GOVERNMENT A FAILURE?

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 869, 13 January 1930, Page 11

GOVERNMENT A FAILURE?

“WRONG MEN IN OFFICE” EX-ORGANISER HITS OUT “Though the United Party has been 12 months in office, it has failed to put any land policy into operation. This only points to one thing—want of knowledge in connection with land settlement.” Jn these words, Mr. I*. Keegan, until recently United Party organiser in Christchurch, took the party to task in an interview with The Sun today. Ho was also for three years organiser for the Farmers’ Union, organiser in the South Island for the United Political Association, and a candidate for tho Country Party during the recent elections. * I have had ample opportunity of Investigating the methods by which the relief works are being carired on. and the position from the land settlement

point of view,” he told Tho Sun today. "In neither case can I see that the methods adopted by the members returned by the United Political Organisation are going to be successful. The system of buying improved land at high prices for closer settlement was only a repetition of the returned soldiers land settlement policy. NOT ECONOMICAL? “Successful farmers who are familiar with the estates purchased by the present Government, both in the North and South Islands, are of opinion that when this land has been loaded with the cost of subdivisional roads, fencing and buildings, it will not be an economic proposition to the man working tho land. Revaluations will have to be made which will further increase the national loss. This is the opinion of capable men who are ardent supporters of the United political organisation.” Mr. Keegan continued by stating that the Government’s policy of buying high-priced, fully-improved land when so much unimproved or partly-unim-proved land was lying idle was only a repetition of the policy of its predecessors. “In many cases members of all parties are more concerned about catching votes and holding their own positions, than they are about the welfare of the country. The organisation was seeking to draw the best planks from all party platforms, and to cast overboard all those planks that were obsolete, thereby securing a platform which would represent the best interests of the people of New Zealand.

“WRITING ON THE WALL” GOVERNMENT’S FAILURE TO MEET PLEDGES MR. A. HARRIS’S VIEWS “Ali\ Davy’s denunciation of the United Party Government is merely an expression of the opinion generally held throughout thd country,” declared Air. A. Harris, Reform AI.P. for Waitemata, in an interview with The Sun. “It must be admitted by the most ardent supporter of the United Party that the optimism heralding that party’s accession to office has completely disappeared, and the feeling is now universal that the Government lias signally failed to live up to any semblance of its pre-election pledges,” he continued. “The United Government’s determination feverishly to prosecute railway construction in the South Island, which every expert opinion declared must result in very heavy annual charges upon the taxpayers, he said, “make one almost wonder whether the Government does not completely fail to recognise its responsibility in the matter of public policy. That proposal is the proposal of the Prime Alinister only, and, presumably, he is strong enough to command the support of his Cabinet and party, the majority of whom are personally strongly opposed to such work going on. Sir Joseph Ward's illness and the Parliamentary inexperience of a number of his Ministers have been a severe handicap, but that is not sufficient excuse for the complete failure of the Government to make good.” Discussing the suggestion of fusion of Reform and United parties advanced by Air, Davy, Afr. Harris declared that this proposal was always advanced when a political party was in low water. “The suggestion is evidently an indication of the ‘writing on the wall/ ” he concluded. NO COMMENT MR. DAVY’S STRICTURES Press Association DUNEDIN, Today. The Hon. W. B. Taverner, and Mr. Oscar Moller, chairman of the United Party in Dunedin, decline to comment on Mr. Davy's strictures concerning the United Party.