THE CASE FOR REFOEM

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2327, 8 December 1914, Page 6

THE CASE FOR REFOEM

THE HON. A. L. HERDMAN A T / THE TOWN HALL A VIGOROUS SPEECH . One of tie liveliest meetings of tho election campaign was addressed by tho Hon. A.L. Herdmau in the Town Hall laet night. Mr. Herdman had intended to speak in reply to the speech by Sir Joseph Ward, which intention he carried out in spite of tho fact that a great number'of the "Liberal" and "Rod Fed." hosts had come.to pay Mr. Herdman the complinient of being obnoxious to him. They made a great deal of noise at times, when it seemed likely that Mr. Herdmau would say something not quite to their taste, but Mr. Herdman invariabJy had 'his say,. They whistled and stamped and booed and hissed and"shouted—in fact, their beuaviour was just plain larrdkinism. The fact that Mr. Herdman triumphed, and delivered a vigorous, effective speech .was due to his own imperturbability and tenacity in the first instance, and to the fact also that he had in the audience an overwhelming majority of lese noisy friends of Reform'. Mr. H. Euddp' presided. : When Mn Herdman appeared on the platform he was greeted with hearty applause, followed by cheers by a party of Red Feds for -'Harry" Holland.. There, were other cheers for Mr. Herdman, louder cheers, from more throats. Again, : when Mr. Herdman rose to speak, ho was .given a most cordial round, of applause. . A Political Failure. , , Mr. Herdman. said he was highly gratified that in spite of tempestuous ;weather such a large concourse of people had come to near him speak in ■reply to Sir Joseph Ward, the Liberal 'Leader. He was glad to hear that when the Leader of the "• Opposition spoke in the hall a few days ago he had such a good meeting—(applause)— ■to. which he was entitled on account of his.position and Ms long service to tha public. But while Sir Joseph Ward had many admirable personal qualities, as a politician he must be adjudged a failure.' (Applaus6.) :■' Interruption, while three/cheers wore given - for Sir Joseph Ward. ; I Mr. Herdman asked whether Sir Joseph Ward was to be judged by his .extraordinary scheme for'a baby bonus or that strange performance of his when be went Home and'suggested at the Imperial Conference that there should be an Imperial Parliament of Defence or'something of the sort, with powers !of taxation. to supersede.', that of the 'English Parliament. But 'on whatever .< 'he was judged, Sir Joseph Ward must be written down as" a' political failure. Hβ had come into office with the big- , 'gest majority ever commanded by any party leader in New Zealand, and after sis years he had finished up at the head of a party which was disintegrated', downcast,, a band of political derelicts. '. Whether Sir : Joseph Ward' was ,to be judged by his mismanagement; of the finances of the colony, or by'whatever achievement he was to be judged, the impartial historian would declare that Sir Joseph' Ward's political career , had been marked, by failure. (Applause and other noise.) The Alliance. .'■ What the country had to fa«e was the possibility of the Massey Party coming back to power—(Loud applause)-por, on the other hand; a party calling itself ■Liberals and assisted'by the Red Feds. '—. (Applause)—the men/ who were responsible for spreading terror through the city a year ago. The Liberals could •not'hold poweiv without the aid of —- —'.'■'.■ ' ; ' .

