POLITICAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 122, 14 November 1911, Page 8

POLITICAL.

MR rL OKEY, M*Fm AT XW THEATRE ■"-'■TOYAV'' -".« Mr. H. Okey, M.P., addressed a larga meeting at the TWtre- Royal last, night, and obtained a good hearing throughout Mt .Q. W. Browne, Mayor of New presided. Mr. Okey,-*ho was well received, said the time had arrived when the electors were called upon to elect some person to represent them in Parliament, the highest position in their power to bestow upon any man. He had had the honor of holding that position during fiva sessions, and had called them together •<■ -to give a short account of his stewafd•slrip and to offer his services for a further term. He had found that a member's dutiet did not consist merely of going to Wellington to assist in making laws for the Dominion, but he had during the recess to be continually acting as a medfary between his constituents and'the Ministers. , Probably. an o^a man.or woman is applying for an old"'age pension. They might have been in the colonies 40 or 50 years, but possibly were unable to produce certificate of birth or evidence sufficient to satisfy the registrar. The member for the district was applied to and'had to render assistance in getting evidence to satisfy the authorities. Then possibly a work-ing-man or farmer had applied to one] of the Government lending departments for a loan, and through some little hitch the matter was delayed. It was astonishing the lubricating effect a letter from ' - the member had, or, if he were in Wellington, a personal visit to the Department. During his term' ; of office Tara-l naki had produced a larger number of local Bills than any other district. Whether it was a. sign of progress or not it was hard to say. The first measure that was placed in his charge was a Bill tot (validate a loan that the Borough Council i had borrowed. Then came a Bill from! the Agricultural Society enabling them ' to lease a piece of ground that was originally granted to them for show purposes faut had become too small. The -New Plymouth Harbor Empowering Bill was tin hardest fought local Bill that came before the House during the session on account of Opunake having a Harbor Bill before the House at the same time, Opunak* endeavoring to extend its rating powers over lands in the New Plymouth rating are*. la this measure he had the support of the Prime Minister and other members of the Cabinet.' But he would like to point out that all Bills with the Government at their backs did not* get through. During this session Wanganui bad a Harbor Empowering Bill before the House to give them power to borrow :£250,000 to improve their port. This measure was backed by the Prime Minister and other Ministers and all the Gov. rnment supporters but two. Yet it could uot be got through. He had supported the member for Wanganui. He hoped that eventually New Plymouth would be able to do business with Wanganui. Another Bill put through for the New Plymouth Harbor Board was one empowering them to reclaim 20 acres of land at the root of the breakwater, a measure which would be very useful to them iu the near future. Another measure that would be of immense value in beautifying New Plymouth in the future, also helping the tov.:i, was the New Plymouth Recreation un'J Racecourse Reserves Amendment I','iA, which was put through during the Kill) scs-ion. Thh measure he had suggests to the lat« Mayer (Mr. Tisch), who immediately entered into it. The late Mr. risen came down to Wellington to give evidence in favor of the Bill before the Local Bills Committee. When the committee's report came down to the House it was in the direction that the Bill be not allowed tu proceed. Mr. Okey immediately moved an amendment to the effect that it be. referred back to the Local Bills Committee, with a view of taking the evidence of the Hon. T. Kelly and the lion. 0. .Samuel on the Bill. The amendment was agreed to. The Bill came from the Local Bills Committee. with a favorable report. As the B:il was passed £2OO of the revenues t would go to the upkeep of the Recreation •' Ground*, the balance towards the improving of other reserves in the town of ,".Ne*' Plymouth. This measure must eventually benefit the borough, as it turns 44 sections which at present paid no rates into rateable propertv, and buildings would in time be erected there that would contribute towards local rating. MR. OKEYS POLICY. Mr. Okey said he had been elected to .support the Opposition Party, which he had -done in all important party divisions in the House. But in any measures in which he could not sec eye to eye with the party, he had voted as be r . thought best 'n the interests of the dis- »*' trirt'and people he was sent Jto represent. He wa9 here now prepared to explain and uphold every vote he had

