THE OTAKI SEAT.

Otaki Mail, 27 September 1922, Page 3

THE OTAKI SEAT.

THE FIRST SHOT OF THE CAMPAIGN FIRED. MESSRS VHITCH AND MASTERS, )I’ S ,V„ AND MR McCLURE GIVE ADDRESSES. The first shot of the campaign, as far as the Olaki scat is concerned, was tired last night, when Messrs Veitcli and Masters, Al.’sP., with Mr G. li. M. AR'Clarc, a candidate i'or the seat, gave addresses at Otaki. Despite the wet weather there was a good attendance. His Worship the Mayor (Mr Brandon > occupied the chair, and brietly introduced the speakers. Mr McClure said as this was a meeting to be addressed by Messrs \ citcli nmt Masters, who were Members of Parliament, and, as lie would have later opportunities of addressing them, his remarks on this occasion would be limited. As the Liberal-Labour caudi- I date for this district, he wished to explain that he had been a life-long supporter of Liberalism, and with that creed lie included the - cause of the workers who stood for moderation, tolerance and geodwill. lie believed that Liberalism would never die. and that all thoughtful people would admit that a middle course of moderation and an opposition to the extremes of either -.tile spelt prosperity to the State. His life luol been devoted since his youth to matters in relation to the land, and his long connection with the Lands Department up to his resignation recently

as Commissioner of Crown Lands, entitled him to speak with some authority on all questions dealing with the .lands of New Zealand. All questions of land settlement—either of soldiers or civilian —had been administered by him, and during the var ho had had unique opportunities of getting into ,-h.se touch with all matters relit ling to h,uft settlement and production. His opportunities of becoming a fair judge of stock, and the marketing of the products of the country, might be of use if he gained the confidence of this electorate. He AMIS free to devote the -whole of ills time to the interests of the const it uem-y. if elected. Ihe future of New Zealand depended on the products of the country reaching the world’s mill-kefs in good condition, so us to win the best price to the producer. All farming troubles and matters pertaining to the land he claimed to understand, while other matters affecting the district he felt ho should easily master and assist in. lie stood for Empire and Constitutional methods, and hoped that when he next spoke he would have the opportunity of outlining the principles upon which he would : *‘ek their support. In the meantime* tic thanked all for their attention, and would give way to the speakers of the evening. (Applause).

MR VEITCII. Mr Veitcli, who "’as greeted with applause, said he was present for the pur,,f introducing Mr McClure. He believed a change of Government was necessary, and this he wished to prove. T.m candidate, if elected for the opposition, was going to be a supporter of Labour-Liberalism when the election w.-r- over and not v supporrer of the p.v-.ou- Government. The time had c»mie iil ' ii New Zealand people would understand the. significance of a conservative Government. The principal failure bad been along the lines of finance and laud administration, and he wished to state that Mr McClure had had large interests in land, having tarfed many years ago as a surveyor in Cheviot, since which time he had been closely connected with lands, and offeied the benefit of the services of his extensive and useful administration of laud affairs. There were few who could offer more valuable assistance. Blunders of the past would have to be cleared up, and as Mr McClure was a free man he would be free to give the whole of his services to the people, which would be a big advantage to the i-ouutrv. Mr Veitcli then criticised the Go vein me nt on its extravagant finance, and the enormous amount of borrowing

which was far in excess of their chance of meeting it. When Mr Massey was taxed with borrowing he said it was due to the war, a thing, the Prime Minister had said, which was to be expected. Mr Vcitcli then dealt with the public debt which had increased enormously since Mr Massey took office, while in addition to this huge debt he ha.d borrowed further large sums wlueli had further increased it. Economic finance should bo expected from the Government and not extravagant expenditure. arid in times of stress knowledge of economics was a most desirable living. He then dealt with the income tax lost to the Government us the result of the frec-of-income tax loans which amounted to 51 millions, which meant that 2-} millions of income paid no income tax. He criticised the Local Bodies Finance Act which had prevented local bodies accepting local money

at 4 per cent and compelled them to borrow' trom the Banks at 7 per cent. Dealing with the Advances to the metiers' Department Mr Veitcli stated the Department had lent money, had saved lots from bankruptcy and enabled many to pull through. Money should still be available for the people but money had been borrowed by the Government from the fund, and people were not told there was no money to lend. He again ! emphasised the fact that the Government was devoid of economic knowledge, proved by the way it had extravagantly thrown money away, and at a time when money was most needed. This was not due to war. but a large- amount of the dent and taxation was due to blundering and extravagance when money was plentiful. In rh„ Commonwealth of Australia interest was kept at 6 per cent.; in England the bank rate had been down to 3 4 per cent., while in New Zealand they had tn par 7 per cent, on bank overdraft. People had not been holped a,? they

