Political.

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 3, 13 November 1914, Page 2

Political.

RAGLAN CANDIDATE. Mr W. D. Thompson, the Liberal candidate for the Raglan electorate, addressed a well attended meeting of electors last Monday night in the Miners’ Hall. Mr J. P. Bailey, Chair- j man of the-Huntly Town Board, presided, and in his introductory j remarks stated that while the • candidate was a young man, who ! had not up to the present a j great deal of political experience, ] lie was a man with abundance i of abiltiy. Mr Thompson in commencing his address, expressed pleasure i at meeting the electors of S Huntly, and said that he stood before them as the selected Liberal candidate to fight in the interests of liberalism in the Raglan electorate. Ho considered the Liberal Party was the one which had done the most for the uplifting of the masses in New Zealand, and was one that could be trusted to continue to do so in the future. An analysis of the figures of the last election showed that the total number of votes cast were 497,000 ; Mr Massey’s 42 members, 130,000 ; total against, 367,000. It is plainly seen that the party in power were not elected by a majority of the people. He did* not contend that the Liberal Party had clone all that there was to be done, but he did contend that no Government had done so much for theuplifting of humanity as the Liberal Party had done in New Zealand during the twentyone years of office. Mr Thompson dealt very fully witli the coming into powerof theso-called Reform Party formerly the squattocracy of New Zealand, later, the National Association, and last of all, good, old, unfaithful square deal reform. The “Massey” Government had promised to reduce taxation, but had increaed it instead. Their expenditure, also, had increased £741,670 in the first year, and had continued to increase with the result that it now reached nearly £2,000,000 per year more than when the present Govern m en t c am e in to po we r. Reduction as regards borrowing was also promised, but perusal of the figu res showed that the N ational debt had increased to the extent of £4 7s 4d per head of the population. If the Liberal Party had borrowed at the same rate as the Reform Party while in power our National debt in 1910 would have been £114,000,000 instead of £73,387,420. Hence it can be easily seen that the so-called Reform Party. Had not reduced the borrowing, but had increased it instead. Dealing with the State Fire Office established in 1903, the speaker said that when this measure was introduced it was abused as usual by the Massey party. They considered that it was another step towards the eventual ruination of New Zealand by - to use the Opposition term — the socialistic legislation of the Liberal Party. The Government Fire Office was always looked upon in a.i unfavourable light by the Massey party, and, consequently, whan they went into ofii • y s about to injure it in the following manner: —Under the Ward administration, a person, on acquiring a loan from the Advance Office, was required to take out a fire policy in the State office as per circular worded thus: —“You will require to furnish a State Fire Insurance cover in my official name. “ Under the Massey administration the circular was altered to read us follows: —“ Yon will require to furnish a qnartei day Insurance Policy preferably effected with the State Fire Office.” This slight alteration iu the wording of that circular led to a loss of £3OOO in premiums and re-insurance in one year. As a consequence of the operations of the State Fire Office the rates on trade risks and the like have been reduced by 10 percent, and those dwellings, offices, and similar risks by 33Lj per cent. It is estimated that up to a year ago the public had been saved not less that £1,250,000 in reduced premiums, while the State made profits in addition running into nearly £30,000, and amounting for the year 1912 alone to more than £14,000. Continuing, Mr Thompson dealt exhaustively with land question, which, he considered, was one of the greatest problems we had to solve in this country at the present time. Although the Reform Party hadsaid that no settlement was going on in New Zealand, the Liberal Party had settled, in' 21 years, 27,496 persons on something iike 19,000,000 acres of land. So great had been their land settlement that in 1913 tlie Undersecretary for Lands rep >rted that only 4L£ million acres of Crown lands were left, and out of that amount only 100,000 acres could be termed first class land. Under Mr Massey’s great land acts of 1912 and 1913, not one single settler had been placed on the land. In fact—-the speaker jokingly remarked--a photographer, engaged by the Liberal Party had been waiting for some time to take a photograph of the first settler who settled under the conditions of the above acts ; so far his services had not been required. Mr Massey had settled over 2,000 persons, but these had taken up the land under the Acts passed by the Liberal Party. Mr Massey’s freehold argument was only a bogey as the crown tenants had the right to acquire the freehold of their holdings under the Land Act of 1907. Mr Massey had always advocated “ Every man his own landlord; ” but, the speaker said,