given. Mr. Bellringer says he had deceived them because he stated at Fitzroy that he was not anxious to see the Government go out of power, but on every cruioal division went into the division against the G^t'l2l>ffi'' nt - "\Vhat would you have thought of me if I, returned to support the Opposition, had 'Stated' for the Government on these occasions? Would I not then have deceived you or those who supported nie? Mr. Bellringer says he does not suppose 1 ,will ;mftkfc.the same statement now. No, I do not, but I make this statement: 'That if my vote will put the Government out of office I give that vote. I do not want you to be deceived, and J will later give reasons why I consider the country will be better with a change of Government.'" Mr. Bellringer gave him credit for supporting the humanitarian legislation brought down by the Government, but he did not say that Mr. Okey had urged upon the Government (which Hansard would show) the bringing down of legislation to amend the Old Age Pensions Bill so as to allow our old people to have a home, without having their pensions reduced. What was the use of a pension to a person if he had to pay it all away in rent? He wanted to encourage our people to get homes for themselves in their younger dajs whilst tliey were able, and not for it to debar them getting the pension when thfiy were entitled to it. That amendment, he was pleased to say, was passed, and a person could now have a' home, valued at about £O3O and still draw the full pension. Mr. Bellrrnger *'had suggested that if Mr. Massey was in power there would be no further humanitarian legislation. He could not have read the platform of the Reform Party. Plank 9 says: "Reform of the Old Age Pensions Act, making the qualifying age for the pension for women 60 years instead of Go. Plank 10: 'Reform of the industrial system of the Government by promoting legislation in favor of compulsory insurance against sickness and unemployment. Plank 11: Reform of the economic system of the Dominion in the direction <rf promoting ijmdustrial peace and restoring public confidence in order to encourage JocaTiadustrie*.

Mr. Bellringer was in good training for a f Government supporter. There were plenty of them in the House. Their main politics was raking up a past, which the present members of the Reform Party had had nothing to do with. He himself tried to forget the past and live for the future. "Let the dead bury the dead. I live for the future. I have not called you together to spend your time raking up the past. (I have never done so.) If either side brings forward a progressive measure I support it. During the five years I have been in the House I have not spent two minutes in nuking up the past, or carping and canting. Igo there for business. lam sorry to see that Mr. Bellringer is inclined that way. I suppose it is part of the stock-in-trade of the party. "I am one of those who think A CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT

will be in the interests of the Dominion and will have the effect of restoring confidence. A party can be in power too long. They outgrow their usefulness and if left alone die of senile decay. These signs are appearing in the present party in power. I have only to refer you to statements that have appeared, made by Mr. Fowlds, a late Minister, and Mr. Ross, an active supporter of the party. Bach of these has expressed the opinion that the Government has departed from its Liberal principle*. LAND LEGISLATION.

The Government finds it impossible to pass legislation dealing with the tenure of land with the party that supports them, but that they considered amendments were required in the land laws was shown by their having brought down two Lmd Bills and deserted the same. Take the Bill brought forward by the present Minister for Land, the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Ward, Bart. This Bill had clauses dealing with the freehold as well as leasehold. The leaseholders on the Government side of the House would not have the Bill, and when it was raported from the Lands Committee, and the motion wa, that it be laid upon the table of the House, up would jump one! of the Government party and rule the' motion out. This happened on several occasions until the Government dropped the Bill. This showed that it would be' impossible for the Government to get a' Freehold Bill through the House without the assistance of the Opposition party,' which they refuse to accept. That is another sign of the growing j IMPOTENCE OF THE GOVKIIN- ! MENT.

There was no doubt that the settlement al the land was one of the most important factors in the interests of the settlement of a young country. And this continually interfering with the tenure upon which land may be held was a 1 great mistake. The tenure upon which a person could take up land in a young

coloay should be the best advertisement that colony could have. At the present time he did not .believe that if a person, met the Right Hon. Sir J. Ward, Minister for Lands, in London, and said to him that he wished to go out to see New Zealand, and take up land, and asked him what tenure he could take it up on, unless he had the Under-Secretary of Lands at his elbow, the Premier could tell him. If Mr. Massey was Prime Minister and was met by a young man, and was asked the same question, he would say: ''Young man, if you go out to New Zealand, you can take up the j land on whatever terms you likeleasehold, deferred payment, or any other liberal terms, and when you are ready and it suits you can make the land freehold." What better policy of encouraging the settlement of the lands could they have than that? (Applause.) That was the best advertisement you could give any country. But whilst it was unwise to be continually tampering with the tenure question, the question of administration of our lands must be altered as the country progressed. Thirty or forty years ago there was no need of limiting the amount of land one person might take up. As the country had progressed population had increased. LIMITATION OF AREAS.

