WELLINGTON SUBURBS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1265, 21 October 1911, Page 6

WELLINGTON SUBURBS.

SPEECH BY MR. W. H, D. BELL, ! A SUCCESSFUL MEETING. 1 Atr. W. H. D. Bell, the Opposition can- ' didate for the Wellington Suburbs seat, opened his campaign at Karori last night, i Hig address was delivered in the I'an>h j Hall. Thcro was a crowded and en- ' thusiastio audience. Mr. C. I. Dasrat presided. : ' Mr. Dasent said that owing to tlio ab- • sence of tlio Mayor ho had been asked to tako the chair, and. presiding at the meet- ■ ing was a duty ho regarded with pleasure. !. No doubt many of the electors present would remember that during the 'nineties i' this distriot, as far us Karori was coni cerncd, roturned at the head of tlio poll Mr. 11. D. Bell. (Applause.) The candidate was a son of Mr. H. 1). Bell. (Further applause.) Mr. Bell was a man of , excellent reputation. It might bo said ho was young, but Mr. Dasent looked upon youth as a distinct recommendation. I'outh had no wretched political past which could be brought up and cast in front of a man every time he made a rash statement. (Laughter.) lie did not know what Mr. Bell's views were, but one of his strongest recommendations was that he was standing as an opponent ot the present Government. (Applause.) I Mr. Bell was received with applauso. Ho stated that he need not say how delighted he was to see so largo an attendf ance at this his first meeting. Tlio at- ' tendanco showed what a keen interest was being taken in this district in public ; affairs, and particularly in the coming V election. He was especially pleased to eee so many ladies present. He hoped i that ho would get the assistance at the j '■ polls of many of the ladies who had come to hear hiin. Ho had been told that his difficulty throughout the electorate would J- bo that he was not sufficiently well known. • . "Well, he was going to bo sufficiently well known before polling day. It was, ho thought, necessary that $uch should be • ■ tho case, and ho remarked that one could 1 gather much from one's political oppon- ' ents in the electorate, so ho hoped to know them as well as his political ! friends. .He did not want to waste time introducing himself, because it was not on personal grounds that people would support a candidate; it was. on other grounds. However, he would say a little of. himself. Ho was born a New Zeaj. lander, and had lived here all Ms life, except for GJ years, during which time ' he was 'fortunato enough to be at a university in England; .He had been back in Now' Zealand 31 year-?--not one year as had been stated in The Dominion when his candidature was announced. His business, was here, and he,took a keen ''interest in'what was going. on in public' life. As to his reason for offering himself as a candidate, firstly, he thought it was the duty of : young men who could make their business fit in with political'life to do so. It was only out of young men the people would get the youthful vigour they should have. The second reason was' his objection to the present Government. (Ap- ; plause.) Government Policy—Professed and Actual. , . j3e_ was announced as an Opposition candidate. He was in opposition not so nuch to the policy the Government professed as to the policy it carried out. (Applause.) He was opposed less to the laws they passed than the way they carried them out after they had been mado laws. The Government had been in . power for 20 years, and it would be impossible for any party to be in power that long and not pass some useful legislation. He complained more of the administration-than the legislation. The Government had tho function of legislating and carrying legislation into effect —of running tho country as a business concern, and this was the side of tho country's affairs which had not been properly carried out. He proposed to point out ;'the Ministry's faults, how t<f ' remedy the faults, .and state' the policy , he would pursue, .-is bo tho faults, the * present Administration ran this country by tangling and waste. There was the people s biggest business concern, tho •II Grvlce - tho people satisfied with the way the Service was. run at ' wou ' < i remember that at the .time of the retrenchment scheme ! Six Joseph Ward stated that by that retrenchment the Government could save the country £250,000 a year without impairing the efficiency of the Service. If , .. ever there was a confession of weakness it was that statement. Could there have been a more convincing confession that, lor years the Service had been costttg the country >6250,000 a year too much ? J.ne retrenchment was carried out, and a large number of men with whomhad no fault were turned out '«eir Departments to find their living , as best they might, when they had spent their live? in Departmental work and so were unfitted for other work. The aotual Having to the country was This amount he arrived at by excluding the Eailways, the