THE HINE BANQUET.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 232, 29 March 1912, Page 4

THE HINE BANQUET.

A BIG GATHERING. SPEECH BY MR. MASSEY. (By Telegraph—Special to the "News.") Stratford, Last Night. There was a tremendous gathering at the Town Hall to-night, to do honor to Mr. J. B. Hiuc, MP. Other members of the Reform Party present were: Mr. W. F. Massey, leader of the Opposition, and Messrs. H. J. 11. Okey (Taranaki), C. K. Wilson (Taumarunui), D. H. Guthrie (Oroua), E. Newman (Rangitikei), and G. V. Pearce (Patea). The hall was packed everywhere with adults, and hundreds were accommodated on the stage until there was only standing room from the front chairs to the back. Mr. George Sangster, chairman of Mr. Hine's election committee, and ex-Mavor of Stratford, presided. The proceedings were marked with great enthusiasm, loud cheering greeting the appearance of Mr. Hine and other speakers on the stage, to the strains of "H£'s a jolly good fellow," by the Stratford Orchestral Society. The chairman was commendably brief in his remarks, apologising for the absence of Mr. James Allen, M.P. The first.speaker was Mr. C. K. Wilson. Taumarunui, who expressed his pleasure at being present to do honor among farmers to a man whom the farmers sent I to Parliament to represent them. Mr, Massey, he said, was one of the best men in the House—not necessarily the most brilliant, but a man with the true interest of the country at heart, and not afraid to do his duty. He was the sort of man the country wanted. It was the duty of the Government of the country to put men-on the land and make a success of them. That was what the present Government had not done. Men and women were wasting their lives in the backblocks for want of the expenditure of public money to give access to their property. Roads and railways to their holdings were going to alter it*, and, he said, "Here's the man, Mr. Massey, who is going to lead the party. Mr. Massey is going to be Premier very soon, in a position which he has been cheated out of by 'ratters' on the other side." Mr. Massey, he continued, was one of the whitest men produced in the political history of the Dominion. Mr. Newman (Rangitikei), in paying a warm tribute to Mr. Hine, said that he had done service to the country the effects of which would last for years. He had endeavored to raise the level of politics in the Dominion, and if ever there was a. time for cleansing and raising the level of politics in this country it was now. In reference to Sir Joseph Ward's rei iterated , statement that the Reform ! Party's success was not due to a con- | sideration of public affairs, but to a policy of misrepresentation or a crusado of slander, Mr. Guthrie said that the present revulsion was because the people were not satisfied with the state of affairs disclosed by the Hine charges, or with what was known as the "Mokau job," or improper votes of public money for Southland, improper payment of money to a Supreme Court judge and members of Parliament, extravagant cost of railway construction, the Executive taking power from Parliament as had been done, or the scandalous methods to force legislation through the House in the early hours of the morning. The country was sick of the present system. Ho. warned the people against a party , rising in New Zealand to derive all taxa-

j tion from the land. The prosperity of i the Dominion was the prosperity of the I fanner. The Reform Party would al- ■ ways go for the good of the country j first, irrespective of how it would benefit | themselves or affect their position m I office. | Mr. E. F. Hemingway, who claimed a j friendship of nearly twenty years with Mr. Hine, made a presentation of a pursy of a hundred sovereigns to Mr. Hine, paying a eulogistic tribute to his public life. In handing him the purse, Mr. Hemingway said that it was given not only as a mark of respect but as one of affection. One and all of his constituents felt for him "because one and all feel you've played the man." Mr. Hine, in reply, said that whatever came to him he hoped he would never falter or allow his ma.nhood to deteriorate. They knew to what depths politics descended in this country. The present position was held by a slender thread. Sortie members, if they had any manhood at. all, would resign, and some ministers if they had any manhood would resign their portfolios. The idea permeating the Reform Party was to do good to every class. The new Premier was pledged to adopt the policy outlined in the Governor's speech—the policy of a rejected Government. What a millstone! The whole of the Liberal Party, which claimed to be the uplifters of humanity, had been chucked overboard with the exception of the one man. Mr. Guthrie spoke of the present political crisis. The remains of the great Liberal Party, he said, could not find a leader who was really«their own, but took a man who previously sat on the .other side of the House. This was a deplorable state of affairs. He referred to what might be termed the despicable position of the Government in holding to office. 5 Mr. Okey complained that the present Government had not been sufficiently progressive in its land policy, or in roading or railway construction, the latter of which was tremendously and unnecessarily expensive. _ Mr. Massey was given a great ">cep-' tion, the cheering lasting over a minute, when he rose to address the meeting. He said that lie felt that he was no , longer a stranger to the people of Taranaki, for this was his sixth audience to-day, and at each meeting he had received the heartiest and most en-' ; tliusiastic of ■ welcomes. It gave him special pleasure to do honor to his personal friend and political colleague, and their Parliamentary representative, Mr, , ", C ' The longer he knew Mr. Hine the better he liked him and the more he trusted him,_ for he was a man of the highest principles and strongest integrity. He was the sort of man anyone would choose as trustee for his own affaisone of the type of men of whom they could not have too many in the Parliament of Kew Zealand. Referring to the last general election, Mr. Massey said that one point to him stood out clearly, viz., that the people the country were beginning to realise w r p S r n f.' bility attaching to a memi of Parliament. Passing on, he said that every district was entitled to a shaie of the expenditure of public "-noy bnt there wore duties of a mem„o[ 1 arliamont more important'than Sonig cap ,n hand to Ministers and askiiMtk' 1 ,noney fov ex P Cl iditure eec orato. J„ this connection ho aW ii fJ Y° uld bB nMo tobl ™S o\H i"' tc of a,lail ' s than had year, ™ co "ntry for a number of

