ADDRESS-IN-REPLY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1794, 5 July 1913, Page 6

ADDRESS-IN-REPLY.

THE DEBATE CONTINUED. PICTON AS A NAVAL BASE. The debato on the Address-in-Reply was Resumed. , , , I The Hon. C. H. MILLS congratulated . the now; members of the Council on their Appointment, and also expressed his approval of. the candid common-sense igpeeohes of the mover and seconder of the imotion. Ho went on to discuss the Labour (question, deploring the tendency of Labour jleaders to bo indiscreet in their utterances, (ffhis quality had not characterised the ••speeches of either tho mover or.the eeconItlor, who had' discussed similar questions [affecting Labour from different points of (.view. The most foolish action of which hvorkers were ever guilty was that of strikting; meant a very serious waste of 'their own and the community's resources, land the recent strikes had brought- them ino benefits. i Tho Hon. J. H. Jenkinson: Who. do &ou blame for' all these strikes? Not ;the Government, I hope?

The Hon. C. H. Mills: No. I blame 'the men who are called agitators, men who come into this country with very little but a flood of talk, and they have misled many of' tho bettor men in our working class. Ho went on to say that he would bo very glad to welcome and support any steps the Government might rtako to reduce the cost of living. He supported strongly Captain Halsey's recommendation of Queen Charlotte Sound as the best harbour in New Zealand for ,a naval base. At least, ,tho opinion of Captain Halsey. as ho had expressed it, was such', as to justify the' Government in making some inquiries considering the special advantages of the Picton Harbour. Vessels inside would be safe from the longest range from outside, and. the harbour would bo very easily defended at either entrance. He noted with pleas'aro that tho revenue was keeping up. He had noticed also that some people had been blamed for rot doing things, but j'l fairness to everyone it ought to h9 said that the Government could not find funds when there was no monoy in liand, and most peoplo knew that when the Government took offico tho financial position of tho colony was not good. I DEFENCE ACT HARDSHIPS.

The Hon, J. ANSTEY said there was one item in tho revenue, the railway returns,' which were going down, and he .thought the Government could, with advantage-, give some attention to the causes ,«f it. He attributed much of the reduc[tion to the falling-off in the wheat traffic, owing to tho withdrawal of much jof the wheat land from cultivation owing to the high price of wool, mutton, land butter. Another reason for the dijininishoi area, under wheat was that it I,was difficult for farmers to get labour, Sand a third reason was the interference jjwith work at harvest time ; by the wan[ton incompetence of the military authorities. Ho was one of those who had always been, and was still, in favour of cur defence scheme, but our system was very fast developing into a system of mili;tar.v despotism, rather than, of defence training. Ho thought honourable niembora would agree with him that, there haS been no Act ever placed on the (Statute Book of New Zealand that had 'created so many offences, so many fines, (admonitions, and imprisonments in such ;a short timo as this Defence Act. Th« jAct was of a somewhat nnusnal character, the Legislature should be careful to see that tho duties imposed under it ;Wero not unreasonable, or too hard to jbear. He had not the slightest jfympatliy /"with the 'shirker, and almost as little .(with tho. conscientious objector. On the • other hand,, it should be remembered th<vt '■& largo number of our young people were ; called upon to render services that were [unreasonable or-absurd, services that I could easily bo'mitigated by the authorities without impairing the usefulness of I the Defenco Act. He pointed, out that for instance ono youth had had to' pay .£l4 10s. expanses in order to attend camp. Tho lloii. It, IX Bell: Ho was paid all 'the time. .

The Hon. J. Anstey: He was paid a paltry 3s. a day which, as you know, do much more tlum keep him in cigarettes. Of course, what ho is paid does not pay half his expenses. The Hon. J. B. Callau: He incurred •expenses that were not necessarv. >

i.Tho Hon. 11. D. Bell: What is your au. thority for all this?

The lion. J. Anstoy: It was a member of the Legislature who informed me of it. He cited other cases in which youths were fined who wero tho victims of circumstance rather than deliberate shirkers. Steps had been taken in Timaru to induce the authorities so to arra.ngo their parades as to disturb farm work at such seasons as harvest time as littlo as possible, A representative of the authorities, Colonel Heard, had promised to make arrangements which would have been accepted by all farmers gladly, but there tho matter had remained. No change had been made, and harvest work was beiog wantonly interrupted. LAND AND OTHER MATTERS. ; He was not opposed to reform of the Legislative Council, but he thought tho Government might, before submitting legislation on this question, take a lesion from recent event 9 in Australia. Tho Government's proposal, as he understood it, wag to elect tho n.embers of tho Chamber by proportional representation in big electorates, but th® elections In larg9 electorates b Australia had shown that the Independent candidate had no chanco in them. Tho only men who had ft chance were those who signed a ticket . drawn Tip by a secret caucus. It would be well for tho Government to proceed a little more slowly, and to bo quito sure that their proposed reform would not bring about a state of affairs worse than the oxisting one. Mr. Anstey went on to speak of land legislation. Ho waa glad to see that tho Government intended to give a more secure tenure for pastoral leases. 110 believed the Government had some idea of Imposing certain restrictions on tenants, in order to prevent the land deteriorating, but this would not bo necessary. If the Government would givo tho tenant a bettor tenure, it would be in his interest to ae.o that tho land wag kept in good rendition. He waa very glail that tho

I present Minister for Lands Was so enthusiastically interested in land settlement. The Minister had been in Canterbury recently, and he had never seen a Minister for Lands pay one-tenth of the attention to land settlement as the present Minister for Lamds, Mr. Massey. The Government had made three purchases in Canterbury recently, tho estates were all very suitable for the purpose for which they were intended, and he congratulated tho Ministry upon them. He disapproved very strongly of the system of prefesrence to unionists, which, enabled workers to form a ring. Workers were much like other peoplo; when they had a special _ privilege they beoame autocratic, and it was this that was at tho bottom of all our Labour difficulties. In Timarn the ring of wharf workers had been broken, and the Farmers' Union now had an organisation by which they could land on the Timaru wharves fifty or one hundred men within a few hours.