should have boon, while private bunks charged more than they should. For the good of the people Mr Massey should go to work on the four Government nominees on the directorate of the Bank of New Zealand and see if something could not be done; Inc matter was a serious one. Air Veitch dealt with public servants and superannuation, and said there had been a big loss through the way tlio superannua- j tion fund had been worked. Time, he | said, must eoinc when money must be I found to carry out contracts in connee- I tion with the superannuation fund. He maintained there was a lack of Ministerial control, and maintained the Ministers were not supervising as they should. The Government did not con- ' suit private members of the House and the work was thrown on one man’s shoulders. It was found he could not do it. Committees, lie urged, should be sot up from all sides of the House, and the management properly carried out. Look, he said, what could be saved on railway affairs if operations were properly enquired into. The same applied , to other branches. Before the Prime j Minister came back from the Old Coun- I try the estimates were ready to be set I before Parliament, which showed how | little control he had over the department. The country would never save money as long as the slip shod method of spending it was being carried out. j • Touching on soldiers’ pensions Air Veiteh said it was a cruel shame that |

the existing conditions in connection with the soldiers were not better, and lie regretted that the second biggest reduction in the public account was soldiers’ pensions. A solemn promise had been made to help the men who volunteered their lives, and they had pledged to look after them, but yet in the first ! year of: retrenchment their pensions l had been cut down. Referring to titles Air Veitch said these were a farce and knighthoods given had made some people look ridiculous. Years ago they were given for services rendered, but now they found the rich buying them, together with seats in the House of Lords. The present system of electing the Legislation Council was also bad. He stated that he knew his party had no chance with the press of the country. but over this they would not weep, but would continue to light battles openly. It had been said that the partv lie represented had been linked up with flic Labour party, but he wished it. understood that the party he repre- 1 rented would not be domineered over by Holland, and that if it reached the Treasury benches Holland would not tell them what to do unless Atassey combined Avith him. The Liberal-La-bour party, he said, could only bo driven off the Treasury benches by- the combination of the two parties. When Massey was asked if he would link up with the Labour party lie declined to answer, and it would be worth while for the people of this electorate to put the same question to their Reform candidate. It had been said his party had been disloyal, but in answer to that he wished to point out it had played the game and would continue to do so. After stating that a stronger opposition was needed Air Veiteh said if his party was elected it would sec that no more money- avus wasted, and that there would be no more unemployment. In conclusion he appealed to the electors to take the middle of the road and avoid both extreme Hollandism and extreme Toryism, which ted on each other. (Applause).

MR MASTERS. Air Masters said lie was very pleased to assist in some small way towards the return of Mr McClure. Otaki was verv fortunate in having such a candidate offering especially since it was a constituency of small farmers. He u lieved his services would be invaluable and considered lhere should be no doubt about his return. They were there because they had not the newspapers of this country to support them. Like Air Sodden, they believed the platform was still open to them to rut their views before the people. If the Lit.er-

ul Partv was dead, then newspapers were giVing a great deal of attention. In the House Mr Massey did not look on them as being by any means dead. They took issue with Mr Massey on the first point —that of democratic representation. Eighteen members of the Reform Party had been elected at last election on an absolute minority vote. The people would not stand that sort of thing in a school committee or a football club and was it right it should apply to representation in Par-

liament. He had nothing in common with the Holland Party, but said it ; was manifestly unfair that, while the j the Labour Party polled Id,ooo votes ; in Dunedin last election, they got not ; a single representative in Parliament.' The eighteen minority Reformers polled 53.917 votes and there were 73,979 east against them. The Liberal Party claimed to represent the middle class people of the Dominion. The Reform Party on the other hand represented private and wealthy interests. They were told that the Massey Party was very popular in this country. He reviewed the six by-elections in this country since the general election- The Liberals had won Bruce and Stratford and the Reformers Gisborne in straight-out contests. Messrs Dixon and Mackenzie had got in on minority votes, and in Dunedin North Mr Munto (Labour) had been returned. At these bv-clections 19.340, votes had been ea’st against the Reformers and 16,569 for them. That gave some idea cf the popularity of the Reform Party. A matter that required attention more than any other was a more even distribution of the wealth of the pec.pie.

