SOME HARDHITTING

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2313, 21 November 1914, Page 8

SOME HARDHITTING

BY HON. A. Iα HERDMAN ?> THE. OPPOSITION UNDER FIRE .REFORM'S GOOD WORK The Hon. A. L. Herdman,. AttorneyGcneral, opened his Wellington North, campaign fast 'night, when Eβ addressed the electors at Kelhurn Kiosk. There was a very large attendance, all available space in the commodious hall and in the surrounding corridor being occupied. The candidate was accorded a splendid reception, and throughout had an attentive and appreciative Tiearing, no hostility of any kind being manifested. ..••.. Mr. H. Buddie occupied the. chair, and in an introductory speech , urged tho electors to , do their best to secure tho return to Parliament of men not only possessed of honest convictions, 'but;of'men with; the necessary determination to live up to those convictions, and to place the interests of the ■Dominion before the selfish, gratificar tiori of their own aims. (Applause.) The Hon. A'. L. Herdnian, who, on rjsing, was greeted with loud and continued applause, said if one desired a satisfactory omen of the ultimate result of the Wellington North -contest it was to be-found in the splendid meeting then assembled. He 'referred to his first-public address in Kelburn sis years ago. He was then perhaps but little known. Three years afterwards he was perhaps better known, and now, after '■ six-years of public life in Wellington, he was notorious. : (Laughter and applause.) He had often considered, .when reading the newspapers, when in one Smith called Brown a liar and in another Brown called Smith .a bushranger or its equivalent, how people ever came to' a right understanding of things political. From what he saw in tlie Press he really thought the public must have great difficulty in deciding whether Mr. Mas'sey was a virtuous gentleman or whether. Sir Joseph Ward iwas onel : ■ ■

Difficulties of a Politician. In politics one. could not ploaso everyone, and mbro especially was that so when one was connected with the. Adminietration. He found that.to be so in his own case.. Even among- his own personal, friends he differed on many important questions. One had to make ■up his mind as to what was right and what was wrong, and stick to it if convinced hie. decision was the right one. (Applause.): Hβ know that in the coming combat he would differ from many, people in regard to a number of questions,' but he hoped that all would give him the credit of having carefully thought out these views, .and of being determined to stick to the.n because he was convinced they were right. (Renewed applause.) . .' < -.■'■■ .

Jogging'tho Public's Memory. ■ Those who' had 'watched the Maesey Administration.during the last two and a, half years must have made up their minds that, whatever faults had been manifested, tho Government had determined to pass legislation that was in tue intereets of ail classes, .and to administer the estate of the country faithfully and well.' The memory .of the public, however,, was short, and he doubted if some of tho great evonts that had happened in the past year or two were as distinctly remembered ae they should be. ■' Did the people clearly remember the industrial trouble of eleven months ago, the incident of Post Office' Square, tlie little incident that took place in front of Whitcombo and Tombs'e, and had the fracas, in Taranaki Street completely left their minds? , A voice: No. . .■ The Hon. Mr. Herdman said he would like to refresh the people's mem- r ories of those incidents, and of how it became necessary for the Government to bring in men from the countryto combat tbe strenuous efforts of a section of, the. community to prevent business; going on. He asked tho public also to remember that, that great and seriGU6 difficulty which for a time bore euch an ugly, appearance was "settled without the life of a single.individual being lost. (Loud applause.) Nobody cared to have to'deal with a difficulty of that description, but a Government must recognise that no section'of the community has a right to say that the business of: the community shall not go on or'that another section shall not go about their business without being molested. (Applause.) He also reminded them libat when the Government assumed pifice.the Waini strike was in full swing, arid was subsequently' controlled and ended. Then there was the fight at the,last general election, which culminated in the defeat of the Ward Government. He asked his hearfers to remember how, the Reform Party ihad" stormed ■ the trenches of' the then Government,' who in the end Jiad fled like- rabbits. Hβ had begun to think that they ,had disappeared for. ever, but from what had taken place in the last few months it could be seen that they were back again with their old weapons of abuse and misrepresentation. A Government Victory.. Hβ was .confident the result of the election, however, would be the return of the Maesey Government to the Treasury, benches. Despite the misrepresentation and abuee, he was convinced that from North Cape, to Bluff' the people of, New Zealand desired-to have in power, at the present juncture at all events, men who were prepared to be! firm, and men who were prepared to be fair. Another difficulty the Government had to contend with on coming into power was the'hopeless condition of the "Treasury. For some little time before going out of office Sir Joseph Ward had been in difficulties, and had had to borrow a large sum on a ehorbdated loan, and his successor, Mr. Myers, had had to raise a two years loan- to carry on. These. matters he alluded to in passing. - ■ . : The Administration of which he'happened to be. a member had passed through thrilling experiences. ' For two and a:half years they 'had lived in ,a storm. They had had to -tackle matters that no. Administration in the history of New Zealand had ever had to deal with. ,He did not regret it. Ho would rather live for two years and a half, in an Administration .which h'ad had to pass through thrilling evente than , to have to live through an Administration of twenty years of dullness. (Applause.)