Both sides of the House agreed that< there must be a limit to the area thai' any one person might hold, and that they must resume some of the land which was allowed to be taken up in the i past. 2\€w Zealand could not allow these huge .blocks to be held for running sheep upon, and so Parliament passed the Lands for Settlement Act, giving the Government power to borrow £500,000 a year for the purpose of purchasing estates. As far as the Land for Settlement Act .was concerned complaint had been made by the southern members that the Government was not taking ad-, vantage of the power they had in that, although they had power to spend! £500,000 a year, they last year expended j only £158,000. They complained that the settlers' sons were coming up north on account of not having land provided for them in the south. These settlers now held their lands on the L.I.P. term,| paying 5 per cent, on the cost, and ap-, peared to be dissatisfied with their tenure' and wanted the right to make the land freehold. One of the Reform Party's] planks was that they should be allowed this right, the funds derived from the I sale of these lands to be used for th»\ purpose of purchasing other lands, andj so reduce a certain amount of borrowing for that purpose. At the present time many of these settlers are investing their money in other leasehold land, thus aggregation among the leaseholder! was greater than among the freeholders. The reply the Government give to the non-expending of the amount allowed was that they could not get the land at a price that would pay lor cutting up. Xo doubt in the past they had passed over many estates that would have paid tJiem well to buy. Mr. Okey gave one of the many instances that had come to hi»' knowledge. Some few years ago the* late Mr. \V. Bayly, who was "in illhealth, offered the Department his Warea estate, comprising about 2000. acres, at £l2 per acre. After a visit by) the t>oard the Department was advised not to buy, as it was too dear. Shortly after it was sold for £l2 10s to a local buyer, who farmed it for a,bout three' years, and then sold it to another gentleman ifor £ls 10s per acre. This gentleman worked it for about three yeart, and a few months ago sold it by public i auction in Mr. Newton King's auction mart at an average of about £23 per acre, and most of it was bought by! farmers and farmers' sons who had been reared in the district and should know the value of the land. Here the Government allowed private persons to make £25,000 out of the land before it went into the hands of the farmers. He did not blame the persons who made the protit, as any of them would do the same, but he did blame the Government, and he wa.s sure the La ml Purchase Board wanted bringing up-to-date with the improved mode of farming. Opinion had been expressed in the House on many occasions that the board was too conservative, and he was inclined to agree with them. I HELPING TEX THOUSAND MEN.

There were several ways of getting on to the land with small means that ke hail not time to refer to, such as the land finance selieme, which allowed for setting up associations of not less than five persons for the purpose of purchasing improved farms. But with all our Liberal legislation there was no way for a man with a. large family without means to get on to the land and helped after lie got there to remain on the land. He saw by the papers that the Prime Minister proposed to help such per-', sons up in' the King country, but rf was not part of their policy and had never been brought before the House. Sometliing.rnust.be done to keep the. people on the land after they got there, and he would support any Liberal legislation brought down to assist such cases.

But whilst provision was 'being made to assist persons on improved farni3 they must not .forget their pioneers who go into the backblacks to hew out homes for themselves. lie could not find words to express the conditions of many of the women and children who, with brave hearts, had gone away from the different centres of civilisation into the backblocks in hopes of bettering their position, and alter ten, fifteen or twenty or thirty years of toiling and self denial, when there was a possibility oif taking life a little easier, found their health broken i down through the hardship thoy had had I to encounter.

ROADING THE BACKBLOCKS. Three years ago he had had hopes that they were going to relieve these people by giving access to their holdings, as the Minister of Public Works brought down a measure to borrow £1,000,000, to be expended at the rate of .-£260,000 a year, for the express purpose af helping these settlers. This measure had the unanimous support of members of the Opposition, and the Bill was passed. But. like many other measures, the Government had not taken j full advantage of their power, but only expended a little over half the amount they were authorised to do. Was it to. be wondered at that the settlers in the backblocks were getting tired of such treatment, and are looking for another party to assist them? WORKMEN'S HOMES .

After spending a considerable amount of money in erecting homes for workmen on the leasehold system, the Government had come around to the policy of the Opposition, to erect the homes and to give the working men the right t« make them freehold. Applications had been received from a number of working men at the harbor to have homes erected in the vicinity under the Workers' Dwellings Act, 1910. They had deposited their £lO, but up to the present the Government had not been able to obtain land for the purpose. He had tried to get the first batch of six houses erected on the high ground belonging to the prison reserve, but up to the present the Departments had not agreed to the change of the reserve, although he had a promise from the Minister of Justice to favorably consider the matte*.

