POLITICAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 149, 19 November 1914, Page 3

POLITICAL.

THE TAUMARUNUI SEAT MR. C. K. WILSON, M.P., AT WAITARA. Mr C. K. Wilson, M.P., Government candidate for Taumarunui, addressed a big meeting at Waitara on Tuesday night, the Mayor of Waitara presiding. THE LATE LORD ROBERTS. iMr Wilson commenced his address by 'paying a tribute to the memory of Lord Roberts. There had been many great men in England, but few had touched the hearts of the people as he had. His 'first and paramount thought was "duty," self was nowhere. BASIS OF PROSPERITY. He had not come there, he continued, to say the Massey party was the greatest of all Governments, or that his opponents were blackguards. He was going to deal with the present-day politics from his own point of view. All would agree that it was necessary to the prosperity of the country that there should be a proper system of land settlement, and public works, and sound finance. Under the previous administration there had been weaknesses under these heads and the Massey Government had not done all that should have been done in clearing up the mistakes of the previous Gov crnment. In travelling over the electorate, he had seen many of the people suffering hardships as the result of these mistakes, and lie had done his best t(i remedy them. These people were often the victims of the insane, Btupid, and 'out-of-date system which insisted on the Public Works Estimates being brought down too late in the year to allow of the expenditure of the Government grants being undertaken before Christ'mas. Practical expenditure had proved that it was most economical to carry out roading and such works in the early summer but under the present systems the work had been done late in the season, with winter approaching. So he urged that the Public Works Estimates should be brought down not later than the second week in October. The Massey party had had so many things to grapple with, and had not yet been able to effect this necessary reform.

A PUBLIC SERVICE BOARD. The late Government for fifteen or sixteen years had brought in a promise to re-organise tiic system of grants and public expenditure. The present Government had done something the same, but he was not satisfied with the promise The reform must be effected, for the better development of the country and prosperity of the towns. The wealth of the country lay in our back country, awaiting development, and he wanted to see that development take place. That could only be done by re-organising the system, establishing a Public Works Board —two competent men and an engineer—to see that the works necessary were properly carried out by the local bodies.

PUBLIC WORKS EXPENDITURE. They had been told prior to last election that if the Massey Government got into J?owcr, public works would be stopped and wages would fall to three or four shillings a day. As a matter of fact the works had not been stopped. They had very largely increased. He had always urged the pushing on of the main roads and the bridging of the main roads in this electorate.

He pointed out that the Government had widened the road over Mount Messenger, was correcting previous errors on the Taumatamaire hill near the Awakino, and had altogether spent over £2O- - on the improvement of the main road connecting Taranaki and Auckland. The roads from Okau and from Waitomo to the coast were always being improved. He quoted the instance of a man who had been nineteen years in the backblocks and had not yet been able to get a dray to his house. The work, however, was now being put in hand. He quoted figures to show that the Government had not cut down expenditure on reproductive works, and explained that this year the Government had secured authority to borrow two milions for ordinary public works and a million to be expended in two years on backblocks roads. LAND SETTLEMENT. Those who held the belief that the leasehold was the best tenure had a perfect right to their opinion, but he was an advocate of the freehold, which would, he believed, bring about better settlement. New Zealand claimed to have the most advanced land laws in the world, but we were behind Denmark, Canada, or even Australia. There was a tendency here to make the conditions too hard. They had been told that to give the freehold to the Crown settlers •was really a measure designed to assist the "Reform" moneyed men by inducing these farmers to borrow money at high rates of interest. Just as if all the people with money were supporters of the Government. The Government had re-introduced the deferred payment system, giving the right to the tenant to purchase his land by instalments spread over twenty years. Mr Wilson believed the terms might be made easier still, with advantage to the country. In 1914, a return supplied to the House showed that settlers had been borrowing from the Advances to Settlers Office in order to purchase the freehold, and the Opposition had attacked this system. Mr Massey, however, was prepared to stand by that policy, for the money paid for the freehold went into the lands for settlement account to be used in the purchase of further lands. Under the Liberals any money from the sales of land had gone into the Consolidated revenue, to swell the surplus.

GRADUATED LAND TAX. Mr Wilson said he had been pledged to support a graduated land tax, and he had supported it. The Opposition had claimed that the new Valuation Act would nullify the effect of the Graduated Land Tax, but from his examination of the valuations he could say that these had been very greatly increased. Moreover, the increase of the graduated tax had brought about the subdivision of very large areas of private land. The Liberals had urged that this taxation should be heavier. But even today the graduated land tax had struck the Taranaki man owning only 100 acres of land. He believed in grading or classing land, so as to apply the graduated tax only to the first-class land, and that the hilly and rough country should be exempt. Mr Wilson denied that the Government refused to interfere with the big land owners, and showed how the Government had actually compelled these men to go in for closer settlement. Mr Wilson dealt with the charge made that the Massey Government had failed to encourage land settlement, and he quoted figures to show that settlement had be«n more rapid than in the l days of the previous administration.

