MR SYMES' REPLY TO MR HINE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 275, 14 November 1908, Page 6

MR SYMES' REPLY TO MR HINE.

'A'liE •' COMMISSION " CHARGES. i q ills JiXI'JLAXATION. Mr. \\. Symes addressed the electors: u at li-rd road yesterday. ilr. Matheson' ( presided. Illure was a small attc.nl- . auce. J I'LKAIiIXU THE WAV. | Mr. Synics announced tnat this was [ his liftil election contest., and dining | the wllole of his political life he llail ] never descended lo personal uUu-AU r i apou his opponents. When standing , a seat m Parliament, a man had ■ o subject iumseli, of course, to criticism, but his home life, his private iiff, i , , his business life, and His reiig.ous beliefs should be left alone. JJiit ia this Stratford contest it was not so. All j of these had, in his ease, been attacked. Mr. Symes said he was a .New Zealand- > er, and was proud -of it, and he hoped that when his time came lie would be laid to rest in New Zealand soil, and that he would leave behind him representatives to carry 011 the work that he had begun. The TAC'iUS OF THE OPPOSITION had been full of unfairness and injustice from beginning to e;id. The wuole oi the Liberal-Oppositionist candidate's speech was devoted to tearing down and criticising. There had been, not one word of policy in it—not a word of how matters might be improved. Why, they were not even able to report a speech fairly. The report of one of JJr. King's meetings had been so twisted about by these people that I he really believed that if a nail werel driven into one of them it would come out a corkscrew. In this unfair repon r Mr. Svnies had been made to say iliat Mr. King, oae of his opponents, was " not worth mentioning. This he denied. " lie was not in the habit of treating " his opponents lightly, but he treated them as men, and expected them to 8 fight as men. He had said that lirst of all j

.MR. KIXG' had come out as an Independent Lib eral. ami later he said he would sticK to the Government through thick a;u thin. Lust, but not least, lie was th< chosen candidate of the Farmers' L'nion He had tolJ hi? audience that he ijniti failed to reconcile those three tliug-i He still failed iu that respect, an; would say so, but that did not anioun to treating his opponent with disrespect I\e and -Mr. King were good friends and lie believed they would remain sc He would reply during this speech I' some statements made by Ml!. HIXE, but he doubted whether it was of lime: use to try and convince him or hi friends that he was wrong. Xotniii; he could say would alter the opinion of a man who had set out to teach Si Joseph Ward how to conduct his ow finance, and went so far as to doub the explanation of the Prime Ministe in regard to the Egyptian bonds bus ness. The Opposition people had bee engaged m an ATTEMPT TO BLACKMAIL Hilt. He referred to these charges as painful matter—painful not so much t himself as to those who had engineere the thing, and to whom nothing wa sacred. He had already replied full to the correspondence which had take place prior to the last general cleeti j? He had replied to Mr. Heniiugwir who had been circulating pliotogranhe copies of one of his letters throughoi. the electorate, exhibiting tlvein in a ba her's shop and a billiard saloon. The (the Opposition) thought that in tiioI letters-they had a bombshell, and tlt: they were going to lorce him to rea these letters on tile platform to defeu himself. But lie (the speaker) ha known of their plans, and Ire challenge theiu. They fell in. Xow this thin they were making such a, fuss aboi happened prior to last general clectio: but they kept it bottled up til) Him Mr. Hine had denied to Air. Morise that he knew anything of the liusines yet a couple of days later lie claiim to have the right bower, if not tl joker, up his sleeve. After the stat nient of Mr. Hine he had heard that iprouiineati Opposition friend of , M lline was making enquiries as to WEST COAST LEASES, and he telephoned him about ii. I> received the answer that he w:>- "in.'. Jv lighting the election." lie Liu n n!!V:i to give him any information he uvnte but he would be chary now about any information to these people .it'ti their attack of the previous evenin On the platform Mr. iline trott;il 01 'Mr Temple' Freer. Mr. Freer was n in Xew Zealand at the time, and hi not evcu signed the petition. This wi done by his agent under power of atln my as representing the partnership Wilsou'and Freer. Mr. Freer had bei absent from Xew Zealand long befo Mr. Symes came to Stratford, and h name should not have been on the r< at all. He had suld out, and had I intention of returning to the colon Of course it was frequently the <•«: that names were on the roll even people who had been dead for- yea past. .Mr. Symes said that at hi, iir Stratford speech lie had given a full e plauatiuii of the whole incident in co nection with the Lysaght ep:»ode, bi he had not dealt with tile letter wbii he had written to the Stratford pupe Pareuthically he explained that he li; no objection to XEW SPAPEII CRITICISM,

