HON. J. ALLEN AT MILTON

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2308, 16 November 1914, Page 6

HON. J. ALLEN AT MILTON

THE COUNTRY'S FINANCES

NAVAL & MILITARY DEFENCB

(By Telegraph.—Prese Association.)

Dunedin, November 15. Ihe Hon. J. Allen addressed a meet* mg of electors at 1 Milton on Saturday night. There was a large attendance.

Mr. Allen said that the Government that had been m power for three years had met with, unusual difficulties'. It a , VO P' .? m . al l majority to carry on with, but it had carried on without losing a division or having one of its votes and Estimates reduced. It had had to face other difficulties—difficulties that came, and difficulties that had. v s *? 11 It 1 was lef t two strikes; it had had to endure the smallpox trouble and the war; it had the cost and responsibility of 'the war. With regard to the great maritime strike it had amounted to this: either the control of the country was to be left to properly constituted authorities or to the administration of the unorganised mob. The Government faced the difficulty with the result that the strike leaders of that time were out against the Government to punish it for what it did. Their method was to join hands with the So-cialist-Liberal Party; not because they believed hi the ■ leader, of that party any more than in Mr. Massey, but to put Mr. Massey out of office. It was not politics, but punishment. Mr. Allen had no objection to seeing a proper Labour-party in power by the vote of the people, but what had been the result of Labour Government in Aus-

traJia. True, it 'had constituted the JMeet, and that was a good thing. Mr. Allen pointed out that combination of Labour and Liberals in office would bs . dangerous because if Liberals were placed in power by the aid of 10 or a aozen Labour members and were sus-' tained in office by their support, they ten or a dozen' men would drive the.Lih-, eral Party in power just where thov wanted to-drive it, but the Liberal desire, for office was so keen that they would commit the country to almost anything to get there. The Government Pledges, went 011 to deal with the criticism ° 1 « } >rc ? ent Government'. He claimed that the promises made-had been: Kept, ana quoted as an instance the option of the freehold to settlers, and' the land legislation, and other matters' ' in connection with land settlement. The purchase of land by the Crown had been going on more actively, than in the previous history of the country. -The' ' money derived from the sale of land.u-ii been set aside for the, purchase cfx-V''* land. In one year 770 settlers •" « bought their land and- handed V-'' £100,000 as a result, and that mir • • had gone into the Land for Set;*.' ment Account and was being used ;j'' purchase more land. He next touched upon surpluses, and °, tad he allowed the ,~SU,OOO derived from land to go into the Consolidated Fund, as his predecessors had done, the surplus would have been nearly £520,000. That £80,000 had, however, been handed over to the land purchase for settlement account, and would be available for further lana purchases.

Mr. Allen also referred to the altered practice of setting aside money for theinsurance of public buildings and, the : erection of buildings burnt out of that fund, instead of out of borrowed money. I lie Government had had to face cx- £ "ordinary expenditure, such as "jjx'xSj) / or le smallpox • epidemic,. £90,000 for the. cost of.the strike, .-and-.-/ a shnnkage .f £170,000 in railway rev-, enue pwmg to, the strike and smallpox. Notwithstanding these difficulties, they had a-surplus of £426,000. When tlia Government, took office in July, 1912, the cash balance in the Consolidated lund was £47,000. On September 30 last the Consolidated Fund'had a cash balance of £399,000. He said unhesitatingly that tho Advances Department . was used for. electioneering purposes in ' 1911. The board cut down the maximum amount that could be borrowed by. local authorities and settlers, and stipulated that no settler could borrow to redeem a mortgage coming due, and never announced the fact until the elec- •

tions were over. A few weeks ago, owing to improvements in the' Post Office Savings Bank, , they had increased advarioes to settlers to £750, and he hoped to be able to increase them to £1000 at the end of • netft month. Workers! advances .were cut. down for a time to £350, but were raised again recently to £400, and he hoped to advance them shortly to £450. In the first month of the war the de--posits at the Post Office Savings Bank exceeded the withdrawals by £90,000. Then, owing to a panic in September, the withdrawals exceeded deposits by .£BO,OOO or £90,000. In October the deposits exceeded withdrawals by £150,000. This showed' the confidence

