting con- stituency to keep’ him on the job. Then Rich- ard Seddon died. He was succeeded in office by Joseph Ward. Mr. Ward had been an un- successful statesman, but a successful gam- bler in grain. He pos- sessed afability, bluff and a shrewd mshnet in ures previously adopted’ don had been the mas- mmummfl&mmmm N E RN PSRRI A very rural police station in New Zealand. In the bmldmg of this station pro- tection from the elements rather than confining prisoners appears to have been the object, and civilized man ev:dently got his ideas from the natives. his ability to pick out reputable men who could be used for disreputable purposes. Had he lived in Chicago he had all the qualities of statesmanship necessary to have made him a successful competitor for distinction with “Hinky Dink” Kenna and “Bath- house” John. The Tories, who had fought every one of the lib- eral measures, then joined the Liberal party in large numbers, became its candidates, entered par- liament on the Liberal-Labor ticket in sufficient numbers so that on the first test vote they walked across the floor to the ranks of the Tories where they really belonged and made an end of Liberal- Labor control and finally an end of the Liberal- Labor combination. For the first 1P years of their long term in office, Labor was in control. For the last 11 years there were enough Tories in the government to be able to block farther progress. LABOR’S UNEQUALLED RECORD Durmg the years 1891 to 1961, for the only time in the history of the world, a Labor party, whose mnits were made up of trade unions, ad- ministered th€ affairs of a modern state, .. These years were years of industrial and com- mercial disaster all the world over. In America, as well as in all other lands, the factory fires went out, the streets were filled with the unemployed, the banks were closed, collections became impossible, “"the savings of-a lifetime were swept-away, and all the world ‘round street-corner soup kitchens re- lieved, if they did not deliver, the victims of starva- tion. But during these same 10 years, under the con- trol of labor, New Zealand made a record of prog- ress and pmspenty never ;equalled by any other government in human history. At the close of these 10 years there was in force in New Zealand the public ownership -of railways, the tax on unim- proved land values, the services of the public trustee, the postal savings bank, one man cne vote, village settlements, the Australian ballot, the Tor- rens land title system, government life and fire in- surance, woman suffrage, political equality in munic- ipal electiops, the graduated land tax, the resump- tion of state ownership of lirge estates and the breaking up of these estates for closer settlement, the arbitration of industrial disputes, government loans to farmers and wage-earners, old age pens sions and the government ownersh;p of coal mmes. THE WAY THEY “BRUINED THE COUNTRY” Disaster had been predicted, but the disaster be- fell every country where labor was voiceless and this is what happened in New Zealand where labor was in control: The population increased 20 per cent and the newcomers were from among the best of the world’s workers. The miles of railways in- creased 14 per cent, unimproved land values 11 per cent, occupied lands' 34 per cent, cultivated lands 55 per cent, the production of gold 100 per cent, the ‘exports 25 per cent, the improvements on land 52 per cent, and all these during the ’90s, the very years when all the rest of the world was struggling. \ . (Continued on page 14)

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