POLITICAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10, 9 May 1912, Page 5

POLITICAL.

HON. CEO. LAURENSON AT STRATFORD. Last night in the Stratford Town Hall the Hon. Geo. Laurenson delivered his promised address to a large audience. He was well receved, and applauded, and at the close of the mating thanked for his address, a vote of confidence in the Government also being carried. Amongst those present was Mr. F. M. B. Fisher, M.P., who came up from Wellington by the same train as Mr. Laurenson. His Worship the Mayor (Mr. W. P. Kirkwood), who presided, in introducing the Hon. George Laurenson, said it was almost quite unnecessary for him to ask that Mr. Laurenson be given a fair hearing. That was a thing which was got by any speaker on any subject from a Stratford platform. (Applause.) , Mr. Laurenson, who was greeted, with a loud burst of applause on rising to deliver his address, prefaced his remarks, with a comment on the manner in which Taranaki had thrown over the Liberal Party. “It has always been a source of wonder to me, and also something extraordinary,” he said, “that. Taranaki, which has prospered so wonderfully under a Liberal Ministry, should have seen fit to go back on that Ministry, and return to Parliament men pledged to put that party out of office.’ , What had been the reason? Recently, the Hon. Laurenson continued, he had had the opportunity of perusing some of the speeches delivered in Taranaki by Opposition members. These consisted for the most part of wilful suppression of facts, and were permeated throughout with innuendoes. But the last elections were the most disgraceful that had ever been experienced in the Dominion; -three more elections of the same kind, and New Zealand, politically speaking, would bo on a level with the lowest American States. (Applause.) Newspaper after newspaper iiad fallen into the hands of the Wealthy conservative classes, and this - had also happened in Taranaki; they circulated far and wide statements which were unscrupulous and a disgrace to their originators. Their, attacks were personal, and brutal. He WQixld reply to those charges that evening from the public platform, where a man could meet his fellowcitizens in clean' and open meeting assembled. That was better than having things done in the back room of some private newspaper run by some conservative party. In the olden days when a man wanted to attack his opponents he hired a bully with a \ bludgeon to kill him, hut in modern times he bought up a newspaper ami hired an editor to viliify the actions of that man. No one should lose the y ,\ opportunity offered of going before A ’ his fellow-citizens and putting cleaneut facts before them. That was the only way to deal with questions. They had the spectacle of papers hiring some man who had been a failure at , every thing else, and who could not got a crust of bread, to go and write down public men whenever he , got a chance. Let that man get on . ’ the public platform and make those ' 1 charges' (Applause.) ! “Tha Hlclo-boufuJ Tory.” •H I Continuing, the speaker referred to > i the great cnanges which had taken ■ G plane ({faring recent times, and to tile 1 revolution which; Had * occurred in means of transportation, in agriculture, and the like. Was it not natural, he asked, that their politics should have changed with the times? Ycl there were men who still wanted hidebound Tories in charge. (Applause.) Mr. Laurenson went on to deal with the charges made against the Goverumen by these men. The charges against the late Government had been, first, that it had run the country head over i heels into debt; ‘second, that it had enormously increased the ‘hatibnal expenditure; third, that il ' , had' cea?ed to be progressive; fourth, that it was corrupt; fifth (and these were sub rosa), giving a Dreadnought ' without the consent of Parliament. The sixth, that Sir Joseph Ward had accepted an hereditary title, and lastly, that ho was a Roman Catholic. He would deal with the last charge first. He (the speaker) knew that the matter had been denied by the Conservative Press of this country, but every man in the Dominion knew that the fact that Sir Joseph Ward was a Catholic was urged during the recent elections as a reason why the people should not tolerate him in power as Prime Minister of the Dominion. Remade that .statement, realising what ■ it meant, and he made it because it ■ was absolutely true that the PrimeMinister was 'hounded, tried and condemned because he followed the faith of his father and mother. Speaking for himself, and knowing what sort of a man Sir Joseph was, the religions bigotry against Sir Joseph was one of the crudest things that had ever hap pened in a campaign in this country. (Applause.) Borrowed Money. It was a remarkable fact, Mr. Laurenson continued, that while the Opposition had been loudest in its denunciation of the Government’s borrowing, its members had been loudest also in their clamouring for borrowed money to be spent in the districts they represented. . Only once did a single member of the Opposition move a motion in the House against a loan during his (the speaker’s) time in Parliament, which was now nearly twelve years, ,and that was a motion moved by the member for Patea (Mr. Pearce) that a loan should, lie reduced by £200,000. Amongst those who voted against that motion were Mr. Berries, Mr. Hardy, the late Conservative Whip, and Mr. Massey, the Leader of the Conservative Party. In dealing with the first charge that the Government had nm the country head over heels into debt, the Minister gave some figures. Ho stated that the amount of the national debt in 1900 was £62,191,040, and that in 1911 it was £81,078,122, while the £18,887,082 increase had been expended as follows - £ Defence 1,145,727 Railways ... 4,815,688 Lands for Settlement ... 1,600,000 Advances to settlers and .porkers 4,529,700 Iftffins to local bodies ... 2,318,900 Reserve fund securities 800,000 Roads and bridges ... 1,218.030 Public buddings ... 909,482 Tourist and health resorts 89,742 Lighthouses and harbours 37.970 Telegraphs and telephones 455.344 Goldfields’ developments 55,904 Immigration 44.317 Miscellaneous ’ 866 273 Total ... ...‘£18,837,082 Reproductive Works. ' The five millions in round figures which was spent- on railways was mainly for extending the service, in constructing the Main Trunk railway, and in opening up the country. Four and a half millions were spent on the advances to ’settlors and workers. Bcs fore their party came into power, men were paying 8, 10, and 12 per cent, for