of the pooplo ; ,in the Post Office Savings' Bank and in the Government. The

slump in the bank'began before the Government came ; into office. In the first

; week of July, 1912, the withdrawals ex- • ceeded deposits _ <by £66,000, and that was the beginning of the slump, but the Government restored confidence, and now the bank was. a perfect institution ' for the people to put money in with 6afety. The Government had fulfilled its pledge' to restore the finances, and public works could be carried on till the end of the financial'year without going to London for a halfpenny. Concerning Loans.. • Sir. Joseph Ward did not think the Government should impose a war tax, at present, and neither did the speaker, The reason was that it was necessary for the industries of the country to go on unhampered, and :y war tax oil land or anything else might be used as a reason for dispensing with 'labour and'might lessen production. But the Government had made provision for tho war. It had been estimated that if the war lasted twelve months we would want two millions. When the estimate was made it was not providing so much help for the Mother Country, and the estimate might not now bo large enough.. The speaker had communicated with the High Commissioner, who. as a result, approached the Imperial authorities, with the result that New Zealand coula raiso her two millions month by month from the Bank of England, at a rate of interest- which had been publicly stated by the Loader of the Opposition as an excellent bargain. The Dominion's moiiey would cost the. same as the Im-' perial authorities would pay for their ,big loan. It was disastrous financo to borrow in London on short-dated debentures for two or four years and allow ' the money to get into the hands of the large • financial institutions which • lent tho money in order to make us borrow in London to pay thom off. In July, last, Mr. Allen said, ho had had to face Mr. Myers's loau of four and a. half •millions, and pay it off. Next month he had to pay off part of Sir J. G. Ward's loan of four yeaTs ago, a portion of which, over'three millions, remained ! unconverted, and, could only be met in one way, because the holders would not convert, renew, or sell the debentures, Mr. Allen said ho had tried to buy them, and had jbought a quarter of a mijiion, but could buy no more. But a few weeiks ago the Government's advances .to the Imperial Government regarding the loan had mot witli a favourable reception, and the Imperial authorities guaranteed to assist'in December next to raise sufficient money to pay off Sir, Joseph Ward's loan, and therefore the Government had re-established the State Advances Department, dealt with those- loans, • and provided for" the wax loan on most favourable' terms. «id had so fulfilled its promise to io-

establish finance: (It had been said that Mr. Massey _had pledged himself to reduce borrowing. TBe (Mr, Allen) had no reoolleotion of suih a promise. TVhat Mr. Jlasßoy had promised was oareful expenditure of borrowed monej. He proceeded to point out, that, comparing the last 27 months during the regime of. the Massey Government with the 27 months when their predecessors were in office, : while the Massey Gov* eniment had borrowed :£14,636,680, the ■Ward Government-had borrowed £16,'496,000. ' Coming to questions of taxation;' Mr. Allen said there had been an increase in the graduated land tax, but none in the Customs duties. On tho contrary, there had been a Bmall decrease last year;: He proceeded to quote figures as to Customs, land, and income taxes and- death, duties to show that'

!the ; increases under the Ward Admini.if t-ration had'; been nraoh greater m- -certain departments than during Mr. 'Massey's time. Reference.was made to the reform of, the Legislative Council. To deal with the legislation it had become neoessary to inorease J he" number of Councillors,- but before they made that increase thoy had done their best to diminish the term of office of membet's of the Counoil. • The Public. Service had been reformed, and at present it was open to any boy or girl to enter it without; the parents going down on their knees to get them there. , Military Matters. In introducing the' sUbjeot of military and naval defence, Mr. Allen said he could claim to he a true Liberal. He .ventured fo soy that h6 had ddtib more for national training than any .other man in the community, ahd he had' advocated it. -ffoin public platforms, Sir J. G. iWard had got his support in putting it oil the Statute Book, and he did h6t beliere Sir Joseph Ward oould have put it there without his support.- Sir Joseph iWird was, absolutely opposed to' national training five or six years' ago. He (Mr. Alleii) Wtfttld Some-day qUote. th&t gentlemen's speeches-.in Hansard to

" show, that he was_ opposed .to 'a system of national , training only a few years ago. He; .was- ;. forced to adopt it because he saw how the piiblid nlihd rt'as Veering Ufter Lord had. beeii here, and itM Defence Bill was- under coisiderktion" frith' its jiropoakl ■ tci increase tho age from 1 21. years to 25 years. Ho (Mr. Allen) know what happened and what would hav<s hijipeiied if "it-k'dd Mt been for ' the. influence brought to bear which kept the . then : Prime Minister's back, stiff wndh. his back was inclined to, he weak ov<Sr tho question. He had also reason to believe that if it had not been . for the outbreak of this war there . would have been included in the programme of the so-called Liberals a reduction in tho training age from 25 yea- -ip 21 years. He was sorry tho s/- system of training was not in ox 3e tor years before it was. They : have had men of more ina- . :ars to send away to do the Em- ?' jvork. Tho circumstances of to-. . -'-''justified -■' -■ the" j":'iiai>i6nkl'. .traiiidiig ;j scheme and the offer of an Expeditionary Force to the Old Couiltry, and he ' ' appeared before the people m full coni fiaence ;'to;.ask' them' to answer, at; the

