POLITICAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 132, 25 November 1911, Page 9

POLITICAL.

MR. BELLKIXGER'S CANDIDATURE. Mr. C. E. Bellringer had a. good meeting at Tataraimaka on Friday night. Although the rain and show prevented some from attending, twenty-five electors were present. The candidate received a good hearing, and was frequently applauded. Mr. J. Gyde was in the chair. A vote of thanks was unanimously passed. The very heavy rain on Wednesday night interfered with Mr. Bellringer's meeting at Tarurutangi. He will speak at the Ta.ruvutaikgi dairy factory on the morning of Monday, December 4, at 7 a-m.

MR. OKEY AT IXGLEWOOD. Monday evening last was the occasion of the first political address given by Mr. Okey in Inglewood. He had a packed house, the Mayor presiding. Mr. Henry Brown proposed a hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Okey for his able address and assured him of their confidence in him as their representative iu Parliament. . Mr. Brown said he had known Mr. Okey over since he was a boy, and knew that he was a thoroughly honest and straightforward man who could be reJied upon to carry out to the best of his ability whatever he undertook to do. This was seconded and carried unanimously.

MR. FORBES' CANDIDATURE. Mr. Forbes addressed the electors at Upper Mangorci on Thursday evening, Mr. G. Rae being in the chair. At the conclusion of tile meeting Mr. Forbes was accorded a vote of thanks, on the motion of Messrs Ilawkc and Abraham. MR. McCLUGCAGE AT TOKO ROAD. On Thursday evening Mr. McOluggage addressed the electors at the Toko road hall. There was a very good attendance, some sixty electors being present. Mr. T. E. Bocock occupied the chair and introduced the candidate to the audiene. Mr. McCluggage dealt exhaustively with the leading political questions of the day, and his addre6s was instructive and interesting. In dealing with the land laws of the Dominion the candidate received the greatest attention. Mr. McCluggage gives much useful information to his back country audiences on the many land tenures at the disposal of intending settlers, and at Thursday night's meeting the audience clearly showed their appreciation. At the conclusion of his address Mr. W. Donoldßon moved and Mr. F. Doran seconded a hearty vote of thanks to the candidate for his able address and coniidenee in him and the present Ward administration, which was carried with cheere.

MR O'DEA AT MAXWELLTOWN. There was a very large attendance in the Maxwelltown Hall when Mr. O'Dea addressed the electors for the second time. Mr. W. Morrison presided. At the conclusion the candidate was accorded a vote of thanks and confidence, on the motion of Mr. Hills, seconded' by Mr. Mills, there being only a few dissentient voices.

j MR. PEARCE AND MR. O'DEA. With regard to Mr. O'Dca's challenge, Mr. Pearce, speaking at Kai Iwi, said he was not a gambler, and even if he were he would not take it up, for he thought it a too one-sided bet, as, in his opinion, the r!cci<frs would retire Mr. O'Dea on December 7 instead of him (the speaker) doing so.

MR BURGESS AND MR ISITT I To the Editor. Sir,—Mr Burgess, in your ksuc of] Thursday, quotes a remark he made concerning the Government ju-t after lie] had been in the House. I w iH now give ! some of his views sis expressed by him a few evenings ago at Christc'hurch. These opinions, jour correspondent will no doul)t agree, are necessarily more mature than his previous views.' He said that as for the Opposition, they were "Conscmatdves, and all but one or two of them stood for vested interests every time." This from a new man who has just returned home from his first prolonged contact with the men of the party he is describing. Other filings he had to say about that party. Of their purity, for exumpile, the purity of the men who have been abusing him for his behaviour in the House: ''His offence was that he had tried to bring into political life tilt- ordinary principle* of decency nnd honor and truth that prevailed amongst men in the conduct of life's affairs. And of their chivalrous courtesy, the virtue which we are asked to believe distinguishes this party above all the rest of political mankind: "He had been in the country for 87 years, and he had never known in all his political experience such a definite and persistent scheme of scandal a 6 was being indulged in by his Majesty's Opposition. And of their boasted devotion to the public interest in sea-son and out of season. He honestly believed they had spent last session three hours out of every live in wrangling."—l am, etc., POLITICAL STUDENT. Omata,. 23rd November.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT. A COMPLETE MEASURE READY. OVER FIVE HUNDRED CLAUSES. Taumaninui, November 22. Tin' Local Government Dill promised by the Government will materialise.next year. It will be a measure of 524 clauses. This fact was mentioned to-day by the Prime Minister when he was entertained to luncheon by the Taiinianiimi Borough Council. The Bill required so much careful consideration, remarked Sir .loseph. that lie had thought it advisable not to circulate it until after the general citction. It would be a mistake to have it now mixed up with party clash and clangour. lie proposed to have il introduced next session. "Von see.'' addid Sir Joseph smilingly, ''l am talking with absolute a-.-iiranee that 1 am going to once more have the confidence of the people/' The Bill would take quite a session for proper consideration by Parliament, but he thought the representatives of the local bodies should lir-t have the opportunity of meeting in Wellington to discuss its 1 provision-. The measure ri'quii'cd to lie something greatly in advance of anything of the kind anil he could assuri' his hearers that the proposals were of a far-reaching character. Without doing away with any advantages the people pos-csscd in connection with the. great State institutions it would afford larger pou.'r- of a very valuable character, lb' was anxious to have it considered calmly so as to plan for New Zealand a svstem which would meet the requirements of central Government by removing from it a great mass of details in r,_'\:.'i to i a trying on important works. Every one of the 524 clauses in the Bil' was necessary and his hearers would see that every consideration had been given to the matter. Every previous proposal for reform of the local government system had been beset by the difficulty of interfering with existing institutions, but the new Bill would

enable local government affairs to be carried on more effectively. It was necessary to give greater powers to the people to carry on their social affairs, with a corresponding withdrawal from the central organisation of many duties devolving on Parliamentary representatives in connection with purely local matters.

