THE OPPOSITION CAMPAIGN

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 25 March 1914, Page 3

THE OPPOSITION CAMPAIGN

HOPE TO WIN KAIPARA

MEETING AT HELENSVILLE

In view of the forthcoming general elections near the end of the year, a party of four Opposition members of Parliament started on an electioneering tour north of Auckland last Monday. They were Messrs W. D. S. Mac Donald (Bay of Plenty), Geo. Witty (Riccarton), J. 0. Thompson (Wallace), and T. E Y. Seddon (Westland), and the campaign was opened at Helensville on Monday evening by Messrs Mac Donald and Thompson. Thore was a large audience at the Star Theatre, and the speakers, who were heard to decided advantage, gave some very interesting political details, The Chairman of the Town Board (Mr Jas. McLeod) was in the chair. Mr Gordon Coates, Member for Kaipara, extended a hearty welcome to tpe visiting Ms.P. on behalf of the Kjtoara electors, and expressed a hwe that their trip through Kaipara a means whereby the people benefit. Mr Mac Donald expressed pleasure at meetag such a large audience, and thanked the chairman and district member for their kindly welcome and remarks made, He proceeded to outline the reason of their visit, whic;h was to deal with political questions from the point of view of the Liberal party contrasted with the present Conservative party now in power. They looked upon Kaipara as a Liberal electorate. Mr Stallworthy had ably represented the district for a considerable time, and the Liberal party still regarded the seat as one for their side, therefore they were going to put a candidate in the field for the next elections. He next referred his audience to the manner in which the present party gained the Treasury benches, which was not by the will of the people, but by INTRIGUE AND TREACHERY of those returned to represent the people : by men who had betrayed the people and country. (Cheers) He went on to say that their leader and members of the Opposition received scant courtesy and a lot of misrepresentation from the Press, about 80 per cent cf which pandered to the party in power, but he believed that at the coming elections the people would have the moral courage to deal out political death to the traitors. On THE LAND QUESTION the speaker showed that he had carefully studied the position, and he outlined what had been done by the Liberal party during their 21 years of office and the progress aud development that had followed. He stated that the Liberals had legislated con - siderahly on behalf of the farmers, instancing the promotion of the dairy industry, etc., and described as absurd the Prime Minister's statement that the Government were putting the farmers of New Zealand in a better position than ever before, as facts and statistics proved otherwise. Proceeding, he strongly criticised Hon. Mr Massey in regard to land settlement, asserting that the latter's record of providing for 20,000 people the right to get the freehold was the lowest total for ten years. He would challenge contradiction in saying that so far as the Prime Minister was concerned no strides whatever had been made as regards land settlement On the question of NATIVE LANDS the present Minister (Mr Herries) hud shown much less progress than the last year of office by Hon. Jas. Carroll, •whose political opponents termed him the " taihoa" minister, The latter had disposal of 647,000 acres of native land in his last year of office, whereas the present Minister, with all the machinery at his disposal, had only put through 450,000 acres. He instanced the statements often made that millions of acres were lying idle, and expressed an opinion that much of it was of such poor quality that it •would continue to be idle. The Liberal party had made great strides by the legislation of 1908-09 en this question, and enabled the natives to get titles aod sell, which was all they fck could do at the present time. Dealing ■with the QUESTION OF LABOUR he referred to the legislation adopted by his Party, which had been de signed to give every man, woman and child a chance to live. A great deal had also been done for the farming community. From this on he traced the general prosperity and progress of the country during the regime of the Liberals. The Conciliation and ■■ Arbitration Act had been much ■J^ '<Led, but the party in office had %-ifly retained it when they got into power. MATTERS Or FINANCE were reviewed at considerable length, the speaker quoting from circulars printed by the Government showing that the country was in a sound position when the Ueforna party took office, and that the money borrowed by the Liberals was more of an asset than a national debt. The present public works policy he criticised as not vigorous enough for a young country. -r THE TOY IS'AVY scheme, as propounded by Hon. James Allen he described as utter rubbish Mr Mac Donald approved of tin territorial. training scheme, but favoured a larger subsidy to Britaii rather than attempt to establish i local navy. In CONCLUSION he pointed to tlio long period of progress and prosperity «!jjoyed during tke Liberal regime, and. mamtainec

that they had always worked liorouis ably and consistently in the interests of the people of New Zealand, (applause).

Mr Thompson, a bright and forceful speaker, gave a lucid and clever exposition of politics. He proceeded to show that on nearly all the prominent questions of the day the Massey party had effected little or no improvement, and had carefully refrained from repealing the legislation they had previously condemned. So traversed the beneficial enactments of the Liberal term of office, and detailed the failure of the present Ministry to substitute better or carry out their promises of achieving more satisfactory results in administering these laws. Both speeches were punctuated with applause, and keen attention paid t3 the speakers. In reply to a question as to the removal of the 3-5 handicap on the licensing question, Mr Thompson said it was a matter of how a member was pledged to his electors; but a Bill was promised by the Prime Minister for the first day of next session, reducing the 3- 5 to 55 per cent. At the close a' hearty vote of thanks was accorded Messrs Mac Donald and Thompson for then- able addresses, also expressing implicit confidence in Sir Sir Joseph Ward as leader of the party.