and be had nothing to complain of in the way in which be had been reported by the papers. When cornered, Mr, iline hud resorted to the policy of blaming* tli* l newspaper* for nusreporting him. But in one issue of the louaiioru paper there appeared an article which made him a little sore, and only a few days lutcr came a letter from the proprietary, doubtless in the ordiuarv course of business, asking him to use his influence in securing for the papev certain Government advertising. Now he thought at the time that it was hardlj tne thing to slate a man one day and to ask liim a favor the next; and when he wrote he conveyed iiis answer m not exactly the same terms as he would have used had he not been heated. A man who had never said anything that he would rather not have sa>d would be a vevitable (Jeorge Washington, Jle would probably give a similar answer, though differently expressed, were the same thing to happen again. At any rate, his letter had been written to the manager, with permission to show it to the directors, but instead of that it had been shown all around the electorate. The directors all dnnied having given it away or allowed anyone to see it. How, then, hud it come int" Mr. Hemingway's possession'/ Mr. flemingway himself said ho did not know how he got ii. but that was "too thiu to be swallowed." The maiUig-r of the company had come io mm immediately after Mr. Svmes' Stratford {meeting, and assured him that he h;ul not given (he letter to -Mr. Uemi igway. and the speaker stid he believed the manager to be incapable of it. That was a private and confidential business letter the contents of which should not have been divulged. Such letters were frequent iu business, and business would be impossible if one's private and confidential letters were seized upon and published. Mr. Hemingway on the "Inge had laid particular stress on Hie fact that, this letter was "private and conlidential," and he had repealed Uii* to l he audic7ice iu older to impress it on them. ll was also stated then that the party had taken the advice of King's Counsel upon the letter, and he had assured them that the letter was snllieient io oust Mr. Symes. lie was inclined to think that "King's Couas'-l" resided iu Stratford, and he was positive tiiat had the Opposition any hope of ousting him from his seat in Parliament thvy would have attempted U> lire him out without delay. He would challenge any man iu say that this at-' taek upon him was not a mean and dishonorable transaction, not worthy of a man or a Britisher. -Mil. lIJNK'S CIIAf.LKXIJK

.\fr. Sviiß's tln'ii referred to lire let Icr published tin' previous evening in the Stratford l'ost (iind 1 e-pul>]isiu-il in this issue). Messrs. J-'ookes, lietningwav. Paget. Anderson and r'<iin]isiny mint have felt highly Hated when that letter appeared in the paper. They must have thought they were going In put the Liberal candidate kite-high. lie had known this Mr. Cower for years, and hail done business with him. lie was a thoroughly honorable man ami straight forward, ami he was a personal friend of the speaker from boyhood. That letter from Air. (lower, he was convinced, was an inspired letter. He

read it, us follows: "Wheniuikura, Xov. 'I, IMS,—To Mr. Hemingway.—Dear .Sir,—lie your enquiry re (onmiHsion demanded by Mr. "Walter Syuies for recovery of money paid on confiscated {eases, Atr. gyui«s called at my homestead at Mangainingi about three weeks prior to last election | (PJO.">). in conversation regarding tile repayment of moneys paid on the eon-lis-ated leases, Air. tiymcs stated that li«s expected l'or his trouble to receive from Jiie live pounds should tiro refund he made hy the (Jovernmcnt, to which I agreed. About tile end of June last 1 received a letter from Air Symes requesting payment of the five pounds, hi reply 1 forwarded ;»>y cheque for live pouiivis 011 July 3rd, 11)08. 1 have been a constituent of the Pa tea elect'orau; from its formation, and in ll)ur>, when Mr. iSymcs was returned for the l'alea ! seat, 1 voted as an elector in the Paten I electorate.— lours truly (signed), S. I (Jower.' 3