A r,t; i,in * » tll( ' Political position, Mr. lion* r\w !lt ' ;!l ° I,,st general elcc-pledf-ed fn""' 10 , mcml)(n ' s wcrc returned J i ; til vote against the PZiZ ' 0n a n °- motion. divHonVn i""? r " UV(> " p(i ' '1»<1 "'lion the inrm'C-' V,V''l Was fot,nd tllat two J, " ? d Sow. back on the pledges ,1 ' ' u ' en to their constituents and ,ll « cimiitry, and they voted for the fil eminent, making the parties 39 all. He

tf*, ""I didn't find fault so much with the Hfitt ■ who broke their pledges to their eon« stituents, hut with the people,who werfl mean enough'to induce those men. They were receiving their punishment probably from their consciences; certainly they would from their constituents. But the. people who wore more to blame than they w.-re wou.il escape punishment, and hoped, to beneiit by tho wrongdoing ot others. It was a bitter moment for him (Mr. Massey) when he found that man whom he had assisted to put into Parliament had gone back on the pledges given,, but the moment of bitterness had passed,, and he believed fully that the best thing had happened. There was one thing that stood out in connection with the pledge-breaking, and that was that the men went back o» their pledges on the distinct understanding that the Premier should resign, and then constitutionally all the other members of the Ministry should also forward their resignations to the Governor. What had happened? Practically it amounted to this: That the country wai being governed and dominated by half-a-dozen members. Should it be tolerated! It should not. It was the duty of the ' public and of public men to bring such an undemocratic state of affairs to an end. The Premier had resigned. He hardly knew the new Cabinet yet, though he had some information, but not authoritative. They did not know if the new Ministers 'were fitted for their positions or not, but they would be allowed to administer important affairs and handle enormous sums of public money without any control on the part of Parliament for the next three .months. It was a wrong position to take up. Coming to the Governor's speech, pre- , sented at the commencement of a short session, he said that it waq. ithe most remarkable one ever presented to any Parliament. In spite of the verdict of the polls and that the session was convened not for the purpose of legislation at all, there being no hope of putting any Bill through, despite the fact that they could bring down no policy at the elections, the Government had brought' down this "death rattle" speech, a bribe in every line of it. They offered to give the people something for nothing and everything they asked for. But who was to pay for it ? Now it had been endorsed by a caucus, but he thought there would be no attempt to give legislative effect to the speech. The proposed reform of the Legislative Council was unsatisfactory. The Reform Party would reform and democratise it. The proposal to do away with education boards and for county councils to administer education was not sound, but if ever a set of men were determined to hang on to office, however wrong, improper, and unworthy means they would have to resort to, it was the set of men who submitted the Governor's speech. The Reform Party had 38 good men and true, not billet-hunters, but strong, high principled men, out to do the best for the people they represented and the country as a whole. "Tory" and "Conservative" had been hurled at them, but there were no Tories or Conservatives in New Zealand, or, if there were, they were among the present Ministry or coding Ministry. The party , which called itself Liberal was a most miscellaneous collection, and in the new Cabinet they would find leaseholder and freeholder, protectionist and freetrader, Socialist and individualist, prohibitionist and representative of the Trade, but they were \ all Liberals. (Laughter.) They knew as much of the principles of true Liberalism as a New Guinea native knew of the mechanism of a motor-car.. The name was so degraded that no right-thinking man would allow it to be applied to him. "We don't call ourselves Liberals," he continued, "we are the Reform Party. We are democrats." He would, he said, give effect to true democratic principles, and it was a good thing for the people of the country that 38 men should stand between them and extravagant administration.

He denied absolutely the slander that the Reform Party stood for the landholder. He was opposed to land monopoly and to monopoly in every shape and form. There were other monopolies to fight. The Eeform Party stood for freehold and closer settlement, to opal up Crown lands and surplus native lands, and favored taxation to compel breaking up of large estates. He would discriminate between the man making good use of the land and the man making a bad use, and do this by means of the deferred payment system (cheers), which Taranaki had experienced and still favored. Mr. Massey devoted some time refuting the statement that in the general election the reverse of the Government was brought about by misrepresentation. He had had as much as anyone to do with the campaign and addressed 71 meetings outside his own electorate, and had used no misrepresentations, and Ho -Reform candidate wilfully misrepresented, but the sins of the Government were too many for anyone to deal with in one political speech. A voice: What about your apology? Mr. Massey said that when an honorable man made a mistake the proper thing to do was to stand up and admit it. (Cheers.) He had made two mistakes in Parliament, and had admitted ■them. He repeated the charges against the Government made by one of the previous speakers. He stood for patriotic and democratic measures, and abhorred. the claptrap of Liberal newspapers and candidates. "They thought they had ua beaten, but t'hey didn't," he added. He would rather row the hard row of Opposition than get on to the Treasury benches by dishonorable means. He concluded with thanks for the support of the party at the recent polls, and pre-' dieted greater success next election. A resolution was passed "That this meeting of electors of Stratford and district desires to convey to Mr. Massey its thanks for the able and statesmanlike manner in which ne has for years past championed the people's cause in the direction of obtaining for them sound government based on true democratic principles, and also heartily congratulates Mr. Massey and the members of the Reform Party upon the splendid fight put up by them at the last election, and the great success achieved by them in their efforts to secure for this Dominion clean government and honest administration of its affairs." At the conclusion the visitors and committee were banquetted.