SOME MARE'S-NESTS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2324, 4 December 1914, Page 12

SOME MARE'S-NESTS

OPPOSITION DISCOVERIES CHARGES THAT COME HOME TO ROOST AN AMAZING RECORD Tho Opposition criticism of the Government, so far as language is concerned, is uniformly scathing and violent. The critics' weak point is their facts. In their joy at finding a new stick with which to belabour Ministers they seldom stop to examine the weapon of which they are making use. The result is that in tho two years and four months since tho Reform Government took office an extraordinary collection of exploded scandals has been piled up. The authors of the charges in many cases appear to have made use of hearsay gossip and to have forthwith denounced the Government without making any effort to discover the real.facts of tho case. This may have been due to a constitutional indolence cr to a cynioal belief in the maxim that if enough mud is thrown some of it will stick. Opposition candidates throughout tha country at the present moment aro engaged in levelling charges against the Government. In the list below will he found some of the principal "scandals" which had their brief day in' the Opposition Press and on the platform during the last two years. The list is only a selection; but in it will be found many old acquaintances which with much sound and fury played their brief part upon the boards. When a new Opposition scandal is unearthed It Is as well to romerhner the history of those that went before It. (1) In order to bring himself into prominence in London, so it was alleged, Mr. Allen had committed New Zeakna U the dispatch of a force of 8000 men, arbitrarily raised by conscription, to any part of the world where their ser-

vices'.might, be required. This was denounced by the. Opposition newspapers as a monstrous interference with tho liberties of tho subject. Everybody'" in New Zealand knows how baseless thiß criticism was, and that Mr. Allen was simply making arrangements that everything should be ready in case of need for the equipment of a volunteer foroe.

(2) The Government were fiercely denounced for having given away valuable mineral rights for nothing in permitting Crown tonants to acquire the freehold. A gross- injustice it was declared had been done and all sorts of sinister designs were'■'; credited to Air. Massey by Opposition politicians and newspnpers. The hubbub arose over what was called the" "Southland land deal." A Mr. Brighton, a lease-in-per-petuity • holder, discovered minerals on bis leasehold, sold the rights to a syndicate, and then applied for the fee-sim-ple' of the land so that ho might transfer it to the syndicate. The Massey Act of. 1912 simply gave the tenant the right "to purchase tho fee-simple of the land comprised in the lease. The lease expressly gave' to the Crown all minerals ..discovered, on the land. When it was found that tho grant of the freehold did not carry, with it the right ,lo the minerals, the, "Masseyniade freehold" was scoffed at as a contemptible sham. '

(3) One Wardist journal worked itself into a fury of indignation over a'regulation, which it discovered was enforced in the Post and Telegraph Department, requiring officers in. charge to seo that "the private habits of their assistants are above reproach, and that their conduct is not likely, to bring them into trouble or discredit tho Department." This was declared tobe "an outrageous insult," "a now Massey law," "a ! splendid, insight in to. what dopths Massey ißm will go in depriving us of our liberty, our honour, and our character." It was added that the. Reform Party was '■peculiarly partial to this systom of underhand espionage." Finally it was discovered that this regulation was introduoed by Mr. Seddon In 1899, and merely reprinted with the. other standing regulations by the Massey Administration ! > ■# ■• *

(4) Another charge was that Mr. 0 C. Pleasants as a reward for standing down for Oroua at the last election had been made a Government valuer.. The facts were published in the. "Feilding Star." Mr. Pleasants did not stand in the Reform or any interest at the last election. He stood as a Liberal candidate at the previous election, was defeated, and was made a Government valuer by the Ward Government. Tho kick intended for Mr. Massey thus hits Sir Joseph Ward on the head.

(5) Tho Massey Government were accused of playing into the hands of the money-lenders and making money dear because the return presonted to Parliament in September, 1913, showed that mortgages'to the amount of £22,597,478' were registered in New Zealand at rates, of interest bearing lip to 20, per cent, per annum.—The "Taranaki Herald" pointed out that in Sir Josoph Ward's last'year mortgages'.were registeredamounting to £20,998,622, at, rates of interest running up to 25 per cont. In *ua« oases w the days of the .Ward

regime charges of 40, 80, 25, 225, and 20 per cent, wore also made, the fact of the matter being, as everyone knows, that a few odd oases of very high interest indicate nothing as to the general state of the money market. • '• » (6) A "shocking bargain" was exposed early this year, when it was discovered by the Wardist journal In Napier that an estate, known as Elderelie No. 2, had been purchased by the Government at £83,420. the rato working out at "150 per cent, more than the capital value according to the land-tax valuation, and 200 por cent, more than the unimproved "valuo."—The facts were that the estate waß purchased prior to March 81,' 1012, when the Ward Government was in office, and that it had belonged to Mr. J. B. Reid, reputed to be a personal friend of Sir Joseph Ward, and one. of the Ward appointees to the directorate of the Bank of New Slealand. ■/» • # (7) When the financial returns for the Deoember quarter of 1913 (the quarter in which the strike took place) were published, the member for Avon and other Opposition critics declared that the country's finanoes were going to the dogs under the Reform Government. A deficit was not only predicted by some of the critics, but its amount was actually stated.—The year ended, in spite of tho depression of the strike, with a balance of £427,000 to the good. .'. •: » * (3) In September, 1913, the Maeeey Government brought in a Conciliation and Arbitration Bill, which was declared by a leading Wardist organ to ba a "scandalous law" because of a certain penalty clause, _ It was declared "impossible to conceive anything more oppressive and despotic" than the penalty clause which was "sufficient to condemn the Bill and the autooratio Government that has impudently placed it before Parliament."—TKc Bill was a consolidating measure and the clause over which this indignation was pumped up was identical with Clause 8, subSoction 2-of the Act of 1908 carried by the Ward Administration! (9) In October, 1913, it was alleged by the Opposition that improper influence had been used by the Government in connection with the sale by auction of « section at Cheviot. A

