THE STRATFORD SEAT.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 October 1922, Page 6

THE STRATFORD SEAT.

MR. HINE SPEAKS. STAUNCH GOVERNMENT SUPPORT. The Stratford Town Hall was fairly well filled on Wednesday night, when Mr. J. B. Hine, Reform candidate for the Stratford electorate, d(>; • cred a political address. The chair was occupied by the Mayor of Stratford (Mr. J. W. McMillan), who briefly introduced the speaker, and appealed to the electors to give both candidates for the seat a fair run. Mr. Hine, who was greeted with applause on rising to speak, traced the events which led up to his decision to stand at the request of a strong deputation from a conference of supporters of the Reform Party, called from all over the town and district. They had to be up and doing, and they realised that in the reconstruction problems of to-day the Prime Minister had greater difficulties to face than any other Prime Minister had had. There were stormy times ahead, and the country needed the best possible man at the head of affairs, and that man was Mr. Massey. The national debt; had increased, owing to the war, from £100,900,000 to £218,000,000, and £60,000,000 would be due for repayment to the money lenders during the coming year. If they had not a strong man and a strong Government in the country this debt could not be met, and this was where they needed Mr. Massey. The interest bill for every 12 months amounted to £5,000,000. This had to come from the pockets of the people, and if the people were not well prepared this could not be obtained. A reduction of taxation would maon so much more money in the pockets of the people, which could bo transferred to new channels and so help to increase the wealth of the country. ( The Government had brought down J definite proposals for the reduction of taxation. Until last year it had been impossible to make any reduction, but the figures showed that this year there would be a substantial reduction in super tax, land and income tax. Income and land tax last year amounted to over £9.000.000. and until this sum was reduced there could be no development in the country. He hoped for further reductions, which would return personal and collective benefits.

EDUCATIONAL MATTERS. Turning to educational matters. Mr. Hine said that the cost of education in recent years had grown from 1 to MA millions. It could not be said that the money had been well spent, owing to the largely increased costs of all works, but the children of to-day were receiving much better treatment than I bey got in earlier days. This was due to the policy of Mr. Massey, the Director of Education (Mr. Caughley). and to the Minister of Education (Mr. C. J. Parr), who had opened up new avenues of education, and had done more to improve facilities than any other administration. The backbloeks children especially were receiving better treatment, and'the Department now allowed £l5 per child up to nine children for educational purposes in the baekb’oeks. instead of £6 as previously. Correspondence schools had been established and now the junior high schools promised to be a great boon. The teachers’ salaries had been increased, in conformity with all other salaries, from 70 to 80 per cent. Tn a sense education was not free, but had to be paid for by the whole country, and it was one of the very best of institutions.

Mr. Hine went on to refer to the scholarship endowment lands of 10.000 •’.nre* at Onaku. near Patea. set aside for Taranaki scholarships. He defended this as a valuable asset to education in Taranaki, as it provided the moans nf overcoming the costs of education to the more brilliant children and fitted them for the higher positions in life. It was impossible for people without means to carry on the higher forms of education without scholarships. Mr. Holland had proposed in the House to abolish all scholarships and in this proposal he had been supported by Mr. Masters and others. It would be a bad day for New Zealand if ever they threw the educational benefits into a common pool as had been suggested. He hoped that as time went on there would he more and more scholarships for the benefit of the brilliant children. He was in Parliament at the time it was pronosed to abolish the endowment near Patea and hand it over to the Victoria College in Wellington, and the five Taranaki members stood solidly for its intention, and he hoped it would stand for all time. THE -WAGES QUESTION. Referring to the wages question. Mr. Hine said that the cry had been that if ever Mr. Massey came into power wages would go down. Had wages fallen? No, they had been rising and rising. No wage earner in the room could say he had been poorly treated by Mr. Massey. Under the Workers’ Compensation Act the maximum compensation had been £5OO. This had been increased to £750, and in a few days’ time the speaker expected legislation increasing the amount to £lOOO Was this unfairness to the workers? The Acte had been amended from time to time and always in favor of the worker. There was not a single farmer who advocated the repeal of the Arbitration Act. Speaking of the Civil Service, he said that in 1914 the Civil Service were satisfied with their wages. In the first year of the Avar there was no increase in the cost of living, but in the few succeeding years a rise took p ace and a system of bonuses was introduced in every department to meet the rise. In 1920 every civil servant I had had a uniform increase of £45, which was later increased by £5O, while the railway men had their hours reI duced from 48- to 44 hours weekly. When the salary cut came it was decided that there would be a gradual withdrawal of these bonuses, and this affected everyone, from the Ministers down. He was pleased to see that Ministers and members were, cut down with 1 the rest. There was great objection to the reduction hy the Civil Servants, who said they should be reduced according to their salaries, but this was not logical reasoning. The bonuses should he reduced according to the lowering of the cost of living. Everyone 1 regretted that the cut had to come, but it must be remembered that everyone had suffered. The farmers had suffered a very severe cut, and the Civil Servants had no cause to complain. The