provision so that every man could become his own landlord. Favour the land legislation of the liberal party which gave a man the option of the freehold or leasehold as he desired, and which also gave increased graduated land tax. The candidate read to the meeting what is now known as the “ James letter,” and went on to show to what a fine art the Reform Party brought the manufacturing of public opinion. The speaker, in concluding, pointed out how the present Govern- | ment£ by stuffing the Upper I House, would have control of that I chamber for the next six years, when, under their “ Elective j Upper House Bill” the Chamber I would become elective. Mr Thomp son said he believed in the formation of farmers’ co-operative (hanks to control “Advances to Settlers,” workers, and local I bodies. He was decidedly j against the formation of bogus i unions. Mr Taylor, Liberal candidate | for Thames then addressed the ; meeting, after which the following motion, moved by Mr. J. : O’Brien, and seconded by Mr. F. Rayner, was carried unanimously amid cheers: — That a hearty vote of thanks and confidence be passed in favour of Messrs Taylor and Thompson, and also in the Liberal ieader, Sir Joseph Ward, and furthermore that this meeting pledges itself to doits best to secure their return as bur repesentatives in Parliament-” MR BOLLARD AT TAUPIRI Mr R. F. Bollard, the Government candidate for Raglan, opened his campaign at Taupiri Tuesday night when he addressed the large and enthusiastic meeting over which Mr A. H. Waring presided. Mr Bollard in his opening remarks referred to the proposal of the Opposition to the effect that, in view of the war, the, Government should retain office for another year. Previously, the present Government had advised the people to carry on their business as usual, and if it failed to do so, the example shown would not be a good one. The country was with the Government and why should they he afraid to go to the people? The present Government had successfully surmounted an unparallelle.d series of difficulties. They had to contend with labour troubles, with the small pox epi- | demie, the present terrible war, i and, when they came into office, with a depleted treasury. They had faced the ‘various situj athms with determination, and i had taken such steps in Waihi and other places as were nejcessary to protect lawabiding j people from molestation. When | the Mackenzie Government as- | sumed office" the finances of the country were in a bad way, and were worse when Mr Massey was returned to power. Now the financial outlook was satis- ; factory, and the people of New | Zealand could he congratuled I upon the improved outlook. His opponents, continued Mr ; j Bollard, were men of good type. ■ | Personally, he had nothing ■ ! against them except the policy they advocated. He intended to fight fairly and to avoid any- ; thing of a personal nature. Previous Governments had placed * good acts on the statute book. Such acts, however, bad required improvement, and the ne- ■ ceesary amendments had been i made by the Reform Govern- • inent which had also introduced many laws • f a beneficial nature. He intanced the Public Service i Bill which had abolished political patronages and the evils nt- ■ tendant thereon. 1 Mr Bollard claimed that a graduated land tax compelled ■ owners to utilise to the utmost ■ their large holdings. He was opposed to large aggregations of land except in poor sheep coun- . try where small areas could not » possibly be made payable. He was in favour of selling endowments, provided that property of equivalent value was purchased in lieu with the proceeds. For example, a University en- ' dowment at Taupiri could well be sold in order to pay for a University site in Auckland. This, however, could not be done unless the prospective farmers were given the freehold. The candidate referred to the measures introduced by the ' Government for the restriction of the prices of food stuffs, and ! reminded his hearers and it was j one thing to fix prices, and ani other to force producers to supply |at those prices. He quoted ; figures to prove that the present I price of flour was not abnormal, i comparing present values with those ruling in former years. The commission had proved that wheat would have been scarce , independent of the war, and to provide against short supplies ; the Government had made large ; purchases of Australian and ! Canadian wheat. Mr. Bollard treated other matters at some length. his auditors following him with great interest. A vote of thanks and j confidence was carried with i practical unanimity, the meeting j haying been one of the best and mos£ iithusiastic ever held in the Taupiri district.