There were some weo we,e richer and richer while others got poorer and poorer. There never was a time in the history of this country when trusts ksd combined flourished mors than at present and the Liberal Party stood up against them. M> Massey •was supported by th« wealthy peopls

of the Dominion and his legislation must go in the direction of helping those who were helping him. He read 1 a list of the titled Reformers who were | running the country. The interests of Mr Massey’s Party and the big men i were wrapped up together. The farm- ' ers were finding it out and up in AuckI land they were forming a Farmers’j Party. The Farmers’ Union Confer- ) ence only defeated by two votes a pro- j | posal to go into politics. J Every individual member of the Re- | I form Party last session voted against a motion by Mr Veitch to relieve the men with large families of taxation through the tariff. One of the first

a.cts of the new tariff was to take the duty off diamonds and precious stones. That was one thing the Government had done for the working men of Hew | Zealand (laughter). Then they put an ; additional 10 per cent on infants’ food and they raised the duty on tobacco from 3s fid to 4s sd, and on cigarette tobacco from 3s tid to 10s. They retained tlie duty on tea, cocoa, boots and clothing. Where did the sympathy of the Reform Party lie. Every one of the Reform Partv last session voted

against a motion to give a pension to blind people—there Avere only- 600 of them—-and in the next breath they tamed round and voted the General Manager of Railways a superannuation allowance of I-fHJO a year as long as lie lived.

M r Massey bad agreed to spend a million and a half on building houses for the workers. In 1919, 1011 houses were authorised, 383 were contracted for and 78 had been completed. Up to the present time the total amount spent was only £448,000. Now the Government was abolishing its system and railing back on the Advances system which the Liberals had inaugurated in 1895. The Liberals stood for a State bank. The Reform Party opposed it. The reason why interest had not risen beyond ti per cent, in Australia was because they had a State Bank there. The Banking 'Association of New Zealand had suffered nothing as the result of the Masscv Government being in power. In the Banks’ hour of need early in the war the Government came to their aid and stabilised the currency, but what had the Banks done to the people of New Zealand in their time of trouble. Thousands of people would have been saved from ruin if we had had a State Bank in New Zealand. The Bank of New Zealand’s profit last year was £7 93.343 and previously £848,451. and in six years £3,340,509, after payiug very heavy taxation and hiding I large profits in buildings. The farmers were not getting the. full product of their labour because of j tire system of marketing and of the high freights. On an 85-mile basis on the railways, butter was paying 34s 5d as against 13s pre-war, and cheese 34s 5d against 13s Bd. Why should butter and eheese be singled out for special increases in this way. Other freights had not gone up to that extent. The shipping companies also refused to budgo from their attitude that they would not give any reduction on butler and cheese. Australia and Canada both established State shipping to cope with the high shipping freights, and in both eases these were turning out profitably. In 1939 Mr Massey said he went to the country on a policy of protecting the interests of producers and consumers, even to the extent ot establishing State shipping. What did he do.’ He certainly set up a committee which went fully into the matter and which recommended the establish-

ment of a shipping line entirely indcpendent ot‘ any company, and that the Government should assist by {juarantecring the finances or otherwise. It might be thought that some cognisance would have been taken of this report. In 1921 the Prime Minister, in answer ’to a question, said the Government » would stop ai nothing to do what was required in this direction, but nothing had been done. The speaker quoted the meat freights and said that the total excess freights on the primary products exported in 1921 as compared

with 1914 was £2.984,P26. It was fair to assume that freights were increased on imports to the same extent. Thus at least live millions was taken by the shipping ring out of the people of this country more than in 1914 —a sum that would pay 21 times the County rates cf the Dominion and twice over the I Borough rates. M e turned our produce out of co-operative works and faefories, I carted it over co-operative railways, | put it across co-operative wharves into privately-owned ships and said to the

shipping ring. There it is. do what you 1 like with it. And they did it. J The railways were incomprehensible ; to him. The recent statement showed ) that since the cut they run sS7.oimi less , miles, the expenses went up £3lll .'-KHI. the revenue w'ent down £_64.0*0. -- t thousand more men were employed, and . the railways carried more stuff in 1922 ' than in 1920. Less mileage, less reven--1 uo, more men, more expense, more stuff! He would be glad if someone could tell him what it meant. He appealed to , the audience to leave party bias out of the question and to put the very best men into parliament. Wliat was the ' use of sending along a man who would jusr say “'ditto” with a lot of other ' fellows'w-ho were just saying ”ditto” to what Mr Massey said. The LiberalLabour Party would, make either a strong virile ppppsitipn or a progressive economical Government. On Mr Jauucey’s motion a hearty 1 vote of thanks was passed to the speakers and on Mr Met.lure s motion L a similar compliment was accorded the chairman. ; reference by Mr Masters to tue cement investigations will appear in next issue.