BORROWING. ' j He was satisfied that if they were toj progress by opening up our back country, j they would have to continue a certain amount of borrowing, as the present holders would not agree to be taxed for this purpose. Neither would it be policy to do so. This district wanted the Strai-, ford-Ongarue line pushed on to comple-' tion, the Opunake-Stratford branch line built, the Mokau bridge erected, besides many smaller amounts for roads and' bridges in the electorate, and knowing, these works could not be carried on withcarried money, he had supported every loan proposed and brought dawn by the Government. He had felt that be could not consistently urge these works to be 1 executed and at the same timi cut off the means to carry them on. ■ There were people here who would say that if a Government member were returned the district would get more Government money expended. But the Government members in the House didn't hold that opinion. He instanced the amounts expended during the last three years on the Stratford-Ongarue railway in Mr. Hine's district. That railway was very important to New Plymouth and every mfle of it meant more trade for the New Plymouth harbor. Stop borrowing, and this work must cease. The greatest fault he had to find was with the way the work was carried on, and the administration of the funds after they were borrowed, and the way the work was estimated. For instance, in the duplication of the Wellington-Hutt railway and road, the estimate was £IOO,OOO. and the Minister stated that there would be enough land reclaimed to pay the greatest portion of the cost. Arrangements were made with the local bodies in the vicinity to pay a third of the cost. The work had cost £325,000 instead of the estimate of £IOO,OOO. The local bodies were never called on to pay £IOO,OOO instead of the £30,000 or so they had expected to pay, and the fun had commenced. A commission was now to be set up to report on the matter. Take the duplication of the Auckland-Penrose line, the Christchurch-Rolleston line, and the Dunedin-Mosgiel line. The utimated cost of these lines to duplicate was £250,000, but they had cost £700,000 instead. Either the House had been misled or the engineer required shaking up. The whole system of carrying on our public works wanted inquiring into. He had urged this upon the Minister more than once, but without avail. The only way to amend it was to put it into other hands, who would see that value was got for money spent.

FARMERS' BANKS. The proposal in the Financial Statement to start farmers' banks was crude, and he was afraid that making the members of the associations jointly and severally liable for the debt would make it a dead letter. He had suggested when speaking on the Financial Statement that the different co-operative dairy company's should be used for the purpose.

DEFENCE. The new defence scheme was, no doubt, the outcome of the Imperial Conference. There was no party in defence matters, (hear, hear), so the Opposition was just as much to blame for this measure as the Government. The scheme adopted was one suggested by Lord Kitchener, but he feared it would break down of its own weight. Colonials would not be taxed to keep a lot of officers going about with gold lace, and a lot of tact would be .required in carrying out the scheme. The officer Imported to carry out the scheme was, he felt sure, the best man that could be got, and a number of good alterations had been made in carrying out the scheme since he had come out. He did not think the scheme would be as unwieldy as at first proposed, and be thought the people would give it a fair trial. (Hear, hear, and cries of <lissent Ifrom the young men at the back.)

LICENSING. During tho IfllO Parliament a Bill was pawed making a number of important amendments in the licensing laws, one of tlie main being the doing away with the reduction rote. At the coming election the electors would have the right to vote for local no-license and Dominion prohibition. If the latter was carried out it would not come into force for about Jour years. A.strong effort had been made by a section of the supporters of no-license to do away with ilio three-fiifths majority for carrying nolicense, and to earn' it by the majority of rotes. Whilst the three-fifths majority might be too large a hurdle to get over, he was satisfied that in the interests of the Reform Party there should be a substantial majority. He could not persuade himself that a bare- majority rtte was ia the interests of the reform, therefore' he could not support ; it. His short experience of politics was that it was easier for a representative to act if he took his constituents into his confidence at these times.'] He did not think it would be fair to/ allow all those houses that had been' closed on a three-vfifthsmajoiity-'vote, ty ,have. th e right ,-;tp•;.. eomj) back oji a bare majoritja.*?H'ote. '' In takiflg Up this position "he, felt that he .#s

expressing the opinion of a large number of persons whose sympathy was with the no-license cause. If a Bill were introduced making • the majority 55 per cent., as was done in the 1010 session, he would be found supporting it. • MILITARY PENSIONS.

