POLITICAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 113, 2 November 1911, Page 7

POLITICAL.

J THE EGMONT SEAT. / HON. T. MACKENZIE AT ELTHAM. Tlie Government candidate, the Hon. Tiros. Mackenzie Minister for Agriculture, in the course of Tuesday night's address at Eltham (briefly reported in J yesterday's issue), said he came before the electors as a citizen of New Zealand who had taken a life-long interest in building up its agricultural and pastoral industries, realising that the first j man they had to make successful in a country like this was THE TILItER OF THE SOIL. ; If he we're prosperous every other industry iu the community must share in that I prosperity. He had selected a district | closely settled by an industrious people, ] and should he be honored by being returned as their representative he would be able to identify himself thoroughly I with their ideals and aspirations and work I for the common good of all. In this con- j neetion he had been pleased to read the published report of the remarks #■£ Mr.! .T. W. Jones, chairman if the Taranaki Provincial Executive, to the effect that "at the Union's Dominion Coherence strong Government and Opposition sunporters were working hand in hand. ! The Union was strictly non-party, and j it was a slander to say otherwise. The | right not to make their's an organisa- 1 tion, and reserve the right to vote for , the man whom they considered would j be able to do the most for the b#tter-; mcnt of the farmer*." ;. :a TIIE RECENT LOAN. Let them analyse the statements regarding the alleged failure of the recent i loan, the increase in the public debt, | increase in taxation, etc. He was not going to deal at length with the question of the loan, but wanted to refer to one point. It was this: If the loan were a failure, what part did the Op- | position Party of the Dominion play to I bring that about? He referred to articles and letters supplied from New Zealand to a financial paper at Home, denouncing the financial condition of the country, a wail of despair from this debt-burdened country, with cost of living high, wages low, and misery everywhere! The article began with the words "a friend in the co!on\'." It | was probably the same "friend in the colony" who supplied last year to a j financial party paper in Washington an 1 article which set out New Zealand's position in large black type as follows: { New Zealand plunged headlong in debt, j Is being steadily abandoned for better | fields by all who can get away. Work | scarce. Wages poor. Living high. I Then on the sth November last, exactly i a week before the recent £5,000,000 j loan was floated, there appeared the following article in one of Britain's financial publications: ''Subjoined are extracts which serve to show what responsible people think of the present j Government of that over-burdened i culony. It.is. in fact. a wail of despair, ami ■confirm-! what we hear from many ! other quarters. The name and address \ •f the writer are suppressed because | it,might,.lie dangerous for the dissatis- ' faction of any owner of land within the j 1 colony to be inttde known through the Press. Sir Joseph Ward's Government > has ways and means of making things I uncomfortable for those who do not | display due submission." Which state- | mont Mr. Mackenzie ridiculed, and went I on . .to quote from the "extracts": ! 'Trom these you will see how this FvOcialistic. Ward Government are try- | .ing th'eir best'to ruin us or drive us out of the country. . . Indeed, it is a : question whether We should not sell our property and go elsewhere. At present | everything hero seems perfectly hopeless to all thinking people: these borrowed | mill'-ons are being recklessly squandered j to catch votc=."-

The candidate tliat the answer lay in tlU' manner in which the loan was allocated: Naval Defence Act, 1000. £1 .■>.'>o.o(lo; Aid to Public Works and Land Settlement Act, 1!>10, £1.175.<M)(F: Advances to Settlers. £'1,07.5.000; Advances (o Workers, £333,000. And which item of that five millions did Mr. Ma?~ey oppose'; None.

■ THE IMTIUO DEBT. Replying to Mr. Massey on the public debt, the candidate said that the debt in round figures was £80,000,000. The Government was blamed by the Opposition because the debt was so high, and a!=o for no' spending more. Mr. Hine, speaking in the House this session. had blamed them for not spending £070,000 more on roads and bridges from 11)00 to 1011. Then the Otago Daily Times, an Opposition paper, blamed IJietn for not spending 12'/, millions instead of ten millions from 10:10-7 to .1010-11. Tf they blamed the Government for the amount of the debt, how illogical they must be to complain that the Government had not added iiecorniiiL' to the one €070.000 ami to the other £-2 ..">OO,OOO to this debt. UNFAIR COMPARISONS. And another point to he emphasised was that until it was dragged from them the Opposition speakers never

