SIR JAMES ALLEN

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 50, 22 November 1919, Page 8

SIR JAMES ALLEN

GOVERNMENT'S WORKS , REVIEWED

OUR RESPONSIBILITY IN SAMOA

8 WARDIST FINANCE PROPOSALS CRITICISED..

■ By Telegraph—Prw Milton, November 21. Sir James Allen opened his election campaign to-night. He 'commenced his speech by making feeling reference to tho services of our soldiers in Eurone and elsewhere. Our men had done, well at the front, he said, and the name of tho New Zealand troops was respected, in every part of the globe where they Fid be»n. He dea.lt with the excellent work carried out by tho Defence Department and with the satisfactory conclusions arrived at by the Defence Commission after a full inquiry into the Department's administration. Speakiwz of post-war work, he said that under the Defence Department, the number of individual patients in and out of hospital who were undergoing occupational, educational, and vocational training during October, 1919, was 1367. and ■ as some men attended more than one class the total attendances were 1784. Hp referred to the fact that the Repatriation Act was prepaid and p"t tnroii!»ii the Hou=e by himself. On Oefober 20 traininc had been arranged for men, and 22.16 wero receiving traininc. In coal strikes betwepn November, 1911;. and Pobriiarv, 1919. 427 days were lost, in addition to the lo."" occasioned V the _ioslow" nolicv. Tho West. Coast mines were chiefly affected, 135!) bein<r_ concerned and the loss of days being 345. T'l the State mines 69 days were lost. • Dunns tlie settlement of the September. 9 8, strike the miners' delegates sugwsted the petting up of disputes committees to settle differences and avoid sl-nlce*. his proposal was agreed, to. everthe ess, since then no fewer than thirteen strikes had taken place. , Sir .Tames Allen quoted ficruyes to show the increase in the eo=t of living m Australia, Canada, the "PniM States, and hther 'countries bntwepn IAH *' The Bonrfl Trade w provided foi m the Act of 1915, and the report for 1919 indicated the steps it h. taken to control the n.e. had dealt with many »vocery l.eins and had fixed the prices oi bacon, wheat, ♦innr hrpa<l etc. ■ Tn order tA wake better provision for the control of _ pr , and to stop profiteering, the Befom Government had this year_ p s, d_ the Board of Trade Act. which weludfd spe-. cial provisions to prevent profiteering. Mr. Massey had always been an fainw advocate of proper- provisuSh for the housing of .wage-earners. I" '), e Leader of the Opposition, he urged> the insertion of a clause in the Advances to.. Settlers Bill to provide for being made to wage-earners who v. isiit! I to become their own landlords. On oJiei occasions Mr. Massey moved in thes mat-, ter. and in October, MOfi, the inent, no doubt influenced by Mi. Uassev's action, brought down . a Bill for advances to workers. During the time Mr. Massey was m office prior to the waT, and subsequent to that, the pol oj he had advocated was pursued under- his administration. To been doiio recently under the ad\ancesto settlers and advances to scheme, Sir James Allen quoted tho amounts authorised from Api ll to November 10, 1919. Hie sum authoi'iped to 645 settlers Amount d .-£306,105 to. build houses and complete the purchase of properties; the fmm authorised to 451 workers amounted to «C149,4t5 to build liousw and complete the purchase of properties; and, the sum authorised to 216 settlers to release mortgages on house properties » ,£80,300. This showed a.total ot mieases, and the amount involved was £535.940. In addition commitments under the Housing Act have made for 67 houses at a cost of i.4,a87, and land has been purchased in various places for housing purposes to the extent of .£16,086. , , . He had to ask them to remember that in the Peace Treaty provision was made for certain mandates, and New Zealand had one over Western Samoa. Except for the unfortunate epidemic, the administration of Samoa had been on found lines, and well conducted. The mandate had not yet arrived, but they had been informed of the nature of it. When they went to Samoa they found it was largely occupied by a large German company, and others held, smaller properties. Power was given them to take over those estates, and they had had them valued, and placed the money they represented in value to the credit of .the fund that, was ultimately to be paid by Germany. It was found in Samoa that the estates had been administered by labour fnm' outside, and had been brought to a high state of cultivation. They found that ,1000 men had been indentured from outside. Colonel Logan had gone there with, the fixed conviction .that, he would he ablo to induce the Samoans themselves to keep the land in a state of cultivation, but that he had found impossible. The indentured meii were decreased to, 1000, and tho others -were repatriated. The,, result had been that estates had. gone' back. Some of the crops had been so damaged that it would take five to seven years to get. them again. The question of indentured labour ,had come before Parliament, but New Zealand had never introduced indentured labour there. Samoa had been no losing proposition to New Zealand, but a more or less profitable one. The excels of reserve over expenditure, last year had averaged about and that had been spent on roads and other essentials, and converting German currency into British currency, but if they were lo carry on Samoa they must not let it go back if a little money would keep the plantations up. He did not believe New Zealandera were prepared to "turn down" the wish of tlie. Motherland when they were expected to accept the mandate, and it became essential that a certain number of indentured labourers should he brought into tho country to bring it up to produHivity. Tho soil was such that the , white man could not work on it without breaking down. Apparently the Chinese were inocculated and were" able to work there. They received hospital treatment, their pay was not high, it was true, and they were repatriated after their engagement was finished if they wanted to get back to China. Several of them had not wanted tq go back, and were ro-indehtured. Parliament would coneider the question next year. A visit would therefore he paid to the Islands by members of Parliament to see if it ww nos*'hle to do without indentured labour. Touching on the civil administration of Samoa, ho pa ; d that as soon as the mandate was confirmed tho military occupation would cease, and there wouid "be civil occupation. A civil administrator had been appointed, for three • vears. The occupying garrison woulo! be brought away in December, and in I order to nreserve peace and quietness in the islands seventy able and splendid moil had been enlisted as police, and thev wore ready to go there under three years' engagement. Half the number would 1)6 mounted and tho others would be foot police. The civil administration of Samoa was to l>e part and parcel of the Nun 'Zealand Civil Scrvice, with the right of superannuation, and officers wnuiil be drawn from the Dominion to go lo the islands on a tropical allowance. Thev would come back with valuable experience because of their outside service. Sir .Tames Allen went on to speak of tin) satisfactory arrangements made by the Prime Minister with regard to tho island of Nauru, from which New Zealand would get a large share of the phosphate deposits. The Dominion 'might coriffratulate itself that the Prime Minister had tho wisdom and the foresight to make this provision in the interests of Ihis country. (Applause.) IMwriiiK to the aftermath of war, he said they all regreltrd the sick and wounded, and mourned I he dead. The Defence Department and Ihe mee.ieiil staff, under the Dcparlinent were doing creat work for the sicl; and wounded. The arrangements might not be perfect, but day bv day thev were trying lo make the provisions in that respect better nnd better. In tho jaw hospital in Dunedin excellent work was being done, and lie was proud , to know [ that Dr. Pickerill had Come back

