CANDIDATES'ADDRESSES

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2310, 18 November 1914, Page 7

CANDIDATES'ADDRESSES

THE HUTT SEAT SPEECH BY MR. T. M, WILFORD Mr. T. M.' Wilford, who is seeking re-election for the" Hutt seat: in .the Opposition interests, opened his campaign last night, when he spoke in the Lyceum Theatre, ( Petone. Mr. J. W. M'Ewan, the Mayor of, Petouo, presided, and" there, was an attendance of about 1200; .■:" ' ,'\. . '_;■. '~ .Mr. Wilford met with a cordial reception- when he rose to speak. He was first presented with' a buttonhole, and; Mrß., Wilford with a basket; : of flowers, by two little girls. He said he was; gratified at the" huge . attendance, and he hoped to throw some light on aubjeots which oould; oily be superficially'known to, those who did not have the opportunity >. of hearing them frqm the inside of Parliament. He was sorry that it had been'decided to hold the'-elections at such a time in .the, Empire's history. At the outset he desired to say that he came to put reasons forward why they.should s vote for the Opposition, and not for! the Massey Government, whioh he looked upon as a reactionary and Tory Government. Ho that when tho war broke out the Government had not taken the Op-, position into their counsel, as-had been done in every other, country .affected 'by the war. He desired to show that the people of New-Zealand had not had a square deal by the Government. The .Government had .gone rounds the coun'try, decrying the Liberal Government's measures, purely for party purposes.. He proposed to follow.Mf, Allen's sug-, gestion, made in the House, and! attack the. Ministry,. and not the Government Departments. They had had/one test of. strength this; year on the No-Con-fideno? amendment moved by/Sir Joseph Ward, and the • Government had only a majority of;fiv6 ; votes. Those/votes represented the largest landholders, and consequently, the Government, was swayed by those landholders. He hoped the elections .would show that the cpuntry was not going to return a party which was. one-eyed. Torday, he jield, they had more;farmers supporting tlie Liberals Party than the Reform Party had. The actions of the present Government had been to help ffte bjg.jpqni.ot the. cost of; the little farmer. • In the dying hours of Parliament they passed the Local Railways Bill,' supposed to be a_ sop to.. the. _;srriiill ■ farmers: intoe Opunake-Tar'ahiki district. The, average cost of buildine Tailwavs in New ; Zealand wag £10,000 .per mile, fit' . to- carry -the Government trains. That was '.what,the small farmer got: the' right to birild railways for' themselves, and .rate tliemselve's for the cost, while when Sir Walter• Buchanan wanted a railway, the Government built it. He referred •• to the Featherston-Martinbor-ough 'railway, and: also a railway, through'Mr.-Massey'e district.'