faced. Jle appealed to tlie Civil Servants to accept the position and receive a slight reduction rather than see ! a state of chaos in the country. The commercial man had suffered heavily, Mr. Hine said, and he went on to detail how, in the war years, orders for merchandise could not be fulfilled. Then when the .slump came the country was flooded with goods, which had to bp j sacrificed by the commercial people at low prices. This was largely the cause of the financial stringency. The Government was- not slow to recognise the difficulties of the small farmer and comjmereial man, and Mr. Massey now proposed to raise £2,000,000 for the purpose of granting loans to the small people under the Chattels 'Security Ac', at 5A per cent. This was regarded as the worst kind of security, and Mr. Massey was to be congratulated upon taking the matter up as he had. The moratorium, Mr. Hine considered, had run itself out. Now that the conflagration in Europe had gone by he thought the moratorium would no longer be extended, and he advised those concerned not to wait til! tin term expired, but to make their finan eial arrangements as soon as possible to avoid the rush at the expiration of the moratorium. ■EXPENDITURE IN TARANAKI. The Public Works Estimates were now out and a lot of money had been voted to Taranaki. But how much had been spent? He had been charged with neglecting expenditure, and with losing the Opunake railway and other things during his term, but what had they got I lliis year in public expenditure. The now technical school and the Stratford I own bridge, the only works they had had in recent years. w?re secured by him, or he had paved the way to getting them. Tn going out of office he had left the railway in good going order, and £590.000 was spent on the east railway in his time, and most of this money came to Stratford and district. Mr. Masters had not been able to convince the Government that this line was a necessary one, and the work was closed down. It should be started again in the near future, especially the tunnelling work. Mr. -Masters had found time to go to Feilding an'd Hawke’s Bay. but had neglected Stratford. At ' Feilding Mr. Masters had said that the monied classes controlled the Press o f the country, but Mr. Masters was always appearing in the Press. He was either libelling the Press or condemning his own actions. TRIBUTE TO MR. MASSEY. Turing to the party question, Mr. Hine said that it was upon this that the whole election would be focussed. He went on to eulogise Mr. Massey’s works at Home and abroad. Lord Milner had said that Air. Massey had been a tower of strength in the great questions that came before the Imperial Conference, and the great newspipers had paid fine tributes to him. On the Crimes commission he had done noble work. He was an Imperialist from first last. His experiences had made him a statesman, and at the present day he was the only possible man to con-

tinue as the loader of the country. The statements of the Extremists in and out of Parliament did not redound to their credit. The Soviet system had been openly advocated, and also that the workers should organise to bring this about. The Maoriland Worker h"d advocated the breaking up of the Empire. After detailing the aims and aspirations of the Labor Party, Mr. Hine said that the Liberal Party had been approached iby them with a proposition to combine to fight the elections together, and Mr. Wilford had accepted. But Mr. Holland had turned the proposition down, and it was not made public until Mr. Holland exposed it in the House, when he twitted Mr. Wilford with being one thing in the House and another outside Mr. Wilford was prepared to sink the party differences, so that he could get hold of the Treasury benches. Referring to proportional representation, Mr. Hine said it would mean intrigue and loss of representation to mahv of the people in the smaller electorates. A Voice: Did not Mr. Massey vote for proportional representation? Mr. Hine: Yes; but he has learned wisdom, and changed his opinion by reason of his ’experiences. DANGER OF EXTREMISTS. The great danger was, continued Mr. Hine, that Mr. Massey might be ousted by a combination of the other two parties, and the Reform Party was the only united party in the country. Were they prepared to stand for constitutional methods, or the revolutionary system? In the hands of the 'Extremists the currency of the country would be worth nothing at all. Ask them how they would renew the £60,900,000 loans now falling due? They would repudiate them. The country needl'd sound and safe administration. Mt. Massey had come out again and again on top and to-day he was a statesman. In reply to another question Mr. Hine said he was not in favor of the proposed dairy pool at present. It was being rushed through too hurriedly and he thought the factories should be given greater opportunity for discussing it. Mr. P. Thomson moved a motion of thanks to Mr. Hine and continued confidence in the Massey Government and its representative selected for the district. Both the candidates for the seat were clean and straight living men and the district was fortunate in having them. The motion was seconded by Mr. Geo. Sangster. Mr. R. Cogar moved as an amendment that the motion be confined to one of thanks to Mr. Hine for his address. Someone rose to second the amendment, but, his voice was drowned and the chairman put the motion, which was carried.