THE ELECTIONS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1264, 20 October 1911, Page 7

THE ELECTIONS.

THE HUTT SEAT. •ADDIiESS •BY ME. ITEWAN. Mr. J. W. M'Ewan, -a..candidate- for the Hutt seat, addressed ran audience of about 300 electors at Pctone last night. Mr., J. Piper presided. Mr. AFEwan said ho claimed that he has-served his apprenticeship to politics, and he asked the electors'to help him to go a .step higher. Thqy knew him. they knew all ho had done, good and ill, and ho asked for no special-.'favour at ..their hands. He described, .himself as an Independent Oppositionist. Ho claimed a measure of frcedoirf oft thought and action apart from his relation with any paTfcy. Ho followed .Edmund .Burke's ideal of what a representative should bethat a politician should never sacrifico his enlightened fonscionco to.tho dictates or interests 0: any man or set .of men. Ho was absolutely tired of gutter politics, for ho had no lastc for the eternal jangling that went on party fight. Too Long in Office, But the present (government had been in power too long. Tho ship of State was so barnacle-biciuisted that she ought to be docked, thoroughly overhauled, and a new set of officers appointed to tako charge of her. Th'ero wusno vital difference between fiho Government and tho Opposition on policy qucsfiaas. It was a game of "the ins" v. "tho outs. The principal plank ofi the/ins' programme was to stick to oMce' That 'being the state of affairs t -wastreally timo that something happened, really time that wo had a change-of Government, with the hope that the new Government would raise to a higher Ho thought thero ought to bo a ten o clock closing Bill introduced to govern tho sittings of ftylianient. Tho need for this was slown in tho way Parliament dealt with the Estiinatcsr-hnndreds of thousands of pounds were authorised by a Housein whioh there was a bare quorum, and half of tW members asleep towards 3 o.m. Parliament was not careful enough in' dealing■ with- estimates, and not careful enough afterwards in seeing that those estimates* wero mado use of. Ho instanced tho voto which had been mado for tho harnessing of tho Hutt River— ..£l4 spent. Apparently tho scheme had been abandoned. Ho referred to the Govornment's method of dealing with legislation, choosing as an instance the proposal entered' upon somo years ago to consolidate municipal law. This had been done, but the-job had not been finished, for amending'"Acts had been necessary. Very differently the Home Parliament set about making "laws, for when they mado e. law it would stand for a time. Tho result was that wo had moro lawyers to the square mile in this country than in any: part of' tho world. Parliament was supposed to .have control of tho purse, but in point of fact Parliament had nothing of tho sort. When tho Primo Minister wanted to buy a Dreadnought, he-'bought a Dreadnought without telling Parliament anything about it. When King Charles tried that game on he very eoon lost his head. About Wasto. He declared that tho Hutt railway and road work was an object-lesson of how not to govern tho country, and an objectlesson of waste in public departments. When the scheme was riroposed one of tho provisions was that it should not cost more than The Hutt district ought not to be called upon to pay for all this muddling on tho part of tho Government. Tho Minister had said that tho district must pay its share of the bill, but the bill would not be presented, of course, until after the elections. Tho Government had not done the work as they set out to do it. Hey had not mado a straight road, and they had not reclaimed anything liko 77 acres. Because of the Government method of construction by co-operative work, railways had cost a third more than they should, have cost. This meant that tho country had some 500 miles less line of railway than it should have had for tho money spent. It was about timo wo had some sort of a stock-faking to discover how much of tho cast of railways was wasted, and this stock-taking should bo done by a new set of men. One thing was certain,.the"wages paid to tho workers w-ere not. too high, and the wasto must, therefore, be in the method of control. . He was satisfied that the experience we had had with the flotation of tho fire-million loan last year ought to convince us that our Government was not conducting our financial operations as well as they ought. Tho expectation was that the whole loan would realiso 96} per cent., or .£163,000 short of five millions in o-11. This ought to ba sufficient indication that it was time for us to adopt a "go-slow" policy. Land Settlement. He criticised adversely the Government control of the Land Settlement scheme. The aim of the Government should be to settle the land more closely, and to do it more speedily. He was,sure also that the Government valuations wero inflated, as were, all land values throughout the .country. The Government valuers simply based their valuations on the most .recent sale price of property in the near vicinity. Land ought to l« valued on its productive possibilities, whioh was the true commercial value. We must, therefore, expect a settling down of values. He attributed the present high prices of land to the growth of the very profitable dairying'industry, and the cara with which a. settler could obtain advances from tho Government on these inflated values. Controllers of big financial concerns, and shrewd practical farmers, were all alike agreed that the price of land was abnormally high. It was about time that we got back to a state of canity with regard to land values, and he would bo in favour of legislation which would tend to their reduction to what was more nearly their true value. High city rents for allotments upon which business r>r«misc-j wero built must be paid in the" end by the consumer. The warehouseman passed his rent on to tho shopkeeper, and the shopkeeper passed his on to the consumer. After' all, everything came out of tho land—oven the Dreadnoughts and "Roddy nuggots" that we gave away—and tho land question was thereforo the most important question in this or any other agricultural country. In order to compol ovvnors of large blocks of land to subdivido and Bell, ho would be in favour of increasing the graduated land tax to such a rate that the owners would find it unprofitable hot to sell—and this increaso to operate not in tlrreo years' time, but at once. Sotho of our young men had gono to Queensland and got land without chasing over the country to land ballots. Why 6hould our people have to leave New Zealand to look for land when wo had plenty of land of our own? Why not mako our own land easier to obtain? (Applause.) Ho also thought the holders of the big pastoral leases from the Government should, in view of the high prices now ruling for wool, pay much higher rents to the State for their holdings. He would not raise any question about tho nature of tho tenure to give to settlors; lot them choose the tenure they liked best. The main object should bo to havo tho land settled and to have it usrd. To aohicvo this in respect of Maori land, tho State jihould acquire it and cut it up for settlement. Other Questions. He thought the Arbitration Court Bhould be repealed for the reason that it had not dono its work, having failed to prevent strikes. Ho believed disputes could bo better settled by conciliation. He favoured tho proposal to construct a railway from Petene to Pigeon Bush via Wainu'i, to avoid tho Rimutaka incline. Ho was in favour of a bare majority carrying the dav on all questions. Tho question Which the people of New Zealand had to scttlo at this election was: Did they want any more of tho Ward Administration ? ne personally was satisfied that the people were thoroughly sick of tho Ward Government.

