THE RIVAL RALLY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 240, 10 April 1912, Page 3

THE RIVAL RALLY.

CABINET MINISTERS AT STRATFORD

SOME HARD HITTING.

At the banquet to Mr. J. MeCluggage on Monday, in addition to the Prime Minister, the Hon. G. Laurenson and Hon. G. W. .Russell were also present, and addressed the meeting. The Hon. G. Laurenson said that the new Ministry was one of the youngest Ministries ever put in power in New Zealand, and one of the most distinctly New j Zealand Ministries that the Dominion had ever seen. It was composed of two Scotsmen, one Irishman, one Englishman and six colonials. Mr. Massey had said recently that the Opposition would treat the new Cabinet with contempt. The Old (Book said, "Let him not boast who puts his harness on as he who is taking it off." Mr. Massey was only yet putting on the harness. He would find that he could not treat the Government with contempt. He would say this, too: That they could get another Cabinet as good as the present one from the rank and file of the party. (Cheers). It was amusing to notice how to the Opposition' every one of its members seemed a heaven-born statesman, and iMr. Massey himself 'the most wonderful man the British Empire had ever seen. He referred to the charges brought against the Government, and said that he would take an early opportunity of dealing seriatim with them from this platform, and would challenge Mr. Hine to take the platform and controvert a single statement lie (Mr. Laurenson) would make. The Opposition campaign at the general election was not an attack on the legislation of the Government, but one of slander. One charge that had been exploded was Mr. Massey's statement at Auckland that the five loan cost £350,000, whereas it had been shown that the cost was less than a third of that amount, and proved to be money obtained as cheaply as in any part of the British dominions. Statements oblique were harder to combat, such as the inference made in some speeches that Sir, Joseph Ward pocketed £30,000 over that loan transaction. He said that the Opposition had caught the party napping at the last election, but there would be organisation for the next election. He quoted figures showing the great growth j of exports during the term the Liberals ) had been in power. The population of Taranaki had grown by 125 per cent, and the exports had increased by 600 per cent, in that period. But the Opposition said that the Government had had no hand in that. If the Government had no hand in the prosperity or lack of prosperity of a country, where was the, need for a great change? As a matter \ of fact, the Government had a great '. deal to do with the prosperity of the I country, as he went on to show. "The l Reform party!" he said, "To reform what? To reform progress and throw the people of the country back to where ■ the Conservative party had them thirty years ago?" The Hon. G. W. Russell paid a tribute to the great Liberal party, whose fortunes he had followed unswervingly for twenty-one years. Referring to the prosperity of the Dominion and of Tara- • naki, he said that they had been brought! about partly by the Government poliey of preventing the aggregation of landed estates and the squattocracy so rampant on the East Coast of this Island, thus enabling people to settle on the land. "Long may the poliey of cutting up land for the masses of the people be continued," he said, amidst cheering. He paid a warm tribute to the ability shown by Mr. Mackenzie as Minister of Agriculture, where he obtained the confidence of the people of the Dominion. Taranaki had done herself honor in electing such a man as one of its representatives. He had surrounded himself with a set of men who would be loyal to their leader 1 and loyal to the policy he had laid down. (Applause). Mr. Russell referred to tire lack of organisation at the recent elections, but the day of weak organisation had gone. Sir Joseph Ward stood high i among the statesmen of the Empire—(applause)—as Postmaster-General of New Zealand. He was listened to in the councils of the world, and was absolutely without a peer as PostmasterGeneral in any British country. Yet by a campaign of innuendo and slander he had been compelled to retire for the present. "But," Mr. Russell said, "only for the present, for New Zealand cannot afford that a man of such strategic genius should stand aside from the administration of its affairs." He was satisfied that there was a great revulsion of feeling throughout the country, that the tide of calumny and slander was being beaten back, and that the people were realising that it was to the Liberals they must look for further progress in the legislation of New Zealand. (Applause). To prove this he would place in the box none other than Mr. ■ Massey, the leader of the Opposition, who had charged the Government with imperfect legislation an' eorrupt legislation, but in the rwn u.'wte in the House lie did not find fault will; 'he Acts put on the 'Statute Book, but on the administration of them. Mr. Massey and hi* party had opposed the old age pensions and cheap money schemes, land for settlement, and legislation for workers, and when there came a possibility of his occupying the Treasury benches there was not one of the measures that he would repeal or allow to be tinkered with. Now, who were the. best men to

administer those laws which the people approved? The men who passed them or the men who opposed them, the men who were the enemies of the legislators who put them on the Statute Book? Mr. Massey had spoken slightingly of the men who had been appointed Ministers. A voice: He'll apologise to-morrow.

