ELECTION CAMPAIGN.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 November 1922, Page 5

ELECTION CAMPAIGN.

ADDRESS BY MR. S. C. SMITH. AN ENTHUSIASTIC MEETING. ATTITUDE TOWARDS “RED FEDS.” Long before 8 o’clock last night the Empire Theatre was crowded to hear ■Mr. S. G. Smith, M.P., deliver his ma’n political address in the present election campaign. Crowds who unable to find seats thronged the doorways and t!ho passage at the side of the theatre. The Mayor (Air. F. E. Wilson) presided, and briefly introduced Mr. Smith, while on the platform were a number of Mr. Smith’s close political friends and supporters of the Liberal-Labor Party. Before addressing those inside the theatre Mr. Smith made a few remarks from the balcony to the people assembled in the street outside, apologising for the fact that they were unable to get imo the meeting. He was accorded a very sympathetic hearing, there being almost an entire absence of interjections, while his remarks were frequently applauded.

Mr. Smith was warmly received on rising to speak. He said he was going to criticise the Reform Government, but all his remarks were without venom or personal feeling; They had, unfortunately, in this country a "hush up” Press, which was not telling "the whole story.” (Applause). The Press had got into the hands of the wealthy people. There was a journal in Wellington which was sending out "gas” and sti>fling free expression of the public views. I’hey had had the pleasure of having the Premier in the district last week, and anything he would say was not against him personallv, but against his party and policy. The Reform Party said that the “Red Fed” and LiberalLabor Party were on the same policy, and next day said the “Red Feds’’ were disloyalists, but the Liberals were not. They must be one or the other, and the Reform Party could not have it all their own way.

Tn the Reform Barty’* platform they would, not find proportional representation. ft State bank, and many other planks that, made for the good of the country. Neither would they find plank for the reorganisation of the railways or a plank of country before party. The first plank in the LiberalLabor Party’s platform was loyalty and constitutional methods. They did not deny that to the Reform Party, and he resented the suggestion that, if he was not under the Reform banner, he was dislovftl to his country. A section of the Massey Press was anxious to hear him say something about the shipping trouble and looked for something to eall him disloyal. He was always opposed to direct action, and if the seamen were out because they did not agree with the Arbitration Court’s award he thought they had gone the wrong way about it to have their grievances remedied. TJe did not know what the trouble really was, and neither did he think the people really knew, but his opinion was that it had been politically engineered. This country could not afford strikes and lock-outs at the present time.

Regarding the finances of the country, Mr. Smith thought that the Premier’s speech in New Plymouth was most unfortunate. The Premier had not told them anything they did not know. He had said that last* year they had lost revenue amounting to £6.133,195 and another £3.000.000 odd in Customs. He had not said that the previous year he had collected £3,000,000 in excess of •any previous year. He would show, that Mr. Massey’s*savings were only paper balances; they were not real. The Premier had said that if they were allowed to take their stocks into account they could have come out on the right side. But why did they have 500,000 tons of coal on hand ? He did not agree with any go-slow policy. The Board of Trade, in 191 R, had made recommendat:ons about the cost of producing coal, etc., but the Government, bad not given effect to the recommendations. They had not been allowed to do so by tne "coal barons,’’ and the miners had been irritated and had gone slow, with the 'result that the Government had spent half a million of money on coal, some <>T which was not coal at all.

Excluding the war expenditure of £81,000,009 odd, Mr. Massey had borrowed £67.000.000 in ten years, and he had obtained permission to raise another £7,000.000. while he had spent a surplus of £15,000,000 handed over in 1919. The Auditor-General had condemned the system of auditing and checking the stores of the Government departments. Did they realise that New Zealand was the most highly taxed country in tne Empire? The debt was £219,054,385. on which interest amounting to £10,875,185 was paid. Last year £300,000 in land tax. £600,000 in income tax, and £1.000,000 in death duties was unpaid. Why? Simply because the people had not the money to pay. He quoted Reform candidates as condemning the Government’s finance, and also compared the rates of taxation in the Commonwealth to New Zealand’s disadvantage. CHARGES OF WASTE. The wasteful expenditure in the Defence Department had been very great, and they had pages and pages of stores written off. The Government had set up commission after commission, but the reports were side-tracked. He would have voted for the racing commission’s report had be had the opportunity. because he believed it a good report, but it was side-tracked. The Government had wasted money on the High Commissioner's Office, and he would say that that office was not worth a tenth of the money being spent on it. He believed that the office could bo made a centre for the dissemination of up-to-date news regarding the markets.

Then'there was the Legislative Council. Taranaki was unique in the fact that it had only two representatives on the Council, the Speaker and the chairman of committees, and he desiren to pay a tribute to the Hon. O. Samuel for the assistance lie had given him when he had sought it. There were also too many with their secretaries and'staffs costing the country thousands of pounds. They had ’3 Ministers, and Mr. Massey had sahl that if ho were given six good secretaries he would run the country, but Mr. Smith would say give him eight good Ministers and no secretaries and staffs and he would do it much better. There was also waste in having the Public Service Commissioners, while the Government's ra'lway policy was wasteful. In Taranaki there was a line from Kapuni to Manaia that would never pay, but the Government

had absolutely no extuse for not pushing on the Okahukura-Stratford railway. Waste was going on in the construction of the houses of Parliament and their furnishings, but they could not get a penny for education extensions.