Mr, Symes said lie had never been in lu> Mr. Gowcr's house ill his life, but on yv December 2,id, 11)05, four days before n* l the last general election he had (.-ailed vi in at his woolshed. During a conversa- m tion with Mr. Gower he asked him if tb lie had seen his brother lately, and lie ,' n answered. "Xo." Then ho found mat Mr. Cower, who was interested with liis brother in these leases, did not know tt that any petition hud been presented to tl Parliament, or that he had been sue- & . eessful in getting tlie matter success- 151 fully through the House. Mr. dower tl asKed if any liability had been incur- S( red, and he answered in the negative, p ; but that three or four of the benefici- h I aries had proposed to give a sort of a » surprise present to those members f Parliament who had assisted in getting I the petition through, and suggested £5 <j subscription. Mr Gower said: "You can 8 put me down for that.'' In April last b he was having a conversation at the t Patea races with Mr. Gower, who ask- r ed him, "Did Bill ever give you that cheque?" Mr. Symes said he had not received it. Pn fact, he had forgotten 1 all about the matter. Mr. (lower then 1 said lie would send the cheque along. * Early in June of this year lie met an- I other of tin lessees, tile man who nad < suggested this litlle presentation, and < tiie idea was mentioned again, Mr. J • Sviik's promising to put lh<* matter in 1 hand right away, with a view of gelling < it fixed up before the end of the scs- 1 sion. On the 2GUi June he wrote to I ; Mr. Gower, reminding him that his . cheque had not come along. No sum : , was mentioned, but it was understood ; that whatever Mr. Gower scut was to : ) be supported by Mr. Symes to a like amount. The only thing in which the speaker was to blame in the matter l was not going on with the matter and i having it completed. At Whangamor mona the other day another lessee had >i asked him when the thing was to Do ' r fixed up. Mr. Gower was stating what I l Mfas contrary to fact when he said tnat t Mr. Symes asked him for this amount r| as commission. ''l am disgusted wilh • the whole thing/' remarked Mr. Symes, :i| who further stated that he had writ* « ten to Mr. Gower informing aim that, political capita] was being made out of a' the affair by the Opposition, and reo| turning him his live pounds. In the d| letter he told Mr. Gower that he would s have nothing further to do v with the y present, -except that he would be pren pared to send along his cheque when i. required. All this information he *. could have given to Mr. liine or any d of his supporters if lie had been asked if. for it, and giviug" it in that way would i'- have avoided the bad feeling engendery ed by their tactics. ;e He was prepared to advertise the* it whole of the West Coast lease transd actions from beginning to end, but not d to please the men who had got op this! d attack to belittle him. IDs letter to ■d Mr. Gow-cr read as follows: -"Dear ig Gower,—l am just sending this as a reit minder, feeling assured that it lias r.stl, caped your memory, that the cheque; v.l yon (promised me has not yet com.' j.yl ml hand. With kind regards, belk'w :;;iv is,' etc." Did that letter bear on !li I °| ntj of it an appearance of a lo'ur:- .>utic ing commission? lie had. i■: i .dr. Gower that he had incurred lio ».\jK'nse| a * at all. so far as his own cons! itnenls r. | were concerned. Jint if people in outside electorates had a grievance, and | 'did not press it through their own t member but preferred to use him, then t-| most assuredly he had a right to charge i ll those people for the information which d, ho had acquired at the cost of thousig 1 ands of pounds to himself. Mr. Uine\ er had said it was the duty of a member g. j (»f Parliament to prepare petitions for u', any man in the Dominion, That was of not the case. Kadi member for his owi ;i.l constituency, wa» tile rule. The pcti-1 as ( tioner usually got a solicitor to draft' >r-I tlie petition, at a cost of lour guineas, of This Mr, LysaghKimd not known the en amount of Ms claim, Jiow it was made re up. or when incurred, and Mr. Symes lis; had to supply all this information. He 1 dl: wrote three times to Mr. Lysagiit for no' the payment which he considered was iy. his just due, but had received no ref*e sponse, Mr. Lysagiit eventually showing of his grauimle by handing over one of

( the lotion? to the Opposition party to use against the man who helped nini, ; That was gratitude. .Mr. Syme.s urged that In: liad slid quite enough to ; \ IXOJCATH HIS C'HAUACTKi?. J and thai if politico wen.' to he Upgraded as they had been in this- attack upon liim the doctor* would Ibid it hard to 'get respectable men to represent them in Parliament, hi replying to Ml!. MINE'S OPJvN LETTEiH. ;\he snwi he ]»ad never attempted to -ay that he hud not collected remuneration from people outside his own electorate. H was well kuown tiiat the petition referred to had been returned by the committee, with a report that the committee had no recommendation to make, and that he had been instrumental in having it referred hack to the committtee for further consideration.

