SIR JOSEPH WARD AT BLENHEIM.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14978, 27 May 1914, Page 10

SIR JOSEPH WARD AT BLENHEIM.

(PRESS ASSOCIATION TELBGRAM.) • BLENHEIM, May 26. Sir Joseph' Ward arrived this morning, on a, five days' visit to Marlborough. He was accorded civic welcomes at Picton and Blenheim. In ihe evening he addressed a public meeting. The attendance was very large, tho Town 'Hall being packed. He received an enthusiastic reception, the hand-clapping and cheering lasting several minutes. His speech-,was much on the same lines as his previous speeches, and he broko little fresh ground. " Ho commenced by criticising the eye-' tern of taxation at the present time in comparison with what had been instituted oy the Liberal Party when in power. Ho 6aid that by the repeal of the old property tax, which tax the .Conservatives had' supported tooth and nail, the Liberals had freed the farmers from paying taxation: at. aU. The Liberal .Party had been consistent in their opposition to .the large landowners in the country. He spoke.of the opposition to the "system of cheap money introduced by him, v and to the

advances to settlors, and he drew a

comparison with those objecting and pointed* to'his profit shown of £200,000 as an answer to those objections."The present Government had for years and years declared the Liberal surpluses to

tte bogus. "Come'with mc to London, Here's what the Government say, show-

in" the unreliability of their own 6tate~

ments in the House: It is a public statement, giving tho balance of the Budgets from 1&96 to ,1912, showing every surplus exactly as "the Liberals gave them in their Budgets."; This,

lie said, was what the present Govern-

ment gave to -the people. in. London, and hot what the Liberals "said. Are they goings to say they are misleading theVublic in London? Not.much; and yet they for seventeen years, danced a political fandango on the bodies of himself and his colleagues over these came surpluses. •< ••,-.,

In Auckland Mr Massey shed crocodile tears, lainepting. what he called "the danger to the country because; the population had decreased. The refutation came by the fact that from 1901 to 1912- the population had increased. Mr Massey Had said that if tho country did not stop borrowing, the moneylenders should. This was when he was in opposition, but the present Government had borrowed more than the .Liberal Government had" done in the same period, and yet he cried out about borrowing; ... '''-"" With regard to Mr Massey's promise

o reduce taxation, the present Government, Sir Joseph said, had increased taxation by 3s 4d per every man, woman, and child in the country. Answering charges of his alleged extravagance in regard to public buildings. Sir Joseph drew comparisons to show that the present Government had expended more- iv this way that he had.- . As far as reduction of the cost of living ,wi|concerned, the Massey Administration had increased the Customs; taxation in 1918 93 per cent. As long' as constitutional government had been in vogue, there never had been 6uch industrial disturbances as during, the 'Massey regime. The, Liberal' Government had given, concessions to the users of the railways, .had given concessions in regard to universal penny postage and in telegraphs, and had helped the people who weie counselled to. borrow their money from the State Guaranteed Advances Department. He justified,the gift of the Dreadnought. Every man in the Houso had latified the gift, and then the.Opposition went all over tho country crying that he had given the Dreadnought without consulting Parliament. Mr , Massey had -contradicted the statement he was going to make. Ho was eoing to make it that night, and would inak3 it in the House. The workers as a cia->v. had paid not one penny to the payment. of tho Dreadnought. The payment was made from three sources; (1) Increase in death duties, (2) tax on bant notes. (3) tax on totalisator tickets. If a .worker loft anytmnf; at his death to his widow, ho must have left over £5000 before his estate had to .pay, anything in the;way of death duties or towards the Dreadnought. This statement was perfectly true in every particular. If he (Sir Joseph Ward) was found to be wrong, he would apologise to the country. , If Mr Massey was wrong, he should apologise. Sir Joseph went on to say that unless the country had a local navy efficient in every wav to fight anything that could come against it, it was nothing-but a toy navy. The people had given no sympathy to tho present Government to, abolish the naval policy that was in force before the general election, in favour of a local navy. The 'day' New Zealand commenced-a loca» nayy, it would-be done at the expense of public works expenditure.. Ho was not' in .favour of the. defence- system seizing tho country by the throat and running away with it. - He favoured the subsidy to the - Imperial- Navy as ■against-the system of-a.local navy. He claimed for the Liberal Party "the establishment of widows'' pensions, allowing widows to live without,appealing to charity, and this'he was entitled to call attention to. He said that under the Act placed om the Statute-Rook by the .Liberal Party, every local body could provide.'for. the. superanoiiation: of its _ employees in the same way as the Railway Service. With regard to the strike, Sir Joseph said the recent disturbance in Wellington was unfortunate. A large amount of misrepresentation had been made against him for political purposes. The present party in "power opposed the gassing of the Arbitration Act, as ho could grove by extracts from" speeches

of the present ministers. There wero times when strikes might bo legitimate, but-he was not in favour of strikes, although he would not say that the workers should* not have the right to strike. Tho Liberal Party Mas always on the side of law and order. If the advice he had given from his place in the House had been taken, the strike would not have lasted two> days. The Government should have stepped in and settled. it immediately.

He justified the stonewall on the repeal of'the Second Ballot Act, because the Prime Minister would give no promise to provide a substitute.

When tho Liberals came in next December, they were going to push the South Island Main Trunk railway through, and not stop construction of the works in their opponents' constituencies.

In answer to an interjection that the Government had no money whisn ttiey came into'office, Sir Joseph Ward said that statement was absolutely- untrue. The Minister of Finance had"£7Bo,ooo in consolidated revenue, which he (Sir Joseph) left when he wont out of office, and he paid £500,000 into the Public Works Fund, yet the Prime Minister said tho Government had no money The South Island Main Trunk Railway line should be pressed on in preference to other lines in the same way as the North Island Main Trunk line had been pushed on. With regard to amalgamation of the city electorates, he said ho did not believe in discriminating between town and country, although ho believed ho had as much to gain as to lose by the proposal. He predicted, that under it at least two Ministers would lose their ! seats. At the last election he was maligned from one end of the country to t»he other," but he had powerful friends, and he had never attempted to organise a meeting. Wherever he had given an address he had never issued tickets for his meetings; ho had opened the doors free for anyone who chose to enter, and had always had a good and attentive hearing. He had given the best years of his life in tho service of tho country. They wero all anxious to ' see New Zealand progress, and as Leader of the Liberal Party he had always been on the side of progress. The people of the country were going to decide between the parties. He was on the side of the mass of the people,'and the acknowledgment' of his legislation was that not one measure except tho Second Ballot Act, had been repealed. At the conclusion of his speech Sir Joseph Ward was greeted with cheers. A motion of thanks and confidence in him as Leader of the Liberal Party was carried by acclamation, without one dissentient.