POLITICS AND REFORM.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 794, 18 April 1910, Page 4

POLITICS AND REFORM.

ANOTHER REPLY TO "LOOKER ON." THOSE TARANAKI SEATS. Sir, —I would like with your permission to reply, to a portion of "Looker on's" letter, which appeared in your issue of Monday last, the'portion I refer to being that paragraph ill which he alleges-that the four Taranaki seats were won at the last general election by' "nothing but the dairy regulations." For the last 17 years I have taken a keen and active, interest in politics in Taranaki, and can therefore claim to have some little knowledge of the reasons which induced the electors to return four supporters of the Reform party to Parliament as against the like number of. supporters of 1 tho party now in power. ' V To begin with, it was not owing to the dairy regulations, as "Looker-on" so confidently asserts. Such a statement is kbsolutely contrary' to fact and as libellous of the four honourable gentlemen who are now representing us as tho remainder of the letter is of our worthy chief, the Leader of ■ the. Opposition: We won the four Taranaki seats first and foremost because we be-' lieved that in Mr. \V.. F. Massey we had a true statesman, and one more fit to guide the destinies of this Dominion than any other, man. ' We realised to the full that in him we had'one in whom we could place absolute confidence _at: all times—a practical farmer like ourselves, and not a professional . politician. And, : realising this, we realised something more — something • that Oppositionists throughout tho length and breadth of the country would do well to realise too, "Looker-on" especially, viz.,. that seats could be won by Mr. Massey's supporters if onJy they went about things in the' right way. Wo felt that if we waited 'until the party in( office, with the keys of the Treasury chest in its possession, with its power of political bribery and its power to threaten, turned itself out,'we should have to wait a very long time, and that probably Now Zealand in tho meantime would' be brought to the verge of ruin. Hence wo did what we considered every loyal citizen who has the ivelfaro of his' country and not his own' personal aggrandisement at heart ought to do, 1 we girded up our loins and entered into, tho fray determined to succeed.

. Knowing full well the resources at the command of the "other side," we decided that one thing above all others was necessary in order to 'ensure success, and that was organisation, and we organised accordingly,' with the, result that we achieved a series _ of.-..' brilliant victories, fhe dairy regulations . played but a minor:part right through—in fact in the most important, fighting speech made by one .of the. successful candidates during tho contest, which I have in front of'iiii) as I write,. I do not find tho. dairy .regulations mentioned once or even referred to directly or indirectly. '".mat appealed to the think-' ing public''wefe'.facts—hard, solid facts, that could not bo got over or twisted round-in any 'shape or form, facts such as these. :

(1) In their midst tlio electors had a > railway constructed at a cost of ssSmo £50,000, ostensibly for the purpose of supplying local bodies with cheap road metal. This railway, originally intended to 'bo laid to tho inexhaustible stone deposits at Mount Egrnont, some nino miles from, the ipain line, had, after close on four years had gone by, bceh laid some six and a quarter miles only, and its terminus was then a gravel pit alongside a tiny stream not one chain wide. . .Consequently, ■ ' boulders . could only be obtained in limited quantities and at enormous expense, leaving, tlio local bodies hi tho district, so far as oheap- road 'metal was concerned', as badly off as before*—in spite of, tho £50,000 of the taxpayers' money in the line—and, by the way,' the line is no further ahead to-day, five years and three months since it was started.

(2) As showing what a businesslike and progressive Ministry there. was guiding tho colony's affairs, the electors had,-another railway in their . midst started,on'March 28, 1901. This: was to junction, with tho Main Trunk. at Ongaruo at an early date, bnt ; at the time of the last election. (190S) it had progressed some 20 miles ; onlyr—less than three miles a year, and as one writer at (she time put it : "If this, was to bo tho rate in fat years, what in Heaven's naino would be tlio • rate. in those that were lean?" (3) There was an enornious extent of country at our doors,'tho. "hinterland" of Taranaki. lying idle, .with' untold mineral , and other resources undeveloped. Again and again the' local authorities and the settlors had appealed .to have this land thrown open, but tho same businesslike and progressive Ministry preferred to koep it locked up, and turned a deaf, ear to all the supplications that wero mado,' and the'land remains idlo to this day. What a fillip the opening up of this valuable stretch of country would give to Now Plymouth and other Taranaki towns none but thoso who have lived in Taranaki for any length of time,can imagine. , (4) Knowing the back country, as they did, tlio electors were disgusted at tho attitude of tho same businesslike n.nd progressive Ministry with regard to tho back, country roads. Tho electors in tho towns not only felt for their struggling brethren in the backblocks, but felt for themselves as they realised how tho progress of their towns was being retarded by the short-sighted and heartrending,policy of the Government ill allowing sottlers to go back into tho wilderness and remain there without tho necessary roads. And at the same time the settlers in the back' country themselves wero mere than disgusted at the treatment they, the pioneers of tho country, were receiving when, on the one hand, they were told that it was impossible to givo them -roads and bridges on account ot tho lack of tho necessary funds, and on the other hand they learnt that moneys had been found for. such work as the following:— ' R Purchase of statuary 2200 Donation to 'Frisco 1000 Japanese famino 1000 Vesuvius eruption hind 250 Entertainment of guests at Exhi- . bition 1000 Grant to Prime Minister to attend Colonial Conference ... 1500 New Zealand Exhibition grant ... 64,500 Bringing football team hoiuo from England 1903 T. E. Donne's visit to America and England 3G7 Etc., etc., etc. And lastly, but by.no means least, tho electors realised that a Government that had no policy, and no principles, that was prepared to run up the "leasehold" to-day, or the "semi-free-hold" Hag to-morrow, was a Government whoso solo aim and object was to retain tho spoils of oflico at any cost, and as such was no longer fit to bo eu» trusted with the reins of oflico.

Hence, as I have already stated, and as ovoryono knows, tho electors of Taranaki. decided ou making a "change of bowling," and to that end sank their petty and personal. differences, ami worked together shoulder to shoulder for tho good of tho Opposition cause, with tho result that t-lioy gavo Mr. Massey lour sound and able henchmen in tho next Parliament of tho Dominion. Had other electorates in New Zealand followed tho same system-of organisation as 'that adopted by Taranaki*, "Liberalism, or at any rate Ward rule, would long ago have been a thing of tho past." Tho defeated party, anxious to find somo excuse, for tho crushing blow they had received, put their own shortcomings in tho background, and fixed upon tho "dairy regulations" as the best that could bo found. Next year there will be. no dairy regulations, I presume. . Whether this is so or 110, "Looker-on" will .find, in spito of; his pessimistic prognostications," that tho sturdy yeomen of Taranaki will give further proof of their -dissatisfaction with, tho continued mismanagement of tho Dominion's affairs, and of their high appreciation of the efforts put forward 011 their behalf by Mr. Massey, who, to use the words applied to him by the Stratford branch of tho Political Reform League, "has for years past, with undaunted courage, fought a good fight against overwhelming odds, upholding with, true statesman" like ability the best traditions of tho British race. May. God bless him."—l TRUE REFORMER.. Stratford, April 14, 1910.