to Now Zealand occupying a high position for his initiative and resource ill the work in which he specialised. Fine work was also being done in tho orthopaedic hospitals. Everything that science and kindness could do was being done for the sick and wounded men. it was essential that the men in hospital should not idle awuy (iheir time, and no money could bo better spent than that spent on the training of these men. (Applause.) He cami9 next to the machinery which had helped to carry the country through during the war time. He referred to tho National Government. When the National Government was formed 'he was in favour of it, and he still said there was no other way that New Zealand could do its duty exwpt by the coalescing of the two parties which wero nearly equal in the House. He desired to remark that when the lato Government was formed a frat in it was offered to a Labour man, but the Labour representatives did not see fit to accept it. This he re-, gretfced because it was a mistake on the part of the Labour men in the, House, so that Labour, Capital, and everybody else might be imited, and the effort mado of'a composite people to win the wiar, 'and to carry oil after the war. (Applause.) As'a matter of fact, tlwro was little difference between the Reformers and tihe so-called Liberals on the main questions of the day. It was to be regretted that" the Reform and Liberal members who differed so little in nolitics and principles did not ioin hands to see the country through the next few years of.its oifficulties. (Applause.) The war time tras a difficult time. Wo now had the terrible consequences of the war to fnce. and he believed it would require a stronger Government to properly see the country through the next few years than it had had during war time. (Ajiplauso.) Sir .Tames Allen referred to the position of the Budget when placed in his hands by his predecessor, and quoteo; the (inures already published. The position. he said, was such that if ho had been Minister of Finance at the timo he would, realising the difficult situation have stuck to the job, and he regretted that the previous Minister did not see it. was his duty to o'o so. (Applause.) However, he belieyed if the people would out their shoulders to the wheel, if they could avoid industrial unrest, and if evervbodv would do hi? best to produce to the utmost of his power, there would still be a surplus at the end of the financial year. (Applause.) Referring to Sir Joseph Warns proposals respecting increased revenue, Sir James Allen said the Leader of the Opposition had two proposals, s The first was tlif> establishment of a Stats from which he expected to get a, profit of half a million. As the speaker understood his proposals, Sir Joseph Ward was going to buy the bank first. He would have to pay a large sum for it, and would have to find interest on his outlay, which at tjhe same time was going to lose income tax, and the tax on bank notes, both of which were a source of revenue at the present lime. Sir James Allen said he questioned' very much whether, after paying the interest and deducting the loss of this taxation Sir Joseph Ward would get anything like half a million. Sir Joseph Ward's other proposal was the • nationalisation of the coal mines. They had State coal mines already, and experience showed that no very largo profits had been made out of those mines, or out of the distribution of tlie coat. Those who had read, the Board of Trade reports would know very well that the average rate of interest on money invested in coal mines had not of recent vears been a very, great amount, but Sir Joseph Ward said he was going to get a large 6um. The speaker did not liko "camouflage," and that was "camouflage of the worst type) When the State undertook anv sort of operations it was tho policy of the Government to supply the needs of the country, and when those needs were urgent in a matter such as the supply of coal the State should not s*ek to make any (treat profit after paying interest and depreciation. It was not a fair thing by charging more than should be charged to mnltc an extra, profit out of the consumers of coal, and the proposal of Sir Joseph Ward was a most extraordinary one to come from a man who was a Liberal. Sir James Allen touched on a number of other 'matters., after which he was accorded a hearty vote of thanks and continued confidence.