He believed the endowment system was bad, for the rents went to specific purposes, and not a penny of it was available for roading. The endowment laws of this country were such that the freehold could not be acquired. It would be better to sell these back country endowments, giving the selectors tie right of the freehold, and investing the pro- ' ceeds in endowments in the cities. He contended that too high a price was sometimes put on Crown lands opened for settlement, and he mentioned that the other day the price of a Kawhia block had been purchased by the Government for about £IB,OOO. He believed, too, that land which was only sheep-country or thereabouts should be offered in bigger areas. Summing up, he urged that men placed on the land should be put there on the easiest terms, so that they might sooner make their holdings productive.

THOSE PIGEON-HOLES. He had a dislike for raking up old matters, but he had been challenged to prove that the pigeon-holes had revealed anything to the detriment of the Liberals. The pigeon-holes had revealed, however, that though Sir Joseph Ward was thrice warned by the president of the Advances Board 'just prior to last election, that funds were short and that the loans applied for could not be entertained, the then Premier had made no announcement of that to the public; further, that when just after the election the High Commissioner had advised a loan, Sir Joseph had said that in the then state of the parties, it was inopportune to borrow, and it fell to Mr Myers, the succeeding Minister of Finance, to raise money in London to save the credit of the country. Unfortunately, the rate by this time had increased, and Mr Myers' loan was the most costly ever raised by the Dominion. Sir Joseph Ward, when he retired from office, left the lending departments with over a million and half of advances promised and only £(i34,000 to pay them with. It was to the Hon. Jas. Allen's credit that, despit the small-pox epidemic, the strike,and so on, he had on June 30, 1914, restored the stability' of the State Advances department.

BORROWING. The borowing by the present Governmen in its 27 months of office amounted to only 4:} millions, exclusive of the million for urgent works in the backblocks. In the previous 27 months, the Liberals had borrowed two milions more than this. He denied that he or his party, had never been pledged to reduce borrowing. He had always been in favor of borrowing for reproductive works.

OLD AGE PENSIONS. In 1912 it had been urged that Mr Massey, if placed in power, would repeal the Old Age Pensions Act, and that he had voted against the Bill ever so many times. As a matter of fact he had merely voted to report progress, and had not necessarily opposed the Bill. He admired Mr Massey if he now found and was prepared to admit that he had made a mistake 20 years ago. As a matter of fact, if a Liberal motion to report progress had been carried, the age of women allowed to draw pensions would never have been reduced to CO,, but he was not going to say that the Liberals had opposed the measure. Besides this concession to the old women,theGovernment was arranging that people otherwise eligible would not be disqualified from holding a pension if they went to Australia, It. was quite true that Sir Joseph Ward passed the Widows' Pension Act, but the present Government had improved it. Mr, Wilson believed the country should establish ..pensions for invalids and the maimed. He would support any liberalising of the pensions scheme in that direction. He was pr«ud of the Government for providing a pension for the veterans of the Maori war, and thus recognising the services rendered by them to the country in the days gone by.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. Had the late Government seen fit to appoint good men from both aides of polit/cs to the Upper House, there would have been no cry for reform, or necessity for it. He traced the passage of the Legislative Council Reform Bill, justifying the Reform appointments to the Upper House to enable him to carry out his pledge to reform the Council. (A voice: He stuffed the House). Of his nineteen nominations, were all of one side of politics? No, and for this the Government had been praised by the Liberal Press. As a result of the new legislation the Council was to be made elective, and in three years' time there would be an election, and the public would he given the right to chdose their own Legislative Councillors, without nomination by anyone.

LABOR. In denying that the Massey party was inimical to the interests of the workers, Mr Wilson was led by an interjection to deal with the Wellington strike, justifying the steps taken by the Government to maintain law and order and to see that the produce of the land, was despatched to the world's markets. The strike leaders, who denied to willing workers the right to work, were severely condemned. The workers, he said, generally appreciated Mr Massey's new Act which prevented a strike being called except when approved by a ballot of those concerned.

EDUCATION. He had strongly criticised the want of facilities for education in the backblocks, particularly in the system of compelling some settlers to build their own schools. He had protested in the House that Government grants made for the assistance of backblocks education were not being spent. He had been attacked for this by the Auckland Education Board but ho had since communicated with thein,an<J the members were now of opinion that their "slating" was quite unjustified. He had been referring to the case of a school of 53 children, for which a grant of £360 was made in 1911, and the school was not built yet, the Board excusing itself on the question of cost and difficulty of access.

