ELECTION ADDRESS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3018, 15 October 1908, Page 5

ELECTION ADDRESS.

MR J. HUNTER AT MASTERTON.

A SUCCESSFUL MEETING.

There was an attendance of between two and three hundred people at the Masterton Town Hall last evening, when Mr J. Hunter gave his first address at Masterton in connection with his candidature for the Masterton seat. The chair was taken by the Mayor (Mr P. L. Hollings), who introduced Mr Hunter in a brier speech. Mr Hollings said that Mr Hunter was now well known in Masterton as a public man,, having previously addressed a/i audience in that very Hall, in connection with a municipal election in which he was interested. The Chairman asked that the candidate be accorded a patient _ and impartial hearing—a characteristic of Masterton audiences. '•uMr Hunter, who was received with applause, said he was pleased to hear that Masterton audiences were so well spoken of. For bis part he could only wish they would treat him as patiently and fairly cs he had been received in otn-r parts of the.electorate in which he had spoken. In twenty-four speeches delivered during the Ifut five weeks, Mr Hunter stated that he had not received a single interruption, and he had made a po&t at each place of asking On behalf of his opponent that the latter be also accorded the same lair treaty mem. The time had arrived when the people of the electorate would be called upon to elect a representative for the district in Parliament, and he felt and appreciated freely the responsibility devolving upon himself, in even becoming a caniidate for s jch an office. Mr Hunter said that if any person was under the impression that it waa an easy matter to become a candidate, he (the speaker) invited such person to have a try at the experience There were two things which presented themselves to his mind as being questions upon which he felt it necessary to satisfy the electors'before he could ask them to accord him their support, and if lie succeeded in satisfying them upon these points, he considered that, then he stood in a fair way to success. First he asked himself, was he capable? Secondly, was he worthy? In setting out to satisfy the electors on these two great points he realised he had a big handicap, but he looked confidently ] forward to greatly reducing that handicap before election day. So far as his attitude in the present campaign was concerned he intended to tell his own story, and- leave the opposing candidate to tell his own. He intended to leave personalities entirely out of the matter, and said that if he did not uplift the politics of the country he did not intend to' attempt to drag them down..

NEEDS OF THE DISTRICTCLOSER SETTLEMENT.

The first question which he intended to deal with that night was, what are the needs of the district, and how could such needs best be, administered to? To the speaker's view closer settlement was the first and foremost matter of importance to the welfare of the Master ton As for the town of Masterton, itseji, if the'district surrounding it- cbuld, with the present settlement., tain a town of the present size, was it not feasible that with double the number of settlers placed on the land in the immediate vicinity the town would double in size? Closer settlement deeply concerned the whole district, and every person in it. In dealing with the question the speaker in-: tended to make some comparisons of the settlement which had takeri place in the Dominion , as a whole with that which had taken place in' the Masterton electorate under various Acts, with the object of showing just how. great or how small were the strides made in the way of closer settlement.' Dealing first with the Lands for Settlement Act of 1892, the speaker traced the settlement which had, taken place under that measure. Up to March 31st last a total ..of. 1,122,135 acres had been purchased at a cost of £5,217,254, which pro-, duced an annual rental' of £230,357.' Mr Hunter here interpolated that he was not setting out to belittle the Act, for he believed it had, done a great amount of good in settling the country, and he was going to applaud it. Returning to the figures he showed that 114,150 acres had been taken up last year by tenants to the number of 420. How many of these tenants were in the Masterton constituency? Absolutely none, nor was an acre of the land. The area of land acquired for the year to the end of March last was 126,828 acres, and the cost was £613,696. Again, was the Masterton electorate represented in these returns? No, and what was more, there were eight estates included in the commitments for the year, and not a single one was to be found in the Maßterton electorate. In view of this state of affairs, the speaker was very considerably.surprised to see a paragraph appear recently in the columns of the "Wairarapa Daily, Times," which read as follows:—"Mr' Hogg, M. P.» has been making inquiries as to the suitability of Jca Estate for closer settlement, but he is informed that matters must remain; in abeyance for a few weeks. It is understood that lea and Kohiwai, which adjoin each other on the Whareama, can be cut up very conveniently into thirty sections. Should lea be acquired, it is proposed to subdivide it into homesteads varying from one hundred to eighteen, hundred acres. The total area of the two estates is about 22,000. acres/' To the speaker, it seemed < strange that Mr Hogg did not find out all this before. Why was it that the Member for Masterton did not, some six or eight months ago, when an agitation was afoot in'Masterton to acquire lea, assist in carrying on the project. The Member for Masterton on that occasion did not lift la finger to assist the project, and yet the public were treated to a paragraph of the description read. One feature of the paragraph, which to the speaker at least, was very disappointing, was that "matters must remain in abeyance for a few. weeks." Mr Hunter asked, for how long? The answer obviously was, until after the election. If the speaker's candidature was productive of no more 'than the cutting up of these two estates he claimed that his mission

