GOVERNMENT'S POLICY.

Shannon News, 8 May 1928, Page 2

GOVERNMENT'S POLICY.

SPEECH BY HON. A. D. M°LEOD

ADMINISTRATION OF LANDS DB-

FABTMBNT DEFENDED.

VARIOUS OTHEE QUESTIONS

DEALT WITH.

Some 300 persons assembled in the De Luxe Theatre on Friday to hear a political address by the Hon. A. D. McLeod, Minister of Lands, Commerce and Industry.' The night was a rough one, and prevented many country people from making the trip into Levin, but the audience was an appreciative one, and Mr McLeod received a favourable hearing. The Mavor of Levin (Mr T. Hob;son) presided, and introduced the Minister, who was accompanied on the platform by Mr J. Linklater, M.P. for the Manawatu district. His Worship mentioned that it was some five years since Levin had had the privilege of a speech by a Minister of the Crown. Mr Hobson also extended a welcome to their member, and asked him to make a few introductory remarks. . . In complying, Mr Linklater joined I in the welcome extended to the Minister, and said that it was not often that the district had a visit from the Minister, but when he did come to Manawatu, he made full use of his opportunities of seeing what was going on in the district. ■ ■ The Minister, who was received with applause, said it was not often that politicians had the opportunity of meeting electors in such a magnificent hall as-this in Levin. He had travelled through Levin on many occasions, and had been in the town at various times, but not, he thought, as a Minister. THE POST-WAR SLUMP. As Minister of Lands they would expect to hear something from him about conditions -since the post-Avar slump. He did not take over the portfolio till 1924, when the problem of reconstruction had to be seriously tackled. He knew that the question of valuation was a sore one with many persons. The problems associated with the slump had struck those connected with the land in a manner which no one wished to see repeated. The Government had been blamed for not extending settlement more. It was early faced with the need of procuring finance on the security of the Dominion as a whole to effectively keep on'the land those who were already settled on it. It had been an extremely difficult matter to provide finance for new settlement, and he had not believed that the time was ripe for such a policy as extension ot settlement when those already settled were suffering, and he took/ full responsibility for his attitude in that respect. Many had left their holdings because there'was no chance of staying on them. The same thing had happened in other parts of Ihe world. NO GREAT EXODUS. ' During 'the past three or four months there had been statements in the Press which were contrary to fact, regarding the numbers who had left their farms. The welfare of the country had not been the prime consideration behind the making of those statements, which had a political objectthat of doing the greatest possible harm to the Government. 'As they had been published outside the country, it was high time to draw the people's attention to the facts. A large majority ot the Press was fair in its criticism of the Government, and no administration could object to hard criticism if it was fair. Mr S. C. G. Lye, who, he understood, would be a northern candidate, speaking in Waikato said that during the last two years some 13,000 settlers had had \o walk off the land. It was extremely difficult for the whole of the settled land to be estimated; but taking a line through the holdings of the Crown settlers, a fanestimate- could be made of those who had been compelled to leave the land. The figures of Mr Lye were taken from the return in the Year Book under the heading of number of employees including working' employers and managers employed on the land. There had been a decrease of 10,000, and those were the figures that had been •used to show that from 10,000 to 13000 settlers had walked off the land. In 1925, for the year ending December 31st, 105,301 males and 37,441 females were employed at various wages in connection with the primary industries of New Zealand—a total of 142,742. Two years later 102,325 males and 30,424 females were so employed—a decrease of almost exactly 10,000. How was that decrease divided? What nice figures to quote. Could anyone say that 3000 females walked off their farms? During the war period and the period just after, the women took, a valiant part in farming operations; and by the introduction of hydro power the work of the women on the farms had now been lessened, and j the Government should be given credit for it. He hoped to .see the number of women in farm work steadily decrease. MOST FORFEITURES IN 1910. Complete and definite statistics were kept in regard to Crown holdings and the Government knew practically to a man how many had been compelled to leave. There were at March 31st, 1927, 85,600 occupiers of separate holdings in the rural districts of New Zealand; 29,263 had had direct and permanent tenures from the Crown — well over one-third and up towards oue-half. Those were leaseholders in process of freeholding and anyone holding a permanent tenure who still had moneys to pay to the Crown. In 1908 there were 20,169 settlers situaed under obligation to the Government; and to March 31st last, 30,785. Subsequent to 1912, when freeholding was granted to a large number, they disappeared from the returns, and so the range of figures quoted did not give a complete history of the settle- j meat brought about by the Qovern-

ment's efforts. The highest year of forfeitures and surrenders was 1910, whon 1.55 per cent, was reached; in lyjl the figure was 1.2 per cent., in ivm, 1 per cent., and so on till the lowest point was reached, in 1920, viz., 0.563. Since 1921 the proportion commenced to rise again till, last year, it represented 1.40 of the total settlers on 1 Crown areas in New Zealand. These figures were not a complete statement of those who had had to leave thou; land, because quite u number of them were voluntary surrenders, and a number of the forfeitures were voluntary, and not compulsory as stated. So the percentage included forfeitures by people who were still on the land and had never been off the sections they held.