Mr. Russell, amidst laughter, said that to utter the word "apology" within a hundred miles of Mr. Massey was about

the hardest thing one could say. Continuing, Mr. Russell said that Mr. Massey sneered at members of the Liberal Cabinet. What public position had he occupied to give him administrative experience? He had held a scat on a county council, perhaps, but he was not sure if lie had ever even been chairman of a road board, whilst every member of the present Cabinet had earned his spurs on important public bodies, which services he enumerated. He concluded by saying that Mr. Massey was unable to support his sneering reference with any public service. As regards the sneer , against Mr. Laurcnson and Mr. Russell [ that they were b'aseholders, he assured j them that he would not favor any inter-

foienee with freehold rights except to purchase at fair market prices lands for closer settlement. Tint he believed flat the freehold of the great national endowments should remain with the people of the entire country. He would legislate so that every young man would have an opportunity to get on the land and a chance to stay on the land without being driven off by mortgagees. The Prime Minister, in addition to his already published remarks, said that Mr. Massoy was dissatisfied with the manner of men elevated to Cabinet rank. He had complained similarly of the previous Ministry, saying that there was an Irishman at one end, a Maori at the other, and a lot of Scotsmen in between. In the present Ministry, said the Hon. Mr. Mackenzie, amidst great hilarity, they had a Scotsman at one end, and if he was not satisfactory there was Ell at the other. Coming to the land question, he said that at present the country wanted territory more than discussions of tenure. The Government was going to throw its whole-souled energy into opening up lands, by securing a higher, state of productiveness, and concentrating on giving greater facilities to farmers and enabling them to continue that high state of civilisation that they were now enjoying. Labor members had come to him and complained that the Ministers had not refuted More the elections some of the statements made by unscrupulous people, saying that they had been misled by these statements into the opinion tuat Sir Joseph Ward should be turned out of office. But during the no-confidence debate they had found that the Opposition had voted in favor of all this borrowing, which on the hustings they condemned. Mr. Massey had tried to show that the recent loan was a failure, but had failed to do it, for of £791,000,000 raised last year in England only £26,000,000 had cost under 4 per cent., and the New Zealand loan was included in 'that sum. Other rates of in- , terest were as high as 5 and 6y 2 per cent. , Last year the Government advanced £3,000.000 to workers and settlers, and, this could not be done without getting money from the Old Land. Mr. Massey , had declared that a member of the Cabinet was waiting to flood the country with cheap yellow labor. He (the speaker) did not know who it was. ir We don't belong to the party that wants cheap labor." They had road of the great things Mr. Massey had promised to do for labor. There was that "hallelujah" i chorus at Auckland. In the Prime Min- I ister's opinion there seemed to be the f desire of certain men to decry and ruin j tiic credit of tne country, and give such a character to their public men as to lead others to believe that they were not fit to be trusted. They would remember that reports had been sent Home to influence money-lenders against lettin r j New .Zealand have money. Now th • had adopted a fresh way of injuring our j credit. In one Opposition paper it had t been made to appear that we were now j four and a quarter millions on the wrong side. The same paper said that the Hon. j T. Mackenzie had made an attack on 1 the president of the Bank of New Zea-1 land. The president had said that this season's butter and cheese would fetch low prices, but he (the speaker) had said that the prices would rise. Anyone who had studied the conditions could have seen that. Then the president, by ' taking a short period for comparison, had said that the country was in a bad way, but lie had replied that by taking a period "of twenty years there was a surplus of sixty millions of exports over imports. Mr. G. V. Pearce had said that the country wanted no more sodlurnings of railways and laying of foundations, but yet Mr. Pearce wanted the Opunake railway into Hawera. He had • pestered Ministers for a new post office at Manaia, and so on.

In returning thanks for the resolution telegraphed yesterday, I( j;he Prime Minister said, "You will never be sorry for having ' carried that resolution." : ■ There were loud and repeated calls for Jfi\ W. T. Jennings, and the crowd would take no refusal. "We want Jennings," they cried, and Mr. Jennings took the platform amidst enthusiastic applause, tie gave his opinion that a better class of men to lead the Liberal Party and the country forward could not be got at the present time than the present Cabinet. He could promise the Liberals of Taranaki that no sweats would be lost at next election owing to the apathy of' members .of the Cabinet, as had been the case, and perhaps his own, at last election. He was satisfied that the new Cabinet was composed of men of integrity and honesty of purpose, and if given a fair chance would put Mr. Ma'ssey to the test. As for Mr. "Taumarunui" Wilson's recitation, ' : The Mingy Cockatoo," people were being led to believe that Mr. Wilson composed it. An Opposition journal had given him credit for it. As a matter of fact he himself had recited it in the House years ago in advocacy of the lot of the backblocks farmer: The author was Mr. Bilski, from near Toko. The Opposition was keeping on with the same old story of misrepresentation, and, Mr. Jennings added, "I pray God that the people will, at next election, give such an answer to what was done by 'the Reform (Party at last election that they will be swept away altogether."

(Cheers.) The Prime Minister, in proposing a vote of thanks to the chairman, said

that if ever a man had deserved to be | returned by his constituents that man was Mr. Jennings. (Cheers.) He knew of no man who was so constantly ''at" the Government on behalf of his constituents, and no man who had done more for his constituents. But, by a campaign of slander and sectarianism, Parliament had been robbed of one of its best men. At the recent "rally," in Stratford at least two speakers had expressed the hope that Egmont would not re-elect him (the Prime Minister}. Were the people of Taranaki fools, then, that they should be talked to in this way? Had Taranaki no interests to be helped? He was going to do his best for Taranaki. And the people of Egmont were going to be like his old friends in the south, who had never turned him down iu any constituency. (Applause.)