POLITICAL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2338, 3 November 1908, Page 7

POLITICAL.

CANDIDATES AND THEIR SPEECHES.

MEMBERS SALARIES'.

At Manakau- last week Mr Field, ALP., stated' that he did not consider £3OO per year enough to adequately recompense members, and should & proposal be brought forward to increase the honorarium to £4OO lie would support it. In connection with this question the “Dominion,” in its leading coh.ir.ns, remarks: —“During last session there were some evidences of a growing ft eling amongst the Ministerialist party that the Government should further increase the salaries of members of Parliament. At Manakau last week Mr Field, M.P., openly advocated a further raid upon the public purse. He did not think that £3OO per year was sufficient recompense for members and “should a proposal be brought forward to increase the honorarium to £4OO he would support it.” The public may well feel a little concern on the subject. The deterioration of the character of the House has complemented the rise in the salaries of members exactly as was anticipated, and it is safe to assume that the public does not desire to give the professional politician any further encouragement. The “honorarium” can no longer bo regarded as anything hut a. salary. Oi'iginally intended as a reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses, it has already grown to a figure that makes it attractive on its own account to a certain type of mam. To raise it still further will merely stimulate the efforts of the professional politician. The Second Ballot Act contains a clause providing for the payment, up to £SO, of the expenses incurred by a candidate who has occasion to submit himself to a second ballot. That is a first step towards spending the public’s money on the expenses incurred by candidates, and it is sufficiently indicative of tlie Government’s frame of mind to inspire the public with a good deal of concern. The public, we believe, is opposed to any further increase in the payment of members, and it will he well advised to vote against every candidate who leans towards another raid' on the Treasury.”

A STRONG OPPOSITION NEEDED. iSpeaking at Wadestown the other evening, Mr R. B. Williams said he was an opponent of the Ward Administration. He still' claimed to he a Ribera!. The ol'd line between Liberal and Conservative did not exist in New Zealand l . They were all Liberals. He would not-.by any means say he would oppose iall the legislation brought down by that Administration. Many of their measures ■were good ones, huh he did not agree with the present trend of tlieir patriotism, and their apparent satisfaction when the country was indeed in a. serious position. There was never more need of a strong and searching Opposition. For a long time the Administration had been untrammelled, and had raised the national debt, until now it stood at the enormous sum of 65 millions, , whife the country had a bare population of a million, Maoris included. DEFENCE. In the course of his remarks on defence at Christchurch East last week, Me C. ißoxshall, the Opposition candidate, described the objects of the Legion' of Frontiersmen, a body of men who had seen active service, and who were prepared to offer their services free of all costs to the State in oases of national' emergency. The New Zealand Council of Defence had the distinction of having twice refused to allow the establishment of a branch of the Legion in the Dominion , a refusal the reason of which was hard to understand. The city, he remarked, did not want soda water politicians. It wanted solid men, not those who sizzled round merely at election time. “STINKING FISH.” “The Prime Minister may know that the financial fish in New Zealand is stinking, but he cannot say so. He has to say that it is sweet and fresh, because he has an election to face. Those who say that'these elect ions are being hurried on because of financial troubles that are expected in the future say what they know to be time.” —Mr F. T. Moore, speaking at a meeting of the Patriotic Political Association in Wellington. BRITISH TORIES Y. NEW ZEALAND LIBERALS. Touching upon the Workers’ Compensation Act, Mr D. APLaren, the Labor candidate for Wellington, East, stated that the present* Government was taking credit for having passed very -advanced legislation on that subject. “But,” said Mr M'Laren, “it is a fact that the British Tory House of Lords in 1906 sanctioned a Workers’ Compensation Act which is far more radical. For instance, it provided for the payment of compensation to domestic servants, whereas that class of worker was excluded from- the benefits of the - New Zealand Act. Then again, it provides that in case of permanent injury there shall be no limit to the amount of liability. A worker was table to draw compensation as long as the injury remained—in some eases it might amount to a life benefit.” MR FISHER ON LOYALTY.

