The Political Campaign.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 3 October 1911, Page 2

The Political Campaign.

MR. BYRON BROWN IN LEVIN.

VIGOROUS ADDRESS

Mr Byron Brown addressed the electors of Levin and $rtvict last evening in the Century Hall. I-neie was a. large attendance. Mr T. A. B Hudson wa.s voted to the chair. He asked the audience to give Mr Brown a fair hearing. Mr Brown, who was warmly applauded, said that lie was pretty well known by this time. Ho bad sel-dom-had anything but a fair aiul impartial hearing in Levin, and he telt sure that he would receive one that evening. This was his sixth address in connection with bis campaign. - © had opened bis campaign at Otaki as a matter of etiquette, because Otaki was the headquarters of the polling. He intended to fight <a very strenuous campaign, but ho was not going to be the Byron Brown as he was formerly known. He nowhad « "humble and contrite heart. (Laughter and applause). Proceedin."-, Mr Brown gave a history of the Otaki electorate during the past sixteen years, and referred to the severo defeats that previous Opposition can. didates had suffered, it looked six years ago as though the Opposition were going to allow tin- 1 Government to have a. walk over, and so lie came forward, but was beaten by about two to one. In 1908 no one came forward. The Opposition appeared to have no objection to him, so be stood and was again beaten —this time by a narrow majority. He was there to fight again. Now the Opposition had seen fit to put a man in opposition to him. He was not a. party man, and if he had bis w>ay he would have no parties at all. The Opposition had a right to do as it pleased, and he, too } had a right to come forward. He was not going to stand down; lie was going to fight, and if be were beaten he would take it with the best 'of grace. The man who had stepped into tho breach in the past was deserving of consideration. It v.a.s said that Mr Brown was all right, hut "he was a.

ROTTEN J'ROH.MiITJONIST," and therefore certain people would not vote for him. Tins was hardly fair. If they agreed with him on five things out of six, they should be content to sink the one point of difference; it was impossible to get a perfectly suitable candidate for anyone. Now the people had a local option and a dominion poll, ajid the matter lay in their hands. At the last election when lie so nearly won, some of the Government supporters said that if he had asked them for their votes ho could have bad them. That did not appeal to his sense of honour, and personally he was not going to ask tliein individually for their votes. (Applause). He asked them collectively. At the last election he demonstrated that is was possible for the Opposition candidate to win the seat. Now what was going to take place? He would tell them. The Government candidate «ind be were going to be in the second ballot! (La,lighter and applause). There was not the slightest shadow of doubt about that. He was retired from business, and if elected he would be able to devote the whole of his time to the interests of the people of the electorate. So far as this country was concerned, he had the greatest faith in it, and lie believed the time had arrived when sound, clear-minded business men in New Zealand should be put into Parliament. He believed, too, that when another colonial treasurer was appointed, there would be a. revelation that would stagger the people. Dealing largely on the lines of bis Otaki speech, Mr Brown dealt .with the subject of taxation, which toad Keen iiicrensnur and increasing in this country by leap? and bounds. Why had the price of fond risen? Tire first reason was the combinations that had arisen in New Zealand and Australia, and the second was the increase in taxation on foodstuffs that were used in connection with the customs tariff of this countrv. The

COST OF LIVLNG had increased, by 25 per cent, during tho last eighteen years. The proof that they could have done without the full degree of taxation imposed was seen by the fact that •Sir • J. W'.urd had -had a million of surplus. With that £1,000,000 lie could have remitted 19 Ski per head. With regard to tike I'foe breakfast table that so much was said about, ho said that one 111 iglit thin k every article 011 the table was free. As a matter of" fact it w.as nothing of the sort. Duties were paid 011 cups, saucers, jugs and condiments as well. This was the free table that the Government boasted it had given to the people. There was also a duty 011 wheat, and the Government would not support Mr Hogg's bill, which, if passed, would have broken up the New Zealand Millers' Co-operative Association, which had been tho means of putting up the price of flour. The price to-day was £8 10s. That was

a rise of C 2 10s since the formation of the Association. ft had even /•eaclied £I'">, and, in the face, of this, the Government had refused to adopt Mr Hogg's Flour Duties Abolition Hill. The Association, was robbing the people of 2-lOlbs 011 every ton of wheat. The price of sugar had .a.!.so gone up in recent weeks through the work of a trus.t, and they were paying quite £'5 a ton more than the legitimate price. If they had a really democratic party in power they would do something to stop this. .Seven years ago there ' was a. duty on kerosene of Od. Mr Scddon took off the duty, but the Standard Oil Company stepped in and in. less than twelve months they mopped up the whole of the 6d and put it in their pockets. All these kind iof things interested the people, and it was by putting business men into Parliament that they were likely to wit things right. Some sneering had been done by a certain person who said that storekeepers were trying to get into Parliament. There was one in Parliament already, and he .hoped the electors of Otaki would send him to keep Mr Hardy company. Turning to ASSETS AND LIABILITIES, Mr Brown said ,that some people did not understand what- assets _ were. For instance, he did not think Sir. Joseph "Ward did. ('Laughter'). Sir Joseph wont about the country boasting that his assets were larger than his liabilities. He said thiat his assets were £93,000,000. and hs liabilities £81.000.000. He claimed with that £93.000,000 £20,000,000 as the value of the property over -which the Advances to Settlers 'office -held' mortrratres. In fact he had only lent £8.000.000. and vet lie claimed that d £20,000.000 iiti his assets of £93'000,000. It was a piece of andaHtv in the way of 'finance he had seldom heard of. Mr Bmvn went on • .to analvso the liabilities, and maintained llrat the (rovevmneut's liabilities were £95.000,000 and, that the ns-set-s were onlv £8].000.000. This dec|orkte, : ])aid' intq the oof-