RAILWAYS. j Referring to the railways, the general manager had recommended having expenditure in better buildings, improving gradients, duplicating lines, and so on, The Government had decided, to borrow £3,200,000 in five years for this purpose, and had been accused of borrowing this sum in one year in flash stations, without doing anything for the country districts. One of ,the improvements to be effected was the laying of lines to provide for our wool, for instance, to be sent to the ship's side by rail, instead of having to be carted from the Thorndon station. He had been opposed to big expenditure on the termini, favoring the provision of more engines, rolling-stock, and so on. But, in conversation with those in authority, he had become convinced that the Government's railway policy was sound. Anyhow, nearly the whole of the Liberals had voted for this borrowing BilU

' PUBLIC SERVICE REFORM. . The promise to establish a Public Service Board and remove the civil service from political control had been carried out, and was a sound proposition in the best interests of the civil service and of the country generally. The leader of the Opposition had publicly stated fiat he would not repeal this Art, but would ionend it. It was no use blinking the fact that people had in tlie past got into the civil service by political "pull." The. Public Service Commisioners had reported that one particular department was bad because it had been made the dumping ground for incompetents in oilier branchs. SECOND BALLOT. The Second Ballot Act had been repealed, although in 1912 it was generally criticised, in 1913 the Liberals strongly opposed its abolition. He belived in proportional representation, provided the country quota could be retained.

OTHER MATTERS. Mr Wilson enumerated other accomplishments of the Govermcnt. The provision of the public buildings insurance fund; th re-construction of the Arbitration Court; the acquiring of lands in advance of railway construction; amendment of native land legislation, particularly in respct to West Coast Resrvcs. He dealt with the "wild and inac* curate statements being made that the rolls were being tampered with." The Government was only administering the Act passed by Sir Joseph Ward. In this electorate, despite statements that hatf been made that 2000 ames had been removed from the roll, only 800 names had ben removed, and there were now on the roll more voters than there were at last election. It was an unfair thing to suggst that the Under-Secretary had so purged the rolls as to penalise the Liberals. THE WAR.

Referring to tlie present war, Mr Wilson said it made, one proud to belong to an Empire that was making such a magnificent struggle and magnificent sacrifics. England had never fought a more just war than this, in standing by little Belgium against the advance of the Germans. He referred to the gigantic New Zealand undertaking of transporting 8000 men and 3000 horses across IG.OOO miles of ocean to assist the Empire. The Minister and the Government had been most anxious to send those men properly equipped, but political capital was being made out of one or two minor difficulties, such as the caneten control. Such matters should have been mentioned to the Minister privately, instead of being made a csandal on the floor of the House., , Mr Wilson traversed thelegislation enacted by the present Government to protect our people commercially and financially during the progress of the war. The Government had been actuated all through by the desire to help the people to the utmost of his power, and the Premier had bought largo quantities of wheat abroad to ensure that our people should have sufficient food.

CONCLUSION. Mr Wilson said that the destinies of this young country jwere now being controlled by an able and fearless Government, and while, the life-and-death struggle continued, the people of New Zealand were determined to push party politics to one side, and return to power the party who was so successfully conducting the affairs of the country at the present time.

QUESTIONS. Several questions were asked, some of .which were scarcely political. Mr Wilson denied ever having said in the House: "If the Maoris can't look after their own interests, kick them out of the. country." Upon the questioner stating that ho had read the statement in the New Zealand Times, the candidate said: "No one takes any notice of the New Zealand Times; it's the beer paper." It was quite true that the indebtedness of the Waitara Harbor Board to the Marine Department had been wiped off. He could not say how often Mr Massey had voted against Old Age Pensions. The Waiuku railway railway was authorised by Sir Joseph Ward's party in 1010. He did not think that thjs Government was the first to give tariff concessions tothe Governor. The questioner reiterated that the Massey party led the way in this, thus taking nearly everything the labor at' •••..•1.4. ing free entr~ •-• ■;■'•■• .'<o" t -"r , ~ s \x,M:-. and so on. He believed that the jury list should be revised. He did not believe in minority representation in Parliament. He would not reduce the 55 per cent, majority on the licensing poll. With regard to his impugning with public officials in the course of a speech in the House, he had neither substituted nor withdrawn his criticism. He was prepared to substantiate his statements before a public enquiry. A vote of thanks and confidence in the Government was carried. The voting, on the voices apepared about equal.