POLITICAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 November 1919, Page 8

POLITICAL.

THE EGMONT SEAT. MR. 0. HAWKEN AT ELTHAM. Mr. 0. Hawken, the Reform candidate for the Eguftjnt seat, addressed a meeting of electors at the.Eltham Town Ha.ll on Wednesday evening. There was a good attendance, and Mr. G. W. Tayler, Mayor of Eltham, presided. Speaking first of repatriation, Mr. Hawken said this should not he a party question, and it was to be regretted that Sir Joseph Ward had left the Ministry before it was settled. There was much to settle yet in connection with returned soldiers, but some things had already been .tackled by the Reform Government in a very earnest manner. The gratuity question had been dealt with in a way satisfactory to 'both the returned soldiers and the public. A very important part of the repatriation scheme was the grant of a sum of money up to £3OO to start soldiers in busine?s. There was a strong feeling that this should be increased to £SOO, and as a member of the Hawpra Repatriation Committee, he was of the opinion that there may be cases in which this might properly be done. The scheme was a new departure in social work and if it proved successful witii returned soldiers it may yet be possible for any poor man to get a loan from the State when entering into "business:. The furniture grant of £SO might, he thought, he increased, and the £2 a week for totally disabled men was not sufficient.

Coming to the big question of land foiT returned soldiers, Mr. Hawken said the grant of twelve millions for this pfirpose should be a tremendous help to the. men. He did not agree with those who said they should wait till values fell before purchasing land for soldiers, and did not tliink that there would be any fall in value for some time. He favored purchasing now, provided the land was purchased by men who understood the business. So far ilie hpicl had not been purchased by men w.to could buy properly. He hail had a long experience of Taranaki, land, and the land below the province, and his experience led him to believe that men with a little capital should be put on good land. The general experience showed that if you put a man on u. small piece of good land he was almost sure to make a success of it, and soldiers were not different to other men. In such a case the security would be better for the State .-than'it is with much of the poorer crass land that lias been bought by the Department. LAND VALUES. The settlement of soldiers concerned civilians as well as soldiers. There were some people who did not understand land values, and there were those who said that the selling value of land should be the value for taxation purposes- , No Government valuer could value right up to the value. To do this in Taranaki during the past few months would mean a valuation every few weeks. The Government value was never taken as the market value. Land values was one of the most 'important questions of the clay, and it; was not a question in purchasing land for aoldiers of wh,at the land would cost but what would be best for local men. In explaining his reasons for supporting the Reform Government, Mr. Hawken said there were a very great number of people who held that party Government should be abolished. Both parties had no doubt given their followers a lot of trouble during the past few years. Of recent years the Government had become too autocratic and w)is not' sufficiently flexible- Perhaps this was due to the late R. ,T Seddon. who was a (Treat autocrat, though a great man- The appointment to the Cabinet of two young men showed that Mr. Massey intended to keep in touch w'tu public thought. He supported the Reform Party for several reasons, and in considering their policy it must not be forgotten that- the Coalition Government had been in power during the past five* years. The freehold tenure had always been the great; strength of the Reform Party, and this tenure suited the small man The last election had been fought on leasehold versus freehold, and there were men in the, Liberal Party now who would introduce the leasehold to-morrow if they got thp chance. The owning of land by the man who worked it was the rock on which all reforms were built, ant', had the effect of putting an end to the revolutionary spirit. In the pountry the freehold policy of the Reform Government should receive the support of the people generally, and in choosing a candidate who was a single taxer the Liberal Party had not done the electorate justice. Any man who advocated the single tax wa-. diametrically opposed to the freehold tenure. He also disagreed with his opponent on proportional representation. FRIEND OP THE FARMERS. . Another reason why he supported the Reform Government was that it had always been the friend of the farmers. They had heard a lot about the commandeering of farmers' produce, and some had tried to piace 011 Mr. Ma-weyV shoulders the responsibility for impositions unfair to farmers, but when these had been put on Mr. Massey had been away. He was away when the tax was put on cheese, and when he came back he said lie would have nothing to do .with the cheese men paying ior the butter men's troubles, and'they got out of the tax through himA vote had been passed latclv covering the amount of the butter-fat tax, and it was fair that this should be done The men who prodpced butter or eucesc were some of the hardest worked men, and he did not see why thev should be called upon to provide cheap butter for the rest of New Zealand. Mr. Mac Donald was also Minister in Charge of the Board of Trade, which was --sponsible for many of the embargoes on farmer's produce, so that the' Liberal Party were chiefly to blame, tliouoni some blame was attached to both parties. Five million bushels of wheat had been bought by the New Zea land Government from Australia at a cost of ;L1 .oOO.OOIh Instead of doiuii 1 this the Minister should have seen that the farmers of the South Island were offered a suflicient price to grow wheat. The rise in the price of bacon was due to the Government not encouragm;; the growth of wheat. There was si ill a restriction on hides, and what had occurred in this case in the endeavour to fix the prices of manufactured articles showed how helpless the Board of Trade was. Tt was easy enoiisli to fix the price of the fanners' produce, but, very little could be done to regulate the cost of living bv other means. Speaking of the present system of taxing farmers, Mr. Haw ken said it was not right that -th?. farmer, as was the case at present, should be taxed on the money he owed. but it was

