SIR JOSEPH WARD AT DUNEDIN

Hokitika Guardian, 17 May 1929, Page 7

SIR JOSEPH WARD AT DUNEDIN

A COMPLIMENTARY GATHERING. ..In replynilo the Least of hi.. llu.ni.il Uw ». uwi..p.ii..uiu,iij J in iJaiiuUui Oil .limiuay, can' .i.iitl '11.... i. ilii cullt.l mien a-p. piauso wiiuu no ro.ie 10 speua. sum lie iii.Oii Liioiii ins i.uariiu&. tuaiiivo ior ulieir warm reuepi-iun eilie loasr, and lie would nKe 10 e.vp.es.s Ins appieentuoil of llie oppmollllll.v <-“'ey naa aitordocl him of meeting me raii.v and me or liio GniLun i'any. ,"511011 gatherings gave tin leat.u.s ol llie i-eopie a cnaiiee to le. llio country mio.v wiiut was being none ill regard to the great problems that we. j usereisiiig tiie public mint., and they also pioviiied Llie leader,, with an opportunity to find out what die peopie were ihiniiing and hoping lor. The name of the party to which they all belonged did not matter at ail, so long as they had the numbers in the country supporting them. A g.,u“ deal had been said about the name of the party just now, but to him it was a matter of no concern whatever they were called. They might hear another name, hut they still belonged eo the old party, Unit hhd left behind it such a notable record in achievement, the evidences of which were the many and valuable enactments that had been placed upon the Statute Rook. It had been u great old organisation. When he looked back ,to 1887, when he first entered. Parliament, and mentally reviewed his old associates and the great political changes the years had brought, he felt constrained to marvel at what had been done, and he had to wonder how so much was achieved. The old Liberal Party had been able to do such great things only because it had behind it men and women prepared to support and help and work for the party, people who had been prepared to put their trust, in their leaders, and who had not been afraid to make allowances for small mistakes. There had been give and take right through, and that was' the secret of success in politics. It made him proud to think of the manner in which the party had stuck to its principles through all the years of fighting.' It'would never have been where it’ was to-day if those principles htid not been worth fighting for.' Any Government had to Stick to its principles, 'and the principles that were actuating the Government to-day were the principles that had guided the party through countless vicissitudes from 1890 to 1916, when he gave up, refusing to carry on with a majority of one. He had not been defeated at that time. He had elected to take a back seat, and save the endless trouble that would have resulted from such a small majority. But his principles had been 'the same ail through those years.

' Sir Joseph Ward then said that he would like to deal for a while with the position in which the country found itself to-day. Conditions were very peculiar. There were many in the room who would remember tin bad times in the early days when the Government had had to establish tin memo’.'able and never-to-be-forgotten soup kitchens, when men had to won for 4s a day, when men and woiiien struggled all the time against over whelming odds to make both end' meet, when there were only a lew landholders in the country, and when there were too many large, estates for there to be any land available tor the majority of tile people. They had been evil days for the country, and long before any public action was taken in the matter lie had been engaged with other members of the Government at that time trying to find some way of breaking up the great estates so that there might be laud for the people to settle upon. He could still remember every step in the negotiations leading up to tin fight for the majority of the people. Me had plntformed front Auckland to Stewart Island in those days, deliver ing COO speeches in 12 months, am. sometimes four a day, fighting for land settlement and the then new system of State advances, the system that was going to iinanee the people on to the land when the landholder! were made to relinquish parts of their tremendous holdings. It had been a stern struggle. The Auckland morning newspaper hail attacked him daily when he was in that city, and had sportively referred to his scheipe as “an advanced scheme,” but in spite of all this opposition lie eventually won out when he obtained a loan on the London money market nt 3 per cent—a rate of interest that had never been obtained before or since, at least as far as New Zealand wn v concerned. That money had been secured for lending to the settlers, and there had begun the State Advances Department which to date had provided £10,000,030 for the development and settlement of the land, and which had been the means ot 1.40,000 men, women, and children getting on the land who would never have had an opportunity otherwise. The land had been acquired, cut n ( p. roaded. and made ready for the settlers all out of this money. And now history was repeating itclp. The Government had ngrain to •embark on the task of educating the ncoole "!> to the absolute necessity for securing more land for settlement. •\nd thev were determined to do it. Tt was the firm intention of the Government to give very man his chance to get on to the land and become