Post and Telegraph Department, the Education Department, °nd.the. Defence Department, and ho ex- . eluded these Departments because (ley were branches in which there could be no stinting, Departments which had been expanding rapidly. On March, 31, 1809, tho Civil Service, excluding these Departments, cost d£l, 108,000, and on March 31 of tho following year tho Civil Servico cost £1,280,000-a saving of ,£28,000. And ' Sir Joseph Ward promised a saving of a ■ ■ °f a million annually, but after ; inflicting hardship on a largo number of ' succee ded ' n saving ! . Who Were Dismissed? No return had ever been given of the i . persons that were summarily dismissed; the return was refused and had never been given. Ono could only suppose that ■ the persons retrenched were those not • Prepared to grovel to Ministerial control. (Applause.) This retrenchment proposal came just after a Budget in which the • prf-clectkm promi&o was made '■ • i j ' norca ? es °f salaries would be provided for in tho Supplementary Estimates. After the election came the retrenchment. Four years ago the Civil Service., Classification Act was passed. Sir Joseph spoke of it as a most necessary pieco of legislation, which had ' been wanting for years. But thcro was ■ not even now a classification of Civil ' t flervants. There had been a paper laid on tho table of the House purporting to bo a classification ' of Civil servants, but it contained no names, and it conveyed nothing to tho Civil Servants themselves or to anyone else who might be interested. The Primo Minister had .promised that a classified list of names would be circulated if possible during the session, ' and if not posthen during tho recess. It was oertain that it would not be available until after the general election. Railway Mismanagement. He dealt at some, length with the mis- -. management of the railways under Minis- : terial control. The North Island lints : ware more profitable than those in tlio . South Island, but tho South Island lines . ha/1 the best services. Under 'an Administration composed mainly of South Island members, tho South Island had always been most favoured. This big railways undertaking was not run ,is it would be if it wore in charge of business people. Ono point in which mismanagement was apparent, and ono which affected the Suburbs electorate seriously, was • the failure of the Government to allow suburban rates .on,,the Manawatni line, the only lino-running into any of tho big j sentres in which the cheaper rates were not 'allowed. The electors had rcpea.tedly > been told that the reason why thoy did not get better services,' and Hio reason ! why 'tho lines did nof show more profit, was ■ .the Government's parental regard for tho men whom it employed. If this were really so, ,one would expect to find ' the railway employees the most satisfied of men, but in point of fact there was no more discontented body of omoloyce.s in all the Dominion than railwaymen. ! They were seething with discontent from the north to tho south, and the reason was. that they were not treated fairly. Tlio'second division of . the Sen-ice—the main' working division—petitioned Parliament.- this session for an inquiry into their conditions of work as to hours, and rates of pay. The Petitions Com- c ruittee had reported to tho Houso that j it could not bo dealt with 'this year, i There was 'talk of a railway strike in i consequence of that report, and the : I Minister for Railways had stated that I tho petition would be taken and concluded (

before tho end of tho session. In spito of tho fact that tho petition was ono requiring considerable investigation, the Committee had not yet commenced upon it, and now, if it was to ba dealt with at all this session; it must bo rushed in a way that would be unfair to tho'men. Had tho Stato inquired carefully into the grievances of theso men, as any honest, straightforward employers would havo dono? The Right of Appeal. Thero was a provision in the Government Railways Act to tho effect thai all men with grievances had a right of appeal—a very proper provision, and one that was looked'for in all Civil Services. But tho other day a caso had come under his notice in which a man had been unjustly refused his right of appeal. Tho railway authorities referred "him to a regulation which stated that every employee on the railways should bo a probationer for tho first three years of his service. They stated that ho was therefore a probationer, not having been three years in, the service,. and that ho had no right of appeal. The Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants took a caso into tho Court with tho object of compelling the Department to have this appeal heard. Only then did tho Depart-

