THE ELECTIONS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3024, 22 October 1908, Page 7

THE ELECTIONS.

Election matters are getting very warm indeed in Hastings, and the supporters of the different candidates <-are working hard. So far no one has been able to speak with confidence as to the result. Immediately on the issue of the writs for the General Election on November 17th no further names can be added to the electoral roll. Therefore, all who are entitled to vote should make a point of seeing that tneir names are on the roll, and if not application should be made at once. Absent voters should, also.make early application to the Registrar of Electors for their permits to vote by post as they can only be granted up to and including the date of issue of the writs. There have been Parliaments in New Zealand that ruled the Cabinet and the country, but they are fast becoming a tradition, remarks the Christcburch "Press." Thousands of electors have never known any other condition than the political servitude in which they live, and that is why it is difficult to convince them that there is a better way, that the liberty they hear much about is nonand that the only method of bringing it back is to support the ■man with whom liberty is a religion. Such men are not to be found on the the Government side of the House. i

Speakir-g at Ballance Mr W. H. Hawkins, who is standing for the Pahiatua seat, said that as to reading the country he wondered that members had not done something to alter tlw system unclw which money was now allocated. Personally he was in favour of the system proposed by the Land Commission which suggested that any county that rated itself Id in the pound should get a subsidy of 10s in the pound; Hd, 12a 6d; l*d, 15s; l|d 17s 6d; 2dand J over, £l. On special rates they should get a subsidy of 7s 6d in the pound. That would be a fair and equitable basis for allocating public money.

If the Premier had done what he would have .done, instead pf raising a million in London, he would have raised two millions and placed it in thf &<JYances to Settlers Office for Investment He advocated theestab. lishment of an office for the purpose of lending money to settlers on produce and stock. If a man had enough grass for ten more cows, and wanted to borrow, he would be charged 10 or 15 per cent, for the money. Why should not a man be able to go to the Advances to Settlers Office, and borrow on the security of his herd?—Mr W. H. Hawkins at Ballance.

Asked at his Makomako meeting on Saturday night last if he was in favour of a State Bank with a paper issue, Mr J. C. Cooper, a candidate for the Pahiatua seat replied that a : State bank with a paper issue would have the effect of destroying the security of this country on the money J market of the world, and as we were borrowing- between £2,000 y 000 and £3,006,000 annually, and within the next few years had renewals amounting to an enormous sum to renew to the best advantage pos.-iJe, the establishment of such an institution could have only disastrous results. He was as much opposed to the banking trusts, who were working largely for foreign shareholders, as were many farmers, but as a means of altering the state of affairs in this respect he advocated selfreliance, ' and the establishment, where possible, of farmers' hanks, on *' the lines adopted by several European countries and America. The opportunity given to electors by the Second Ballot Bill of rectify- ' ing errors of the first polls may, in the opinion of the Lyttelton "Times," prove a very real source of danger to the Liberal cause. "it state?, "we cannot He bii're that the second ballots will be uniformly in favour of Liberal candidates. The whole tendency of the system is to weaken the ranks of the more powerful party, because it appears, it first blush, to lessen the dangers arising from idle voting on purely personal grounds and from party divisions. Where the feeling between two sections of the Liberal party is at all pronounced the second ballots will encourage the friends of a rejected candidate to express their disappointment by voting against their own political convictions. The measure has the natural weakness of an unscientific system of election, and its operation cannot be anticipated with any confidence. We can only urge the Liberals tu make the best of it by remaining absolutely loyal to thenprinciples and by concentrating their votes on the best-equipped candidate in the field."

Mr R. Thompson, the Independent candidate for the Auckland City West seat is a firm believer ir the freehold. Speaking at Ponsonby the other night he said:—"He could tell them straight-out that on the ques-, tion of tenure he was a freeholder. Hy had always advocated freehold, and he did not agree with the leasing system which did not include conditions which enabled the tenant to convert his leasehold into a freehold. It was one thing to place people on the land and another thing to keep them there. What was a tenant where the leasehold system prevailed? He was a mere tenant, and never looked upon his farm as his home. His children refused to look upon it as their home, and, consequently, ' went flocking into the towns, overcrowding the labour market. If they wanted to get people on the land, and have them happy and contented they must give these people facilities sooner or later to convert the leasehold into a freehold.