PRIME MINISTER AT DUNEDIN

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2311, 19 November 1914, Page 7

PRIME MINISTER AT DUNEDIN

THE HUNTLY DISASTER HISTORY OP THE CATASTROPHE MORE STRAIGHT SPEAKING (By T*l«jrapl)~Presa AesoolatlosJ Dunedin, November 18. The Rt. Hon. W. F. .Massey addressed ,a large audience at South Dunedin Hall to-night at' the conclusion of a maiden political speech given by Mr. T. Dalton, Reform candidate for Duriedin South. After congratulating Mr. Dalton -on tie fine speech he had made, Mr.-Massey said he would like to add a few Temarks to, the candidate's reference to the war. .Not only had they been the first to take possession of foreign territory, .-but they had in their main Expeditionary Force 9000 men, some of the beet and bravest sons of New Zealand. ■■ (Applause.) They should remember that the present fight was a fight for thoif'Empire,' 1 and for themselves. Their very existence depended on the result of the war being brought to a successful issue. The Dominion might be called upon to assist Britain and her Allies to'make e determined effort to bring the war to a conclusion, and be called upon to-make a further effort in the sending of troops. If that were necessary he felt absolutely certain that New Zealand would be true to her traditions, and if 10,000 or 20,000 men were needed they would be glad 'to send them. (Loud applause.)

A voice: When are you going, Bill? : . Mr. Massej.:. I am ready to., go tomorrow, but the, country cannot do without me.: (Cheers.) ' ■ . .Financial Matters. ■ ■ Referring' to the question of. finance, the Prime Minister, said the most serious difficulty they had to face was dur-ing-the present year, when a number of short-dated debentures fell due£B,ooo,ooo of short-dited debentures fell due this year, £3,200,000 of which was required.; this week. When 'the 'war broke out they were faced with the difficulty , that- this £3,200,000 was unfortunately in tho hands of speculators who-refused to renew, and thought to foice_ the, Government on. to the open : market. ; ':, They: -, said they wanted their money,:and wanted'the Government to raise'another Joan to pay.oifthe previ-' oils one. The Government eaid "No I" They were nok going to do anything of the 6ort, .arid they had now made other and better arrangements, and had got £3 ; 200,0Ci0,,and could payoff this liability." (Loud applause.) The Government was put of difficulties in finance, but compare New Zealand with any other country. At present there.was difficulty in raising; money in London, but the Government had fixed up its war loan with the> assistance of the Imperial Government,- and there was not a country in the world to-day feeling the problem'of the war 60 little as New Zealand was at -present.. • They, had not had to"dismiss a single man on account' of; the war. : In. fact,, they had employed more. Public works would be kept going, and would employ a number of men as at present, and more if the necessity arose. 'Not:another 'cburi-; try ; coiUd say.that, and the position in ; Australia could be seen from papers published there/:;-: ge'-sympathised'with' them,■ of course/ and only wisued'-to'cair attention to the fact that the position in' tiiis country was much better- than it \raa. there.' lu.New South' Walesthey; had;.to cut down meri on public , works to a three-days', week. There were thousands of, men. in Now South Wales employed only, three days a week, but this was not the case-:in New Zealand, and ia New Zealand they would be able , to go on. ■■',•'

Forward—Publlo Works. • The time had come in publio worke for a strong forward movement for the making of- roads, bridges, ana railways where they were needed. But for the war the Government had intended to raise a comparatively .large sum of .money for public works to open up. the country and find work for the people. That was the position at the present,: and we should congratulate ourselves upon it. At Temuka he had quoted certain figures and had shown that the deposits in the Post Office Savings Bank last month had exceeded the withdrawals by over £160,000, Itwas W good record—. a proof of the prosperity of the country, and the money would be put to a gopd : purpose in employing labour or for the Advances Department. ■ •-■ ■Mr. Massey proceeded to deal with the position of the Advances Department. If a worker wanted money for a home he could get it up to £400, if he had the security. ■■'■' (Uproar and cries of "Whereis he going to get the security.") Sir. -Massey said the money was.there, and. was being'lent at the' rate of £100;000'a-month at present. He had not the figures there, but this was a fact,' and he was prepared to stand, by it. ilf any man wanted to build a house, and had the necessary security the speaker could guaranteeJthe money.

