SPEECH BY MR FOWLDS

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1130, 18 May 1911, Page 6

SPEECH BY MR FOWLDS

SINGLE TAX DEFENDED. MORE ABOUT THE .£5,000,000 LOAN. (By Tclceraph—Press Association.) Auckland, Hay 17. The Hon. G. AV. I'owlds, Minister for Education, addressed a meeting at Pukekoho to-night, Mr. J. AV. M'Lareu presiding over a good attendance. Mr. Fowlds, who was received with applause, said there was very little that needed reply iu the speeches in various parts of the South Island, and more recently in the. Auckland province. However, it might bo considered discourteous if he made no reference to What Mr. Masfoy had been saying. Tho Leader of the Opposition had devoted a good deal of attention to tho single-tax member of the Ministry, giving him what he would describe as a particularly bad time; but he had no complaint against Mr. Massey on that score. The principle of tho taxation of land valuer, otherwise known as the. single tax, had been making such rapid progress in recent years all over the world that it would not bo surprising if in tho course of a few years Mr. Massey claimed credit for being one of the first to advocate it in New Zealand. No single-taxer proposed to tax the land at nil. That was simply a bogey created by the land speculator and monopolist for tho purpose of drawing to his aid the bona fido farmers. The proposal was to tax land value, not land. Under a singletax system plenty of land in New Zealand would for many years pay no tax at all. One single-tax Minister did not make a single-tax Government, and yet, although jveiybody except thrs Leader of the Ojjpo?itiou knew that the policy of the present Government was not single tax, his constant references to tho single-tax Minister made it necessary to refute his misrepresentations as to what single tax really was. Leaving out of account the owners of town and city lands, who would fiay tax on values up to .£IOOO per foot frontage, there were in 1807 .18,875 owners af country lands only, and 0193 who ownid both town and country lands. Of these 22,890 owned a total unimproved value iof .£t,131j,885, or an average of under ,£lßl each, so that if every tax except a tax on land values were abolished those people would pay on an average less than <£9 a year in taxation. Every singlo family of them was paying from two to threo times that amount under tho present system, and many of .them were beginning to realise tho fact. The Recent Loan, Mr. Massey and other Opposition speakers, the Minister continued, had been greatly interested in the .£5,000,000 loan which was iloated last year, and their principal anxiety had been to showthat the flotation was a failure. The only effective point; whiuh tbnso critics made was that a largo proportion of the loan was left in tho hands of the underwriters, and they had gloated over that point with great satisfaction. They had also been able to (jttote from some remarks made by the Prime Minister a number of years ago indicating that he then considered a similar result iu the flotation of a loan by some other country as an unsatisfactory feature. The Opposition did not seem to be aware that in recent years, instead of applying for large amounts of loans offered to the public, many of tho largest investing institutions held back until after the Eolation of the loan, expecting tho serin to be quoted at a discount. That very often happened, the discount frequently varying from one to two per cent. In tho case of tho New Zealand loan, the price had never declined more than one-half per cent., and then only for. a day or two, that showing that the loan was "very irmly held, and that tho Minister for Finance had been able to make very satisfactory and prudent arrangements for its flotation. "All this strenuous endeavjur to discredit New Zealand, and to make it appear that the country's credit is unsatisfactory," said Mr. Fowlds, 'must havo some object. Their long continued carping criticism can have only 3iie rosnlt, whether they intend it or not, Hid that is to damage tho credit of the country. I honestly believo that such criticism is intended by them for that purpose. Inderal, T lave heard Mr. Massey in an outburst of ndiscretion admit their object, and f-ay .hat if the electors of the Dominion did jot feel inclined to put the brake on the jovernment it would be a good thing 'or the country as a whole if the moneyendors did. Can you imagine anything nore flagrantly unpatriotic than to call in the money-lenders of Great Britain to put the screw on New Zealand, in order hat the Government might be discreditid, and that in desperation the peoplo night be induced to put Mr. Massey and lis friends in office?"

Government and Opposition. When speaking a.t Whangarei the Leader of the Opposition was very iudignant about a suggestion that had been made that there was very little difference between the Government and the Opposition. Mr. Massey, as well as the Government, had a right to be indignant at such a suggestion. Mr. Massey and his party had always stood squarely and consistently for the privileges of the propertied classas. The little slip regarding the increase of the graduated lnnd tax was only a temporary aberration, and Mr. Massey has long since repented of that transgression in sackcloth and ashes. A wide gulf did separate the Government from the Opposition, a gulf as wide as that which separates poverty from riches. Mr. Massey was always at his best when talking to an audience of farmers, best from the point of view of laying himself open to criticism. He was never at any time an exceedingly accurate speaker, but his inaccuracies ran away with him when he was addressing a country audience.

Land Valuation. Then there was that awful engino of extortion which tho Government used against the farmers, tho excessive valuation of thoir land. Opposition speakers never got tired of declaiming against this awful iniquity of the Government, notwithstanding the clearly-demonstrated fact that the land was rarely ever valued as high as its real selling value. A return had been compiled by the Hon. D. Buddo showing the number of registered sales of freehold land in tho Dominion for. each of which a sum of ,£IOOO or more was realised- between March 30, 1910, and September 30. 1910. The total prices realised from the sales' and the values at which the land sold were entered on tho. Government roll. Those figures showed that in tho Auckland province, where the cry of overvaluation was mostly heard, the total sale price of land over -CIOOO disposed of last year was 57 per cent, higher than the Government valuation. Iu other words, the price realised for that land by actual sales was more than half as much ngain aS thq value put upon it by tho Government valuers. Taking the Dominion as a whole, the prices realised were 34 per cent, higher than the Government valuations showing a profit to the settlors of nearly .£1.000,000 above the Government figures. The Minister added that either tho critics of tho Government wero not sincere or they did not take the (rouble to ascertain the facts regarding the subjects on which they attempt to criticise tho Government.

"Tammanyism." When challenged in the House last session to cito a single caso against the Government which could justify the use of the term "Tammanyism," Mr. Massey mentioned a poor struggling Opposition newspaper in Wellington that was not getting as large a share of Government advertising as Mr. Massey thought it was entitled to. It was a very heinous offence for the Government to withhold Government advertisements from an Opposition newspaper whos-o shareholders wero possibly a body of hard-tip widows and orphans, but if the Government began advertising at once in every newspaper started in the Dominion, a largo amount of tho people's money would bo wasted. In the case referred to, tho paper itself ■and its friends in tho House tried to bulldoso. the Government into giving • it advertisements before it had justified its cxistenco by showing that it had some prospect of perronnenco. At the close of the address, a proposal was made by Mr. Charles Shepherd, seconded by Mr. 1). .'Wily, expressing no confidence in the Minister, or a. singlctaxer, or in the present Government, but the meeting enthusiastically carried a motion by Mr. J. W. Chalmers, seconded by Mr. .f. Rogers, expressing the thanks of the meeting for the address, and entire confidence in the Government