A REPLY TO CRITICS

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2182, 22 June 1914, Page 6

A REPLY TO CRITICS

MR. FISHER IN THE NORTH SIR J. WARD CHALLENGED (Bj Tel«jraph.—Special Correspondent.) Auckland, Juno 20. The Hon. F. M. C. Fisher addressed a very largo audionce in tlio Kohukoim Public Hall to-night. Mr. A. Andrews, county ehairmau, was in the chair. The speech was brilliant, and tlio audicnco was with the Minister from tho first, tlio applause being frequent. Mr. Fisher traversed the northern speeches of the Leader of tlio Opposition. Ho said when the present pnrty came into power they found money was short, and they struck a bad year. Thoy had to contend with tho Waihi strike, the smallpox epidemic, and tho industrial crisis. Sir Joseph Ward, speaking in that hall, had said he was annoyed at tlio borrowing of tho Massoy Administration, but ho did not tell them it was to pay loans jloated by tlio-Mackenzie Government. When Sir Joseph Ward .said thfit the. presont Government had borrowed twelve millions in;two years, lie had omitted to stato that a great deal of it was to pay State dobts, and, secondly, that they had to pay for public buildings that wore started during the regime of his Government. Sir Joseph Ward hnd said it was .shocking to borrow twelve millions in two years, and Mr. Ilussoll said it was shocking because thoy had not borrowed enough, because they wero the friends of tho money-lenders, and they did not want to bring capital into the country to reduce interest.

1 Land Settlement. Mr. Mac Donald had said in his northern speeches that the Liberals had settled'all tho' available land 3. Well, he had seen country on his trip that day that he was perfectly ■ certain should have been opened up twenty-five years ago. Tho last Government had a taihoa policy, and they • had a great deal of land .in their district that was "by-and-by land,'' the result of that taihoa policy. They- heard down south that the Maori >tfas being robbed. • His-ex-perience of/ thD. Natives - and Native lands was thcit if any one got the best- of thri'liargain it was the Natives. ; A wliito man who could take a Native do\Vn was a pretty smart man. Sir Joseph, had stated that the present. Government were not in power by a idan3ato ~of. the people, as t-lioy had, at 108,000 votes. If they .had, of 108,000 votes,' did it not prove that Sir Joseph Ward's Second Ballot Bill was a fraud? Yet when tlioy. tried to wipe out the Bill that had proved a failure, the Opposition' had sot. up a stonewall. Another statement attributed to Sir Joseph Ward in th<T report of his speech that ho challenged was that when tho. Liberals took office tliero was no Government- Life an'd Accident Insurance and no old-age 'ptmsions. Why, the Gov-ernment-Lifo-Insurance came into operation under Vogel in the 'seventies, long before tho Liberal party were heard of, and tho Leader of the Opposition must know it. Sir Joseph Ward had stated, according-- to tho newspaper report, that the Libera? Government had provided for widows' pensions, and,' in addition, up to- 7s. 6a. a week for every child. It was not so and never was. He did not know if the Leader of the Opposition thought people believed these talcs. Sir Joseph Ward had also claimed that tho -Liberal Party had provided superannua--tioii for tho public school teachers and railway servants, but when the present Government had come into offico they had also covered that'. The wholo of the people were contributing to pen-sions-for a portion of tho people. They had to contribute £80,000 a year out of the public revenue to mako up the deficit in tho Superannuation Fund. Referring to tho Defence question, i Mr. Fisher said a statement had been made by tho Leader of the Opposition in that hall that the Government, without the permission of the people, had, repealed the Act whereby £100,000 a year was paid annually to tho Mother Country for protection, and had gone in for a local navy. That statement" contained two inaccuracies; tho present Government had repealed tho Act with the sanction of Parliament, a sanction that had not been obtained in the giving of the Dreadnought.

The Right to Strike. Dealing with tho question of the strike, . Mr. Fisher said there was a lino of demarcation between the Government and tho Opposition. Tho Government said if a man choso to cxerciso the right to.strike ho should havo it, also if a, maii liked to exercise his right not to work he might do so without being interfered with. But, they said, and here was tho line of demarcation, if a man said ho was going to' work no: man had a right to say he' should not.

•After detailing the Bills the Government had put on the' Statute Book, Mr. Fisher referred.to a passage in Sir Joseph Ward's Kohukohu spccch, in whica tho Liberal leader said: "Ono Minister had gained his seat by the aid of ono of tho most prominent strike leaders, one who had suffered gaol for tho part he had taken. He had had him upon his platform, 1 and had referred to liini as his friend." "This," Guid the Minister, has rcFeronce to me. He says 1 had him oil my platform, and that I called him my friend. I refuse to believe that statement was made by Sir Joseph Ward." It was so outrageously contrary to fact. e wouldl give Sir Joseph Ward an early, opportunity to say whether he mado that statement or not. As the Minister sat down there was prolonged appl-auso, and a vote of thanks to Mr. Fisher for his vory able speech, and of confidence in the Gov. crnment, was passed by acclamation.