During the last Parliament an effort had been made to get the Dominion to recognise the services of those veterans who fought, and many oi them bled, for the colony during the Maori war, by the granting of a military pension similar to what had been done in other places. The Prime Minister was urged by members' from both sideps of the House to do something during the session, and he brought down a Bill which the speaker considered an insult to every veteran, i.e., that if he were in the position to receive the old age pension he might change, it into military pension. But it is to be subject to all I ! the provisions of the old age pensions, j i He hoped that something would be done to recognise the services of the veterans. CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. One of the planks of the Reform Party waa the reform of the Civil Service by improving the conditions governing tha employment of civil servants by eliminating political influence and patronage; by providing that all appointments anc¥ promotions be made and regulated by a board responsible directly to Parliament, and absolutely free from Minis--1 terial control; by granting to the civil servants the right to appeal to a competent tribunal from a decision of the board. At the present time there was a considerable amount of dissatisfaction among the service,' especially among railway servants. This should not be, as a contented service was in the best interests of the State.' There were several matters of local interest that his time would not allow him to refer to, such as West Coast Leases, local government (and the fact that the sN'ew Plymouth Harbor Board had lost £25,000 by the Government's inaction), Mokau inquiry, State note issue, export of butter, Hine inquiry, and several other subjects which he would, deal with when he spoke at Pitzrny.

CONCLUSION. Alter referring to the bright prospects of this district, his remarks being reported elsewhere, Mr. Okey said he had now represented Taranaki for five sessions. During the whole of that time he had never left the House while it had been sitting, never going home once until the House rose—a record that no other member could iboast of. He had tried to, be a true representative of the people, keeping all sections posted up with legislation proposed to affect their business. If they were satisfied with him he would be pleased to have their votes on the 7th December. He felt satisfied that the knowledge that he had gained during the last five years at considerable sacrifice" to himself would be useful to the district. As the whole of his interests were in this district, and his interests were their interests, he was satisfied to leave the matter in the hands of the electow.

QUESTIONS. Questions were invited, and they came forward in sheaves: The candidate explained that he was not in favor of any legislation that would interfere with the people's sports.—He would; if returned, urge on any Government in power to introduce in its first session a comprehensive Local Government Bill.—He would not, if returned, nor would the Reform Party, repeal any legislation en- 1 acted by the Liberal Administration if it were beneficial to the people, but he would not hold back State advances from deserving workers to lend it to men like Mr. Richard Cock, who took part in Mr. Bellringer's meeting.—-He would support j the graduated land tax, and would favor, reducing the limit of the amount at which it would become payable.—He didn't know why his party changed its' name so often, but the 'present name, was the true name. His party Uoveri changed ita coat, anyhow.—His reason for voting for the totalisator in the House, in the face of his election state-] meats, was that had he voted for the i abolition of both the tote and the bookmaker they would have got neither. The two were bracketed in the House, but he and others were "out to do away with the bookmaker."—He considered that the whole charge of clearing noxious weeds should be borne by the land. At present gome native lands wer« cleared at the country's expense. The Government should experiment with a view of siinSifying the eradication of w«eds.— e considered a Spostwood tenant had been badly treated by the State lending d«partment, which promised him a loan Of £250 on a security of £405, and then withheld £SO for some excuse.—He considered the heavy cost of the administration of the affairs of the country was t« some extent responsible for the increased cost of living. A, great saving could be effected without discharging one man from the service.—He was not in favor of the State entering into competition with private enterprise in the supply of necessaries, and did not think.it would be advantageous.—He did not thirik the Racing Commission had dealt fairly with the country clubs, but would not be in favor of restoring racing permits to all ono-day clubs which had lost their permits. There was too much racing.—He favored the present law in respect to the period allowed before national prohibition took effect after being carried. —lie had voted for the Maoris to decide the licensing question on the bare majority..—He demanded a free hand in dealing with any alteration of the majority basis in the national prohibition issue.—There was no doubt that a move was made, with a. Government supporter as a go-between, to effect a coalition of the Opposition and Government parties, in which case Mr. Massey would haive had a seat in the Cabinet.—He had not opposed the Kaitake County Bill.-r-To stringently enforce the Noxious Weeds Act would be to ruin many farmers He did not consider he was offering a bribe to Crown tenants when he supported changing their l.i.p. tenure so as to give them the right of the freehold.— He looked on our contributions to naval defence as an insurance fund to ensure our produce reaching its destination in the Old World.

On the motion of Mr. J. W. Boon, seconded by Mr. S. W. Shaw, Mr. Okey was accorded a vote of thanks and confidence, almost unanimously, and a vote of thanks to the chair concluded the me.etin.gy