independent. More ■ land for tho people was a necessity. For the sake of the people a balance had to be, kept between town and country, and an additional 50,000 had to be put on the land. It was only then that they would he able to ensure that their children would not he hewersof wood and drawers of water for anyone else in the country. It the towns were to prepress they must have hack country, but under the existing conditions there was a depletion of the people on the hind, and there were 15,000 fewer than five years ago. Vet with the hanks overflow! tip with money people were wondering why the country was not progressing in a satisfactory way at the moment. It- was due to the fact thaf there was not sufficient land for tlm oconle fo go on. At the present time the Govern ihent was undermining the dement which went te make unemployment Though it had been in power for onb five months, it had effected great re forms, and it had established beyon all doubt that it was endeavouring to obtain money in sufficient quantities and at a suitable rate to allow working men to go into the country. Every day of their lives since they had gone into power he and the Minister of Public "Works had had the serioumaiter of unemployment to consider, and they had done a tremendou.amount already. There were now 10 000 more men on the Government pa; roll than had ever been employed it the history of the Public Works Do partment. He was not referring t the time when the trunk railway were being made. Those works ha'< been done by contract. He had jus received word from Invercargill tha there were GO men still out of worl Either they would have to be provide' for by the Government or soup kit die ns would have to be established. Those present would have observer that for the last year the finances o the Government were £579,000 on th wrong side. This was no fault of tie present Government. In all probab ijity the amount would be greater and as soon as the Audit Department had gone through all the accounts hr , would make a public statement regarding the finances of the country. If was a serious matter for any countn to he £G09,000 on the wrong side, buf he reaffirmed that there was no ncec 1 to be downhearted. The countn would recover, and. he hoped that h< would be able • to put such measure 1 through Parliament that at the end o J tho next 12 months the country woul< have a surplus. • - i . ,

The Government had already ac quired a property and cut it up into 12 sections, which were now open fo; tender, but it was impeded by its in ability to get men who owned largf territories, to recognise that it wiv their duty to put fair values on tliei’ land. A change had been made 'by the late Government which had en abled land owners to place large value; on the roll. They could value their properties at any amount they proper, and the ljeal value was nevei assessed, s The' result had been tha' land owners bad been putting big/ valuations on theim land because the; did not want it to be taken from them. The Government would hav< to alter the law so that it would have fair values' under a new system of valuations.—(“Hear, hear.”) They hat no reason to fear the ordinary farmer He was not the’disturbing element. H was the large land owner, and tlii' class had to,be asked to respond to tin call of the taxpayer so that the; would have ft, large portion of thoi' land taken from them. The Govern ment wanted nothing except thnf which was fair and honest. Continuing. Sir Joseph said that al present the Government was dealin 1 with policy matters of far-reachin; importance, which would affect th< people of this country for all time Here they were in New Zealand to ,lav with a population of about 1,500,000 in a country no smaller than England. Scotland, and Ireland and half of Wales, while in Great Britain there was a population of about 55,009,000. The production of New Zen land "'as equal to that of Great Britain. and yet it could not'support onefiftieth of the people. New Zealand must carrv more people than its pro sent 1.500/X)0 if the best use was tr he made of the country. She musf take all those people who wanted tc come here and settle. Of course, this country could not he expected to gr on bringing immigrants in the niidd'r of winter when every extra mar meant a swelling of the volume ol unemployment, which was already fa’ too serious a problem. There wen other ways of absorbing these people The Government was putting its faitl in the land, and in cheap money which would allow of that land bcinr adequately developed. There they had the main features of the Government’s policy—more land for set l,|riDioiit and cheaper money to biinc that land into production. Tie could assure them that he had a defmifi policy bef-wo him, and be would like to state that there was a great den' to be done before the House met again in the carrying out of that policy. Tip till the present, said Sir Joseph Ward, the Government had not used any portion of the £7 .TV). 099 which 0.0 bad borrowed since last December. That was still intact, but it would be spent during next year on railways, road extension, and the completion of hydro-electric works. The Dominion, lie said, had a goal ahead of it i" regard to hydro-electric works, h"' they must remember that they could not go on for ever spending momon this class of work. The time would arise when they would have to fix a limit to hydro-electric construction They had to find the acme of necessity and then make up their minds to

finish with further development. The speaker also made some reference to the State Advances Department, which, lie contended, had greatly helped tho business community by extending assistance to over 809 workers in the building of their own homes since last December. When his party took over the reins of Government live months and fourteen days ago there was a sum of £.9,900.090 awaiting distribution through this department, and in the short time at their disposal the entire amount had been disposed and there was now n further sum of £1.700.009 awaiting applicants. In conclusion, lie said that Dunedin was one of the he«t governed municipalities in Now Zealand. He hoped that its trouble nv<w Waipori would lie brought to a satisfactory conclusion. He looked forward to the da v when the State would own the whole of the sources of bvdro-eloctric powe” in New Zealand. With good govern ment and loss pinpricking, and i' they all put their shoulders to th" wheel they could do something ir their day and generation to help for ward the prosperity of their magnificent country.—(Applause.)