said a word about the interest revenue obtained. On the contrary Mr. Massey anil his followers compared our debt per head with the debt per head of the United Kingdom, the United Slates, or Canada. without mentioning one word of the fact that the debts of the firstnamed country were largely war debts, and that these countries had not a mile of railway to their credit, or a yard of telegraph line, or a shilling ad- I vanced to settlers. Sir Joseph Ward's . Budget statement showed that previous to Mil 40 per cent, of New Zealand's then debt was interest-earning and 51* per cent, was non-interest-earning. Of the public debt increased since that date only 13 per cent or 1 ! per cent, was non-intcvest-carning, and 87 per cent, was interest earning. Of course, tile Opposition disputed Mime of the items which the Premier claimed were earning interest. This rton-int crest-bearing portion of the loans went for services which the Opposition had clamored for as much as Government supporters, namely, ronds and bridges ami certain public buildings. And, regarding these votes, (be leader of the Opposition and many of his followers say that no money -ilould lie borrowed unless spent on reproductive works, which in ell'ect meant that the Government was to cease granting assistance towards roads or certain public buildings. He could quote in a few items sums that were ItK'IYUNING MO UK THAN WAS PAID in interest for thnn. and one of these items had returned over double what we paid for the money. In railways there had been invested £2.">.r>OU.OOO. which paid the full rate of in!crest; in the re-crve fund £SOO.OOO, also paying the full rate of interest, ill advances to settlers and workers and for the repurchase of estates, £14,2oO.()ilO. A voice: Who suggested the Advances to Workers? Tile candidate: 1 know who claims to have sugge-lcd it.- and who claims to list i .• HILL: -1 •: fV ry bli's-ed thing that's g:i■ i I. |;»t I have h.\ nw a copy of one of my speeches ill which I sug- \ ge.-ted it long before Mr. Massey over ■ came into the House. (Cheers.) Aim how. it wasn't talking and suggesting I that did good; it was the doing, and that

was thi> work of the present Government. The voice: What chance has he had? The candidate: Why don't you stand, and go and help him? You'd make a precious poor supporter. Continuing his speech, Mr. Mackenzie said the Government had placed £500,000 in Bank of New Zealand shares, for which they paid 3'/ a per cent interest, and since 1004 had received over and above that interest no less a sum than £136,000. During that period the interest had amounted to £125,000, bo that they had doubled tlie interest and had £IO,OOO over as well. Surely a good investment. Then also there were the Government loans to local bodies,' £4,882,000, which the local bodies paid interest on, but of which the Government, in order to help the settlers, would finally pay the total amount. Was that not reproductive and beneficial?

THE DEBT EXTINCTION BILL, which nine-tenths of the members of the Opposition voted again?!, provided for paying the present total debt in 75 years. For this purpose £140,500 was set aside each year. Previous to that Act they were paying into certain sinking funds for the redemption of certain loans. It was proposed to continue that payment, and in the meantime to pay out £11,392 more each year, and every further million of money that was raised would have a sinking fund of £2230 a year placed to its credit. All this was being paid out of current income. Above and beyond all this, the country was being developed by the method of borrowing. We were using the concentrated accumulated wealth from abroad to carry on our operations. Had we to wait i til we earned surpluses sufficient to <. , what wc required, the country could i. t keen abreast of other communities.

CONSISTENT INCONSISTENCY. Again, if the debt had increased, had not the Opposition been as prominent in their demands for that increase as the Government supporters, and had they not supported as consistently the votes that made up the increase? When the money had been raised, had they not knocked at the. door of the Treasury for their share as valiantly as other members had done? And, if there was blame, was not the one side to blame as much as the other? Instead 'of five millions last year, it would have taken ten millions to satisfy the demands made. As ft matter of fact, the Government was continually saying "no" on all hands* Of all the organised political hypocrisy of the Opposition was this outstanding and obvious fact that these apostles of economy were always knocking at the door of the Minister and advocating still further expenditure, often nnreproductive, and at the same time preaching economy, and so on. There was. Mr. James Allen and his advocacy of the extension of the Otago Central railway, and which Mr. Massey supported, while up to the present the railway had paid only from' %to 1 per cent. If the Government constructed these works it meant an increase of debt and loss of revenue. These were the men who abhorred all this sort of thing! But they were there to get more than their share, if they could, of the loan which they j supported but for which they condemned the Government. (Applause.) j

