LAND SETTLEMENT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 71, 14 November 1931, Page 6

LAND SETTLEMENT

* Mr. Vaile's Speech Continued of this nature. ^ "There were 51,000 men out of woi'k ~ .1 the Dominion and the country *\ould not spend £3000 in placing each one of them an the land. Land set- \ ement must be taclded by some sscheme which was within the rerom:es of the country. The present sysItem of relief work was resulting in frightful loss to the taxpayers, and jt was tirne that labour was'diveited jfrom scraping the grass off streets i;o scraping it on to the hillsides. -There were only two essentials to "wealth, labour and land, and Ne\v ^Zealand had both of them. It had been stated that he was in favour of ia reduction of wages but nolhing ■ was further from the truth. He had rbeen a worker all his life and he appreciated hard work. At the same ."time, however, an employer could only pay as much as his labour was w/orth. If he was paying 30/- when his labour was worth £1 he would be bankrupt.and the labourer would be out of his job. Some people thought that the Arbitration Court fixed wages, when actualiy only the worth of the man's labour could fix his earnings. Reverting to the subject of railrjjvays, Mr. Vaile said that New Zealand had a better chance of nieeting „road transport on a competitive basis Jthan any other country in the world owing to the fact that benzine motor yehicles and spares cost so much more •in this country. At the same time ■freights must be -drastically revised *and all the fancy freights which had "been included when the railways had •a monopoly, eliminated. Postal Increases Unjustified D ealing with the Post Office revenue, the speaker stated that the New Zealand Post and Telegraph De,partment was an outstanding example pf the success of the Government in business. Prior to the recent in'crease, the New Zealand Post Office " ad given the cheapest service in the > -.rorld. In the year 1929-30, its re- *' -nue had 'amounted to £3,641,000. "It had paid £481,000 towards intere'st qj.'.arges, placed £500,000 to reseive ti nd cariied forward £30,000. In the Tace of this position there was absolutely no justification for the increascin the postal charges. T aupo Railway Mr. Yaile concluded by deal.'ng at some length with the questlon o£ thc -Taupo. Railway. It had been suggest;,ed to him that he should abandon his ifadvocacy of this proposal, but this -he had refused to do. Instead, he had Thanded to the Government an offe rthat if the railway went through he "would give his land at its present Valuation and he took the cpportunity of repeating this offer from the platform. There was no reason why he -should make this sacrifice, for he had

worked hard to develop the area, but •if his private interest was likely to "stand in the way of the projeet, it •could be put aside. This railway had been the subject ;.of investigat.on by two Royal Comm ssions and both had favourably rei.ported on it. The opinion of a Roya! Commission cariied a great d.eai oi weig'ht as it aetua'ly invesLgatel tlu projeet on the ground, and not i.mi, comfortable seats in Parliament, as "was the case with a Paikamentu: j Commission. However, he i:id not suggest that the Taupo Railway projeet should be treated in any way different from any other raiiway, and 1k ' would say that if it came before the , , Raiiway Board and passed that s-cV-ere test, he would stiil continue to advocate it. Mr. \aile then quoted opinions on ...the developmental value of the rau- ■ way g'ven by a number of leading Waikato fa„me;s and business men. They had within a rnile a Rotorua a tremenaous area wheie the setciement * of the future must take. place and a ! railway was necessary for its development. It had 350,000 acres of pianted • forest adjacent to it, and' 4, 000, 000,000 feet of native timber within _ reach. The royalty on this timber " alono would pay for the raiiway. "What we want in this country at present is confidence," concluded Mr. Vaile. "If you go into a bank you never see the colour of good yellow gold ; the only, colour you see is blue funk. The workman is wondering f, om one day to the nexc when he k going to lose his job and the capitalist does not know what is going to happen to his investments. But if we have confidence and courage I am sure that we shall have a liappy issue out of all our afflictions," Questlon Tirne. Mr. Vaile was subjected to a lengthy questionaire, but owing ^ to pressure of space only the more important queries brought forward are dealt with. The candidate stated that he was strongly opposed to the legal sation of bookmakers or of gambling in any shape or form. He said he did not know that the remote allowance for backblock schooi teachers had been witbdrawn but in reply to a question as to wnether he was in favour of its restoration, said that he thought teachers in the backblocks were certa'nly entitled to some compensating allowance. Mr. Vaile said that" he was not in favour of the bare majority on the "prohibit'on issue. He considered the of reyeating this offer from the plat He was only in favour of the completion of existing railways where a large amount of money had been spent and a comparatively srnah amount remained to complete the work. Asked to give an indicat'on of hir attitude towards wrage cuts, Mr. \ aile said that he would like to see incomes increased as far as possible but at the same time the posit.on must he faced that employars could only pay as much as labour was worth. It was far better that all should be employed at a mode-ate wage than that r number should join the unemployef with no wage at all. He said he was not in favour of the Arb'trat'on Court Act being intevferod with to the detriment of the • woike-'s, but that he considered that the baris on which the Court estdblished its awards was wrong. In reply to a ouest on as to whethe- he .was in f avcur cf a reduction of interest rates, Mr. Vaile said that in the past legislative efforts to fix ■'nto-est charges had always faiied. Jt ws-no moie pos to fix the piice of money by legislation than it was to fix ihe r "ic s of butcer or any other coramodity. The meet'ng concluded with a vote px tnanks to the chair. fl