Sir Joseph Ward who provided for this, • in spite of strong opposition from country members. Continuing, he said that the Reform Party's programme, with its provision for various works, was sufficiently far advanced for anyone in the-country in a reasonable frame of mind. The voles were much larger than they had ever had in the history of the country, and beyond what had ever been expected. Eor housing two and a half millions had been voted. This matter had been tackled in a wholehearted way, and they must see that the Government intended to push on with the scheme, which was the greatest attempt' that had ever been made to help the poor man. The scheme recognised that every man or woman should have his or her own freehold and house, and was an immense reform. TO THE FRONT WITH REFORMS. New Zealand had always been to the forefront with social reforms, and had started out with compulsory and free education, which had done more than anything else to break down the differences between the classes. AVe |had introduced the one man one roll system, and the old age pensions scheme, brought down by the late Mr. R. J. Seddon, was also a great reform. They must take care of the aged, and the present Government, in bringing down a Bill to keep the pension at 15s, had done a very wise thing. He also approved of the raising of the widows' pension. If the reform of giving every man,a home of his own was carried out it would be the greatest reform in the history of the Dominion. The hydro-electric scheme was an immense undertaking. In Taranaki they were unfortunately situated, and would not be able to take advantage of the Government scheme. In connection with this and other schemes, Mr. Hawken pointed out that money could not be spent at a very great rate till they got more labor, and he thought that the Government, in advocating that labor should be brought to New Zealand, had taken their courage in both hands, and had done a thing which 110 one dared to suggest for some time past. Now even Sir Joseph Ward agreed that it was necessary. If wisely managed and the immigrants selected with care, it would be of great advantage to the country. Britishers should be kept within the Empire, and they had made a great mistake in the past in not providing more fully for this. SHIPPING AND TRANSPORT. Shipping and transport should be arranged between the Mother Country and the Dominion, so that the rates would permit of even the poor man travelling. The question of transport, which affected the cost of living more than anything else, would have to be dealt with by some Government very shortly. The Reform Government suggested that, by a State-owned line of shipping this country should be encouraged. As an instance of the way shipping affected the cost of living, Mr. Hawken stated that when potatoes were selling at £7 in the South Island £l4 was being asked here, and chaff that cost £7 in the South was fully £l2 here. Part of the increased cost was due to the hands the produce passed through, and apparently there was no way to check profiteering. Irregular transport seemed to be one of the causes for high prices, especially for goods from the Old Country. NewZealand had to pay very high freights in produce shipped to the Old Country, but ij was on the things we brought out that we suffered chiefly. Barbed wire had risen from £l4 to" £6O, £7O, £SO, and as higli as £l2O, and the price was largely ruled by shipping, which was so scarce that the big man obtained a great advantage over his smaller competitor, collared the market, and formed trusts. A shipping' line should be purchased by the farmers in New Zealand through a forced system which should be brought into operation by the Government. His idea was that a levy should be made on all exports, and ultimately returned as shares. The ships could be bought partly by Government nominees and partly by the farmers or any others interested in the country. The idea was to limit the dividend" to five per cent, and enlarge the fleet out of any further profits. This was the right way to protect the public. It would do, aVav with secret rebates and place all on the same basis. It would not only help the farmer, but the man to whom he sold his produce, and was the only way to combat the big trusts, which so far they were not able to' control. The shipping was just as hard as the meat trust. He did not think that nationalisation would be very favorably received, lior did he believe that any Government could run a shipping company. The owners should be the men who required the freight and a Government line could be wiped out by the shipping companies That, of course, was his own, not a Government idea. EDUCATION. Speaking of education, Mr. Hawken referred to the grants for technical schools. Eltham, in this Tespect, was at a disadvantage, but it would only be. a short time before they had a school of their own, making it unnecessary to travel to Stratford or Ilawera. The vote for education and school committees had been placed on a much better footing during the past few weeks, and it looked as if satisfactory provision was. being made for re-biiilding old schools and for new schools in growing districts. In the past they had followed too closely the old English system of general purposc-s work, instead of trying to turn out specialists, which were needed in Nejv Zealand at the present time. They should copy the German system, only varying it to meet our conditions. He had no hestiation in saying that our system should be altered so that they could"irodnee men with special qualifications for special purposes. THE LABOR QUESTION. Dealing with the labor question, he said lie felt a great interest in the cause of Labor. Humanitarians had done a great deal of good. It had cultivated public opinion, and made it see that the laboring man was not receiving a fair deal, and had brought into existence goodwill towards him, with the result that he was in a much better position during the past few years than ovtfr before. The sense' of justice in advocating the poor man's rights had been of great advantage to the public generally, but the altitude of some unions was alienating public sympathy. The wharf laborers had done more injury to the. cause of labor than .the working men realised. As for the miners, men who received 25s 4d per day, as the State mine workers did, were very'well treated—much bettor than the average working man. Men who had got as far as they hud were beyond the need for unionism, and those'who had to pay the high prices for coal felt that too much had been heard about the minors' wages. There were many, too, who (needed houses more than When