Llberal-Soolalist Entente Cordlale. There wae one little incident in connection with this election he thought tho public ought to take note of, and that was the Entente Cordiale that had been established between the Liberals and the Social Democrats. There appeared'to bo an arrangement between tne Opposition and the Social Democrats orthe.Red Federation. It would be interesting to watch the election as it proceeded, because they would see mombers of the Opposition walking to the polls arm in arm with Mr. Webb, of Grey, Mr. Fayno, of Groy Lynn; (Laughter.) Tho Liberals had apparently thrown in their lot with that section of tho community which preferred to settle- their differences by tho fiqrco arbitrament of bottles and scrap-iron rather than by tho constitutional methods provided by the law of the land. (Applause.) He wanted them to beliove that it appeared to be perfectly clear, from the utterances of Sir. Hiram Hunter, of Christohurch, And other, wa. that there was on alliv

anco between the Liberal Party and tho gentlemen who last year created the disturbance in our City and throughout New Zealand. Therelore, the question for tho people was: "Arc you going to return Mr. Massey to office, or are you going to reinstate Sir Joseph Ward plus the Red Feds?" That was tho plain position tho people of Now Zealand had to face. (Applause.) The Government's Administration. It had been iho aim of the Massey Government to construct a policy, which aimed at preserving the virility and in-, dependence of tho citizens of Ne.w Zealand, while at the same time it endeavoured to furnish them with comfortable conditions and a fair opportunity of advancement.- No one, of course, in a community like New Zealand desired to create a state of affairs which 'involved tho creation of anaemic miJk-sops," and he was satisfied that every right-thinking person viewed with disfavour anything in the nature. of sweating, but the duty of a Government should be to so legislate, that strenuous effort got a reasonable reward, and that was the direction in which the Government had .worked. (Applause.)' . ' ' , . , Words mejnt nothing. The evidence of the good work of Mr. Massey's Government was to be found ia its deeds. ■ The performances of the Government proved, that, they were in favour of "advancement and development ; the deeds and professions of the Liberals during .the present Government's turn of office showed them to be narrow and stagnant and a collection of office-seekers. (Applause.) ■Aβ ex-; nniples of this the speaker cited the Opposition's attitude towards the Legislative Council Bill providing for the election of members of the Upper House on a system of proportional representation, the Railway Improvement Authorisation Bill, and the Local Railways Bill. Regarding the Railways Improvement Authorisation Bill Mr. Herd-; man cleared away a misrepresentation, thathe said was being sought to bo created in , the minds of the people. The Bill provided for an expenditure of £8,200,000 on.' various railway improvements recommended by Mr. Hiley, the General Manager of Railways, and the Bill gave the necessary power to borrow that amount of money. The Opposition were trying to 'make the people believe that'this sum of £3,200,000 was to be;borrowed in one .year, whereas the Act'specifically provided that not .more than £750,000 could be borrowed in one. year. ■ •

