STATEMENT BY MR MASSEY.

Taihape Daily Times, 23 August 1919, Page 6

STATEMENT BY MR MASSEY.

'“‘ QUITE, CONFIDENT or THE 1, _ FUTURE. _ AIASKS PEOPLE TO AWAIT FOR HIS _. POLICY ANNOUNCEMENT. . WELLINGTON, Aug. 21. A few moccents on the situation as 5;. is at present were made made by “like Prime Minister to-night. Asked whether he was surprised to receive the news of Sir Joseph Ward’s ‘resignation, Mr Massey said: 4‘l cannot say I amsurpriscd, because when I was in Paris I noticed in New Zea-’ iand papers forwarded to me that a meeting of the Liberal. Party had been held, and that, with the concurrence l of theirvleader, they had decided to dis- } .solve the partnership and bring the I Coalition Ministry -to an end, but I did i expect that we should have had more 1 notice than has been given. I think l the dissolution of partnership should have ‘taken placed directly’ on our arrival 1, in New Zealand, or it should have been‘. l held until we had got through the busi-1- - ness of the session. We are now with--in seven days of the meeting of Parlia-' ment. The speech of the GovernorGeneral has still to be drafted, the n Financial Statement has still to be pre.'. pared, the amount of soldiers’ gratiii-‘re ties has still to be fixed and agreed to: In {addition the Minister of. Ijandh and his‘ Department have':'mad'e anal estimate of the sum necessary to ‘carry: on the work of repatriation." This has" yet to be considered by Parliament, I ; and later on -will have -to be submitted to ~Parlia.men’t. Then there is £1113", question of the reduction of +.a~:atldn’,-’ which the country is looking forward [ to eagerly. I still hope something will be‘ done in connectionwith this during ' the coming session. In calling attention to" these important matters I ‘should just like to say that I have personally no fear for the future. I_ have absolute confidence in the country ~ and absolute confidence in. the good‘ -sense and intelligence and patriotism. of the great majority of people of the Dominion. I understand Sir Joseph . “Ward has taken advantage ofpthe op-J, -portunity to .put forward his policy. I_,_. am not going to complain. .I'simply ask the rwblic to withhold their judg.':.{.*:‘"i 2. 4'9. lncy have had an opportun-Ag. ity of comparing his proposals within‘ those which I hope to slibmit later,_b,ut | I want to make it quite clear. I am ' utterly opposed to setting party against party. It is very evident there is a section of the people in the community who are anxious -to return to the -oldll system of party shibboleths, and the ’ old bad ways of seeking party advan,-_ tage without regard first to the interests of the country. This is not. a time for anything of that sort. I hope. to see a strong party, whatever they may call themselves, -of the very best. men the community can elect, returned to Parliament‘ at the coming e.'le'_cti;o;n,'.___ with one definite object of maintainingf ‘ the ‘prosperity of 'theiDominion, in- ‘ creasing the production of‘ the country, and so enable the people, without inconvenience to meet the enormous liabilities which we have incurredlby doing ourlshare duringthe war period. One is tempted to expound in some de- _ tail proposals‘whicll my Government A will put before the country. We have in View definite and practical proposals ’ for the development of the country by settlement, and improved transport facilities. In our scheme of settlement I we must, and we will have regard first 4 always to the claims of the returncdt soldiers, and we hope to be ableto give them good opportunities of making 2. success of their farming ventures, ‘:When the war broke out, on behalf of my colleagues, I laid down the policy“ of the Government. It was that we ‘should do our full share in the war and keep the country prosperous. That we have been successful scarcely requires demonstration. It is not necessary to refer to what was done during the war, but with regard to the I-rosperity of the country statistics for the six months show that our exports’ have been for that period val. 'ued at over twenty millions more for the six months than the total value for the preceding twelve months_ Ad‘ mittin-g this was due to shipping having become more plentiful, the fact remains that for the whole period it’); the war our exports ‘Vere Over thirty millions per year. , . As to the future, MrMassey was fluifle . confident in his declaration he expé,ét—ed to be able to carry on the Government. Hc caid he could not go into detains as to the intentions regarding the formation of a new Government", but there would be r\cconStruction of the Ministry in the. near future; ’