1 RELIEF FOR THE WORKER. !•TalHiilg'6f' alleged excessive taxation, Mr. Mackenzie said that the Government had taxed banks, racing clubs, and large I estates, bjt lie could not see how Mr. | Massey could say that taxation of this ; sort was passed on to the workers. And ! when that gentleman said that an in- [ crease of two millions had been raised | by taxation last year he must have been | suffering from a hallucination, for it was I contrary to fact. A prominent Taranaki • member of Parliament had fallen into a delusion and said that the taxation was I £lO per head for every man, woman, I and child in Xew Zealand. He, no doubt, I based his contentions on these facts: j The total income in the Dominion from all sources ■was £ 10.000,000 odd last ! year, and the population was about a millions. He evidently divided the ten ) millions among the one million people, ' and there he had the £ 10 per head which he assumed was taxation, but he. quite overlooked the fact that of this £10,000,000 of income three items alone were responsible for £5,000,000. These were from three public services—railways, post oflices, and laud revenue (not • taxation). For instance, if a man or his ! wife bought a penny stamp to post a | letter, the penny went to swell the inI come. But it could hardly be called taxation when for that penny the letter was taken to some other country or another part of this country as desired, j could it? But the Taranaki member re- | ferml to seemed to think that was taxaI tion. This gentleman would have it ap- ! pear from his figures that a man, his | wife, and family would have to pay £6O i per annum in taxation, but what were the facts of the ease? If a man living on his own property of less value than £SOO drew less. than £3OO a year in j salary he would be altogether free from I direct taxation, and the other taxation he would have to pay through the Customs. If he did not smoke, his taxation would be £0 8s 2d per year for the | whole family, but if he smoked' and | drank, his taxation would be £lO 8s fld. What did lie receive in return ? j To start with, if his children attended school, their education cost the State £2l per annum; and if he and his wife I reached the age of C 5 and were in poor h circumstances they 'Would get the Old Age Pension of £52 a year, ft was true that Laxation in the total readied a greater amount, but this taxation had been iaken from the shoulders of those least able to bear it and placed on the shoulders of those host able' to bear it. The total concessions in customs duties made by Parliament since ISOI to 1010 came to £5,32-2,000. Four articles alone, namely, tea, sugar, dried fruit, and kerosene, showed a direct concession amounting to £.3,587,000.

A voice: What about motor-ears? The speaker: If motor-cars had votes Mr. Jlassey would not be long before lie would be Premier. (Applause.) But flie Conservatives don't rule this country. lie explained that when (lie duty 011 motor-cars was removed it was thought that these articles would be becoming less expensive and in more common use. But that, had not come about. Continuing, the Minister said .Air. Massey had complained of tile customs duties having been increased. They were increased during four years 011 certain articles, and the amount of that increase was £:t(i(l.00n, and some of that was preferential tarid', but during that s:inie period concession were made amounting to £1,(M(I,(I()0 oil .siicli articles us cotton"piece goods, rice, sugar, tea, currants and raisins, and other necessaries of life.

TAX IXC 810 ESTATES. As to (he complaint of tin- Opposition against tin 1 increased land tax, it was only flic very big estates tilat were much all'ected, ami the object, of that "nuluatod tax iv;is to compel tlie owners to break up those big estates and make the land available for settlement. Speakim* of TIIK LAND QUESTION, ilie lion.' Mr. Mackenzie explained his 'action in voting against Ml', Massey's aim ndmeiit which lie had spoken about j at Hltliam 011 the previous night. The amendment, he explained, was not brought forward during a land debate at all, but was really a motion of no-con-! 1 Jideiiee in the Government of which the>

speaker was a member, and he had voted j against it becauee the Government was : bringing in a Land Bill. Mr. Massey was I fond of stating how firm he was on the land question, and how weak and vacillating the Government. Why, Mr. Massey had boxed the political compass on j the land question. Mr. Mackenzie explained the system of opening Crown lands. These when opened were disposed of under optional tenures, that is, (1) for cash; (2) occupation with right of purchase; (3) leasehold, a lease of fiO years with right of renewal for another 06 years at a re-valuation. The eudowi ment lands were let under the renewable lease. Under the present law the tenant of the <lease-in-perpetuity land had the right of converting l.i.p, land into freehold at its present value, and these tenants were so converting it all over the colony, some at the original value, some below it, and some above it. A good deal had been written and spoken about land tenures, but he did not think it was often explained to the public what the main features of the present laws were. A lot of people who criticised our land laws hadn't even rend them.

ACQUIRING THE FREEHOLD. On the question of the right to acquire the freehold there had been much controversy. The leader of the Opposition had, as he had said before, submitted several proposals in the form of a- Vvaiit-of-coiifidence motion for granting the freehold for the L.I.P. settlers. He had also introduced quite a number of proposals before on the matter. His first was to dispose of the freehold at the original value; his second, to divide the increased value between the tenant and the Crown, illustrating this proposal by an example in the case of land increasing in value by £5 an acre, £2 10s to go to the State and £2 10s to go to the tenant. His third proposal was an actuarial adjustment—a term which Mr. Massey borrowed from the speaker himself, and his fourth proposal was putting on 1 per cent, compound interest and granting the freehold. What inconsistency from the consistent Mr. 'Massey! The Government's last proposal was to divide the increased value between the State and the tenant as follows: One-fourth of the increase to go to the State, and the balance, threefourths, to go to the tenant, which might be illustrated as follows: If land rose in value by £5 an acre, the State would get 25s of that increase, and the tenant £3 16s. So that Mr. Massey's proposals were not so favorable to the tenant as the Government's, on that basis. There was, however, simply a difference in degree, not in principle. Personally, ho was an optional tenure man, conserving our endowments.