The candidate answered a number of questions. He was in favour of. reduced borrowing. Ho would support a proposal to establish a State forry between Wellington and Lyttellon. He had been asked by the Labour party to stand, but he had declined to bo united with any party, or to sign any pledge. ' A vote of thanks and confidenco was accorded to the candidate, on the motion, of Mr. W. Cox, seconded by 3Jr. Robert Glnding. The rote was received cnthusi*sti<!ally, and carried without disssnt.

MR, R, W. SHORTT AT TAITA. Mr. R. W. Sliorlt, Opposition candidate, addressed a. well-attended meeting at Taita last niglit. Mr. Reuben King presided. Tho candidate dealt at some length

with tho laaid settlement problem, and with tho Customs tariff. A voto of thanks and confidence was accorded him at tho conclusion of his address. To-night, Mr. Shortt speaks at tho Hutt. WELLINGTON EAST. ME. M'LAIOEN AT KILBIRNLB. Mr. D. M'lxtrcu, the sitting member, who is again (.Devesting tiio Wellington East seat in tho Labour interest, addressed an audience ot about one hundred ami Jilty people ,n O'Donnell's Hall, ICUbirnie, last night. Air. '11.I 1 . Fathers presided. Mr. Al'Laron decjt, in tho courso oi his speech, with practically all tho questions wnicli loom large <ai tno horiiou of politics. Ho deprecntec tho idea ot suggesting the abolition of tfto Conciliation and Arbitration Act, but tno Held that tho Act could be considerably improved. Ho had no sympathy with .tao general strike proposal as a menus of settling industrial disputes, holding that tho community stood to sutler too severely by this method. The growth of labour organisation m this coumry showed how lienous would bo tho ellcct of an industrial upheaval. Ho advocated tho improvement of tho Act, and a change in tho pen»nnel of tho Court. Especially ho would to see someouo made president of it who should bo a man or wide industrial experience, possessing a knowledge of public affairs. Ho recognised that tho Act was only to allay industrial strife, and not to solve tho various economic problems lacing tho | people to-day. These could bo solved only by direct legislation. He supported tho defence scheme, but ho did not agrco with the extension of tho age limit from U to 25 years. Ho resented Dr. Newman 3 innuendo that ho was a Government member; cveryono knew that ho was not, but he admitted that ho had more m common with the Government than with tho Opnosition. , , . Air. Al'Laren was accorded a unanimous vote of thanks and confidence at tho conclusion of his address. PROFLIGATE BORROWING. LABOUR CANDIDATE'S REMARKS. Mr F T Moore, Labour candidate for the Suburbs seat, addressed tho electors at Ngahauranga last night, Air. W. 1- utter presiding. , Referring to finance, the candidate stated that tho Labour policy was the scifreliant, non-borrowing platform of John Ballance, which policy Liberalism had deserted by doubling tho national debt and spending much of tho country s borrowed money in an extravagant manner. Ho cited tho Hutt Road as an instance of tho manner in which public money was being wasted. Competent engineers had told him that they had made calculations, which indicated that this road could havo been widened for'loss than half tho ,£IOO,OOO which the Government proposed to charge local bodies for the work. These engineers had allowed tho high rate of ss. per cubic yard for all spoil, and material required. In the backblocks, said Mr. Moore, money was wasted in the same wholesale manner, and ■ if a tribunal wero set up to examine and report on the cost and value of the public works carried out by tho present Government during the past ten years of profligalo borrowing and wastage, the waste would bo found to bb enormous. Millions