mcnt, under advioe, no doubt, that the regulation could not stand, back down, and the man was given his appeal. No new regulations had, however, been gazetted. The Department know now that their regulations wore invalid, but how many of the men knew? One wondered how many employees had been fooled out of their right of appeal by this invalid regulation. He condemned also the Government policy of employing detectives in the railway service. Labour Disillusioned. This was the Government which had come into power on the back of Labour, but now the same Government had turned Labour down. They would have nothing to do with it, perhaps because there were baronetcies and knighthoods waiting for those l'n office. (Laughter and applause.) Now, Labour realised that it had played Little Red Biding Hood to the Government wolf too long, and was taking for the th-st time its proper stand towards its own betrayers. The whole Public Service was not being run as efficiently as it should be run, and tho cost was being rapidly increased. Tho ccst "of'TUuning the country had increased from 0£1,252,000 in 1308, when the Ward Government took office, to .£5,085,000 in 1910. Increasing Debt. The increasing public debt was a topic frequently put before electors, bat it could not be put too often. When Air. Seddon came into power in 189-1 the debt was 3S millions odd, or .£57 Ss. lOd. per head of population. When Sir Joseph Ward took ofiico thirteen years later tho public debt had increased to G1 millions, equivalent to ,£G7 Is. lOd. per head of population, an increase per head of J!10 in thirteen years. But, from 1007 to .1911,.. the public debt had increased to 77 millions, or ,£77 10s. per head. So that, in spite of the increased population, the Wara Government had increased tho public debt J!10 per head in four years. He (tho speaker) could not suggest that there should not be borrowing, and he recognised that the existence of a heavy debt was not proof that a country was being badly run. But one would expect to see as the result of such heavy expenditure an enormous advancement in land settlement, and in roads and railway construction. Could New Zealand claim anything of the sort with its thousands and thousands of Native lands remaining unopened? Thousands of pounds of tho borrowed money had been as utterly wasted as if it had been thrown into the sea. The Hutt lioad was onlyone - flagrant exa.mple of Government waste. With all this borrowing going on the people were not allowod to havo any details of what the loans cost. Someone 'had to be paid for getting tho loans through, and surely the people had a right to ' know. Sir: Joseph Ward told them that they could not bo told, saying by way of excuse that no financier would ever tell the people he was financing what the cost of financing was. This was not, of couree, a parallel case. The country was like a great big company of which the Government were tho directors. Now was the timo for tho annual meeting, and it was the duty of theshare-holdm-s, having found that the concern had not been run on business lines, hav'•ing found that not one of the company's employees was satisfied with his lot, to turn the directors out. The Octopus, This bungling and wasto and ex.travaganco was in itself a sufficient ground for turning the Government out !of office. But there was still another and 'a inoro important reason—the necessity for cleaner politics in New Zealand. Up till three years and a half ago, when he roturned from England, the only politics about which ho knew anything wero English politics, and ho was aghast at what went on here when he compared it with his experience in England. Ho found that the Government was like a great octopos stretching its tentacles into every corner and - cranny, and gripping men and holding them down so that they might not -say u word in protest. Daro any public servant openly support an Opposition candidate? :Very few would daro say a word against tho Government, knowing as they did that if they ventured to do anything of the kind, they would assuredly bo passed over when increases of pay and promotions were to bo distributed. And this political influence, this .Tammany went beyond the Public Service. It went down into the private lives of 50 per ccnt. of tho electors of New Zealand. A man who kept a timber yard, for instance, knew that if ho said a word against tho Government, he stood a very poor chance of getting any Government timber contracts that bo going. Every day they wero reaching out further and further, getting hold of individuals. Everybody wa.s marked down, and tho Government would havo it in for all thoir opponents sooner or later. They had a fiugor in every pie. They had left tho Defenco Department alone, simply beeauso it was essential for the now scheme to be carried through that tho man in charge should be a good man. and thoy knew that no good man .would brook Ministerial interference. But once the scheme was fairly under way, and General Godlcy had returned to England, there would be a scramble for office. The state of the old Defence Department was sufficient indication of what might occur again.