UNOCCUPIED FARMS.j The Minister went on to say that he had prepared quarterly returns of the (unoccupied Crown areas. There were 85,600 odd rural holdings, of which 30,000-odd were Crown holdings. The unoccupied farms totalled 739,, and many were holdings that had not been occupied for 15 years—in many cases taken up in inaccessible places and held for a little time. He had had reports made by the Commissioners as to the reasons why these were not occupied. They amounted to less than £ per cent, of the total holdings of New Zealand. It had not been without a great deal of effort on the part of the Advances"Department —at whose disposal in five years 16 millions had been placed for farmers and workers — that an endeavour had been made to keep on the land those who had been faced with difficulties.

In the deteriorated land legislation passed by him, great concessions were, given, and he had visited practically every one of the sections concerned. He was gratified to say that he had been in receipt of hundreds of letters from those who had benefitted. There were people who should never have been settled on that land in the past, but the Government had done its best to see them through. The Government had the satisfaction of knowing that it had many expressions of thanks from those whom it had endeavoured to benefit in this connection. He had always taken care to impress on.the benefitted settlers that the general taxpayers had had to help to bear their burdens. He had visited lands that were ruthlessly thrown open for selection' before this Government came into power. The policy which had actuated its predecessors in putting land on the market, whether roaded or not, was a wrong policy. The matter of remeSying this state of affairs had been a worry to himself and to.every officer in his Department. A considerable percentage of croakers had existed since the war, who had done much harm to land settlement. As long as the people had confidence in this country they would come all right out of the dark days through which they had passed. MARKET STABILITY.

The speaker felt they had reached a degree of stability in the value of primary produce that augured well for the future. lie was not optimistic enough to say % that wool was going to remain at 2s, but a point'-had been reached where the country could go ahead with greateij confidence than at any time since the gage of battle was thrown down in 1914. , LAND FINANCE TO BE EXTENDER

There were young men with £SOO to £IOOO who were looking for land to settle on. Perhaps the most successful settlement would be in the conversion of pastoral to dairy land, and he was working on a proposal that would enlarge the scope of the Land Finance Act, which he believed could be made ■flexible so that it would apply to those who, with a little capital, desired to go on the land. He also had to deal with another class of the land-hungry —men who were unemployed and without money, but who had families. What chance had such a man as a farmer f None whatever. The man who competed in the world's markets to-day must not be a*i amateur, but must know something about farming. He believed that before a man had a reasonable prospect of succeeding on the land he must be in the same position as a man who was going to succeed in other walks of life—he must practise economy in his young days and must know what he was doing. At .the basis of successful settlement must be shown the ability to exercise thrift. (Applause). Something like 17 millions of new money was put into the Advances Department, and no less than 20 million had been lent out in five vear's. WORKERS' DWELLINGS.

Somewhere about 50 per cent, of the new money had gone into the erection of workers' dwellings, and he was quite prepared to justify it During the wax period building got right behind, and there was a" definite shortage of houses. Workers, provided they were prepared to save, should be encouraged equally with the farmers. He accepted his full responsibility in this matter, and would do the same again. The Government had been in the position of either building houses and letting them or selling the houses; and he said, Put the responsibility on the individual. Every pay-day the interest of the individual was growing in the house; and there were fewer short payments in this system than in any scheme which the Government had attempted in this country. ANOMALIES IN VALUES.

Continuing, Mr McLeod said he believed that a sounder basis of valuation must be established. There should be only one basis of valuation; it was no use a man saying his land was worth £SO when he wanted to raise a loan on jt and only £2O when he was to be ralte'cl on it There should be one value. Skilled and permanent officers were necessary for valuing, though he had no fault to find with the personal qualities of any valuer that he knew of. EATING DISCREPANCIES. Another problem was that of local rating, which was a real problem, and particularly associated with the difficulties of farm lands in borough areas. A dozen, bills were going to bo put befor* Parliament aext year • unless

some effective method was devised of dealing with this difficulty. He did not thmk .that an individual would wilfully confiscate the value of another * man's land; but in many of the small boroughs there were farm lanjls in, which the value had been entirely con- f fiscated as far as the individual was concerned. ; OTAKI BOROUGH A TYPICAL CASE.

