ELECTIONEERING.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1236, 19 September 1911, Page 7

ELECTIONEERING.

POLITICAL ADDRESSES. MR. FISHER AT KENT TERRACE. GOVERNMENT'S CATCH-VOTE ' PROPOSALS. Mr. F. M. B. Fisher introduced himself to some of tho voters in that new part of his electorate between Tory Street and Kent Terraco in tho New Century Hall i in Kent Terrace last night. The meeting was quite informal; Mr. Fisher even dispensed with the appointing of a chairman. There was a good deal of interjection and interruption, most of it from Socialists in tho audience, but in tho case of only one person was it really troublesome. This one person became such an intolerable nuisance that he had to be ejected. Mr. Fisher said he wished to make it clear .to the electors of Wellington Central that they could not hops for legislative or administrative reform by prolonging the life of the present Government. However flawless tho integrity of. tho persons in tho Ministry might be, the fact was that they had served their time and outlived their usefulness. " The Budget. Ho dealt. first with tho ' Budget—tho most phenomenal Budget that had cier been produced in New Zealand. _It was a very magnificent record of what tho party had not done in the last twenty years, and an 'equally; magnificent Tecord of what they might possibly do .if returned to 'power. But the party was not ' really serious in its promises in the Budget. The House had been sitting for tho last seven weeks, and although the Ministry had a majority in tho Hous's of 30 members, they had passed only two Bills. Why, if tho.Government had been serious about their proposa s, they could have put half of them 011 tho Statu to Book this session.. 'As a. "natter of fact, the Government wero pnttm„ tor- ' ward these catch-voto . proposals-m tne hopo that they would be sent back to power to put some of them into effect in the next three years. Mr.' lister wen on to deal with' certain of tho items of the Government's- programme, especially those relating to proposed redactions of railway 'fares, assistance to widows, ( antl promised increases to Civil Servants. Assistance to widows! -what did ■ tins mean? It might be all very well for tho widows who would receive .the dole. that was promised, but would it be well for the taxpayer? Was there iiota danger that tho husband would; feel himself relieved from the responsibility of providing for his wife and family, knowing that after his death tho State would accept the • responsibility of looking aftei them? In- spito of the fact that the railw r ay fares had been raised last year, in order to niako the railways pay they had, in fact, been made to pay-only .at. tn© exponso of tho underpaid railway servants. Now, on.tho evo of the election, part ot thoso increases, wero being giJJ 11 " aclc to the people in reduced fares. .There was also in the Budget a specious promise that the Supplementary Estimates would , provido for increased salaries ior public servants. Purse and Patronage. Sometimes ■ the Opposition was charged, that it had no policy. The reproach was not warranted, but for all that the Opposition were in a somewhat difficult position. If they defined a policy everything in it that was of any value was immudiatelv adopted bv tho Government of tho day I The result of that was that. tho. Opposition was placed in tho position that ■ they must either not furnish ?. policy at all, or they mu;t furnish a policy for tho Government and not for themselves. He believed that this country had been, very lucky in its Opposition. It-was found that thero was a dearth of Opposition candidates offering- to contest many o'f the 6eats at tho elections. This was becauso tho purchasing power of- tho Government had become so great that it did not''liiiy tho 'average man to oppose, them. The party iri power was able to spend in this 6mall Dominion public moneys at the -rate of ton millions fC-y-ear. Tho effect of this was difficult to realise. Another source of tho Government power was. in the num- { bar of the public servants that it had appointed. In a return prepared by tho head of the Post and Telegraph Department recently it was stated that the post office employees' now numbered GOOO neonle. and that'of these Sir Joseph Ward had personally appointed over 4000. This information was inaccessible to members' of tho Honso;<they could never have got it, ' by asking for it, but it .happened to occur in a series of statistics showing the wonderful growth of the Department since Sir Joseph Ward bpcame IVistmns tor-Gen oral . In addition to tho public" service patronage, it must be remembered that besides this the Government had tho solo right of recommending nil tho K.C.M.G.'s. of'appointing all the K.C.'s. all the J.P.'s, all the members of the Legislative Council, and alt the Government members on the local bodies, of the country. Not only did the Minister for Finance'say that the ■ Government would borrow ,a million and a'half for advances to local bodies, but it was also for him to sny which local bodies'were'to have .1 share of it. Deputation after,. deputation was concentrated - in the room of the Prime Minister, befepohing him for grants.- So much power had ho that his very absence paralysed Parliament, because there was concentrated in the hands of Sir Joseph Ward more' power' than in tho two Houses of Parliament.

