MR WILFORD.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 November 1922, Page 4

MR WILFORD.

ENTItISTASTTC MEETING AT

AUCKLAND. CONFIDENCE IN LIBERAL PAR ID AUCKLAND, Nov 13. Mr Wilford addressed a very large audiciuee ( ill the Town Hall. He was accorded a most enthusiastic reception and a vote of thanks and confience in his party was carried by an overwhelming majority. The Mayor, Mr Gunson presided. Replying to critcum regarding hu attitude to Sir Joseph Ward, Mr Wil ford said it was monstrous (.hat the cry of “Rack to Seddou” should, bring the suggestion that be was. going back on his former leader. He recognised that Sir Jofieph Ward was a man wh would be of imnienso value to the country on financial Tv>nH-r. rs if only he could see his way to stand, ail'd lie hop ed that even if he did not stand lie would bo able to give criticism of what was called Reform finance. Sir Joseph was a great statesman and great financier, and of his Imperial feelings thero could be no question. Liber lism amounted to almost a faith, and it refused to recognise class. It was inclusive and not exclusive. ilr Wilford dealt with the action ol the Government in repealing the second ballot and giving a proufise to sujJsUtutje something else that never would be carried out. The Ref'T-m Party stood for no reform. The Liberal Party stood for proportional representation, and if they could not get that they hoped to get the necessarv electoral reform by preferential voting. The Liberals had to fight the 'Reform Party, hut there was no policy to fight. He referred to the policy put out by Mr Massey in 1011, but claimed that the promises then made had not been fulfilled. He referred to the plank of the 1011 platform which, stated that the Reform Party aimed at reform of tlio financial system with a view of keeping borrowing within reasonable bounds and preventing wasteful expenditure. Mr Massey had complained about the secrecy regarding the cast of the ;£5.000.000 loan. “Why tliis secrecy l '” ‘he had asked. “Tt is bound to cause suspicion.” Now Mr Massey announced last week that he was offered first £300,000 and then £1,000,000 on a short dated loan at a rate that was confidential. We had to pay the rate and wo had every right to know what it was, yet Mr Massey in the past had said, “Why this score vy ? It is hound to cause suspicion.” (Laughter). The objective of the Reform Party and the Labour Party was to get rid of the Liboral Party. We say absolutely,” continued' Mr Wilford, “that it woul be, a bad.-thing for the country if the Liberal Party was ever pushed out of existences. It was the party which made the country in tho past and can make it in the t'utijrc. W’e say that the Reform and Labour Parties have grasped hands arid compacted to get us out if possible.

A Voice: That is a lie! “It will move,” said Mr Wilford “that the Reform Taft is waterlogged and hardly fit after the elections to carry away the castaways who have to get away. The leader of the Liberal Party r furred to the report of the. Taxation Committee and said that miles company taxation was reduced to 3s. as suggested by the commission or some amount fixed hv financial advisers, there was trouble coming. H<* again referred to tho 191] policy, in which it was promised that there would he no extravagance in expenditure and an end put to waste and said that as yet there was no real attempt to reduo» expenditure, at id stop ul.iste. When he left the National Cabinet with his old chief on August 2, 1919, there was a surplus of £15,000,000 in the Treasury. All of this had not gone as some of it was in soldiers’ land (Laughter). Tim bright, brilliant idea of the Prime Minister, to get back the 4J per cent free-of ineomu tax debentures was not going to have the tiesired effect. The speaker said he had hoard it stated that the taking of money for these debentures was an immoral transaction, hut in his opinion it was nothing of the kind, for it was done to make people with money place it at the disposal of tho Government. Any mail who had £SOOO worth of thesci debentures and nothing else would pay no income tax, so that if he exchanged them far 5A stock the country would merely.pay him a little more and lie would still pay no income tax. He did not expect, however, that any company owning £100,(XX) worth of 41 pur cent debentures would hand them in unless they themselves were to he handed in somewhere else.

As showing that expenditure was not tiding reduced ns promised in 1911. Air Wilford said the I’riine Minister this year budgeted for very little below the amount of last year, and there was not the revenue to meet it. In 191.1. the year after .Mr Afasscy took office, the expenditure for the year was £ll,825,864. In the 1914 linnneial year it had jumped to £12.379,803. By 1918, tint last year of the war it was £13.(>73.509. In 1919, the last year of the National Cabinet, the total was £23,781,524, and. as a .Minister in the National Cabinet he had to take his share, of responsibltiy from the time lie joined in 1917 to 1919, when he left it. After 1919, when the thrift campaign of the Reform Party commenced. the expenditure for 1920 jumped to £28.008,000. Probably, said Air Wilford, this was election year and the money was needed to buy votes. In 1921 with all the talk of thrift and economy, the- expenditure was £28,466,000 and this year it was still up to £27,938,009 with an estimated revcpup of £26,250,000 and this wa,s election year. A great many trusts and combines miscalled associations, were beginning to take their toll of thi s country. He did not object to any combination of firms if they were not exploiting the; public, but when it saw trusts and combines creeping into the country to profiteer at the people’s expense, the Liberal Party said that a tribunal of investigation, on the lines of the Commission on Trust in Britain in 1919 should be instituted. The first thing that should ho done with profiteers was to abolish fines and make it imprisonment and then the cat. (Laughter). The question had tq he tackled. The Libera] Party claimed that there should he a judicial inquiry into trusts or associations that controlled petrol, banking, cement, tobacco, woollen goods ole., in this country. (Applause). Alen were convicted in New Zealand in connection with the sale of a. pot of vaseline and an alarm clock, but it seemed that the net was set j only for little fish, and the big ones | were let go. Auckland was the head- J quarters of a cement combine. !

The Liberal Party stood for a State hank and an agricultural bank as well. The president of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, Mr AY. J. Poison, had characterised the proposal for lllira I Credit Asoeiations as farcical, and an insult to the. intelligence of the executive of the Farmers’ Union. All round the country spmll farmers were waking up to the fact, th.qt the Massey party was pot turning out the friend of the farmer they had expected it to be. They recognised that its administration of the benefits of the Liberal Party was that of foster-father,

and not a - real father. (Laughter). Tlte q]d, Liberal-Labour Party drove the piles of the success and prosperity of . this country. Something had to be dgufi.to help farmers. They needed experimental farms, stich as the model dairy farm at. Stratford, . whepe the average production of JiuHer-.fat was increased from 1651 b to 4021 b n cow.

On the subject of shipping the speaker sai(} the Government, producers, exporters .and importers should get together and formulate a scheme to carry produce to the markets ol the world.’ Dealing with the railways, Mr Wilford said thq, board set up.,by the Prime Minister was not a joke, it Was a tragedy. The speaker ,said . there were two questions ho wnuteri the Reform newspapers to answer. The first was that seeing that the railways ran 586,127 miles less this year than last year, and 1410 more men wore employed and that the expenditure had increased, notwithstanding the fact that over hall a million less train miles had been run, by £801,126, where did the economy and thrift come in? The second question was: How does it come about that exponditure increased by 6801,126 when extraordinary increases have taken place in passengers’ season tickets arid goods tonnage? Where has the loss come about, and why have tho railways lost nearly £1,000,000. A vote, of thanks arid confidence, and expressing the opinion that it was time a change of Government was brought about, was carried by an overwhelming majority.