~-• More A&outFinances, y; , Keferring to finances he • said the Government had attempted to gain a, 'party advantage. Mr. Allen had in'tro- " duced a clause in the Finance Bill of 1913 Which aUowedhinv to transfer sums : of money from one Lending Department. to another, without having to account : for it .to Parliament,. He went on to deal with, quoted by the Mas- ■• who said that in June,' 1912, the commitments for/local authorities amounted to £711,820, while there was only £96,783 'to meet that. The : Massey Government said that left them in a.position of financial embarrassment, but the Massey Government did not. tell'' the people.that for the advances ■■•■to.-' ■workers the commitments Were £559,88} and,there was $655;166 in hand, and ■ that the:-advances.toisettlers';-''commit-'. '."menta were £73,142; and the "amount-in hand -was £644,739, That left £51,845 more; in.i;he Treasury than was'' committed ; : and the advances to, local 'authorities commitments were spread over Jour years; and' £54,000 had not -yet been applied for. The Government had the.power-to transfer from one' Depar- : , mentito another, and had they acted honestly they would have'explained to the country that there waß £51,845 : more 'in the Treasury than there were commitments for those , Departments. . (Applause.) Mr. Wilford referred briefly to' the Boyd ■ Garhok appointment, and criticised the Minister of Finance : in connection with .it. ■' That was the man, he said, who was going round the country juggling with the finances. He would have one of the hardest runs to hold his seat at this election. ':";•'.' Legislation and Returns. They were told that the Government was a Government for the people.' Yet what i became of 'the' Commercial 'Trusts Aot, introduced by Sir Joseph iWard, to prevent the cornering of foodstuffy and applying to sugar? .When an amendment to the Bill ivas moved l by an ■ opponent of Mr. Massey ,to. make'the •same previsions apply to butter, cheese,' and bacon, it was killed by the GpvernV meht. He dealt with his own- Bill, to reduce the hows of women, woollen ' workers. He had the fight of his life ■ to get the-Bill through the House, and . congratulations poured in on.him from all parts of New Zealand; Yet when the Bill got to 'the Upper House it was killed "stone dead." Mr. Massey said that ."political pull" was gone, yet he would not allow a man to sit on a Land Board if he did not conform to the Government's land policy. Juggling with the Harbour Board' her© and in: Auckland had'gone on. with the idea of getting a" Government nominee in charge. "One of the greatest charges that could be made against the Government was - that they 'funked return*,' " he said. There were over 50 motions on the Order Paper when Parliament rose,, [which the Government would hot allow: to be moved. Some dealt with the price of goods supplied-to the troopships, cost of loans, number of-settlersjmt on the Hand under Mr., Massey's' Land : Bill, : etc. Why, if the Government had no? thing to fear, did'-thoy refuse'to allow these motions? What else did they find? Mr. Massey "oursed" , the system by •; .which Parliamentary grants were made on the eye of elections,: yet. the system he condemned was now being used by Mr. Massey. In the Appropriation Act passed. before Parliament roso it was provided that tho Minister of Finance could lend £9000 for' the encouragement of .the oil industry. He' (Mr. Wilford) : wanted to know.whether that'£9ooo was to go to a company in which Sir. George and Lord Ranfurly were interested?.' '" ;■■ ■• •''.. The War and Food Prioes. V Coming to the conduct of the Government at the beginning of the war, the candidate said they should have annexed from the large merchants all foodstuffs _ by -.vhichthe people could have been exploited. A selling price should then •have been fixed, to prevent undue profits owing to the war.. What the Govern- ' merit did was to set up a commission,, toil in the meantime there was no control over the people who controlled the ' foodstuffs. The merchants had an opportunity of exploiting the people. As to, the "canteen scandal," lie differed with Mr, Dnvid Jones, the Reform organiser, who said. that, the matter should have been settled in' the privacy of a Minister's room, Her contrasted the action of the Loj'iour Government of Australia with that of ' the present Administration, Til? former fixed a price and issued a Circular setting out reasonable-'' prices. iWJiy, even at Upper Hutt since then ';. a man who was selling hot pies, at a ch'*ip price on the streets, and was ev'dently cutting into the camp con> tnctors, was hauled up before tho C<urt, and fined 10s. Tho Government . h/d adopted a; "hush-up" principle, v deli no square-dealing man could ap- : aud. „ Naval Matters. Mr. Wilford went on to deal with • aval matters. First ho invited the.,.

[audience to join him in extending a hearty vote of congratulations to Australia, on the part played by H.M.A.S. Sydney, in .the capture of the Emden. (Applause.) When the newspapers said that was an argument for them going in for a local navy, he was not going to lose his head. In naval defonce it was absolutely a question of speed and armament, and of New Zealand - was going to build a navy they would have to have the best., Australia defended itself by the fact that its ships automatically came under the Admiralty's control when war broko out. What they should have had here was tiho carrying out of the agreement made by Sir Joseph Ward, whereby if New Zealand gave tho money for an up-to-date ship for Great Britain, then one of her cruisers should have been sent hero to .meet any cruiser Germany was likely to 6end. When the New Zealand was ©van to Great Britain the present Government said that Ward had givon : it. but the workers would pay for it. That was not so, for the Death Duties Aot supplied more ,than was necessary. ;Ho neld they should increase their subsidy to the British Navy, and. that Navy would protect them, when war broke out.