The Minister said he knew practically all that could be 'learned about Otaki, but it had been seized as a typical case to be inquired into by a commission. The Government was anxious to do all-round \justice in these matters. The bringing of isolated bills to deal with boroughs in the same position was getting them nowhere, and he that the justice of humanity would show there was no wish to penalise a man who could not dispose of his property. i LAND DRAINAGE.

A matter which might be of local interest was the JVLanawatu drainage scheme. He had had 0 good look round, but like a certain parrot he had decided, to do a lot of listening and iiot say much. The point was how much the taxpayer could contribute to the development of land and make it an all-round paying proposition for everybody.. On a big drainage scheme in the north, a third of the cofet had to be written' off to the taxpayer; but this season what had been a wilderness thirty years ago turned out a million pounds' worth of butter- . fat.

FINANCE AS A FOUNDATION. What was the basis on which all sound governments should build? the Minister' asked. No Government was worthy of confidence if its finance was bad. That was the test of its worthiness —"What condition did you find the finances' in when you eame into power, and what condition are they in to-day?" He contended that the Government Jiad maintained its finances above criticism, because the criticisms were mere generalities and did jiot get down to "tin tacks." The Dominion's credit, to-day stood higher than that of any other Dominion in the Empire. The rate of interest had not fallen below 5 per cent, to' any Dominion since the war, but New Zealand accepted the responsibility of floating a loan of five millions the other day at 4* per cent., and did it so successfully that the loan was subscribed up to two and threefold. "

APPRECIATION OF MR COATES. A great deal of criticism had been directed against the leader of the Government, and it had been very unfair. Time would come when those who looked into the history of this country would give the present Prime Minister the credit for what he had done. His record as Minister, respectively, of Railways, Post and Telegraphs, and Public Works had been unrivalled for many years. He had gone put to tackle ■ "traffic problems and rating problems. Mr Coates had come in for his full share of criticism, but to-day they saw the States of Australia forced to follow in the same track. It was always the pioneer who had to take the knocks, but those who followed would realise the value of his work and benefit by it. (Applause). OPPOSING PARTIES. Those who were opposing the Government included firstly the Labour Party! and he had no objection to Labour being represented in any Government, but it would never come into its own while it followed narrow, sectional interests. He did not believe that the extremists led by Mr Holland truly represented the Labour, interests of New. Zealand, because he had himself been associated with Labour in his young days and numbered some of his best and oldest friends among its ranks.

With regard to the United Party Mr McLeod said that the Westralian party which had Mr Mitchell as leader had changed its name again. Called "Liberal" in the early war years, it became "Nationalist" in 1917, and "United" after the 1924 elections. Now it had resumed the Nationalist label. The Queensland State Opposition had the same weakness for taking a new title every two or three years, though as a vote-catching device it was a "dud." This was just about the circle that the United Party in New Zealand had perfjbrmed. T(he orga|niger had told them that 50 per eent. of the Reform Party in the House and 75 per cent, outside were going to desert their pa,rty. The Government were waiting, very patiently to see when this slide was going to happen. He did not know what the United Party stood for. The Labour Party would nominate the sitting members; and the United Party had selected the "LibLabs," the Progressives, the Nationalists and candidates with a variety of names, and had decided to call thorn, for the moment', the United Party.

NON-POLITICAL QUESTIONS,

On the questions of license v. no-li-cense, and Bible-in-Schools or the reverse, he would not say much; but ho would say this: he was not going to find any fault with the man who said the country would be better without liquor, nor with the man who said it was better with liquor; similarly with Bible in Schools. He would be sorry if these were made the main questions in the selection of candidates at this election. He could say that we were a better people with liquor than those of the United States were without liquor (Applause)—and we might be .• still better here if we did not have liquor. (Laughter). Bible reading had been in vogue in most of the Australian State schools for the last 30 or 40 years. He was not going to say we might be better if we had the Bible in the schools, but he would say that ve were better, or at least as good, as the people of the Australian States where that system was carried out. After answering several questions, the Minister was accorded a hearty vote of thanks, on the motion of -Mr H. J. Richards, seconded by Mr Jas. McLeavey, and the meeting closed with a vote of thanks to the chair.