would not have been entirely unsuccessful. Continuing on the matter of closer settlement as it applied to Masterton, Mr Hunter said, that during the past seventeen years one solitary estate had been acquired in the Masterton electorate, and that was Langdale, which was resumed 88 far back as March, 1901. What had been"" the case in the Waimrapa constituency? Commencing from June, 1903, no less than eight different estates had been resumed, while in addition the Carrington Estate had been recently purchaped. At the present rate of resumption of the aggregated areas round Masterton it would, the speaker calculated, take just about two hundred arid forty years to accomplish reasonably closer settlement. (Laughter.) It must be obvious to his hearers that the Masterton■ electorate was not being treated as it should be. He had been told that the reason ©f the past neglect was because the

MASTERTON SEAT WAS CONSIDERED SAFE,

and therefore the Government deemed it unnecessary to disaurse public money there in closer settlement. He gave this opinion for what it was worth. One thing the speaker had noticed, and that was that the Member for Masterton had ample time to spend at various political and semipolitical functions in Wellingtonpatriotic league socials, and so forth. At these he was given to preaching closer settlement, and what the speaker contended would be a more fitting thing for the Member fur Masterton to do was to practice what he preached,, and endeavour to encompass closer settlement in his own constituency. They could not well be more closely settled in Wellington. (Laughter). In the Masterton electorate, on the other hand, they could do very well with such, a consummation. Mr Hogg had had the key.to the position all along, .but so far he.had completely failed to make use of it. Mr Hunter expressed a hope that the Member for Masterton would in his election addesses favour the electors with an explanation of the discrepancy regarding closer settlement in the Masterton electorate and elsewhere, and particularly Wairarapa. Regarding the settlement of Native lands under the Maori Land Settlement Act, 1905, the areas so far taken up were as follow:—Auckland district, ,121,776 acres; Taraiiaki, 127,821 acres; Hawke's Bay, 13,234 acres; Wellington, 109 acres. This showed that the Wellington land district had fared very badly indeed in comparison with other districts in the North Island, and the fact that in the Wellington land district 2,419 applications were received during the year showed that the land hunger was as bad as ever. Of this large number of applicants only 328 had been supplied with land. The speaker made a strong point of tho fact that the number of». appplications received; for one block alone in the Tararua survey district waa 520, for one in the' North Waimarino block 200, and one in the HukanuiNireaba settlement 145, a total of 865 applications for three blocks. When so many applied, why were j they not.served? The question concerned city, town and country. If .the, country were busy the towns and cities were busy," an 1 the flatter had ! nothing to fear. [ . Vawnrwork did not | make country work, and the townspeople should manifest as much interest in this great question as the country people themselves. (Hear! hear!). Coming to the

SETTLEMENT OF CROWN V LANDS

Mr Hunter showed that settlement under the Crown Lands Act had proceeded as follows,":—In Auckland district!, 444 selectors had taken up 126,52 a acres; in Hawke's Bay 210 settleis had gone on to 30,463 acres; in Taranaki, 93 settlers had taken up 48,275' acres; and in Wellington 328.had taken up 140,456 acres. He asked how much but of all tliis area had been taken up in the Masterton electorate? The answer was 672 acres—at Hukanui and Mireaha. Mr Hunter in his closing remarks on the question, repeated that if there were a little more closer settlement practised in the electorate and a little less preached it would be considerably to the benefit of the whole community. (Applause). : LAND TENURE. Mr Hunter thon touched on the question of land tenure. He explained that at the present time there were three systems under which land could be taken up—viz., on the cash system, subject to certain improvements; lease with purchasing, clause with' right of purchase at original price .after ten years; and the lease-in-perpetuity, now the renewable lease. Personally he was a strone bleiever in the' freehold>•■ system of tenure, and the figures he would quote wpuld show that, that system was by far the most popular method of holding land with settlers. In the Wellington land district there had been taken up during the 1 year by 65 tenants 53,596 aores on the occupation with right of purchase system; 6,441 acres had been taken upon the lease-in-perpetuity system fay ten tenants; while one had invested in a renewable lease. , The speaker quoted the remarks of the late Mr J. Ballance on the Land Bill ®f 1885, when the latter said that the great thing to be -observed was that tenants should have security of tenure. * The speaker contended that a man when he took up land deserved to be encouraged in the ideal that someday his holding could become his own if he desired to purchase it. The Premier had said in reference to the acquisition of estates that the amount expended in this direction should be added to the national debt of the country, and had said that to give the settlers who took up this land the right of the freehold would be to increase the public debt of the Dominion. The speaker contended that such would not be the caSe—in fact an opposite experience would be the result He contended that if only ten percent, of the settlers took the opportunity and offered to. acquire the freehold, .the amdunt paid to the Government the first year would amount approximately to £520,000 This would not be increasing the public debt, bat on the contrary would be giving the Government money to expend oil the resumption of larger estates. (Hear! Hear)! He somehow felt that''the Govern ment was beginning to come round in regard to the question of land

