Reform Party Must Take Its Own Time

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 770, 17 September 1929, Page 8

Reform Party Must Take Its Own Time

LEADER’S ADVICE | COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY "Bitween you and me and the gatepost, we have not yet finished ' with them. We must take our own time and employ our own methods—putting country always before party, and the welfare of the people before the desires of any political factions.” In this chatty, but expressive, way, the Leader of the Reform Party, the j Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, spoke to an enthusiastic assemblage of supporters at Auckland yesterday. Mr. Coates referred to the new Government, under the Prime Minis, tership of Sir Joseph Ward, which, he said, had failed so lamentably in its endeavours to execute its election premises that the patience of the Opposition had been sorely tried, and a protest had been registered in the form of an amendment in the House to the Budget taxation proposals. The party leader gave a concise resume of the attitude in Parliament of the Official Opposition and recalled his promise, in the short session after the General Election, to give the new Government an opportunity to establish itself in the confidence of the people. The result of this tacit truce was the complete failure of the United Party to fulfil promises which were so fantastic that many people—. particularly those seeking lower ratee of interest —would be only too to see fulfilled, but which were now recognised to be quite impossible of fulfilment. The deficit of £577,000 which had been left by the Reform Government was blamed by the new administr» tion for the taxation proposals in thin year's Budget, but Mr. Coates assured the meeting that the Reform Government had left close on £3,000,000 of accumulated surpluses, which, when the deficit was deducted, was reduced to round about £2,200,000. The position had been perfectly sound, and there had been no necessity whatever for the dangerous and vicious tax upon the man on the land—a tax which simply penalised a man when he waa struggling to make his land pay. Even when a farmer could not secure sufficient income to pay income *»•», he would still be taxed upon the value of his land. CHARGE ON MOTORISTS The primage duty, too, had been imposed without any regard whatever for the principle of the capacity of the people to pay. Everyone was taxed. The Main Highways Act had been virtually destroyed—ripped to pieces and thrown into the waste paper basket—for proposals had been made by this Government to impose charges upon the motorist which never had been intended in the Main Highways AcL

“You may interpret the Act as you like,” the ex-Prime Minister said, “but there is only one real interpretation, aud that is the interpretation of Parliament which passed it.” The Opposition had been forced to move its amendment by the failure of the Government to honour its promise to the people, and although that amendment had been defeated, Mr. Coates suggested to his supporters that the people recognised the correctness of the move. RAILWAY DEVELOPMENT “We have given the Government au opportunity to give effect to its policy,” Mr. Coates went on, “but so far as we have seen there has been nothing but attempts to malign the leader and the members of the Opposition Party. There were the loan charges, the Vaile letter, the North Auckland Main Trunk line, the Taupo railway, the Palmerston North deviation aud the Otahuhu workshops. “We have not yet had an opportunity to reply to the ridiculous criticism of the Reform Government’s policy at the railway workshops, but we have co-ordinated the system and given the men better conditions as well as providing them with material and facilities to do all repairs for the New Zealand Railways and also to n *° anything that is required. “Anyone who Ims it in their minds that railways wifi no longer be required in this country and that airplanes are to take their place, must disabuse their minds, because the railways are still an important factor in our transport kystem and will continue to be so.” Mr. Coates referred finally to the accomplishments of the Reform administration while irf office, and claimed that the financial state of the country had been left as high as, it not higher than, any other in the British Empire.