A voice: Rebels. '(Uproar.) ':'■ Mr.' Herdman: If ; there is ono thing about which the Government has made •up its mind it is to stamp out lawlessness in every shape and form, to enable people to go about their' business peacefully,-^(Applause)—to enable tho honest -.hard-working-' man in community to go about his work without beins'molested by a lot of ruffian's. (Applause and noise.) Plainly and emphatically, that is what we stand for. ■ That is our 'clear and plain stand in- this election. We are out to help the man;who wants to go about'his business in. the ordinary way, and we are out • to stamp out the - bully and the ruffian. (Applause and uproar.) He had, ho-said, read the report of Sir Joseph Ward's speech in the Opposition journal, and had been unable to find there any denial that' there was an alliance between the Liberals and the lied Federation of Labour. As a Settler of Strikes. One of tho most amusing thinge said by Sir Joseph Ward was his claim, that he had sottled the tramway strike.in ■Wellington. (Hear, Hear, and Noes.) Sir Joseph Ward did. not settle the ■tramway strike. Sir Joseph, Ward attended a meeting of the council when the strike was on, but he did not make one suggestion that was at alj helpful. The tramway strike, 1 in fact, was settled by the' Wellington City Council, and the man who was mainly responsible for drawing the. resolution, which sottled the strike'was Mr.-A. R. Atkinson, a councillor. "Sir Joseph Ward," he said, "had no more to do with t!he settlement of the etiike than the steam-roller had to do with building the Town Hall." , The fact was, he continued, that between 1894 and 1906 there were no strikes,- but from 1906 to 1911, while Sir Joseph Ward was leader of the Liberal Party and Prime Minister of the country, there were 63 strikes in New Zealand. Surely (continued Mr. Herdman) this wae a bad record for a , man who called him,self a champion settler of strikes.. The Big Strike. That was a record for a mail who said that the Massey Government had bungled the strike. Sir Joseph Ward had said that the Government had handed over the strike to a committee. The fact was that the * settlement of : tho strike was done. by the Massey Government. There were' three ways of settling that strike—to give way to the tyranuy of the mob, to read the Riot Act and send the police down to the wharf armed with rifles, and the third way was to bring down young men from the country to handle the strike without bloodshed. Sir Joseph Ward said the strike could have been settled by a heart-to-heart talk with the leaders of the strike. He would ask why Sir Joseph Ward liad not had a heark-te-heart talk with Mr. Semple and his friends to settle the Waihi strike. Hβ referred to Sir Joseph Ward's statement "regarding the garrisons at the forts at Auckland. Men had beenwithdrawn from the forts, but tho Government-had, nothing to do with this. ; He read a report from Colonel Robin, Acting-Commandant of the Forces, which stated that all the men who had been at the forts would be ablo to vote, and all tho men now at the forte would he given leave to enable them to. vote. Sir Joseph Ward had also made a mis-statement about the Legislative Council Bill. ' He had' said that the Bill would not be in operation for eifht years. The fact was that at the election in 1917 the people would have the right to elect twenty-four members of tho Council on a universal franchise. It was a domocratiq measure, but the party claiming to' , be the Democratic Party had opposed .it—the most democratic Bill ever introduced into tho Parliament of New Zealand. It would do away with the system of political nominees, ready to obey tho behest of the Prime Minister of tho day. Who opposed this Bill? Tho .Leader"-oF the Opposition, aud those who followed him in the House. This should stamp, the,

Opposition as being composed of Tories of the most dangerous type. (Applause.) Graduated Land Tax. Sir Jdsepli Ward had made some references to the graduated land tax, saying that it was absolutely insignificant—that the increased tax on £30,000 was only 12s. Cd. The fact was that it was £18 11s. What became of Sir Joseph Ward's 12s. 6d.? His statement was absolutely inaccurate. If the Right Honourable .gentleman deeired to be fair, and not to fool the people, he would have said that a considerable increase had been made in the graduated tax and that the tax had been made to apply to properties of lower value. The Borrowing Bogy. The right hon. gentleman had made the statement that the Prime Minister had broken his pre-election pledge to reduce borrowing. Mr. Massey had made no such pledge. Mr. Herdman was here counted out. "You may count me out as much as you like," ho retorted, "but I am going to give you Mr. Massey's statement if I stay here till breakfast time. I am sure of this, that on Thursday ■ night you will count me in." The fact was,, he continued, that Mr. Massey. had promised, not to reduce borrowing, but to keep borrowing within reasonable bounds. The Massey Government had borrowed in their term of office £1,659,000 less than the previous Government had borrowed within the same period immediately preceding. Mr. Massey had fulfilled his pledge to keep borrowing within reasonable bounds. When the Mackenzie Government took ofike they found the Treasury accounts showing a net deficit of £343,000. If Mr. Allen had had to go out of office on March 31 of this year he would have left a surplus of balances available of moneys for expenditure of £1,511,000. The people would understand presently if they aid not already know that the Massey Government had pulled the country's finances out of the mire and placed them on a sure and sound (Applause.) '' ■ ' In Native: lands, administration the policy of "Taihoa" had gone for ever, and the Massey Government had infused new life info Native land settlement. For the Worker. "And pur opponents say,'' ho continued, "that we, have done nothing to better *■ the worker. (Uproar and applause.) We are out to help the genuine working man. (Applause.) Tho hard worker will receive " A Social Democrat : r ßatous! Mr. Herdman: You are not a hard worker. I was not talking of you, I have only got to look at you and I know exactly what you are. We wish to provide that the hard worker in the community- will receive a fair reward for his effort; the ordinary citizen will receive as little restriction in his business from unnecessary laws as possible. Last of all we have no time for the loafer— (applause)—for the faddist, no time for the agitator. (Applause.) : .Wβ have no time for the mare's-nester, no time for the bluffer. All. these persons to whom t have referred will have to find congenial companions in the ranks of'the Liberal Party, and amongst the Red Feds. (Applause.), Tho Massey Government had increased the rate of interest in the workers' bank, the Post Office Savings Bank. A voice: Myers done it. Mr. Herdraan: "No, the Massey Government did it." He read figures to show how the deposits in the Post Office had increased . since the Massey Government took office. The pay of railway servants had been increased by £120,000 a year, and subsidies to fhe superannuation fund made ' the total benefit m> to nearly £200,000 a yeah The Public Servants had been riven, increases of £48,000 a year, and the Post and Telegraph, .employees £42,000.