tenure. He instanced the measure ! introducecUhis session known as the Special Land Settlement Bill, which had for its object that if a large landowner wished to dispose of his property and, say, ten settlers agreed to purchase his land in a subdivided state, the settlers simply went to the Government and intimated that they desired the Government to take up the land for them. If the Government was satisfied that the price was a fair onethey simply purchased it on debenture, and each, settler who cook up a section on the estate was responsible for his particular part, each of which was held' on mortgage.. The speaker believed that if the Bill had been passed it would have done an immense amount j of good. In the main provisions as j regarded area, residence of the owner on the property, ar.d right of transfer, these particulars were all duly safeguarded for the public. Mr Hunter said he believed that if that Bill were to become law there would be very little, if any, further areas taken :up under leasehold systems. Why could not the Member for Masterton support this measure? Because, it gave the right to the settlers of the freehold tenure. Personally, the speaker wished to see . A RURAL DEMOCRACY,

and not a rural aristocracy. (Applause). There were too few • men already engaged in the producing industries of the country and too many employed in non-producing industries. (Hear! Hear!) Mr Hunter then went on to deal with the decrease in exports which had occurred during the past year. He showed that since 1904 there had been a serious reversal in the position of import.-and export.figures. In 1904-5 the value of the exports was £15,370,745, and the imports £12,375,910, leaving a credit in favour of exports of £2,944,835. In 1905-6 the figures were—exports £17,684,043, imports £13;052,456, balance of exports £4,631,587. In 3906-7 the returns stood—exports £19,403.248, imports .£15,486,903, balance of exports £3,916,345. Last year, however, the result was very different, exports totalling £16,745,589 and imports £17,484,669 leaving an excess of the latter to the tune of £739,080. In quoting these figures" Mr Hunter said he wished to emphasise how very material it was to the welfare of the country to have as many producers as possible. (Hear! Hear)! It had been said that the low price of wool had contributed largely to the decrease in value of exports, and also to the crisis in America. Whatever the cause, if the country was to move along on safe lines, it was very expedient that there should be a great margin between . tha exports \ and the imports. Ip the taking,.up of WORKERS' DWELLINGS, .<•■■■■ . 'it was again demonstrated how popular was the system of freehold tenure. The number of dwellings which had been taken up from the Government on the leasehold system was ninety-four. In one year, under the Act which provided for Advances to Workers, in order to allow of them erection their own houses, no than 1,179 workers secured homes. ADVANCES TO SETTLERS. Speaking on the subject of advances td settlers, Mr Hunter said that down to the present £8,000,000 had been advanced to settlers under the Act, the amount of annual repay-? ments being £BOO,OOO. Undoubtedly one of the best things the Government had established was this great system of, furnishing settlers with cheap money. He said that the policy of the Member fdrMastertbn in respect of this question was to keep borrowing. (A voice: What would you do?) Mr Hunter replied that what he would do, or advocate for, would be to get more people on the land, and get more money for the country that Way. The speaker had moved around among farmers a good deal of late, and his experience of them was that they were not a class that required spoon-feeding-In a lew Words his views on this question were, that it was better to produce a'sovereign than to borrow one. (Hear! hear!) The speaker told the interjector that if Mr Hogg's policy were carried out continually, no matter how early a person got up in the morning the mortgage would be up earlier. (Laughter).. And no matter at what pace that person; went, the mortgage would go fasted (Renewed laughter). Let the country produce more so that the; national wealth could be extracted from the land, and he ventured to say that instead of having to borrow millions for advances to settlers purposes, the country could furnish enough of : its own store. (Ap-» plause). THE DIVISION OF' PRODUCE was a matter which Mr Hunter dealt with next. He stated that he was one of those who believed that therewas as much science in properly distributing produce as there was in its 'production. In most cases at present the farmer, as the primary producer, handed the products of his labour to someone else for sale distributive purposes, and the latter often got the most out of the transaction. The speaker believed in the farmers them-' 1 selves carrying on their own distribution. Further than that, he believed ' that the produce of the country I should be distributed at Home throuah only one or two channels. If ; this had been effected last year he ! believed that farmers would have ob- : tained a different price for their 1 produce. Why should wool be forced upon the market at a price which 1 was not satisfactory to the farmer, ! and why should a few men at Home ' "bear" the market and rob the ; Dominion of three or four million pounds? He believed the distribution 1 of the whole l of the country's ex- ! ducts through one or two agencies 1 was a feasible proposition, and he would like much to see it accomp- ' lished, not from any monopolistic. ' nature, but for the financial benefit ; of the.farmers and the people of New • Zealand. (Applause)/ ' ! ROADING THE BACKBLOCKS. The speaker had been told that Mr I /Hogg was regarded a a conspicuous i success as a "roads and bridges'' ' member. During all his peregrina- : tions through the electorate he-<Mr i Hunter) had not so far seen a single ! bridge erected or a yard of metal spread where the district was not ab--1 aolutely entitled to it. In getting 1 done what he had accomplish-

