PATEA ELECTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 October 1919, Page 3

PATEA ELECTION.

ADDRESS BY LIBERAL CANDIDATE.

Mr. W. Morrison, the Liberal candidate, delivered an election address at the Grand t Theatre, Hawera, on Thursday evening. v There was a large attendance, over which t Mr. Fixon, the Mayor, presided. v Mr. Morrison, who was greeted with 8 applause and received a very attentive £ hearing, said that nearly five years had c elapsed since he had previously been s before them as a candidate for parlia- t mentary honors, and, though he had not 1 1 succeeded on that occasion, the splendid j' support he had received from the people c of Hawera led him to hope and expect! ' success on this occasion. ' PARTY POLITICS. Though a Liberal, he was not in favor of party politics, which he thought should be abolished. His idea tvas that Minis- ' ters should be elected on their merits by |' the whole of the Members of Parliament, ' and then they would get the best brains ' of the House at the head of the different 1 departments, and these men would be I responsible to Parliament and not to ' the Prime Minister, while if they were [ not successful they could be removed. | 1 Every member should be free to exercise .;' his own judgment and vote according !' to his conscience on all questions. !He j ' was supporting the Liberals because he j believed their policy to be in the beat 1 1 interests of the country. After referring i ' to the Coalition Government, he said the ! * j Reformers were trying to make political |' j capita! by representing that Sir Joseph i j Ward had acted shabbily, but it had ; ' I been quite understood that the Coalition 1 should cease as soon as the war was 1 over. Sir Joseph Ward had not resigned till a fortnight after his return, and he and the other members of his party who j had resigned had left everything in order. LAND FOR SOLDIERS. 1 Dealing with the repatriation of sol- ' diers, Mr. Morrison said the Government 1 had been endeavoring to place some soldiers on the land and others in business. ■ There were soldiers who had no fitness for land settlement and no inclinations in : that direction, and it was only fair to help these in other ways. In placing soldiers oil land the present Government and the Coalition Government went on wrong lines in using for this purpose rough lands. His contention was that if a soldier was to be placed on the laud ' it should be on the best land. Fifty acres of land between Taranaki and Wanganui and further north, was better than 200 acres of land in the back block 9 for soldier settlement. He did not think it fair to ask the soldier to rough it unless he had been used to that kind of life and preferred to take up unimproved land ia order that he might have a larger area. He had always advocated this. An Act was passed in 1913 providing the machinery for taking land aggregated at the price for which it was purchased, plus the value of improvements. This Act had been further amended last year, and there was no reason whatever why the Government should not provide land in this way for soldiers. As an instance of aggregation, he stated that a wool king lower down had aggregated twelve or thirteen different farms during the war. The Act had not been enforced because the people who supported Mr. Massey were the people who aggregated land, and Mr. Massey knew that if it was enforced ho would go out of power. LIMITATION OF AREA. Under the Native Land Act, the original limit for first-class land was fi!o acres, but the Seddon Government had recognised that this was too much, and had reduced the limit to 400 acres, which seemed quite a reasonable area, especially as the wife could hold a like area, and also the children as they grew up. When Mr. Massey got into office he increased the area to 640 acres. He favored the application to private lands "of the principle limiting the area of Native and Crown lands which any one man could hold. EDUCATION. Speaking of education, he said he was in favor of the present free, secular, and compulsory system. The present system was called free, but it was not altogether free, for school books and other requisites had to be paid for. He would advocate making education absolutely free. Country children . were greatly handicapped in the matter of technical education, and lie hoped that, whatever Government was in power, every facility for educating the eihildren would be provided. The salaries paid to teachers were too low, and men of the same qualifications found that better rewards could be obtained for their services in other walks of life. The grants to school committees should be increased, so that it would not be necessary for them, by their own efforts, to provide fuel and other requirements. RAILWAYS. In regard to the railways, Mr. Morrison said that five years ago he had strongly criticised the appointment of a general manager. Mr. Ililey had been paid a salary of £3OOO a year with travelling allowances, and no one would say that he had been a success. He criticised adversely the conferring of a military title on Mr. Hiley and sending him to Treivtham where he continued to draw his salary fts railway manager. Mr. Hiley had been a very expensive man. He had left New Zealand but before doing so he was able to buy a farm, which he still owned. We had been very unfortunate with the railways- We had had a Minister who was incapable of doing justice to bis job. He had 1 been pleased to see Mr. Massey thrusr Mr. Herries aside and take the portfolio himself. THE CABINET. ; Speaking of the personnel of the Cabi- ' net, Mr. "Morrison said he thought it' • high time the Government got rid of some of the old members and put in younger men. Referring to the railway , cut, he said it had been attributed to the coal shortage, but it seemed that ■ the Minister bad" sat tight and had done ■ nothing. He (the speakei) considered r the coal mines should be nationalised, as recommended by the Board of Trade and the Industries Commission- (Applause.) By solving the housing question and im- • proving °tlie conditions they would , induce contentment and solve the , question of coal shortage. ; defence. : Dealing with defence, Mr. Morrison said he thought some kind of military training necessary, but he was opposed ' to youths spending three or four months a year in camp. Mr. Morrison said » he was prepared to support the present • system of military training with a • slight modification. Fourteen days m L camp was reasonable, and that was with tb» parades Auriog the

year. For boys, up to I§, he favored physical exjercises with, at most, simple military training. With regard to naval defence he considered Lord Jellicoe's proposals beyond our means. PUBLIC DEBT. Referring to the public debt, he said that in 1914 it amounted to 91 millions, while to-day it was just about douale that, and before the final washing-up it would probably reach 200 millions. The amount seemed very large but if they got the right men in Parliament, and I concentrated upon production and closer , settlement the position would lose a j good deal of its seriousness. A wrong; policy had been pursued in the past j in regard to land settlement. He advocated that reading should be first, and the loading the land with the eoßt. He favored immigration from Britain | and ker dominions. ; . COST OF LIVING. J Speaking of taxation, he said that j farmers had rightly been bearing their j share- The farmer was paying a very i large proportion of the taxes imposed j during the war. It had to be re.l membered, too, that the prices for many : products, such as wool and meat, were i fixed' during the first year of the war.! The cost of living hail been going up j all thfc time, and many thought that j the farmer had been getting big profits.; but /that was not so. Dealing next.; with the main arterial roadß, he said he did not favor Government control, as he considered that better results from expenditure could be obtained by local bodies Ho hoped the Government would adopt the recommendation of the Counties Conference in respect" to an increased tax on motor tyres for road maintenance. Toll gates should be abolished. WORKERS' HOMES. He favored the erection of workers' homes by the State, and did not think the limit of £BOO too high. The Government proposed to spend something like £1,000,000 a year, and he hoiped they would get on with the work as speedily as possible. In conclusion, he said he had been born in New Zealand, and had been in the electorate for 46 years. It might be raised a? an objection to him that he was not s, resilient of Hawera, but he was only a couple of hours away, and would, if elected, be at their services at any time. Ho would do his best in the interests of the country and the peopTs. and would not allow even his own private interests' to stand ia the way of his duty to the country. (Applause). On the motion of Mr. E. A. Pacey, Mr. Morrison was accorded a vote of thanks.