• Wasteful Expenditure, The Government, had in 1909 entered upon a retrenchment scheme, and the Prime Minister told the people that men had been retired from the Government service. and that a saving of £311,203 had been effected. This was in tho session after the election. This .session, before the election, the Prime Minister wa9 asking the country to expend .£6,205,975, compared with -£4,21-1,313 expended in 1917, the year in' which ho took office. So that,' notwithstanding the saving by the dismissal of 970 men, the 'cost of the Government Departments was two million pounds a year more to-day than it was in 1907, the year Sir Joseph Ward took office. IVas it surprising that the cost of living had increased? -.The whole of tho profits of the prosperity of the country, which ought to -bo'- divided among tho people, were being dissipated in wasteful expenditure by tho Government in order that they might remain in office. Tho more prosperous we became tho more we bor-. rowed, and the more we borrowed tho more we were taxed. Tho amount taken out of tho profits of tho Stato Departments, .£228,000, did not. half nay last year's Defence bill. , AYe had still to pay an annual contribution of J2100,000 for the repayment of the capital and interest of tho Dreadnought loan. In addition to this, we were paying ,£IOO.OOO a year to the British Government as a naval subsidy. In the next three years wo would j>ay .£50,000 a year for the equipment of Defence forces, and also we would pay the cost of, the new sehenie, .£331,000 a year, making a total of ■£(%■(,0(10 for the .Defence biil of New Zealand.' ' He referred to tho way in which the Dreadnought gift was made, characteTisir.g it as one of tho most iniquitous _ things that had ever happened—an imposition, which the King of England could not have made, of taxation for interest on a loan of two millions to which tho country was committed, without the consent of Parliament. Other matters touched _ upon by Mr. Fisher were the advisability of setting up a Tariif Board to revise our tarifF, so as to afford protection forour industries; the necessity for a revision of our education system; and the omission from tho Budget of nil reference to high rents, underpaid public servants, and tho existence of monopoly. lie believed that the party in power was partly in league with Mine of the monopolies of the country, notably the Union Company, which, he believed, "absolutely had its hand on the throttle-valve of New Zealand's commerce," Questions—and an Incident. When the time came for asking questions, a man in the body of tho hall, who had boon making, himself heard frequently already in the meeting, rose and asked Mr. Fisher what he thought of "this compulsory military ' trainin' business." .Mr. I'isher thought well of it, and said yo, whereupon the voter shouted and made n noise,. He .would not stop shouting and making a noise, and Mr. -fisher put hiin out. He had to do it by force,

but ready assistance was forthcoming, nnd tho meeting was orderly once more. Then Mr. Fisher was asked how he thought the cost of living could bo reduced. The principal reason hp ottered was the wasteful public expenditure indulged in by the Government, aud he gave chapter and verse. Questioned some inoro on tho same subject, he said that ho was in favour of nationalising any industry in which prices were kept up by combines and rings. Fie did not think that a coalition between the good members of both parties would be a good arFor Himself, lie t.ul not cuo wliat party other than the present Government were returned to rower so long as they remained in nower for 0110 month —long* enough to furnish to Parliament a return of tho loan transactions and Departmental transactions which the present Administration would not furnish. If the new party did nothing- else it would do n great service to the State. The first aim should bo to break the back of the party in power; as soon as this was dono a third party would certainly arise. A vote of tbnr.ks, proposed by ono of Mr. Fisher's most persistent riuestionors, was carried by acclamation, and t afterwards a separate vote of confidence in Mr. Fisher. proposed bv another member of Ilie audience, was likewise carried by acclamation.