Ed in this direction it was therefore plain that the Member, for the district had done no more than was his duty. But what. of the settlers in the Mt. Baker Block, who were loaded to the extent of 7a per acre for roads. In .their case it was not a matter of Mr Hogg going cap in hand to the Government to ask for a bounty, but one in which the settlers required that the Government should carry out its contract with them made as far back as sixteen years previously. DISTRICT RAILWAY DEVELOPMENT. Mr Hunter passed on to the question of railway development in the electorate. He noted that steps taken some years ago to secure a light line railway to Pongaroa and waipukurau from Masterton had not proved successful. The member for Masterton had not lent the scheme any sup port, and if it was not a feasible one to Mr Hogg, why did he not come forward with one that was? It was absolutely necessary for the people of the district to take immediate action on this vital question, which affected the development of a great area of our back country. The Government* proposed next year to add a number of new lines to the list of railways to be pushed on, and unless the Masterton-Pongaroa line was strongly represented to them as urgent it might be ten years before the chance again arose to have it.brought under the Government's notice. If the Member for the district was apathetic then it would be necessary to "use the spurs." The speaker believed that money for the country's future railway needs could be furnished by the people of the Dominion themselves, and personally he strongly favoured the borrowing of the money from individuals within the Dominion. For every million pounds borrowed out of the Dominion it meant a dead loss of £20,000 every six months in interest. FINANCIAL MATTERS. Dealing with the financial position of the Dominion, Mr Hunter said that the eross public debt on March 31st last was £66,453,897, an increase for the year of £2,274,857 a good load, he considered, for a million people to have to carry. This yeaY it was proposed to add to this amount a further two and a quarter millions. The net indebtedness per head!was£69. The increase in the interest bill last year, was £82,512,. which brought the total interest charges up to £3,175,443 per annum. Could the country go on at this rate? It seemed to the speakecr that there would have , to be found a different method to external borrowing for carrying on the public works of the Dominion. Worked out still finer, the interest bill of the country for every man, woman, and child was £2 8s 2d, which meant for a family of four roughly £l2 per year in interest. The actual increase in the country's indebtedness during the past seventeen years *was £26,181,000. In quoting these figures, the speaker desired to impress his hearers with the necessity th<=re was for an increase in tiw productiveness of fie country. He affirmed that he him self could run any busimss in the Dominion if ho were given sufficient money, but he beliived in a business running itself, and in the Dominion running-itejelf bv its own resou-ce* . (Applause.) The progress might not be so quick, but it was su-ter. What was the remedy for the evils he hart instanced? It was potent tliat there ■ was.''' " ;,TOO MUCH LEGISLATION. When the time spent by Ministers in preparing their Bills, bringing them,before the House, and careering round the country electioneering was t&kin into account, it could be seen that there was little lime left for them to attend to what was really their duty. If there were less legislation passed, and Ministers devoted their time more to their work, the country would be the better for it. Last session—termed a short one too —a hundred Acts had been passed and thirty-seven dropped. If such a state of affairs continued, every man in tho street would soon be an inspector of something or other. (Laughter). CONCILIATION AND ARBITRATION ACT. 1 Mr Hunter dealt with this, subject on similar lines to his speech at Ekei&huna, and said with emphasis that he never could be accused of ; havritig been compelled to come up to the scratchy by labour awards. On the contrary he had always procured the best labour possible, and paid the highest price for it. He had had as many as two hundred men working under him, and (had. been bound by as many as seven different awards. He; approved of the new 'legislation regarding the Act, stating that he was a believer in voluntary conciliation, v In the past the Act had cost about £9,000 to administer, arid yet more dissatisfaction than ever existed at the present time. What he favoured was a system whereby a minimum wage and, the hours of labour were fixed by a Botird, and" the smaller details of labour left to the employers 1 and men themselves to settle.. Personally he had settled in five minutes differences' which : might have taken many ; months to drag through labour" tribunals, and he had found workmen always most reasonable. SOCIALISM. Mr Hunter also touched briefly on this' subject, his remarks being chiefly a roiteration of his disbelief in the tenets'.of tlie Socialists who defined their mission as one to secure the State control of the national means of production,. distribution and exchange. Ha was a social reformer, not a* Socialist and believed in gradual evolution -for better social conditions rather than a dynamic change. '■'■'.■ . HOME DEFENCE. ■".■" .. The candidate expressed..-.himself as strongly in favour of a system of compulsory training. He; heartily endorsed the' action of-"Parliament' iri increasing tho Naval subsidy; by £40,000, and said Me would like to have seen the Defence I vote increased. by a -further £40,000 to be ..spirit in improving our shore, defences by. of a citizen army: By compulsory, .';• training he Vdid. ; not mqkh J cohscrip'tion,'.which : was t'A vastly different thing, but tho training of youths from the time thoy'Jcft school up till they reached a'certain

