POLITICAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 253, 19 October 1908, Page 3

POLITICAL.

I Xil£ TAUMARAXUI SEAT

MR. JEX.MXGS AX WAITAIU.

ilr. W. T. Jennings opvned his cam . paigu m coancctiou with caMra , t Zl' i °Lu e S eatT«: Jahn» Hall on luursday evening, when Wi'^ssrl KS'Hr i- 1 "■ an nnn •?"«• al,d he ™ei- lost Wh«r?i Umty , ot = ivi,, g isS'sbanco re it seemed to be required'for the pneral good. The progress ma« c /iad been particularly striking hl w£t is known a 9 the Ring Coimt?y. Six yea ! ago the large area was practically a r r err £ "MCgnita—now the townships of ~ V, 1 .' 1 ' Taumaranui and others were and had, ia.fact, m adu more •progress than any ouier places m i iie dominion in the given time. In North Taranaki ho had also seen a co;i,Hierable alteration for the better He be lieved it was neglected in the past, but ««?,! 7 aS " factor t0 be <lt,alt «'ith. »n«l tile large amount of road work being accomplished wa s evidence to him lis claims were recognised. Touching on land tenure, Mr. lennuag»ta(jl he had always a strong predilection for the freeiiold, and had sui.fwted in the House the motion to alWw settlers the option of securing this ftaure. He believed that every man who was able to acquire the freehold •hould be enabled to do so if he wished, throughout his electorate the policy of spreading the small holdings was making the country prosperous. He was told that in the country there was a great deal of feeling over the labor legislation. The Conservative Government of Which the late Sir H. Atkinson was the head, had found that girls •were being paid at the rate of 2s fidVr week, and the higfoest amount, given to females bordering on womanhood was 7s per week. Then labor legislation started. There was no doubt that of late years there had been abuses on the. other side, and mere were men who made a trade out of promoting agitations against employers. Mr. Miliar the present Minister for recognised these abuses, and he brought in his Bill this session in an endeavor to allay the feeling between employers and employees. He did not think that farmers should be so keen on runnin® down anything that benefited tie town worker, for a large number of tb e farmers' boys and girls went into -the earn their living, and it ought to Sks recognised that the legislation was at hand to protect them. .One of the most important measures of Parliament had been Mr. Fowlds' Bill giving school teachers better positions than heretofore and the children of the backblocks would have & better chance of being fitted for the battle of life. Mr. Jennings quoted figures to show the number of schools opened in his electorate during the last six years, and Bald it was a record to be proud of. He liad fought strenuously for the increase Of facilities, as he believed it was most essential that every boy and girl should go through the primary, course. Concerning defence, he defended the increase of the naval suosidy. He believed that rifle shooting should be encouraged; indeed, he would make it the national pastimv, and he would like to see the school cadets afterwards join rifle clubs, so that in time ol emergency we would have an army of countrymen wHm knew hewv to shoot.

Coining to Mr. Jennings said «onw people looked askance at the increase of the public debt, but to tho9« people fce would ask if a new country could be opened up without borrowing money tor the making of roads and bridges. It might be argued by some that the debt had been increased by twenty-fire millions by the Party in power, and that such increase was unwarranted. But he would like to point out tlhat a large proportion of this sum had gone in reproductive expenditure, suoh as loans to local bodies, advances to settlers, railways, public works, and it was placed on record that the passing of the Advances to Settlers Act liad saved the settlers of the country no less a sum than £9,500,000. If our borrowing produced such a result as that it could not go wrong. It would be suicidal for any Government to stop .■borrowing, because the waste lands would remam unproductive, and our development would go no further. Ou the question of roads for the backblocks, he said that for many years he had felt he was standing alono in the House when he was making claims for bacbblock roads. This session he saw the realisation of a statement he had made in tlie House that very little good would be accomplished until they went into a liability of a million loan specially for the backhloekj, and St was very gratifying to see that the Government had decided upon a progressive roadiug policy. He was gUd to be able to say that he had got splendid grants kir his district, and his fellow members had congratulated him on having tlhe best road votes of any district in the Dominion.

A question that had exercised the minds of some of the electors was t'ne system ol land valuation. He believed the system now in vogue was based on lines not bona lido, because there Tore many false values caused by "swaps," .and oil those the valuations were made. The true value of land was its productive capacity, A good deal of uneasiness had been caused in the country owing to the speculation in land that had gone on, but the banks had taken a pull and the feeling was now better. The drop in the price of wool had been a factor in causing unrest, but Wellington commercial men reckoned the money Bcarcity would not be felt after this month.

After reviewing some of the measures Of tShfr past session, Mr. Jennings referred to the of the parties. "It seemed to him that the point had been readied when there would be some ' divergence on the part of a section who had been allied to the Liberal Party. This section wanted to "go further than the Government would be prepared to go, and unless there was a fusion of the old-time Opposition and the moderate Government Party, a third party ■would arise. As had been the case in Australia, a third party would be ineffective, and in any ease the extremists should pause and reflect, for the Liberal Party had Tfcvn progressive and the Dominion had prospered under its guidance. It was not the Liberal laws that eaused the irritation that some-

times existed, hut the administration Of them, and the speaker took occasion to refer to the dairy regulations, saying he protested agafnst tile original Set, and quoted from a speech he had made in the House, wherein he asked the Minister for Agriculture the necessity for stringent regulations when »S per cent, of the proa..ce exported was first grade. However, the regulations had been amended, and would not now be objectionable. (Applause). Mr. Jvnnings trusted he hail done nothing to forfeit tuc. confidence the electors had repo'ed in him on previous occasions, and *aid if elected he would Eive-thc same constant attention to the of his constituency-as before. His return would allow liiin to feel that whatever services he had rendered were recognised, and he would feel honored by the people s confidence. At the conclusion oj his address, Mr. Jennings was accorded an unanimous vote of thanks and confidence.— Abridged from Waitara Mail.