of money were annually transferred to the Public Works Fund, and, in his opinion the country had not got 10s. worth of value for each 20s transferred to this account, no urged the electors to vote for a chango ot Government, and not allow themselves to be cajoled any longer into voting for the Liberal nominees. A voto of thanks and confidence was carried unanimously on the motion of Mr. R. Kearns, seconded by Mr. T. Brown. THE PARNELL SEAT. Mr. E. G. B. Moss, the Opposition candidate for the Parnell electorate, informed a "Herald" reporter on Tuesday that ho honed to be about again in a few days. Though he had suffered from a breakdown in health, he intended going on with his campaign, and his supporters would tako steps to 6eo that tho Opposition would not be left without a candidate s'liould further illness make it necessary for him to retire. Ho had communicated with Mr. Jlassoy when, ho found that it would bo difficult for him to undertake strenuous campaigning and the Leader of the Opposition's reply to him was: "Go ahead; do tho best you can, and wo will have someone else ready to tako your place sliould you break down." TEMUKA. (By Teleeranh.—Press Association.) Timaru, October 19. Messrs. J. T. M. Hayhurst and R. Gnthrio will not stand for Temuka. Mr. G. W. Armitage is giving addresses up country and Mr. W. Jeffries is also busy.

With the elections drawing near, tho public is becoming anxious to know if their names appear on the electoral rolls. In response to" an inquiry made yesterday, it was ascertained that tho main roll would probably bo printed and availablo for inspection on Tuesday or Wednesday next, when an announcement will be made in this paper as to where the different city rolls may be inspected. It is hoped that thero will, on this occasion, only be ono supplementary roll, which closes on the day the- writs for tho election are issued. As the writs aro returnable within twenty-eight days from the date of issue, it is assumed that tho supplementary roll will close during tho first week of November. This will give electors a full fortnight to rectify errors of omission after tho main roll is published. All the local Registrars of Electors received instructions yesterday to purge tho rolls of any names of persons they know to be deceased or non-resident in the district. At Mr. Reardon's meeting at Petone on Wednesday night some half a dozen members of the audience rose to second the vote of confidence. The ono who actually seconded the motion gave a name to the press representatives which certainly sounded like 11. Ryder. Mr. 11. Ryder, master butcher at Petone, wishes us to state that it was not he who seconded the motion. Air. F. G. Bolton, the Government candidate for Wellington East, will address the Hataitai portion of the electorate tonight at 8 o'clock. Dr. A. K. Newman, Reform candidate, will address the electors of Wellington East at 8 o'clock this evening. The address wia be givoa in the Victoria Hall. Air. C. A. W. Monckton, Reform candidate for the Otaki electorate, will address the electors of E?:tii':; this evening at S o'clock. Air. R. W. Shortt, Opposition candidate for the. nutt electorate, will address a meeting at St. James's Hall, Lower Hutt, at 8 p.m. on Friday, October 20. Atr. F. Aloore, selected Labou rcandidate for the Snbcrbs' seat, will give an address at Ohariu Valley this evening at 8 o'clock. Air. At. 11. D. Bell, Opposition candidate, will open his campaign to-night at 8 o'clock at tho Parish Hall, Karori. Air. Byron Brown will ad< v i«.ss the Otaki electors at Moutoa (Whitaunui Flaxmill) to-night, at 8 o'clock. The associated auctioneers will hold a stock sale at the Solway yards, Atasterton, at 12.30 on Tuesday, October 21.