Mr. Smith suggested as a remedy that they should have a party in power that would reduce taxation, stop waste and give them a State bank. The State bank in Australia had been condemned, hut it had done a good deal what the people had asked for. It was useless the Premier speaking about the profits of the Bank of New Zealasd. Those profits were made from the people. Tie did not object to private banks, but they should have a State bank run in the interests of the country. Mr. Massey had been asked for an agricultural bank, and when he had demurred he had been threatened by the Country Party in Auckland, and he had put through the Rural Credits Bill, the greatest piece of nonsense in the history of the Dominion. Mr. Smith criticised the Bill and quoted other opinions against it. Mr. Massey had said that people did not realise what taxation meant to the, big merchants and the financiers, but everybody knew that the merchants passed the taxes on. The farmers, how-ever,‘-could not pass on their taxes. In the Budget of 1922 there was not one ray of hope of a reduction in taxation when it was brought down, but the speaker’s side of the House had forced the Government to do away with the super tax and reduce other taxes. He said unhesitatingly that if the big merchants would honestly come out they would say that while Mr. Massey was a good Imperialist, he was a joke as a financier! THE GOVERNMENT’S SAVINGS. Regarding the Government’s alleged savings, Mr. Maesey had said that in 1921 they had authority to spend £16,169,371, but oniy £15,592,677 had beeif spent and he called the balance of £886.516 a saving. Mr. Smith quoted other figures, which he contended showed balances between authorities to spend to what had been actually expended and which Mr. Massey called savings. Except for the money saved by the “cubs” in salaries and other minor savings, he said the others were only paper savings and were mere camouflage. (Applause). On the question of proportional representation, Mr. Smith ■said that Mr. Massey’s condemnation of the system was an insult to all the great leaders in the Empire who were supporting it. Had Mr. Massey passed such a measure he would have committed political suicide, because he had polled 113.000 votes less than the other parties. Mr. Massey had, also condemned the system because they would lose the country quota, but under the latest alteration of boundaries the urban quota would not be affected. He had no hesitation in supporting the introduction of proportional representation. He did not intend to speak at length on the question of education, but he would state publicly that he was against any reduction in expenditure that, would' mean children occupying insanitary schools, or any reduction whatever in the education vote. He would not apologise for having opposed the junior high school system until it had been properly investigated. The Liberal-Labor party did not stand for centralisation of the education system in Wellington, and they insisted that fewer subjects should be taught in the schools, but those thoroughly. They also stood for giving the teachers opportunity for character building by reducing the number of children they had to teach. No teacher should have more than 40 pupils.

SOLDIER SETTLEMENT. ' They had been told that the soldiers had been welt settled, but the Government had a duty to the soldiers which it had not carried out. It was not the soldiers’ fault that values had become inflated and they had had tn purchase their land at high prices. It was not possible for some of the soldiers to pay their interest or make a living gr their sections. He did not think that any great deal of good would eventuate from the boards which had 'been set up to revalue the soldiers land, unless there was a strong weight of public opinion behind the demands fop revaluation. Some £6,000,090 worth of land had been bought by the Government in one district for soldiers, but no one would take it, because it was useless, yet the people were taxed to pay for that land. He quoted other instances of estates which had been bought by the Government at too high a price, and’ of soldiers who had been forced to go off their sections because they could not get the assistance they wanted to make their farms pay. He also quoted the Minister’s replies to the requests of these soldiers and characterised them as preposterous. The Lands Department in Taranaki had done its best for the soldiers, but they could not do anything without reference to Wellington.

TH® RAILWAYS. He believed that a good deal of the difficulty in connection with the railways was due to the fact that the general manager was interfered with. How did the increased come about when they had increased traffic? Mr. Massey explained the payment o: £30,000 commission to Sir Duncan Elliott on the grounds that they had always paid that commission. The A.B. engines had been first constructed in New Zealand and a New Zealander had been sent Home to see to the building of similar engine*. No tenders had been called and Sir Duncan Elliott .had nothing to do with it. There was also something wrong when they were asked to pay £75 for a truck from Auckland to Wellington simply because it was on an express train. He complained of the injustice of • the little piece of railway to the Breakwater at New Plymouth. He had never been able to make out from the figures supplied exactly how much that section paid. The railways in England had reduced their frieghts to compete with the motor traffic and had made the railways pay. The same must be done in the Dominion.

