MINISTER AND MEMBER

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 290, 2 May 1911, Page 4

MINISTER AND MEMBER

' POLITICAL DIFFERENCES. HON. T. MACKENZIE AND MR. DIVE. Manaia, April 29. Amusing political repartee, which developed into a more serious political argument, was heard at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Kaupokonui cheese factory near here to-day, the participants being the Hon. T. Mackenzie, Minister of Agriculture, and Mr. Dive, the Oppositionist who represents Egmont in Parliament.

When Mr. Dive introduced the Minister he reminded him that the district urgently needed a railway and that the dairy producers considered that a man should be sent Home to look after their interests. The Minister got up to speak holding a handful of notes of statistics. One stieet fell to thq ground beneath the platform. "Downfall of the Ministry," chuckled Mr. Dive laughingly.

"The wish is father to the thuoght," remarked an onlooker.

By this time Mr.> Mackenzie had his I notes complete again. "Sec how quickly I it recovered," he remarked amid loud laughter. He went on seriously to deal I with Mr. Dive. He had heard the necessity for a railway repeated before, but the Government ought to be careful before adding to the public debt of the country by borrowing all the money asked for, mostly by the very people who afterwards turned to rend the Government for "plunging a beautiful colony into a whirlpool of debt." (Laughter.) The Government was going to consider the question of sending a man to England iu connection with the dairy industry. "So it ought," interpolated Mr. Dive. "What about his friends who say the ■ Agricultural Department ought to be wiped out?" asked the Minister. "They say it ought to be reduced by £IOO,OOO per annum, and that our experimental farms ought to be out up." Mr. Dive: Who says all this? Mr. Mackenzie: Your friends. (Laughter.) Mr. Dive: I haven't said it. The Minister declared that instead of curtailing they ought to increase the expenditure, because it was a necessity that there should be a man in England who would look to the quality of the cheese and butter sent there in order to advise New Zealand producers where I to correct their errors. ' Mr. Dive: Do it. The Minister: You want my depart ment cut down by £IOO,OOO, but we are going to consider that matter, and wc have a surplug to enable us to do it. THE FIVE MILLION LOAN. "There is economy and there is false economy," declared Mr. Dive at a later function, apropos of the proposed railway which he advocated through his district. The Hon. T. Mackenzie's reply to this was that if the severe criticism of the five million loan was to be regarded as a reflex of the public mind it woulti' have great influence in determining their line of action in regard to railway construction. Every member of the House had supported that loan, and everyone tried to get his share. Was there an item with which they did not agree? Did they not want the Dreadnought, the money to spend on the purchase of estates for closer settlement, and the million and a quarter for roads, bridges and railways? The railway vote was mostly spent in Opposition members' districts, and he found that it was the leader of the Opposition who advocated spending still more on the Otago Central, though it had been clearly demonstrated by expert evidence that the line had not yielded more than (Is per cent, on a capital for which probably £4 per cent, had to be paid. More people were not concerned in any railway extension than were concerned with it, so that if borrowing for such purposes was criticised the Government would have to consider it when arranging its estimate of expenditure. But he believed that if the objects of the borrowing were explained everywhere not a "progressive man in the country would be found to object to it, so long as it was for the development of New Zealand. (Applause.)— Times correspondent.