Cleanness tho First Essential. The, first thing tho peoplo had to do was to clean up the uncleanness which they must know existed. Tliis was the one fact which overshadowed all others on the political, horizon. (Applause.) It did not matter so much 'Whether tho Government declared in the next three years for tho freehold or for the leaesliold, or for the dog-tax, or for tho handing over of asylums to the control of the lunatics

) themselves. These were important mat- - ters, but ho did not care if they were not > touched for tihroo years, provided sonic L timo was spent in Tooting out what was ' the most wicked element in tho i public life of New Zealand to-day. Fte • suggested that tho first remedy was to i turn the present Government out. (Api plauso.) They had seen this Government > for twenty years; had they any hope of improvement from that Government which had been given an unprecedented chance of making their administration a success? They stayed in power by means of their unclean administration, and if we did not get them out in tho course of the* next few years, they wero there to stay for good. For they would soon have everybody bought. First lie would turn the Government out, and then ho would look to tho public services, and have them all put under an independent Board «f Control. Tho Civil Servants wanted it, the public wanted it, and the only people who did not want it were the people who were staying in power by wielding an improper influence over the Civil Services. The railways could be run successfully only by men who thoroughly understood railway business. And if there was ono man in New Zealand who did not understand railway business it was the present minister for Railways. (Applause.) He (the speaker) thought the railway services should bo separated from the rest of the Civil Services, and put in the hands of Railway Commissioners. To protect theso Commissioners and the members of tho Civil Service Boards from political influence, ho would have them as firmly established in their positions as Supreme Court Judges, who could not be Temovcd unless by an address to both Houses of Parliament. This would make them safe from meddling unless they really abused their authority. Tho result to the public would bo that the services would bo vastly moro efficient. The men would work better, as men, always would in a business that was well managed, and they would also work better knowing that promotion depended on efficiency and not on kow-towing to a Ministerial Mikado. He thought also that the Government should give up trying to interfere in municipal concerns. Government had not tho time, had not the local knowledge, to do so with advantage. Did ever anyone hear of anything so farcical a? a Minister of the Crown deciding how high a step there should bo into a tramcar? Whoever saw anything so ridiculous as Parliament deciding whether Wellington cars should have a passage from end to end? The Liquor Question. As to his policy, firstly, he was a freeholder. (Applause.) On the liquor question he thought ho ought to say something: it was a, question of some considerable concern in tho locality. He thought that every district should have the power to decide for itself whether or not it would havo hotels. He did not think that that could be disputed. On the face of it, every district ought to decide the issue on a bare majority, but with a baro majority vote thero was a danger of see-sawing. There was a tremendous amount of capital involved, and instability needed guarding against. The majority should be the smallest majority which was consistent with a fiir amount of stability in the district. Ho had lately gone very carefully into this question, and he felt that if he had to appear in Court.to defend the full three-fifths majority, he would not feel confident of his case. But he felt that if he defended on a 55 per cent, majority, he would be confident of his case. He thought 55 per cent, was the least majority consistent with a fair amount of stability. (App:ause.) He thought all education should be secular, and the schools kept entirely free of Bible reading (Loud applause.) The place for a good deal of the religious instruction was at the mother's knee. He was against a State note issue. If it was oply the intention of the State to issue tho same number of notes as tho banks were doing, there would be no harm; but once give to any Government tho power to issue notes, apd they would {five that Government a. temptation the Government would be unable to resist in times of stress, and the country would arrive at the stage of completo bankruptcy that Franco arrived at through over-issue of notes. (Applau-r.) Dealing with labour matters, Mr Bell said that the Arbitration Act had enmo to what some people had long ago predicted would happen it. But when those people mado their prediction they were regarded as enemies of Labour—they wero the real friends of Labour. Tho Act wcis dead, and it was impossible to revive it. Any system whioh endeavoured to bring the-best man back to the worst .-was wrong. The best system .would bo one wTiicu would endc-avour to make the interests of the men' and tho interest* of the employers identical. He thought a system which would gi\e tho men somo share of the profits was the only, solution. He did not think anything the Government was now proposin" or was prepared to give would satisfactorily solve the difficulties between capital and labour. Taxation. As to taxation, he suggested that a Royal Commission should sit as soon as possiblo to inquiro into tho whole of our Customs duties. He would support a proposal to have the Customs duties on the principle that wo should tax luxuries and protect only those of our industries which could be made profitable. Ho did not know if ttie iron trade could bo mado to pay a reasonable' profit—he supposed Mr. Luke had said something on the iron trade—but a Royal Commission was the only way to decide that. He was not a sufficient expert in tho matter, and ho H*as satisfied the Government was not. (Laughter.) All theso points he had put to his audience