Prime Minister to Take a Hand

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 155, 21 September 1927, Page 13

Prime Minister to Take a Hand

aid for candidate RAGLAN ELECTIONEERING • /prom Our Own Correspondent) WAIUKU, Tuesday. rTHE Prime Minister, the Right 1 Hon. J. G. Coates, is to olunge into the Raglan electoral battle on Monday next. He is due to speak in Ngaruawahia on M onday evening, at Tuakau on Tuesday, and at Waiuku on WednesdaThe Hon. A. D. McLeod will be in Ngaruawahia to-morrow, and on Frijgy will address meetings at Onewbero (1 pm-)* Pnkekawa (2.30 p.m.), and at Tuakau in the evening BREEZY CANDIDATE REFORMER’S ADDRESS meeting at pukemif o (From Our Own Correspondent) HUNTLY, To-day. About 60 miners last overling ormed the Pukemiro audience of Mr. A. H. Waring, Reform candidate for Raglan. He made one of his characteristic addresses, and won himself a vote of thanks. Alluding to the “RagUn Handicap,” he refused to feel dismayed at the large Held. Electors would get a run for their money. The present depression, ho said, was wholly outside the Government's control. ROADS FOR THE COUNTRY UNOFFICIALJREFORMLR - SPEECH AT RAGLAN /From Our Oxen Corresponded t) RAGLAN, Tc-day. Reform in principle though denied the shelter of the party, Mr. W. J. Taylor addressed electors at taglan last evening. He claimed that the best way to deal with agricultural finance was by extending the State Advances Department's activities. The administration of the Public Works Deptixtment could be more economically carried on by amalgamating the too-numerous branches. Concrete roads along the railway routes, said Mr. Taylor, were a tactical blunder, as they induced competition with the State railways. It would ;be much better to spend the money loading the country districts. Mr. Taylor would not force Bible reading in schools on the teachers. LABOUR PARTY NEEDS FARMER MEMBER REFORM PARTY’S FINANCE (From Our Own Corresponden ) NGARUAWAHIA, To day. Mr. W. Lee Martin, the La iour Party’s candidate for Raglan, believes his party needs a farmer on its benches in the House. Speaking at Ngaruawahia last evening, he stated his hopes as a Labour Party farmer. For many years lie had been on the land and was to-day president of the Waikato Sub-Divis on of the Farmers’ Union. By linking himself up with the Labour Party he could render a great service to the farmers. “It is the aim of the Labour Party,” he said, “to eliminate the middleman and his kind.” In 1925 the Coates Government was returned with an overwhelming majority through the propaganda instituted by the financial combinations. The cost of the General Election of 1925 to the Reform Party was stated to be £400,000. This was paid by the persons behind the Government, who reevered it in turn from the farmers. Through the Dairy Control Board the producers lost £2,500,000. Mr. Lee Martin deplored the expenditure on city works and buildings at the expense of the rural population. "If Mr. David Jones, M.P., gets; into the Cabinet. Heaven help the farmer,” said Mr. Martin. “We will have the farmers’ mean works overshadowed by Vesteys.” One month after the Coates Government was returned to office in December, 1925, the rate of interest was advanced by the Advances to Settlers’ Office. Though this office, established ia 1894, had been working over 30 years, yet in 1925 it raised its rates Irom 41 per cent, to 5i per cent. The banking and financial institutions ruled the country mot the Coates Government. In 1894 the Government saved the Bank of New Zealand and in return j® * factor in its directorate. Yet ■t never attempted to stop the rise in the overdraft rate. If there was a btate Bank many cases of struggling settlers would be relieved. Australia bad a State Bank and such an institution here would be a step toward tne farmers’ emancipation. COUNTRY PARTY’S CLAIM ON RAGLAN W- MAGNER AT HUNTLY (From Our Own Correspondent) HUNTLY, To-day. pREE trade within the Empire, Preferential voting, and a flovernment that would ake farming pay the farmer were advocated at bluntly last evening by Mr. C. A. Magner, the country Party candidate for the a lJlan electorate. He regretted the absence of the 0a ln ® rB, an d said that he was called ’ 7 that body to espouse its cause. u 1 the land - he said, should be brought ° er *be Land Transfer Act, and a I bsUtut*<j lan<l in< * i mm >E rat l°n policy Zealand has never had a k~,- -P government in its history. It

has had farmers who were party men. “Would a farmer*’ government allow 9,000 farmers to go off the land in four year*?” he aitked. Preferential voting on all vital matters involving more than two issues was a strong plank in his party’s platform. The pi-inciple of subsidising wheat-growers he declared pernicious. He advocated free trade within the Empire. While giving the Prime Minister credit, he had proved a dismal failure at the head of the Government. “Farming,” he slated, “is paying the country, but it is not paying the farmer, who is understaifed, overworked and underpaid. While agreeing that Labour was entitled to contest the seat, Mr. Magner held that a trade union Labour was not wanted in a farming- community „