SELWV'N SEAT. By lelcgrapli,—Press Association. Clirijkhiinh, Ust Kiglit. Air (J. A. C. Hardy. M,l>„ the Oppolition candidate for Selwyn, iKlUreised fL large meeting at Kakaia last ew.-iing, and was accorded a vol', of tluiuks. He advocated land settlement with mull holdings, and tlic «|>tio» of the freehold, more cautious finance, a better defence system, moderate protection to local industries, and liberal provision lor education. GENEHAI-.

Napier, Last Night. Sl'r. W. ,T. ilcCirath has declined nomination for the Napier seat. an-l will support the candidature of M«. A. -■ Fraser.

'A ■Wellington paper prophesies (bat wfoen the Hon*-, of Tieprescntatives meets again at lea s t one fac 1,1 will be strange. The election almost invariably account for a dozen to fifteen changes, whilv as for the c ol '; in " alterations, they number ten. 'J lie light between the two si) ling member.-.. Br. Chappie and "Mr. McPherson. f"i the "Mount Tda sent, must iv-uU in on* disappearing from the l\irli:iniiit',.w> roll, while those who retire voluiitan'v comprise the Hon. W. Hall-lone- who fcoes to I,<mdon as the new High Commissioner—thrpa Rott'rnmcnf ers (Messrs U. IT. Houston . Itov Islands; J. Wct/aehlan. Ashburtoit: !li" Hon. 0. H. Stills, Wairan). and five ()«- liositionists—Messrs I). T?oitl. Tfiieri: FW. Alif<n. Waitomata: J. O. V". Aitken, Wellington East; F. Y. T.ethbridgo. Orona; and C. Lewis, Conrteimy. Tn tile course of his address at. TiikcJwfte 6ft Thursday night, Mr. J[assey ;

I in dealing with the speech of Ulc tiu

j vernment candidal*- for Eden. said all the new candidates had been supplied from Wellington witii speeches, and ho produced a copy which had been secured by him. Tins sam„' speech had been delivered by a number of candidates already. The above statement was referred to the I'riuic 'Minister by the Wslnigton Post. Sir Josejih Waal remarked 1) ilh emphasis that tic knwv Uothiii" about it. He had not supplied a.iv speeches, nor had he been asked to sini- I ply any.

; flic system oi distinct parties in Paihainent was criticised by Mr. Rennie at XeestoiK He s.iid there" did not seem to be any good reason why liUcsmere should continue to elect a member who was pledged to the party that had opposed every progressive step made by the Liberal Government. In no other section of public life was such a practice adopted by the people. The custom iu dealing with school committees and other local authorities was to elect men pledged to work together for the common good, and it seemed strange that in national polities some people thought it necessary 'to vote for those who opposed the -men in control, merely in order to have two parties and constant friction. "Tlieiv i s every indication of an interesting contest fur the Taranaki seat," says the \\ ellingtou Dominion. "It will be remembered that Mr. Okey, tilie .sitting member, entered Parliament as the result of a bye-election, and si.ice then he has greatly improved Imposition. He has done exceptionally good committee work, espeeiiily when matters concerning the dairy industry were under consideration, anil was also successful with a Xe\v Plymouth local liill. in spite of difficulties arising out of the conflicting interests of an adjoin- 1 ing district. It is considered that Mr. . Okey need not fear tile result, even if < a second ballot is necessary.'' 1 There was a fair attendance at Mr. > C. E. Bellringer's meeting at the Lower 1 Kent Road .School oil Friday evening, i The address was similar to that de- <

| livered the previous evening in t'.ie | Theatre Koval. Keferring to his views | oil the licensing question, Mr. Bellringer i stated that lie held by the democratic principle of majority rule, and that he strongly supported Dominion option. In replying to a question he stated that if he could not obtain all that he considered desirable he would take the best] obtainable, say a 55 per cent, to 45 per cent, majority. I

Mr. H. Okey, M.P., opens his election campaign at the Warea Hall to-night. To-morrow he speaks at Okato, and on Wednesday at Egmont Village.* ilr. W. G. llalone opens his campaign at the Theatre Royal to-night, and to-morrow speaks at MaTigorei cross roads.

Mr. C. E. Bellringer continues his meetings at Frankley road school tomorrow, and at Moturoa Mission Hall On Wednesday.

This evening Mr. N. J, King will address the electors of Stratford electorate at Waitui, at liaimiro to-morrow, and Ratapiko on Wednesday. Mr Walter Symes opens his campaign at Douglas to-night, and speaks at Huiroa to-morroiw and Stratford on Wednesday. Mr. J. B. Hine, Opposition candidate for Stratford, speaks at Midhirst tonight.