THAT OSTRICH FARM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 156, 27 November 1914, Page 4

THAT OSTRICH FARM.

THE PRIME MINISTER EXPLAINS. By Telegraph.—Per Press AssMiatin. Wellington, Last Night. Speaking at the Lower Hutt tonight, the Prime Minister referred, after some interjections, to the subject of the Pukekohe ostrich farm.

"I want to clear up this matter of the ostrich farm," sai<l Mr Masscy. ' A voice: "About time you did!" | Mr, Massey: "And I waited for the opportunity of doing so in Wellington." Mr Massey wont on to say the line ' was surveyed and practically agreed to 15 years before he became member for the district. A great deal of energy had then been put into the construction of the main trunk lines, and quite rightly. The people of the district had been given promises by various Ministers. The Hon. R. McKenzie, and Sir William Hall-Jones had both gone to the district and' had approved of the line, and he (Mr Masscy) had no doubt that it would pay now. About the ostrich farm. A gentleman of Auckki"l district, who had joined the great i jority, had left a will stating that his property must be put into cash. The outcome of the negotiations over the. estate was the establishment cf this ostrich farm, into which he had put £IOOO. The company which had been formed had paid €17,500 for the. property, and had come to the conclusion that the best thing to do was to improve it. For this purpose they had borrowed first £IO,OOO, and then a smaller sum. The property had never paid any of them, including himself, a cent. He hoped some day that they would get their money hack, •but it was being inferred that lie was using the people's money to build a railway to benefit himself. As a matter of fact, the property touched on the present main line. If they had travelled to Auckland they had probably seen the ostriches. ' There were 500 of them at Pukekohe. That was where the property touched the main line. Mr Massey then quoted from a newspaper report, which said that at one of his meetings, Mr Glass had repudiated his own paper, the New Zealand Times. He wouldn't touch it. One of the audience in a front seat: "No decent man would!"

Mr Massey: ''No, I don't believe that any decent man would touch it with a forty-foot pole!" Mr Massey here produced a plan of the district. The new line, he said, did not run through the farm, as had been stated time and again. "In Auckland," said Mr Massey, "where I am known, the people laugh at this. I don't profess to be better than anybody else, but my constituents know that I am a straight man." (Applause.) He would not have left his constituents, as he had done, assured of a 1500 majority at their hands if he had any charge to answer.

"I want the Now Zealand Times to come out in the open. (Hear, hear.) It has been inferring ami casting about the impression that I have been using the money of the Stat* to builil this railway for my own benefit. To say such a tiling is a falsehood, or to infer it either. I challenge the New Zealand Times to come into the open, and say that I have used the people's money for nvy own personal gain, and I will know what to do. lam just watching and waiting. If the New Zealand Times sa)% that, then I will take the matter to the Supreme Court and fight them if it costs me the last shilling that I own. (Applause from the front seats.) I know the mudslinger who writes these articles. I know lie won't apologise, but I've taken the. opportunity of telling tile people the facts of the" case."