SCANDALS GALORE. MR. FOWLDS IN FIGHTING FORM. Aucklandi, November 20. Mr. Geo. Fowlds, in the course of a speech to-night, said that the present Opposition had no function in the House, and served no good purpose. In fact, all they had proved themselves capable of doing was the creation of Action. When this effete Opposition was wiped out, he believed they would develop a true Opposition that would take up a stand on principles, and would honestly oppose the Government whenever those principles were at stake. The existing Opposition was without principle, and was mainly dependent on manufactured bogeys. They had had so many cries of "Wolf, wolf!" when there was no wolf, tthat the man in the street simply said, "I have heard that cry before; there is nothing in at." This apathy on the iwrt of the elector was not a desirable tiling, but it was inevitable when they had a band of scaremongers in politics. (Hear, hear). .

It was really only in the last three years that they had had the continual re-hashing of these discreditable stories. Probably the era of misrepresentation ''nted from the last elections, when the "pposition seized upon a wrongly print- ! statement which gave it forth that e Government's new dairy regulations ■fluid impose a registration fee of 5s per head on all cows. In reality the Government proposal was to register all herds at os per herd—a vastly different .thing. The Opposition party knew that there was no truth in the first statement, but they played it for all it was worth, and in Taranaki—a dairying province—it won them two or three seats. So elated were the Opposition leaders with their success in connection with the misrepresentations relating to the dairy regulations that they decided to keep it, up, in the hope of so turning the Government out of office. Then followed the Hine charges, and the attempt to create a seandal regarding the Mokau land deal. A full enquiry into the former case had proved the charges against the Government to be utterly groundless, while the investigations into the Mokau deal, concluded this session, proved the Government's action to have been clean and pure. Even worse than these was the disgraceful attempt to bring discredit on the Supreme Court judges of this country. One of the worst kinds of American Tammanyism was that which attempted to bring contempt upon the administration of justice.

He had no hesitation in saying that the Opposition had been living on scandals for two or three years past. The party was absolutely without principle. An indication of that was to be found in Mr. Massey's recent statement that the Opposition and Labor could go hand in hand in this country. Gould any sane person imagine such an unholy alliance? Why, the story of the spider and the fly was nothing to it. (Laughter and loud applause). Another indication of the Opposition's lack of regard for principle was to be found in the action of the party in now accepting as its candidate for a neighboring electorate a man who until a few weeks ago was an avowed Liben.l. The Hon. Mr. Fowkls concluded with an explanation of the circumstances and history of the Hine charges, the Mok'i'' case, and the allegations against, upreme Court judges, stating that th" nquiries into these allegations had cost the country thousands of pounds, and only served to show how entirely free from blame the Government was. The candidate was listened to most attentively, and was loudly applauded throughout his discourse. •

EXPLOITING THE IRON DEPOSITS. At Dunedin the other evening Mr. Bedford referred to the proposed lxmus of £6SJO(X) to a syndicate to exploit the. iron deposits in the north of the South Island, and saUI he happened to know a great deal about that syndicate. There was more wealth there, perhaps, than had yet been discovered in any part of the island, and, according to the report, it was so easily accessible that the. iroa should be got at a cost, it was estimated, of 3">B per ton. He understood that the price of pig iron at present was between £4 and £5 per ton. This left a handsome margin. The syndicate secured its leases in PJO7. In the meantime negotiations had been going on in London, .hut the prospectus would not he issued until the Bill providing for the bonus had been' passed. Once the full repore were made public any number of financiers would be induced to go into the concern with theiT capital. There would be splendid returns in his Budget. Sir Joseph Ward said that in a few years 10.000 men would be employed. That was almost the number now employed on the railways. And this rich syndicate was to get £(io.0O0 of our money to give it a start. Further, it was to be given 40 years to exploit these deposits, when they were to be handed over to the State. lie would like to know how much of the deposits would be left after 40 years, lie hoped the country would not. give £05.000 to this syndicate. (Applause). "When the Bill was introduced last session Sir Joseph Ward found that

there were two or three men in the House who were possessed of all the information about it—-Mr. G. M. Thomson, member for Dunedin North, was one of the number—and he dropped it like a hot poker. (Laughter). He dared not face the House with the Bill. (Applause).

NOTES. Speaking at Dunedin, Mr. Bedford said the approximate loss of revenue through carrying racehorses free one way was £20,000 a year. It was a bad business. For a candidate to save his deposit he must poll at least a fourth of the number polled by the successful candidate. The requisite number at one time was only ten per cent., but the law has been amended. "I have not troubled to discuss the suggested coalition of the Opposition and Labor, because you cannot make oil and water mix, and I know that the leaders of the Labor movement resent the suggestion as an insult to their intelligence." —Sir Joseph Ward at Waimate. Mr. Henrv Hill, the candidate for Napier in whose favor the Oppositionist (Mr. Crowley) retired, stated in his opening speech that he would have to know what the present Government was going to be turned out of office for before he would support Mr. Massey and the Reform Party in their endeavor to turn the Government out. He would not vote just to put out Sir Joseph Ward unless he knew that a better man was going to take his place.