“What is loyalty ?” was a. question to which: Mr Fisher, the sitting member for Wellington Central, supplied an -answer at a recent meeting. Would the electors call 1 it loyalty, he asked, if a .man went into the House, .having pledged himself to his constituents on, certain points and threw his pledges over his shoulder in deference to the wishes of a party leader ? Or" was it loyalty when a man. sacrificed the interests of his constituents to attain his own personal ends? The answer, he said 1 , must emphatically be “No.” The loyal man .in politics was the man who criticised with the utmost freedom, and kept the general public informed as to what business was being transacted. The true representative of the people was, in his opinion, the man who took care that he was not deprived of any of his natural' rights, and saw to it that none of the people whom he represented were made to sacrifice anything that rightly belonged to them. “WITH EVIDENT PRIDE.” One is accustomed (not to say hardened) to hearing the Government tike credit for the prosperity of the country. It is less usual to find them speaking as if .the climate and the favorable season were due to their policy. But a (South Canterbury iuterviewor reports that the other day

the Premier spoke “enthusiastically and with evident pride” of the pre sent condition of the country. In the North he did not think it had ever looked better. In fact he had heard people declare that it had never before looked so well as this year. The season wias going to be a phenomenally good one. Only a bad blackhearted Opposition could doubt, that all this is the direct result of the Government’s administration. THE. “GAG” CLAUSE.

“Of all* explanations of the Government’s object in embodying the ‘gag’ clause in. the Second Ballot Bill, Mr Fowlds’s is so, far the lamest,” says the “Press,” “that we have come across. He declared that it was unfair to blame the Government- for the ‘gag’ clause for it was put into the Bill to meet objections raised by the Opposition that ‘between the first and second 3 ballots Ministers'would be going all' ‘over electorates where second ballots’ were to be held, and endeavoring to ‘bribe the electors.’ The idea of the present Ministry adopting a self-denying ordinance which would re-ally prevent them from exercising before the second ballot the enormous amount of political influence that they can wield is really grotesque. As a. matter of fact, of course, even if the ‘gag’ clause had been retained in the Bill, as it would have been if the Government had not become frightened of the consequence of their own action, it would .not have freed 1 the second ballots from their influence. There are a hundred ways in which they can make this felt without going on to the public platform, and every member of the Ministry has had 'sufficient practice to make him am adept at pulling wires.” THE FREEHOLD. Air Moore, who is giving Mr Buddo the run of his life for the Kaiapoi seat, was emphatic and convincing last week regarding the danger to the freehold from the present Government. He pointed out that they found Air Fowlds stating that the position of those bolding land' was that of one -holding stolen goods. They had bought from those who had no right to sell, therefore -a freeholder was in possession of stolen property. These sentiments had been- supported by other members. TOO AIUOH LEGISLATION.

Air F. Laway stated in Parnell the other night that he had heard several successive leaders of the Government take credit for the quantity of legislation passed during their term of office, but in his opinion they had too much legislation. What they wanted was that there should -be a rest in regard t-o_ law-making, and that those laws now existing should be consolidated and simplified. They had l-aws at present which no one, not even a lawyer, understood, and instead of piling up more laws each session, they should endeavor to make those that they already had more easy to understand. —This, too, from a Government member.

THE HAWKE’S BAY SEATS.

INTERESTING CONTESTS,

Political events in Hawke’s Bay have become imbued with a considerable degree of interest, and exciting contests are promised in the different electorates.

The contest for the Napier seat is an object-lesson in the effective working of committees, and in this connection Air -Brown is known as a distinctly fine organiser, and he is meeting with excellent support. The embracing of an addition! country area in the electorate should 1 improve Air Fraser’s chances, but Air Brown has made himself exceedingly popular in they town itself, and his recognised business ability carries considerable weight. The town majority may possibly put him iii. The chances are that Sir William Russell will win back the Hawke’s Bay seat. -His personal popularity is undiminished, -and he is faced with five supporters of the Government as opponents. Of these Air A. Dillon, the sitting member, is expected to meet with the greatest amount of favor and may fight the issue with Sir William Russel on the second ballot. Mr A. E. Jull is another distinctly strong candidate, who will poll 1 well, especially at the southern end of the electorate, where he is closely connected with local bodies. Air T. J. Thompson, Mayor of Hastings, is also in the running. He will have a- considerable local following, and also a. certain sympathetic temperance and religious support-. The two remaining candidates, Messrs H. lan Simson and S. iSpencer Cl'apham should not materially -affect the result. In- the Waipawa electorate strong efforts are being made to bring out -an opponent to Air C. Hall, the sitting member. It is on the cards that -a meeting is to be held next week to strongly urge All* George Hunter, who formerly represented the constituency in the Opposition interest, to consent to nomination, -r Hunter was defeated by Mr Hall at the last election, but on this occasion be is considered to have more • hail ~a fighting chance. Pastor Ries, Alaycr of Danneviirtke, has received requests from more than- one quarter to come out, but under present condition® he has positively declined. It is not likely that he will be prevailed upon to contest the seat with the sitting member. Owing to the possibility of no other candidate being forthcoming, it is stated (adds the “Dominion’s” special correspondent) that the No-License party intend to nominate the Rev. F. W. Isitt, in- order to secure -a valid -local option poll.