Mr. Smith criticised the Reform party’s claim to bp called the friend of the farmer, and said that the Minister of Agriculture had told them that they had obtained Nauru Island -supply to give the farmer cheap phosphates. II 1 had said he could land the phosphates here at £2 ’(is per ton, but the farmer had to pay £8 odd per ton for it. Th? Government had also increased the .■•barges to the farmers for cow testing. Farmers had made application for advances from the State Advance* office, but they had been refused owing to the financial stringency. The Government,

however, had borrowed £2,130,000 front that office for the purpose of carrying on the Government of the country. lie did not consider Lhjs right. Regarding the dairy pool, Mr. Smith said that if he had done nothing else but oppose the passage of that Bill he had done something which gave him a claim to every farmer’s vote. It was the most ill-considered Bill that had ever come before the House. It had proposed giving an unnamed body of men the handling of worth of dairy produce to do what they liked with and to dispose of where they, liked. The Premier had glossed over the Bill in his speech, but Mr. Nosworthy had said when the Bill was introduced that it was a Government policy Bill. He took full responsibility for what he had done in opposing the measure. VOTING WITH THE -REDS.’ Dealing with Mr. G. E. Bellringers speech, he said that despite his statement. with reference to Sir Joseph Ward’* baronetcy, he couid not deny that in 1911 he had stood under Sir Joseph’s banner. Mi. Bellringer had said that he was against disloyalty, and so was the speaker. He thought Mr. Bellringer sliQuld have condemned the poisonous vaporings that were being issued by the Reform party. He had a right to do so ae a Christian, and he would force him to do so before he was finished. Mr. Bellringer had also said that on a no confidence motion he (Mr. Smith) had voted for Mr. Holland and had said he (Mr. Smith) preferred Mr, Holland as Premier. That, said Mr. Smith, was an unmitigated lie. 'He had stated from the public platform that he would never follow Mr. Holland as leader. He had voted with him only as a protest against what he considered the unfair treatment given to Taranaki by the Minister of Public Works over unemployment. That wa* in Hansard. What was the crucial test? When the Prime Minister had asked for confirms lion of the Cabinet’s action regarding the recent Near ’ East trouble, he had supported him simply because it was hi* duty to yo so. He had voted with the “Reds” when he considered that any measures they proposed were in the interest* of the country. He had also gone into the lobby with the "Reds” to obtain assistance for the blind and also in an endeavor to obtain a free breakfast table. If when the House met.' next session, Mr. Holland moved a. want of confidence motion he would not vote with him. If the Labor party managed to hold the balance of power next session he would not consent to his party being in power on their sufferance, but would advocate going back to the country. THANKS AND CONFIDENCE. A few written questions were handeo to Mr. Smith, but when he read them the meeting agreed he had dealt with the points raised in his address. Answering a. further question he said he would explain his views regarding a shipping service in the interests of the producers and the eompanie* and all concerned at a later date. On the motion of Mr. W. Healy, seconded by Mr. E. Sole, a vote of thanks and confidence was carried by acclamation.

WAITOMO ELECTORATE. MR. J. ROLLESTON AT WAITARA. Mr. J. Rolleston, the official Refoim candidate for Wditomo. addressed a packed house in the Waitara hall last night. His reception was sympathetic, and at the close Mr. A. E. Jaggs proposed a vote of thanks and confidence, which was enthusiastically carried. The Mayor (Mr. R. Morgan) presided. Mr. Rolleston traversed the topics already reported in his speech at Uruti. In addition, he touched upon conditions affecting lalmr and capital. He wa* convinced that a better understanding could be obtained if the two parties could get together in a more harmonious manner. The employer must realise that long hours and insufficient pay wore not conducive to good service. The best workmen were ambitions, and should Bp given every opportunity to improve their position*. Employees, on the other hand, must realise that the capitalist was not his natural enemy. In Parliament there existed a party, led by Mr. Holland, that claimed to represent the workers of the Dominion. “Claimed” was used advisedlv. because he refused to believe it actually represented the majority of wage-earners. Profit-sharing schemas were attractive, and might be workable, but he wanted to see a scheme whereby a competent, thrifty and ambitious man might bo assured of the fruits of his industry. Trade unions, having for their objective the betterment of wages and working conditions, had his svmpathv, provided they employed constitutional methods. There had. however, been a tendency to use trade union.? for political purposes, and strikes were directed as a means of intimidating and endeavoring by throats, rather than by reasoon, to obtain redress of grievances. It was an intolerable encroachment of individual liberty when it was neoessarv for a worker who wished to enjoy the benefit* of a. union and exercise his right to earn his living, to identify himself with a policy with which he had no sympathy am* knew his subscriptions were used to bring about a state of affair* contrary to his better judgment, detrimental to himself and the community a* a whole. In answer to questions, Mr. Rolleston said he was in favour of the wiping out. root and branch, of all Bolshevism in New Zealand of any obstruction to good government, of every measure which lent to the welfare of widows and orphans, and of the furtherance ®f the interests of the returned men, especially in the backblocks. To another question he said the expenditure on education must be kept up, and should be one of the last things to be reduced or restricted. As regards the compulsory clause in the meat pool he deemed compulsion [ justified, for there appeared to be no [opposition to its inclusion. Regarding the deletion of freedom from income tax on war bonds taken up by those who remained at home, he replied that there could be no disernnination. The bonds were issued on these terms, and must remain so. An enthusiastic reception was accorded to Mr. Rolleston at a meeting, pre sided over by Mr. W. J. Freoth. in the Pukearuhe factory yesterday •■‘ftornonn. The meeting affirmed its confidence in the Massey Government, but was nn‘ a*ked for a vote of confidence.