polls those detractors of the Government who spoke, as they , did about the; .« military ■ ■ organisation' that was t proposed two years ago, he-, cause; of .the organisation of ~' our military, system' we had been, abje to do better: than, we' promised. Ho had ■ realisedthe necessity.foran increased amount of artillery, and had asked his ,to send more artillery than we had promised.' We had promised itwo _four : gun batteries, and we were Bendiiig two" Six-gUn batteries,; or. a : complete b'rigaSS of : artiUery. !: '" ThS' officer commanding it was an. Imperial officer who had been •in New Zealand . ior i nUinber of yoarS. - He htid trained Imperial troops, and ho knew their' 6onh'el,_. and he had'assured him that] this brigade of was thoroughly well equipped, ,ond "that - the personnel of it compared morel than' favourably with the- personnel of any brigade, of artillery hehad ever seeh. That brigade was going from New Zealand to do the Empire's work. 'Then, early in the war, the imperial 1 authorities comwith New Zealand, and asked it td caixy out its Imperial mission in. .the' Pacific. That mission was. the occupation and holding ~of Samoa for the mother Country. If our military organisation. had not been completed we could not; have equipped and sent away 1500 : men in less than \ono* week. . avd without that organisation ana without the: bate and. tSought put into the national .training system ; could we have ail additional force of 2000 men in

camp to-day—an even better class of men than the-men who had gone' away —men of more mature age; and . keen as men could be. The Defence Department, he contended, had justified its existence, and he, as the Minister, had-a right .to . say. to - the people -that the work done had been well done/' 1 and that New Zealand might well be proud of the men \?ho had gone away or who

wore going away. • . 1 > i : . Wiat he particularly , wanted to say S to the publio was how/grateful he felt, not only to the men who had volunteered to go, but to those who had remained to carry on the necessary work here, so that when the men came back they would find .that the products of tiio country had:.been kept up, arid its industries maintained. ', He also wanted to thank those parents ; who'had spared their .sons to go. ' '

Naval JJefenoe. He also wanted to refer to the question of naval defence. Ho regarded 5 aa-Imperial Navy as an absolute-neces-sity, and one control" as an absolute neoeseity. For the time being that control centred in the Admiralty. As vears went by it might be that the control would be altered, and that representatives from the various Domin- : ions would have a seat oxi. the controlling authority, arid would there consider questions, of peace and war arid me naval defenoe of the Empire, but that day had not" come yet, and he would not go into that aspect'of trio question. .The position as regards naval defence; at present was this: They were all agreed about an Imperial Navy and one control, but thoy were not agreed as'i£ how' to ' constitute this great liriperiaj Nav.v. Those who wero. opposed to him believed wo ought to pay a subsidy tt> the Mother Counter and allow her to do what she pleased with the money—build up her ; Ba.vy with it and save the British taxpayer what he would have given but for the provision made by the various Dominions. It was said against him {Mr Allen) that he was seeking to lead the country into .wild and reckless expenditure. _ He. denied it, and Baid' , that those who made that statement wete themselves prepared to tax every porson m the Dominion up to 10s. as a subsidy for naval defence. -That money would be handed over to ' the Imperial authorities to do what they' liked withy .and we would have no say in the expenditure of it. Hi s m r 'Allen's) proposal |o build up an Imperial Navy was to make an appeal to the patriotism of our people, ahd allow our ,own statesmen to take an interest in Imperial coricerns. We might, in the course of years, adopt the policy tho, Commonwealth Government had , adopted—not only train our own personnel, but provide ships, as we'were able to do: it, into which to put oiii: personnel, Then if the occasion arose everything would go over automatically to the Imperial authorities. Facts . of to-day justified'the Commonwealth Squadron. The Government's naval ■ policy, was sound. " " Asked whether he would support the baro majority on the licensing issuo, Mr. Allen said he had some tune ago, pledged himself to stand by the exists ing law on the licensing question, and ho'stood by the existing law. He now .asked to be relieved from that pledge . arid,-to have the right to use his judgment without any pledge. A hearty vote. of. thanks was accordi Mr. Allen for his able ad-.

dress/ and : the meeting Expressed its confidence in him to represent the electorate, and also its confidence in the present Government <5f which Mr. Allen 13 a distinguished and honoured member, .