"The gentlemen who opposed that Bill," eaid Mr. Herdman, "were the socalled Liberals. Liberals they are not. They are reactionaries, sleepy reactionaries—fusty old Tories." (Laughter and applause.) The people who in the House had opposed all the Government's legislation for the progress and development of New Zealand were the party of inaction, reaction, and distraction;' The Government had shown enterprise arid a desire for development, whilst the Opposition had shown that they were not' enterprising and.had no desire for the.country's . development. (Applause.) ■..■-.■; Naval Defence. We had had, and were still having, a practical illustration of two naval policies—the Australian policy and the policy of paying/a contribution to' the Imperial Governnmt. The startingpoint in tho discussion onthe naval controversy was surely tho, fact that Great .Britain had stated a short time ago that for an annual contribution ' of £150,000 she could not give any more for-the protection of New .Zealand than the Psycho, Pyramus, and Torch, and the loan of tho' Philomel for training purposes. Were we to be content with these boats, .or were we to do something for ourselves? The Little New Zeaknders sai'd,the contribution was enough, and that thero tho matter should end. The Government, oh", the , , other hand, said the annual contribution was not enough, and we should do more. (Applause.) What would have been the position in tho Pacific had it not been for the Australian Fleet? It wae perfectly certain that but for that Fleet Now Zealand would not have been able to dispatch its Expeditionary Forces, to Samoa and te England. Events had proved the wisdom dis-' played by the Commonwealth Government. Tho boats New' Zealand had got for its annual contribution were worse than useless. They were' of no value for protection purposes, and no value for the purposes of escort. The proposal of Mr. Massey made in 1913, that New Zealand should build a ship should be entered upon. He had not the least doubt it could be done, and that the burden'on the people of; the Dominion would not bo onerous. One gentleman on the Opposition side of the House' said that'if the Government was returned we would have a fleet in the ■ Pacific. Well, he hoped there would be a fleet in the Pacific. (Loud applause.) The opposition to the (proposal came from, the Rip Van Winklea ol inddern political life. The Leader, of the Opposition proposed to restore the Public Service to Parliamentary control., No doubts the right hon. gentleman would be surprised to Iparn that under the Act there wae complete Parliamentary control) but there was no Ministerial interference. The Public Servants of New Zealand were managed and controlled by three Commissioners, who could be removed by Parliament at any time by a vote of the ■House. ■■'■ lt'was stated by several member* of the Opposition that they would repeal tho-Public Service Act if they, had the chance, and he wanted the Publio Servants te. understand what would logically follow if the Act was repealed: Tho Public Servants must be restored to precisely the same position as in the past, and that meant the abolition of the classification, the Appeal Board, and all the benefits that had occurred .'during the regime of the Commissioners, and the return to Munsterial influence and the era of temporary clerks. There could bo no doubt that the advantage*'gained by Civil Servants since the Act canio intooperation had been enormous, and Mr. Herdman paid a, warm tribute to the manner in which Mr. Robertson, Mr. Tnggs and Mr. Thomson had tackled tho work set them, and the expeditious way in which they had performed it. A minimum salary of £100 had been fixed for every male of 21 years of age in the Service, and a minimum of £140 for married men. All tradesmen. in the: Service were paid as aminimum the rate of wages fixed by the Arbitration : Court for their particular trade. The block at £220 had now been removed, as had also the anomaly formerly existin<r as between men who entered without examination and those who entered ; on an' examination. "The Public Ser-, vice Journal" was cited by the'speaker as being satisfied that the Commissioners were out to obtain the best value and to encourage efficienoy. ■

Flnanolal Matters. Dealing with finance, Mr. Herdman omM +lin? since the Govornnient took ml they W borrowed £14,936,000, $Urt in a Dimjlar period the, previous Government had borrowed £16,496,000; in an equal time, the.Massey Government had borrowed £1.560,000 less than their predecessors. It was true the Government had increased the Braduated land tax and the income tax, and these increases had been made for vorv well-known reasons—that of the land tax being for the purpose, ofliasteniiiß on tho entting-up of land tor settlement. There had been no increase in Customs duties. 'Any alteration in that had been a slight reduction. Mr. Heidman made special reference- to tho commitments in regard to loans to local bodies, and advances to settlers and workers when M*. Ailon becamo Minister of Finance'and the small amount in the Treasury to meet them and showed how in two years Mr. Allen, b,y on exorcise of pwdont flmmco, .had jjlv^.tfce^State JbendjflA Dep?%

nicnts oii a sound and safe financial footing.

Mr. Herdman, in concluding, made a. brief reference to the war and showed how the policy of /the Government had resulted in a minimum of inconvenience, and was being sustained by tho business people and workers of the Dominion. Hβ liad every faith and confidence in our country and he was convinced the people of New Zealand were, satisfied that the right men wero in the control of affairs and would return, the Government at the coining election with a large and substantial majority. (Loud applause.)

On the motion of Miv Johnston, seconded by Mr. R.- B. Grange, it was resolved, with acclamation, there being only three dissentients: "That, this meeting accords a hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Herdman for his address, and expresses c6nnden.ee in him as the representative for • Wellington North and in the Government of which ho is a, member."