age, the training to be done in their spare time. He also considered Rifle Clubs and Volunteers were not receiving the support they deserved from the Government. (The candidate's remarks on this subject were frequently applauded.) 4 NATIONAL ANNUITIES. The speaker traversed the Government proposals under this head, saying that he approved of the scheme, only he believed that it should be 1 made absolutely universal. He could not see why there should be any limitation of income, as a man ■ might be wealthy to-day and penniless later on. PARLIAMENTARY BUILDINGS. Mr Hunter severely criticised the action of the Government in abandoning its original intentiun in regard to rebuilding Parliament House—an intention formed before the fire at the buildings. He condemned the present proposal as extravagant, and said little could be expected of a Cabinet which altered its intentions with so little reason. Mr Hunter, in his concluding remarks, said he would again speai-c at Masterton, and would then deal with matters not touched on last night. He resumed his seat amid loud applause. In answer to questions the candidate made the following replies:-*■ He would not hesitate to vote against the Government on a no-confidence motion if the subject of the motion were of such a,nature as to meet with his disapproval and was -favoured by the Government.—He believed in a compulsory training scheme on the lines of the Commonwealch proposals, as ready outlined in his 5 speech.—He - believed in County Councils paying their employees not longer than a day after the latter's wages were due, and thought it very unjust that a county work (nan should have to wait a fortnight for hie wages.'—The amount proposed to be paid under the national annuity system was,for a man who commenced to contribute at the age of 25, £2 per week, the* payment to commence at the age of (50, the premium to be ,'£2 '4s per quarter.—lf elected he would not be' in favour of legislation being introduced to make it nermissible for persons to open and close their sboj s' just when they like. He thought eight tQ nine hout3 was sufficient /" for business purposes.—He would not, if elected, be a servile to ary party, but would always be guided' by his own oninions wh<ch he would act up to.—He was a believer in Nolicense, but thought it a question which should not en'ttr into general politics, but be left" for'|the people . themselves - to settle.—As-au alterna-; ' tive to the entire abolition of the liquor traffic l he believed in State control of "the trade." The Mayor moved that Mr Hunter be accorded a hesirv vote of thanks for his interesting address. This was carried by acclamation,' Mr Hunter briefly returning thanks for the warm reception and patient hearing accqrdeed him. A vote or thanks to the chuir concluded the meeting. 1 1