A LIVELY ADDRESS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1526, 23 August 1912, Page 6

A LIVELY ADDRESS.

DR. NEWMAN ON ABUSES AND IDEALS. A PLEA FOR THE "SUBURBANS." Dr. A. K. NEWMAN (Wellington East) E remarked tlmt all the speeches had been J on the policy of the Government ratliei 6 than on the finances of the country. Yet t. the finances of the countTv were the conn- r try's life blood. Budgets'of the past had - been, remarkable for their untruthfnhiess a remarkable for the most false, lurid col- i ours in wliicli the finances of the country t were [minted. The Budget under discus- t Nion wns free from such drivel as "fairest a diadem of the British Crown" and "Clod's l own country," and stuff like I hat. The c Budget was a very long one, but its length C was only surpassrd by its t Mr A. M. .Myers: It is the Budget of o tno Mackenzie Guvernmpnt. ]] 1, Dl ';.>'" vma . n: So fni' "5 t can make mil n the Mackenzie Government'* Budget was all foible. The member* of ii. he said. Jiad spent all their timo going round tis. 1

country opening post officcs and bazaars, and such like. Jlo believed that 011 c Minister had gone 100 miles from Wellington to open n post oflico which had been opened for some six months already. And tho Leader of that Government hiul said that he would not divulge his policy because it would be torn up by the stupid Opposition. Tho Hon. E. M'Kenzie: Yon liave got the Leader, policy, and all now. Dr. Newman: Oh, yes, we're oil vclv.it. Ho maintained that the slander ill public life was attribulablo to tlio pre.sent Opposition party. Many people had been panic-stricken when the last Ministry were turned out of office—old age pensioners, and messengers, and the like. The Opposition professed to be very anxious

In go to the country, but God help them if Mr. Massey announced a dissolution that night. He approved of tho setting up of tho I'ublic Accounts Committee, and ol' giving it some real power?. On a provious occasion, when lie had been a member of the Accounls Committee, and he had nisked for an opportunity to ratlly inspect the accounts, the then Minister | had said: "1 am not going to havo my accounts looked into." ' But they were not tho Minister's accounts. As a matter of fact, ho thought every member of the House ought to be allowed to look into every account in every Department in tho Public Service. He thought the Government should set about to cut out extravagances, otherwise the cost of Jiving must go on rising. In raising loans, too; tho Government lost a deal of money. No country, except, perhaps, Nicaragua or Honduras, or some of those unhappy .Republics, was financed so badly as New Zealand. He did not believe in sinking funds' for the purpose of paying off loans—that was all rubbish. Instead'of having sinking 'funds, the Government ought to buy back their own debentures, and pay off their debts. It was bad policy to pile up money .for soma bad successor "to blow." There was bad management of all public services—ill making ior higher cost of living. The Government should look round for more sources of revenue. Once upon a time a ,iV» England had raised monev by selling baronetcies. (Laughter.) *And when he thought of the array of baronets, knights, and honourables, and the like, lie thought what a good source of revenue they might be. They would go oft' like hot calses. (Laughter.) He detailed extravagances of the Government—on the Local Government Bill, on Royal Commissions, and 011 the High Commissioner's office in - London. ; He had found in tho Estimates that ,£SOO a year had been paid to Mr. R. J ['Nab, of Palmerston North, tor historical researches—as to whether a whaleship came here 100 years ago or not. He did not see- why .£SOO should be paid to a man like Mr. M'Nab for historical researches. Neither did he see why ,£SOO should have been paid to Sir John'Findlay iu connection with tho Webster claim. He would deal with this matter when it came up. The amount of money spent in this -country upon travelling 'allowances and expenses was altogether absurd. Some people in this country seemed to live riding about in motor-cars at tho expense of the unhappy taxpayer. Somo very extravagant items had figured on tho Public Works Estimates. At Dunedin a palatial railway station had been erected which, with a bridge and other tiling?, had cost ,£120,000. Sufficient accommodation might have been provided for ,£50,030 or eCGO.OOO. Ho would pass over the Hutt Road works, made at a cost of .£337,000. All the benefit seemed to bo that tho trains run two minutes faster than they did before. Tho West Coast had had. showers and showers of gold poured upon it. It was absolutely shocking the way the money was showered about there. While tho member for Taumarunui and tho member for Stratford were calling • ut for roads, a sum of 4110,000 had been provided (and nearly all of it spent) for roads on the West Coast , where tho population had increased very little. Tho money spent upon sludge channels and other things in every direction was colossal in amount. "H'g have got to realise in this country," said Dr. Newman, "that wo are not a great country and that we have not boundless resources; that we have not grown as fast as Government extravagance has grown. Until. they realise this the people of this country aro going to have u very unhappy and miserablo time." Ho went on to say that he was sorry the Minister for Customs had not found time to tacklo the tariff this year. [Enthusiastic Opposition hear! hear?!) "When I say tho lea9t word against Ihese people, how hungrily they take, it up," commented Dr. Newman. "I will be a candid friend to this Government, but I am not following the member for Avon whatever happens! I am not goyig to follow that crowd whatever happens!" He went, on to sav that he represented a class of people who were called !n England "suburbans." In all the argo towns the outskirts were occupied >y a large nondescript class of people nany of whom did not belong to the labouring class and who were not "gilded 'armers." While Labour was feared ami •espected, suburbanites—bank clerks, w'id>ws, and others—found in the high cost >f living a trouble as grievous as the lardships endured by dwellers in tlio jack-blocks. He felt it in his bones that :ho national distribution of wealth was lttcrly unfair. Ho -was not ele'ctioneerng. but he realised that tho "suburbans" lad claims. It was not fair that racelorses should be carried one way on the ■ailways free and that "suburbans" were lot carried free at al. The fact was that vhile the farmers and the labour people sere organised his suburban friends were [round under the heel of the House. Even n the election of members of Parliament üburbanites were unfairly discriminated igainst. Tho number of them required :o elect a member as compared with armers was as 128 to 100. There was alk about tho birth-rate and failure to ill the cradles. The explanation was to >e found in the unfair arrangement that lenalised men with families. A man was - axed when he married and every time j io had a family—(loud laughter). Dr. Newman continued that he did fool that j ho prevailing system of taxation was. ! iltogethor wrong. There must be some- ' liing wrong with a system of taxation • i-hen a married couple of small means i lad to dread, as they did, the coming ' if a child. Many of them could not , :fford tho luxury of another child. , 'arlianient ought to make marriago . . loss expensive, arrangement and ought ] o tax a man who had a family le«s nsload of more than his felfews. He bought that the Prime Minister would pally try to settle the industrial ciursion. He (Dr. Newman) had learned as student of medicine that prevention v.as i letter than cure, and that (he only way o effect a real euro was to remove the < oot cause of the trouble. The country j lad a. Department of Public Health for . he prevention of disease, and a Depart- ' nent should be set up to deal on similar irinciples with industrial troubles. It i ■•as a shocking thing that in a country ike this there should be so much misery, le hoped the Government would reduce ' raste, and would look to the Customs | arifl with a view to reducing the cost f living to the peonle; The Government i ad surplus after surplus, nnd yet every i conomist of note had said that ■ enuy should bo taken from the peonle t f it could be avoided. He believed lliat t lis country was in the grin of monopolies < rom end to end, and he hoped tlio Gov- t rument would do something to limit their 1 perations and lighten the lot of the i cople. He believed that this ninv Gov- * rnment would make an honest attempt to \ lake the lot of the 'people lighter, n,,l , e hoped that when they wont to lh P nuntry they would 1m returned again liv : happy and con toured people. ' ,