• Referring to the Public Service, Sir. Wilford said that the Opposition stood for the clipping of the wings of the Publie Service Commissioners. (Applause.) He contended that there.was no full right of'appeal allowed. In a return placed ..before Parliament before it rose it was shown that out of 499 men who appealed in the Post and Telegraph Department, the Appeal Board only allowed 43 to state their case. The time had come when a Slinister should be appointed to control the Publio Service.' ;,' .'..■'.'.. ■. , After dealing with various other matters, and answering a number of questions,' Sir. Wilford was accorded a hearty vote of thanks and confidence. WELLINGTON NORTH. MR; H. HOLLAND AT THQRNDON. Sir. H, Holland, the Social Democratio candidate,:''for Wellington North,, addressed a meeting of about, a hundred people, ohiefly his Oloake's Hall, .Thbrndoh, 'last, evening. Mr. Ward presided. The chairman said that before calling on the.candidate he wished to give, a 'flat denial to the rumour that Mr. Holland was going to Tetire from the contest in favour of a certain individual, "That rumour," he said, "is absolutely untrue. Mr. Holland is going to the poll." '" .." •„.,-' ■' . , Sir; Holland spoke for an hour and a half oh the polioy of the Social Demo-. cratic Party, and the alleged wicked-. ! ne'ss pf. the Government. He urged all I workers in Wellington North to vote for the. working-class candidate, assur- ' ing them that if they did so the Maßsey .'candidate must be defeated.. • :-At ;the, conclusion .of tho-meeting a .•motion, expressing thanks to the candidate for the address and the intention of the' people at the meeting to work to secure his return was carried, without opposition. . THE SUBURBS SEAT. MR. J. E. FITZGERALD AT'TAWA : ; .;.• FLAT.- ' : Mr. J. E. Fitzgerald, the Opposition candidate,.'addressed the electors at 'TaWa.. Flat last evening, Mr, G. James presiding. The candidate condemned the Govbrnrnent because of its failure to deal definitely with the land question. During the past two years,. he said, they, had placed less people-, upon the land than- the Liberal Party had during 'its last two years .of office. It was significant, he'added, that every Jand balknV saw hundreds' of disappointed applicants, whilst there yet remained idle and»unproductive; thousands > of" acres, of Native The national endowment of land was the foundation for providing old age „ pensions, education, and hospitals and charitable aid',' andfor: this reason he would oppose the alienation of these lands. The candidate severely criticised the anomalies existing ,in the railway system, • and. as. a member of the Slanawatii Suburban Railway League, he stated that the Manawatu residents were denied equal justice .with other portions deemed to be suburban areas. He said he was opposed to the Government beoausa its actions wore not calculated to improve the conditions of the peopleand because he considered its administration of a class character, and mischievous., The candidate was accorded the usual compliment, and a strong committee was set up'to further his interests. Mr. Fitzgerald speaks atNgahawariga to-night.

OTHER SPEECHES. .... DUNEDIN NORTH SEAT.; j. (Ey. Telegraph.—Press Association.) Dunedln, November 17. [Mr, G. M. Thomson, the sitting member for Duhedin North, opened hos poli.tjcal/- campaign to-night. Ho .said, he considered there was absolutely, no reason,, why the elections should have been postponed. He. considered the Social Democratic; Party a danger to the community, and ' that -they ought to be crushed. He then devoted his attention to the programme formulated by Joseph Ward, also 'by the .. Labour Party, The only point where he could see the opposing parties agreed was in a desire to oust the. Massey Government. He analysed the sums for works enumerated by Sir Joseph Ward{ and showed little 'difference between' the amounts allocated by.Mr, Massey. He was not in favour of, taking over-tho ferry ser-. vice,, and thoroughly endorsed the Government's action in the removal of Parliamentary, control of the Public. Service. 'A vote of thanks and confidence was .proposed, an amendment of thanks'only, but the chairman made no declaration about the result of the vote.