■.■'-•.','Meaniand Contemptible. • 'Regarding tno Huntly disaster, many mean things had been said during the present campaign. He hoped that in South Dunedih they'would .have none of. the bitterness that there had.been in some centres. One, of the meanest things he had noticed in the'politics of tbb country was the'attempt to make the,present: Government responsible -for . the ■' disaster. : . This was one 'of the meanest and most contemptible and cowardly and : dastardly things' that ;he : know; of. (Uproar, with cheers arid hooting.) Huntly had been in his dietrict for six years; he had been there many times, end .had been on good terms, with tlie people ' .during that time. He had always heard the mine spoken of as.one of the safest in New Zealand. There woi never a, hint of danger in connection . with ...Ralph's Mine, but it was said by people who wished te make capital out of the disaster, and" to shoot at the Government from tho shoulders of dead men, that if the Bill which was introduced in 1912 had been passed into law the disaster would not have occurred. This wae wrong. When it came up in tho House the man who knew probably more about mines than any other man there (a. man on tho othor side of the Houso, and that man was the.Hon; Roderick M'Kenzie) said, when the. suggestion w«s made, that it was absolute nonsense, and if ( the Bill had been passed the accident would have occurred just the.eame. (Applause nnd dissent.) An independent commission had beep set up with a district Magistrate for. chairman, and to it was appointed a man as member who had at one -time been president of the Federa; tion of Labour (Mr. Dowgray). A voice:' He's ii Red Fed. Mr. Masiey. He's a decent man. ' Continuing, the Primo Minister said that. another man. had also been appointed who was a mino manager on tlio West Coast, and it was acknowledged to be a good commission. The commission brought in a very lengthy report, and there was not a single suggestion in' the report laid before Parliament that the Government or the Department wns in any wiry to blame. The old Act relating to the matter provided that whero, in the opinion of the inspector, a mine or any nart of it was I found to be exceptionally dangerous, he (the inspector) might require the owner or agent to withdraw the. men \Jtovx the mho except such 09 wetfi as*

cessary to put the mine in a safe condition, and mining operations should not bo renewed till it was safe. The Government was going to eift this matter to the very bottom. (Interruption.) It would be" thoroughly sifted in tho Supreme jCourt. They would hear of steps being taken within the next day or two, and the blame would be placed on the right shoulders, and they would then be able to know who was at fault and who woa responsible for the unfortunate accident. According to the evidence at'tho inquiry, tho accident was caused through a man going into the old workinge, where there was gas, with a naked light, and this exploded the coal gas right through the' mine. (Loud cheers from the people out on the footpath, who evidently vrero holding some kind of mooting of their own.) That was the history or the accident. He did not mean to e'ay that there was no negligence; that no one was to blame; but those were the facts. He would just like to say this in conclusion—the ' man who would suggest that tho Government of the country was responsible for tho accident was not fit to associate 'with decent men much less—— (Aproar.) There were no half measures about him, oontinued the speaker. They got the truth when he epoko. (Uproar.) Bo long as he was a Minister of the Orown, and that , was likely to be for a long while . The rest of the speaker's words were, lost to the audience, and a section of the crowd counted. him out, whilo another: section responded with three oiteers. ■ ' . , Workers' Dwellings. Touching on the question of workers' homos, he said that Mr. Dalton had stated that the worker could obtain a home by paying a deposit of £10. As a matter of fact, he (Mr. Massey) had abolished this payment bf £10 because he thought it hardly fair, that when a worker came along and paid his deposit he mig'it have to wait twelve or. fifteen months before a start could bo made on his, home. A worker was now pay only £1 deposit; and then just prior to' the commencement of .work on his house he was called on to pay the remaining £9, and he was sure that was a fair arrangement. The worker got the freehold. The policy of the homes had been introduced some time before, but he had been able to improve on it. He believed that charity began at home, and considered the Government should be a model employer, and should pay a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. •■ • As regards an interjection about payment oh ,the Clyde-Cromwell'; railway works, the engineers were directed to take out the price which would enable each worker to secure a good wage. These instructions were always given to their officers by the Public Works Department. , Instruction was that the day's.pay should not be less than 9s. (Laughter.) Hβ was not able to speak about any partciular locality, but he was strongly of opinion that the workers had no reason, to complain of their treatment by the Massey Government. (Hear! Hear! and dissent. He knew there was a' section of workers 'who were spoken of as "Red Feds," , and they could not* possibly please ■ them. A worker might be a "Rei Fed," but all workers-were not "Red Feds" by a very long way. (Applause.)