LIMITATION' OF AREAS. The Dominion had reached a stage in its history when we must consider most carefully the limitation of areas. The proposal embodied in the Bill contained a rather drastic clause for the prevention of the aggregation of estates. This clause had formed the subject of a bitter attack on the part of the Opposition. In this attack they had carefully avoided giving a clear definition of its application, namely, that, among other things, it was to apply to future purchases and not to past. If the reaggregation of estates was to be effectively stopped, stringent provisions must be insisted 011, and the drastice nature of the clause must be in proportion to the ultimate seriousness of the conditions that would arise through permitting the reaggregation of estates. No greater blight or calamity could befall n nation or an empire. It had been the means of driving the pick of the inhabitants of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1 those countries. In Scotland at the present time one-seventh of the area was given up to deer forest, and over 150 miles north and south in Sutherlandshire and Caithness-shire, and from sea to sea, the whole country had been acquired and given up to deer forest. Mr. Mackenzie emphasised the fallacy f of the impression sought to be conveyed / in some quarters that the one difference between the Government and the Oppo- I sition was tint the Government favored! the leasehold and the Opposition the ) freehold.

The candidate then referred to the need for population. and for tin; training of our men to ward oil' foreign aggression. "OX HIS OWN?' . He had been asked if lie intended calling in any outside help. He would say definitely tli.-t lie would not do .so. Tf he could not win oil his own lie would not go to Parliament. (Applause.) 110 wanted no exterior help or props to enable him to hobble in. Mr. Massey had claimed that he was justified in coming to help Mr. Dive, because his opponent was a Minister of the Crown, but lie felt be was no more tban any other man. although a Minister. He hud had to paddle his own cauoe since he was twelve years of age, \yhen he commenced to earn \vage9. Tie expressed the opinion that the electors should, as it were, form a ring, and allow the candidates a fair fight, man to man, afterwards selecting for themselves the man they felt was the 'best qualified to represent'them in the politics of the country. Of this lie was persuaded, that never in the history of New Zealand was there a time when it was more necessary that the best men be sent to Parliament, for some of the biggest problems that ever loonifll oil Ihe horizon were appearing now for decision. Ho did not claim that his past experience and work and travel were a qualification unless he was satisfied that he was as vigilant as ever; but he felt that he was. He believed Mr. Massey was a Liberal at heart, but bis surroundings would not permit - of his being Liberal, for the Conservatives were in favor of a limited franchise, so that the wealthy could demand nil the luxuries and comforts that wealth would provide, witlioj.it the restrictions that were imposed in a democratic country. ITI.S KNOWLEDGE OF -MARKETS.

He spoke of his connection with the marketing of his produce, and the correctness of his forecasts, even when he contradicted such a personage as the president of the Bank of New Zealand. That gentleman had said the Dominion was in for a period of low prices. The speaker had publicly given a. contrary view, and lie was right. And <0 in other cases, lie predicted that, despite the warnings of the Trade Commissioner, the price of frozen meat must advance, because the working people of Germany and elsewhere, who were now fed on inferior meat such as meat which had been declared diseased and afterwards sterilised for human consumption, wouldn't, stand it much longer, but would insist on the admission of frozen meal from the colonies. ITe referred 'briefly to the increasing tendency to slander and misrepresent public men, and to the waste of the time of Parliament in forcing the fiovernment to investigate and refute charges of ''Tammanyisvn" and corruption which were continually being levelled at them ,hv the Opposition. This was depriving the countrv of the best services of its men in Parliament, and of the services of its best, men in politics.

The candidate resumed his seat amidst loud applause. QUESTION'S. ITe invited questions, and challenged his detractors to meet him now and question him, or else hold their peace outside. He also counselled, people to

turn a (leaf ear to the man who alleged in the street that he eould have "tied him in a knot" with a certain question. Let that man ask his question now. Amongst the questions were two by Mr. Cleaver oil the licensing question. Mr. Mackenzie said he was not in favor of tho hare majority because lie thought there should be a sufficient majority behind licensing reform to make it permanent. Where a change was effected by a large majority the balance was not so likely to swing back. He was not wedded to the three-fifths majority, and was in favor of reducing it. A vote of thanks was accorded the speaker on the motion of Messrs. McQueen and Slater, and the customary compliment to the chairman concluded the meeting.