. money. The Government said that I tb.is was a wrong thing. They (the Government) could borrow money cheaper in the English market, and, consequently that had been done to the extent of four and a half millions. The speaker referred to the advantages of securing cheap money for the worker, and said that it would enable him to buy a home that was ■his, own. He stated that in a part of his own electorate, where a considerable sum of money had been advanced to workers, during the past twelve months, fifry-three houses had gone up,-and every one of these was built for the man who was going to live in it. Summing up the pos tion, the Hon Laurenson claimed that fourteen millions of this sum were directly interest producing, and were not putting a burden on the people’s backs. Further, he claimed that they could show' an asset for every penny of the fourteen millions spent. The manner in which the Opposition opposed borrowing outside the House and voted for loans inside, simply showed them up as political humbugs. Referring to the increased expenditure, the speaker said the education vote had been increased, and he believed it should be still further increased. Our education at the present time was too literary. It did not fit anyone for tire battle of life as it should do, (Applause) There were lots of estimable people who thought that a smattering of languages and a knowledge of mathematics and a few historical dates was an education. The Maori, who could not read or write, yet had mastered the arts of his tribe, knew the name of every bird and fish, and could build fortifications, was educated in the best sense of the word. The true education was the education that would better fit them for the battle of life. Expenditure on Education.