' and that the committee reported favj orably to the Xlovernmo7it. lie oxplained his action. The preparation of I the petition involved much "work, including the searching amongst Parliamentary papers piled away for years in the "dungeon keep.'' This took liiin day after day from early morn to dewy eve for some time after the close of the '1!)(M session. Even then lie found that this ease was not complete. After the close of the committee enquiry lie came Across the two links that were missing, lie "lobbied" the whole House, and eventually secured the return of the petition to the committee and later the Government put .C2OOO upon the Sup-1 plementary Estimate-* to satisfy the claims. The two links that had been j missing from his chain of evidence werel | a manuscript letter written bv Sir

Harry Atkinson as Premier. ami one written by Mr. John Itallanee during his term as Premier. Mi- Symes chiim* ed that without his aid the petitions could never have been prepared. ' AX J) NOW FOH ("iUATITI'DK. .Mr. 1). Lysaghf, instead of paying something towards recouping him for the time spent in Wellington on this business outside his ordinary Parliamentary duties, handed his letters to Air. Hemingway to he published to the detriment of the man who had helped him to get C(iOO for the Lvsaght Estate. Why didn't he publish the stuff himself instead of getting another man to do bis dirty-work? Why was it lie-ee-saiv fur Mr. Hemingway to ad us Mr. P>. Ly-iight.'* champion? Why hud 11o( Mr. (i'MY'T challenged bint? Wasn't ho manly enough fo do thai.? \o. he had to gel someone oho to do his dirfv work fur him. and then they spoke of I heir honorable tactics! "Mr. Hi;:,' had deprecated 'Mr. Symes' indulging in personalities. hut what else could a nun d«i against such tactics, when his owa private correspondence wa,* hauled before the public gaze? Mr. Hemiilgwav had come to his Stratford meeting that night with a whole brief-bag full of material TO ATTACK TITM. Would any man say that he hud not treated honestly and honorablv the men who had since treated him in this fashion? He said lie had to thank the for coming to this meeting in order thai he might circulate amongst the whole of his constituents his rcilv to Mr. nine's charges. Tile bombshell of the previous evening had evidently been held back so thai he could have no opjiort unit v of replying lo it : evcept r on Monday nii»ht. fi T n°ver asked Mr. flower fin- ' C-V lie said. <; l simple reminded him thai his promised cheque had not come to hand. Th:il eheun'C i retained to-diiw" The attacks now sank into insignilViinee. T»AOK TO vnrJTTCS. Coming fo general pnlities. he ridiculed the claim of Mr. line that the

Opposition was UU> author of tile Land hi'tHemem nuance i>iil J .now before the* country, It was ;i Government meusiU"; 1 pure and simple, Uu-rcaeiuag in its .effort to enable tile man witnoul. nio'uey to acquire the freehold. The Opposition Had hud nothing to do with it. Mr nine mid aisu cavined at tile surplus, and said it did not exist; or, if it did exist, it had been made by holding back the pay of railway men for six weeks. 1 First of all, Ho Government would dure to do such a tiling, and, se-1 condly, the railway men's wages in six weeks* would not total t<»i7,S4o, which was Iha amount of the surplus admitted by Mr. W. Frascr mid oilier leading members of tile Opposition. ADYAXCES TO SETTLERS. I Mr. lline Jiad complained that tri«; j coders of thy Advances to Settlors Department had been depleted, and that £SOO,OUO sent to London might well I have been applied to that fund. The •act was thai in three months of last rear the Department had issued more uoney to borrowers than >ll any pinions twelve months, and that this donaml had been created by the ring ol he other lending institutions attempt, ng to force up tire price of money. Tin armers wiio were unable to secure i> :ontinuance of their accommodation ai ■lie banks at even 7 per v.rnt. ;he Department for money at 4 1 /- pe; ent., and the Department had not ih< uoney always ready. It was straws :hat Mr. Iline, Oppositionist, should bi jo solicitous about the welfare of a Dc jartmcnt which he now praised althoug" lis leader and most of the jjrominei* nenpl;ers on his side bud vainly at tempted to stop its passing. The sueless of the Department was jiiestion. Nearly nine millions ( £S,B ( J-t - 390) had been lent, and the colony had borrowed only £5,0U0 ; 000 to do it with, the rest of the money having come from repayments. ; A TALK OX TAXATION.