The Public Service. ■ With regard to the Public Service Act, Sir Joseph Ward had said he proposed to restore Parliamentary control of tho service.' 'This was exactly what existed now. The Commissioners could be dismissed by a resolution of Parliament at any time. What had been abolished was .Ministerial control and political patronage. ' Some of the Public Servants miglrfc not like it, but' no was perfectly satisfied that the people of the country had 'a better Publio Service than they, . ever had before. And; he continued, '.'although we havo had the' war and two strikes to contend with, we have never yet had to cast men out into the street as Sir Joseph Ward did.in-1909." (Applause) It was not true to say that the Government had increased taxation through the Customs. - They had increased taxation, but .on , men with large incomes and large estates. An examination of tho figures would shou that large estates were being cut up. Hβ referred tanaval defence at some v g i j e " oped on 6 day **> se e New Zealand ships in these waters to help the Mother Country in the defence of the Pacific. For the City. In conclusion, Mr. Herdman referred t'%^ 1 ! natters ' affecting the people of Wellington, .to, which the Government had- given attention. . He mentioned _ the new ■ railway station project, a town-planning scheme, the purchase of the Day's Bay busn tho proposed improvement of the Mount Cook site, the establishment of the museum there, and the pro.posed handing over of the Terrace! Gaol' site to the Education Department for a school site. Thero was still much to do, ■ There must be a railway into Uairarapa by a now. route, there must Dβ a railway ante Manawatu by another route, and there must be a new route , into Wairarapa by way of the lako lhese were matters still to be attended to, if not by this Government, then by its successors. (Applause.) . The Reform. Cohort. Mr. Herdman concluded by a brief mention of the Government • candidates contesting the electorates in and around Wellington. • „ "There is Fisher—(Uproar)— the brilliant debater and courageous fighter " he said. "There is Newman, the 'little doctor'—(Applause)—an • old and rehpected resident of this city, and at one time your Mayor. ' Thete is Luke, your present Mayor—(Applause)—a man who has been tried in the fire of public lite and has come through unscathed 1 with flyiiiß'colours. His services, and the services of his excellent wife in this war time can never be forgotten, "and his services during the strike can never bo forgotten." (Applause.) "Thero is Wright, a former member of Parliament—(Applause)—a .City Councillor, a courageous advocate of his own views. There aro other fighters in our ranks to whom I need not refer. 1 hope I may refer to one, however. He is not a resident of Wellington, but ho is as well known as lam in Wellington.' I refer to tho old veteran, Sir Walter Buchanan—(Applause)—the- courageous settler who came hero in the early days, fought against odds, and made 1 his position in fife, a man who by his generosity has won respect and esteem all over the country, a man who never lets his right hand' know what his loft hand doeth." (Applause.) Thanks and Confidence. Mr. 11. E. Sinclair moved a vote of thanks to Mr. Herdman, and of confidence in him and the Massey Government. Tho motion was seconded by Mr. J. W. Mackay. The chairman called for tho ayes and the noes in turn, and in, volume the ayes had it. He made no declaration, however, probably because tho baulked Federationists and Liberals at tho back made a great deal too much noise to permit of orderly procedure. The meeting concluded with cheers foi» Mr. Herdman and for tho Government, and also a coiiutowlemoiistratlou of Mich less weißht,