The trend of modern education should bo in that direct on. During the last three years the education vote had increased by over £200,000. If it was rightly spent, alright. They had increased their old-age pension grants by £120,000. As the conn thy got old- ■ er, so the proportion of old people to young got larger. < The pensions had not increased in amounts, but they bad increased in numbers. The inception of the old-age pension scheme. Mr. Laurenson continued, had marked a wave of prosperity over the Dominion. Lloyd-George had attributed increased prosperity in England to its beneficial influence, and he (the speaker) could not help thinking of what tho Book said on the subject;.“Blessed is he that considers,the poor, for the Lord shall prosper him in all his ways.” Ho felt it a great honour to be a member of the first Parliament in the British Empire to inaugurate the pension system. Another increase was that in railway expenditure, which amounted to some £700,000, hut as against this the revenue of that Department had increased to nearly £1,200,000. With the exception of a- vote of £4OO a year for a financial adviser in London—a,most proper and necessary vote—the Opposition had never opposed so far as his memory went, any item on the estimates oh; being extravagant. “We are told,” Mr Laurenson went on to say, “that we are unprogressive.” He claimed that the last five years saw more progressive radical measures placed on the Statute-book than in any other five years, of this country’s history. He mentioned the increases to worker* and settlers, widows’ pensions, and the increase in death duties on large estates. Speaking of the last-named, ho paid -that, they had reduced the duties on estates cf five thousand pounds and under, passing to other people. But for amounts over five thousand pounds the duties increased by 1 per cent, in every seven thousand.- Ho, • mcnipndd that an estate in Canterbury amounting to nearly one million pounds had paid £IO,OOO to the country ; it would pay now as much as £240,000. “I say,” exclaimed Mr. Laurenson, “it is one of the most farreaching attempts ever made in any country to reach the accumulation of capital in large amounts.” (Ap plause.) Mr. Laurenson claimed that, the men who had large sums of money left them were not. generally speaking, the equal of the self-made man. He drew a picture of the House as he once saw it. On one side was Sir William Russell, a wealthy man, and beside him were men whose fathers had educated thorn in England at the great universities, and at the big public schools. What did they find on the other side? Dick Seddon, ex-miner, expublican, ex-everything—(laughter)— Jog Ward, ex-telegraph messenger boy; Jimmy McGowan, ex-bakor; Tommy Duncan, ex-cockatoo farmer; HallJones, ex-carpenter. He might also deal with, the reductions in Customs’ duties, but he would not weary them with that. He was proud of the fact that he had taken part in passing these measures. Dealing with the charge of corruption, Mr. Laurenson went into the Mine Charges, and claimed that there was dirty work in bringing these charges forward on the part of at least one man. People who went into such dirty work could not come cut clean; they could not touch pitch and not be defiled. But the Govcrnnjent came out unscathed, and untouched. Why were tho charges brought up? They were brought up in the iiope that when the enquiry was started they would be able to drag the Government into tho mirA (Applause.) Was the Government dragged into the mire? No; not by a little bit! (Applause.) The charges fell to the ground, and they fell heavily to the ground. Mors Ministers. Mr. Laurenson continued that they .wanted more Ministers. Since 1873 there had only been one Minister added to the Cabinet, and yet the Government departments had increased out of all knowledge. He mentioned the departments of Labour, Machinery, Advances to Workers and Settlors, State Coal Mines, State Fire Insurance, State L.fe Insurance, and remarked that he. could go on mentioning new departments all the evening. It amounted to this—they were cither grossly over-manned in 1873, or they were grossly under-manned to-day. Mr Laurenson stated that it was absolutely impossible for him to go through his files. Mr. Massey had said the public servants ought to run the country ; he said that the .people’s representative men, the men they elected to Parliament, should run the country. (Applause.) Mr. Laurenson gave as an example, a recent case which had occurred. One paper on the files he had gone into, and lie had found that a sailor had fallen into the harbour whilst hoarding his ship, and had been drowned. He (the sailor) bad had £4 7s Id on his person, and tin’s amount was to lie sent to his six motherless children who were a charge on a poor man in Scotland. Before signing that paper he made a memo, instructing that the matter should ho referred to the Solicitor-General to see whether there was any chance of those six orphans getting compensation from the ship-owners for the, less of their i father. (Applause.) Another matter which had come before him was the case of a woman who had lost her only son on the West Coast. He had died from the effects cf sulphuric acid fumes in a nvne. but the doctor, it was aliened, had a share in the inino, and certified that death was due from na-

; tural causes. This ease ho had also ■ referred to tho Solicitor-General in order to get justice if possible for the poor woman. (Applause.) Under'Secretaries. There was more work than the Ministers could possibly do, and to cope w ith this he advocated a system ol under-secretaries —Under-Secretary ol Railways, Under-Secretary of Lands, etc. The Hon. Myers was Minister of Defence, Railways, and Finance. r lo administer tho railways alone would take the wiiole and undivided attention of the ablest man in this Dominion to-day. (Applause.) He knew that nis political enemies were asking why he did not stay in Wellington and administer his department instead of travelling about the country. He would say to that, that he was doing bis duty —and that was to meet his fellow-citi-zens. (Applause.) Settlement cf Lands. The Government, Mr. Laurenson went on to say, will make rapid and effective settlement of lands a cardinal feature of its policy, and put an enc to the large estates in the Dominion, Taranaki was already far ahead o: other provinces in this last respect. In Taranaki tho average farm was 211 Acres, but in Canterbury it was 601 acres. He quoted instances of larg tracts of land in his own electoral which were being held by single land holders. One third of the land ii one of the bays in Banks PeninsuL was held by one man, whilst the remaining two-thirds wore held by 101 ratepayers. In another road boarc district in the same locality two mei owned half the land, and the sons oi the people there’ were being driven tt the North Island. The aim of the Government was to place in homes of thei: own as many people as possible. (Ap clause.) In conclusion, Mr. Laurenson said that tho prosperity of the conn try depended on more than its mater ini wealth. When* Spain discoverer America, with its untold riches, thei its greatness began to decrease_ and it prosperity to diminish. “Our aim as < Government,” he concluded, “shoul. -be to produce a race of people whicl will be an honour and , glory to th people of the. Dominion, and if w can perform that, we shall perform th highest and nobles function that an. Government can perform.” (Ap plause.) Vote of Thanks. Mr. N. J, King proposed a vote c thanks and confidence to Mr. Laurer. son in the following terms: “That thi meeting thanks the Hon. George Lain onson for his able and splendid ad dress; that it hopes that the poop! of this country will give him and hi Colleagues a fair chance to show thei administrative ability; and that thi meeting has confidence in the Gov eminent of which Mr. Laurenson is i member.” Mr. C. I). Sole seconded the me tion, which was carried by acclama tion.

A vote of thanks to the chair con eluded the meeting.