MR. E. P., LEE'S,FIRST ADDRESS. , , (By. Telegr&pn.—Press Association.) ; Dunedlrii November 17. Mr.E. P. Lee, M.P. for Oamaru, addressed a meeting of his constituents \t Waikouaiti oh Monday night. He urged the extension of the life of. Parliament to four or five years. Mr. Lee pointed out that the Government had widened the pension scheme and extended settlement. . Taxation had'been jnoreased on the wealthy, as shown by the rise in the graduated land tax. He uphold the appointment of the-. Oivil Service Commissioners, and] said theOpposition would not make the 1 repeal of the Commissioners a plank'of their platform. He ridiculed the idea of Parliamentary control of the Civil Service as advocated by Sir J, G. Ward. A vote of thanks and confidence, and confidence in the Government' wns carried unanimously^ THE LITTELTON SEAT. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) ' Christchurch, November 17. .'Mr.-M. J. Millar, Reform candidate for Lytteltonj opened his campaign tonight, when he addressed a'good attend-'l aneo of electors at Cashmere Hills 1 School. He commended the action of the Government in offering the Expeditionary Force to the Imperial authorities Ho supported the local navy. Recent events had shown the wisdom of that policy. 'Mr.' Millar contended that the Government had carried out its pledges well, and tho Teforms instituted were all for the benefit of the country.. : - •CHRISTCHURCH EAST. (By Teleirraph-PrMS Association.) Ghristcfuirch, November 17. "Dr. Thacker,' Opposition candidate for Christchurch East, also opened his, campaign to-night. Ho professed Jumself an out-and-out supporter of .Sir Joseph Ward and' tho Liberal policy. He was opposed to tho referendum on tho Biblo in schools, and favoured tho three-fifths -majority on. the licensing, fluegtion, H£

contended that the Government had foiled to keep; its election promises.

A LIVELY MEETING. "Tlmawi, November 17.Mr. F. H. Smith,''M.P.. for Waitaki, Reform candidate for Timaru, this evening addressed his ffost meeting, lho Theatre Royal was well' filled, the Mayor presiding. The speaker was continually interrupted by a section of the audience. He dealt wlith a few principal political points, justified .the Government's action in reference to the strike, and condemned persons niakmg political capital out of the Huntly disaster, for which the Govoi-nmeut was in no way responsible. He 'said he would uphold the three-fifths majority and oppose the Bible in schools.: tions wore asked amid much disorder. A deputation of Waitaki piohibitionißts challenged the speaker for, breaking a pledge not to oppose a rcdusetion of the licensing majority. Mr. Smith Btoiitly denied giving'a pledge, and! the meeting would not hear the deputation in reply. A vote of thanks arid confidence was proposed and seconded, but owing to the disorder it was not put. TO-NIGHT'S MEETINGS. ; Hon. P. M. B. Fisher, Town Hall, 8 p.m. Mr. F. T. Moore, Town Hall, Miramar, at 8 o'clock. : Mr. A. M, Samuel, Stonehouse's Hall, Taita; at 8 o'clock. - Mr. J. ~E. Fitzgerald, at Ngahauranga, 8 o'clock, ■ ■ Mr. A,.' Si. Samuel, meeting of supporters at Central Hall, Petone, at 8 p.m. SIEETINGS TO-MORROW. Mt. J: P. Luke, at Brooklyn,' 8 p.m. Sir. John Duncan, at Tua Marina. Mr. A; M. Samuel, at Upper Hutt, 8 p.m. Mr. R."A. Wright, at Tawa Flat, 8 p.m. Mr, J, E. Fitzgerald, at Maranui, 8 p.m. OTHER MEETINGS. : Mr. W. H. Turnbull, meeting of supporters at Kelburn Kiosk, 8 p.m.