Mr. lline had alleged that taxation Iv.ul increased, and increased at the "X----pense of the working man, instancing workmen's boots as a example. Jlr.

lline should remember that most of: I our workers' boo.s were made in the colony, so there could hardly be an imporL dutv on tJieni. As a matter of fact, boots were cheaper than ever. »x----cepting American and German limits, which liad to pay an extra duty as compared with British manufactures, the work of tile people who took our oversea trade. He pointed out that 023,000 people out of !)4!1.(i."il in tile colony did not pay income tax. Only 3i>7f( paid the graduated laud-tax, and 20,5(13 paid the ordinary land-tax. l"ar from these taxes being undesirable, he thought that there were thousands of people--himself for one—who would not object to pay them if tliev could qualify. I.f lie had plenty of land, or a big income, he 'would not object to a little taxation. Dut on deceased persons' estates, income tax and land taxes (which total-

led t:l 10s 10d per head) were hardly general taxation, and they should be deducted from tile .£5 0s 4.1 total when figures were used in reference to the mass of the people. THE DAIRY REGULATIONS.

.Mr. Symes defended the action of the Government ill framing (lie dairy regulations. which would be for the benefit of the farmers of the Dominion. The Clo Vcrnment was anxious for suggestions to improve them, and he hoped the farmers would give them the benefit ol their advice. It was all nonsense for Mr. Okey to claim that he alone was responsible for having ui'c regulations brought before the Stock Committee, and before the notice of Parliament. Jlr Okey knew, and all other members of Parliament knew, that the intention of the Government was lo submit the regulations to the Stock Committee for consideration, and for them to obtain the evidence of practical larmo/s Ihroughoul the Dominion. And when those farmers went down lo Wellington the Government .paid their 'Xpenses. Tile farmers of New Zealand siiyiilil remember wlial the Government by menus of its departmental oifers and inspectors had done for them. Inspectors should not be so roundly co 1demned. Let tiicm lirst look and se» llow the farmers themselves ban rnwittnigly spread tuberculosis and blackleg! throughout Taranaki. The latter had been practically stamped out by the inspectors and by the "quarantine'' about which there had been so mn:/i ' complaint, but which to his knowlerejo had not injuriously aH'ccted even one farmer. Then there were the outbreaks of anthrax, nipped in the bud and cueckcd by the inspectors. Once anthrax had got a good hold in this district it would have been practically impossible to stamp it out. fruit inspectors, health inspectors, dairy and meat inspectors, and tile Government graders who inspected our produce before 1 shipment, had conferred incalculable 1.-eiielits upon the farmers of the count>T. TIIE LAND QUESTION', lie was a freeholder. He believed ill t hi* oplio»i:» 1 tenure, so Urn I the man hu-ki;ig t'umls could take up land. Tim present tiovernmeiit had put thousau Is ol' people on Ui'j land who could never have got there under previous legislation, and hud thus swelled our exports and our prosperity. lo Local J>odi«*s Acts, Advance* to Settlers Act, and benelieent land legislation had helped tlie people on. the land, but thev w ro inclined lo forget. lie denied Air. ITine's statement that tiro Jiush and Swamps Act was to be repealed—rather it would be extended under the new leasehold tenure, lie believed in a progressive policy of ' KOA 1)1X0,

and emphasised the fact that the Government by its provision for the expenditure of a further million in thu baekbloeks was "honestly attempting to catch up the arrears which had bftcn made by the rapidity of settlement. Ih pointed out that he had always managed to secure a lion's share of Government monev for his district. QUESTIONS.

fn answer to Mr, Bond, Mr. Byrnes denied having received any money frorj Mr. Gower for himself, tie had retur 1ed the money sent him by Mr. Gower. He was not intended to receive any of the "surprise present.'' but, as one of the lessees at one time, was to stand his share of the expense. Mr. Freer was not a constituent of his when his fee was paid bv Mr. Freer's agent. THANKS AND CONFIDENCE. I pon the motion of Messrs. Dempsev avid C. O'Sulliiaji. Mr. Symes was accorded a hearty vote of thanks and confidence.