because he thought they wero matters upon which they ought to know his views. The Government had been in power too long. They had got into power with fair professions "to Labour, v and had. kept themselves there by hoodwinking Labour. (Applause.) The remedv was to put the Government out. If that was done New Zealand would bo 'i cleaner country than it had been in tho last years, which was the time bo bad known it best. • The -andidate proposed to conclude. He was a young New Zealandor, an entire supporter of the Opposition party, and he was out because there was no candidate for the constituency who supported tho cleansing of political life. A long time'back his father was Mayor of Wel° lington, and carried out, in "the face of strong opposition, a drainage scheme which was out of tho city's greatest ; m _ provements. (Hear, hear.) "I will ask you," said Mr. Bell, "to let mo assist you in carrying out ono of tho greatest improvements in political life—tlie sanitation of Parliament." (Loud and long upplauso.) Questions. There was a good number of questions, and all wero answered readily by Mr. Bell. The audience applauded his replies. ' A question: "What havo you to say to the fact that the revenue for the past half-year shows a considerable incrcaso on tho rovenuo for the corresponding year?" Mr. Bell replied that the Government had a lot to say to the effect that tho poor man was not taxed, but a reference to documents would show that the biggest increases in tho roveuue were from Customs duties and stamp duties. The poor mail' paid moro through the Customs than [ the rich man. So, in reply to his questioner he could only say that the poor man , had paid more in the six-months' period of this year than in the like period of last year. (Laughter and applause.) "Are you in favour of trams from Kelburno to Ivarori?" was a query which provoked a good deal of merriment. "That question," replied Mr. Bell, "is not one which a political candidate has to , answer. I have shown you that tho political finger is stuck too much already into the municipal jiie." "If elected will you vote for tho Day- , light Saving Bill? Tho answer was in tho affirmative. "Has tho Public Service Board in Victoria been a success?" Tho candidate re- i plied: "I havo authority on that point to say that one of tho highest officers in the Victorian Civil Service, when asked if lie wanted to go back under Ministerial control, replied: 'Every single Civil Servant 1 would leavo tho service to-morrow if I there was a suggestion that we should go ] back under Ministerial control.'" Someone asked if Mr. 8011, as a freeholder, would alienate all Crown lands. In the courso of his reply tho candidate ' Raid that for sonic odd reason man was ■' so constituted that if ho could say of tho ( land, "this is my land," he would work about ten times harder than if he was .1 only a tenant. (Loud applause.) Jit. I Bell favoured small holdings and was against tho aggregation of largo estates. < "Would you give tho l.i.p. tenants tho i land at the original value?" Captain 1 Henderson asked. The candidate said 1 that the leases had 999 years to run. Tho i value of the land for 99D years belonged t

- to the tenant, and all that the Governt moil owned was the reversion, and all 3 the Government had to sell was the value 5 of tlio reversion. That worked out at J just about the original value of the land. : l'lio purport of his reply was that ho j would grant the freehold to l.i.p. ten- • ants at the original value. t Iteplying to a question regarding the [ compulsory phaso of tlio Defence Act, t -Mr. liell said that ho would not repeal 1 tlio compulsory clause, but would proi vide for people who conscientiously ob--5 jected to bear arms. People whose relif gion did not allow them 'to bear arms i should bo exempted, but it was hard to , separate those who sincerely objected and , those who were not sincere in their proi Jests. The only thing was to give the | "conscientious objectors" another job, . "and make it just a little bit harder." [ (Great applause and laughter.) I "We have been told by Government . supporters," said one of the audience, , ' that the moment the Opposition get . into power one of tlio first things they , will do is to cancel all the beneficial , Acts passed. Will j-ou give us your views , on that?" The only thing they would , do, replied Air. Bell, would be to cut out . from those beneficial Acts the portions . giving certain powers to the Governor-in- , Council. "Are you in favour of tho duty being , removed from primary products; that is to say, butter, etc?" Mr. Bell replied that lie could not speak offhand as to all primary products, but he would favour removing tho duty off butter. Thanks and Confidence. Mr. TV. F. Newcombo moved to thank Mr. Bell for his address, and to express the meeting's confidence in him as a fit and proper person to represent tho district in Parliament. Tho motion was received with appaluse. Mr. Tustin seconded, and said that he had much pleasure in doing bo, becauso when a young New 'Zcalander and a Wellington boy went before them as a candidate. they should give him every opportunity to represent them. (Loud applause.) Ho made a complimentary reference to two of the candidate's ancestors, Sir Francis Dillon Bell (his grandfather), and Mr. H. D. Bell (his father). He hoped tho motion would be carried, and that it would mean that the meeting felt it was obliged to give Air. Bell all the support it could to see that ho was tho next member for the Suburbs of Wellington. (Much applause.) Tho chairman asked that those who favoured the motion -would hold up tlieir right hand, and that those who opposed it should signify their opposition in a similar manner. Almost everyone in tlio hall voted for the motion ,and only ono hand went up in opposition to it. Mr. Dasent declared, amidst great applause and cheering, that tho motion was carried. Mr. Boll: "I have fo thank you very heartily. I tako the vote of thanks anil confidence, as an indication that in this electorate one nail has been driven into tho Government coffin." (More appa.lusc.)