tlie wharf laborers refused to load ships for 110 reason at all they alienated public sympathy, and undoubtedly did more harm to the workers' cause than good. In the country farmers who had ■ met the men reasonably had had very little trouble. He had no time for the man who worked slowly. If we wanted to keep our proud position we would have to be a strenuous and hard-working people. He was not against unionism, but he was against the actions of those who controlled'unions. There was more than a suspicion of disloyalty among some of these leaders-rsufficient. to suggest that some labor unions were not loyal to the Empire. That, after the sacrifices that had been made, was, of nil things, the most discreditable. He deprecated the tendency on the part of some to say that one couhtry was as good as another. Were the Turks, as good as ourselves? Some people said it did not matter who they voted for, but it was good government that placed them in the position they were in today, and bad government would ruin any country. He did not care who they voted for so long as they believed they were voting for the best man. If returned, he _ would do his best to further their interests and those of the country. (Applause.) REPLIES TO QUESTIONS. Replying to questions, he said he had interested himself in breaking a strike. When a union took charge of a country it was for every right-thinking man and woman to oppose it. There was a right procedure for settling differences. Replying on the justice of the people, the working man would get what was fair and right. By having their own shipping they would not be monopolists. They would si in pK' be taking steps to prevent themselves falling into the hands of monopolists. The farmers had not been profiteering, and the blame for profiteering rested with the Minister in charge of the Board of Trade. Mr MaeDouald hud said he had a Bill prepared when he went out of office to stop profiteering, but he had not brought it down during his four years of office. During the past few weeks a most drastic Bill had been passed. He blamed the coal miners partly for the high price of coal, and there was no doubt that the output had been reticulated for some time past. When Mr. Mac Donald tried to get men over from Australia to work in the mines the miners here tried to prevent their coming. The means of distribution also contributed to the high cost of coal. Once a ton of coal could be purchased for 24s 7d. Now it was sold by the sack at C,'i 5s per ton. The leasehold tenure had its advantages for some, but he would say to every man taking up leasehold: Get the right to purchase. if the Government was to forego the stamp duty on land transactions for soldiers they would probably put it on the price of land. They had to h'ave revenue. The raising of old age and widows' pensions and the housing scheme emanated from the Reform Party, but they were not opposed by the Liberals. He did not see how any party could oppose I hem. The miners had done more to hinder than help duripg the whole of the war. He was not speaking of individuals. Some, no doubt, were as patriotic as any. •On the motion of Mr. Crump, who said, tluvj* had listened to a manly, thoughtful, and straight-out speech, 'a hearty vote of the thanks was carried to Mr. iiawkeu, amidst applause l