fers of the state last year and that was a fact that could net be disputed. Thoy had got into the habit of voting for the Government candidate becauso they got Government money. But what bad Otaki electorate had spent on it during the past year? He knew of nothing, except .a twopenny halfpenny post office in Shannon. * It was an ugly, dirty, squatty looking tiling —(Loud laughter) —and had he been member for the district lio would, on seeing the plans, have gono to Sir J. Ward and said "Tf you can't give ns sometilling 'better than that you bad better keep tho 1 ilo-oining t.hi ng." (Loud laughter). They wanted other men in power. He' knew that the Opposition were going about the country saying they would sweep the country . They would do -nothing of the kind. Tlie most thoy might do was to win a dor.en seats. The Government would be retnrfted as long as the

BRITISH MONEY-LENDER, would lend them their millions year in and year out. They found their debt per head of population was tho greatest in the world. That was a matter that required careful looking into. The national debt had increased per capita very considerably. In 1891 the charter head <of the population was !_6!) lis; 'to-day it was £81. T.hey had a sinking fund, aii'] Sir Joscpli A\ in*y canic along with a sinking fund, and ho also came along witli a Public Debt Extinction Fund, which was to wipo oft tho national debt in 70 years. In the first vear the Premier paid £144000 into'th<? Extinction Act Fund, hut he was box rowing five and a half millions every year. How long would it take to wipe off the national de'bt at thai, rate? (Laughter). And vet it was the kind of philosophy'that members of Parliament swallowed with codfish like simplicitv. (Lttughlor). On tho Innd question. Mr Brown said that he would reserve his remarks till a later <h-iJo. Hut he would say at this juncture that our native land legislation was very faulty. Iho Government had done nothing. There were 3.000.000 acres of native land. Notwithstanding much of_ this was very free and capable of immediate production, yet the Government had done nothing. There was some 8,000 acres between here and the sea, and it was held by two men and by no ono else. How was it that onlv two men in Levin could getNative laml. J He knew; but he would not tell them. Ho had had his own les>on. (Laughter). .Tf he had been their member he would have seen that the Gear Estate had been taken over by the Government. Tt could have been taken over for £10 an acre and let out at CIS. Farmers could not afford to pay ;£HO an acre. (ApplauseV Continuing, Mr Brown said that they had an immense sum of inonev put on tho estimates for public expenditure in the electorates. Otnki's share last election Year was C2'),000. Did they ge>t .-£29,000 as their share. £29,000? Twentv-nine thousand pence was more like what thev rent. This year they had i l ' creased the amount on the PUBLIC ESTIMATES

to £'3,-12J,000. That would give Otaki electorate a sum of £45.000. Did they think they would get it? At the 'present "time they had got a post 'oflice at Shannon, which madp one cockeyed to look at. (Loud laughter). He would rather post his letters in a dust bin than iii the post office at Shannon. In conclusion Mr I?row 11 said that he was in favour of an elective Executive, an electivo Upper House, a Public Works Board and a Civil Service Board. He wa.s sure that if they gave him a chance to represent them in Parliament {-k«y would be delighted with the energy which he would display in the discharge of bis duties. (Loud applause). In reply to a question as to whether ho v.'a.s in favour of the State taking over the liquor traffic Mr Brown said that he thought what they had to do was to give dominion option a chance. The people had been premised that. Tf they ever closed hotol.s. and dominion option did not do . then Jie would he the first man to say. "Let the hotels Come along and we will put- them under the State.'' But liejlid not think State control wouki cure tiie evil. If there was evil in the drink, than oven if tihe Lord Jesus Christ came down and sold drink it w-ou'ti make people drunlc. (Loud laughter). In reply to a further question he said that lie hardly know what to do in regard to the abolition of the totalisator. He had been thinking the matter over iVr some time. He was against the totalisator, and if lie haa liis way lie would abolish it. The public apparently wanted a safety valve to let out its evil dispositions, and if they were going to close the public-houses they might possibly let them have a safety valve in the way or a totalisator. But they might take it from him—he was against the totalisator. . Mr J. Knight asked whether it was true that .Mr Brown was the accepted candidate for the Opposition at- the last-election. Mr Brown replied: Yes, that is j absolutely true, Mr Knight. The j Opposition oilered me help. But 1 said, No; leave 1110 alone. If lam j not lit to do my own talking 1 am not fit to enter Parliament. (Loud applause). I was the "official" Opposition candidate last time, which I much regret. He added that lie believed there was some rumour that 110 had not been the Opposition candidate, but lie had all the Opposition correspondence from the Last time in his desk, and he was just waiting for them to see what they were going to do, and lie would produce Mr Massey's letters. Questioned with regard to military service, Mr Brown said that what he stated at Otaki was this: That if a. country were worth living in it was worth fighting for. and the man who would not train should be forced to train and fit himself to fight if required. He would not force any man to fight. He had a sincere regard for the rjuakers, who had religious objections to militry service- But where a man would rot train just out of wilfulness then he- said lie should be made to train. (Cheers.) But let those who made the troubles fight. For instance, Kings should come out and fight. Mr Knight: Well, why don't you make Kings come put and fight? Mr Brown: Well, I am only Mr Byron Brown. (Loud laughter!) I "can't make them come_ out and have a cup of coffee and pistols. Further questioned, the candidate said that he thought in all fairness Mr Massoy should be allowed to travel; round the country free of cost, seeing that Ministers trotted round at the expense of the country, but personally, lie objected to such ' a policy.