Parliamentary Committee inquired into the matter and entirely exonerated the Government of any blame. The Christ church Opposition newspaper then declared : "The report of a committee dominated by bis own political friends is not exactly the sort of acquittal a more sensitive man would seek from the suspicions bis very-unusual proceedings have aroused." In this' comment the all-important fact was suppressed that the Wardist member, Mr. Forbes, ?t whose suggestion the Inquiry was made himself voted for the report exonerating the Government.

(10) A land ballot scandal was also discovered by the Wardist Tress at Dannevirke. \ The. charge was that, a 164-acre farm for which there were 307 applications was disposed of at a land ballot at Napier at one-half its value. —The section was disposed of by a Land Board appointed by the Ward Government, at a. valuation mado by a valuer appointed by 'the Ward Administration. A report by tho Commissioner of Crown Lands in Hawke'a Bay showed that in any case there was

no ground for the complaint that the land had been under-valued.

(11) Another complaint was that Mr. Maßsoy, as Minister of Lands, had improperlv allowed o certain Mr. Wilson, who held an education lease and a freehold of 200 aores, to go to the ballot for a seotion of'land in Southland with a Mr. Horan, who was landless. The whole transaction was put through by the Southland Land Board under its discretionary powerß under the Aot. The Southland Land Board, in any case, was the board appointed by tho Ward Government. The facts were that Wilson was a practical fanner with throe sons, and undertook in accordance with tho Land Act to divest himself of hiß other land. The other applicant waa. an old man, an ox-schoolmaster, with little practical' experience of fanning. ■ • • » (12) When Mr. Allen went to London the country was told by the Opposition politicians and Press that the London financiers had no confidence in him, and his mission was foredoomed to failure.—Mr. Allen raised hie loans on far more advantageous terms than his predecessors had done. • » * (13) The Government was \}sa charged with introducing sweated boy labour in the interests of the farmers. The facts of the matter were that the Ward Government made arrangements for the immigration of fifty town boys, under a scheme proposed by Mr. Ts Sodgwick, the boys being sent direct to farmers at a minimum wage of ss. per week for the first year. Tho Reform Government made similar arrangements for the introduction of boys, but the minimum wage was fixed at 7s. 6d. a week. The only dlfloronco between the arrangements made by the two Administrations Is that that of the Reform Covernment Is the more liberal of the two. » •- * ■ . (14) For £8000, it was'declared, the Massey Government had parted with the freehold of .100. aores at the Hetana Runlet, New Lynn, worth £30,000. The ■Lands Committee, after hearing the evidence of the Vajuor-Gene'ral. the District Valuer, Mr. Ewington (land and estate agent, Auckland), the Commissioner of Crown Lands, Auckland, and the chairman of the Land Purchase Board, reported that the allegation had no foundation' in fact. The statement that tho land was worth £800 an aore was\made on July 5, 1913, and six'days later some of the beßt freehold land in the settlement, was sold at £40 an acfo. • .•''■•■•. (16) Ex-Constable-Smyth was declared by the Opposition newspapers to have been victimised because he had voiced the grievances of the Police t'oroo before Mr. Herdman at Auckland on May 12 last. The truth was that-Smyth' was instructed on April 80 to leave Auckland for Greymoutn, and left on May 5, a week before the deputa.

I In short, the "Liberal" ap~ y peal for office amounts merely to a promise to do what they could easily have done, but did ' not do, in twenty-one years. Their "policy" is simply a. targe advertisement of the extent to which they neglected their opportunity — an opportunity such as has fallen to the lot . of no other party in modern timck. — Obristchurch

lidnito-'MrfiHerdman,>?'- : Smyth was discharged, not fOrtaking'any' aotivo part in the formation of a Police Association, but for a gross dereliction of duty. After being: specially instructed by the inspector at Greymouth .to watch at night certain timber lying on the wharf, he left his beat, and was found. at 3.30 a.m. in the watch-house with a big fire going and his washing drying: in front of it. The Benior sergeant also found- at, 3.40 a.m. that Smyth had signed himself in the watch-house book as-having left duty at 6 a.m. : Hi» record in other. rospeots was .unsatisfactory, and it was shown pretty conclusively that he had entered the Force merely to expedite the formation of a Police Association, and Becure its adhesion to the Federation'of Labour.

Theße aTe a few of the mare's-nests discovered since July, 1912. ■ Many of the Opposition charges have resulted m costly inquiries being held and witnesses being called from long distances to refute accusations made apparently on the veriest hearsay and without any endeavour whatever to arrive at the facts. '■ • '

IT IS FOR THE PUBLIC TO JUDGE WHETHER THE ENDEAVOUR HAS BEEN TO CUARD THE PUBLIC INTEREST OR BLACKEN THE REFORM RECORD.

If there is one thing the Refor Party will be remembered for it will be for its determination to remove .' the Public Servieo of the Dominion from the reach of political influence.'—"Manawatu Standard." .'.;',

"I hope and firmly believe that the People who are promulgating this hideous slander (that the Government is responsible for the Huntly disaster) will Ret their deserts whon they go before the eleotors on December 10."— Mr. Massey at Lower Hutt.