GOVERNMENT WINS

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10570, 28 February 1912, Page 5

GOVERNMENT WINS

WELLINGTON, Last Night. In the House cf Representatives this afternoon, Mr Glover continued the debate on tho Me was, he said, in the House to preserve the interests cf the masses. He would bow to no one so tar as liis allegiance to the workers am masses was concerned. He proceeded to review the Governor's Speech, and applauded the provisions contained therein. One matter which called for immediate attention was the high cost of living. A commission should be set up at once to go into the matter. He urged the prosecution of the 'East Coast railway, where there were so many fertile country settlers who were handicapped in getting thenproduce away to the markets through the harbours .having bar troubles. With regard to the charges of -maladministration levelled against the Government.,' their opponents should bring for ward - those ■ charge s and have ■them: tested;.-. He commended members to review the humanitarian legislation invented and passed by the present administration. INDEPENDENT'S VIEWS. - Mr T. W. Rhodes declared that lie was "independent.'' He had given a voluntary pledge to his electors to vote for the Ward . Administration. He had also given them .to understand that he would votc,ffor the freehold. He stood for- principles and for measures, and not for men. He would give his support to .any measure which was in the interests of the people, no matter from which side of the House it emanated. He had listened very attentively tb all that had been said. He was sorry to see so.' much "mud-slinging." A lot had been said against the Government, but not one tittle of evidence had been adduced in support- of it. Innuendo and inference had. been rampant; but there was nothing specific. He wanted to hear wluit the Government had done wrong, and lion- the Opposition could do better. He honoured the member for Grey ' Lynn for having the courage of his convictions, and the breaking of, his pledge when -he recognised that . to keep it would be doing,an injury-to the ped^e. s The Government h;id' legislated oh progressive democratic -and humanitarian lines, and he hoped to assist in the furtherance of the /programme of tho Liberals. MR VEITCH SPEAKS.

Interest was 'given to the- debate! |)v Mr Veitcli rising- Ho said that j 'f(jr the, hist fifteen'years he b,ad had, a gi'<?at deal to do with Trades Un- j :ioa work. He had ima gi nod . on; com-: ing to Parliament that lie would have ( to acquire a great deal of polish, but he had riot been greatly impressed f ivitlh Parliament. 'At a conference sitting at Wellington, the business ivas conducted in a way that would j compare with Parliament. Personal •reflections were not thrown across the table, as they were across the Parliamentary Chamber. He denied that ■ the workers were divided amphgstthemselves, as was stated by the rewfipapors. 'lhere'. never was a time when Labour realised so much . • the need for union. Some thought ' ithere should be an organisation ' to defend Labour 'in Parliament. Others that the organisation should be ; -to defend Labour's interests outside Parliament. He did not see why • both organisations should not exist. It had been said_ that the demands •o;F Labour were increasing. It was -only human nature to ask for as much as one could get. One thing was certain, and that was that the workers had never yet obtained anything out of reason. It was fair to, ■deduce that their demands had never been out of reason. He stated that the Governor's Speech was. far from bhig an insult- to the intelligence of Parliament. It appealed to him very much. He dealt with several subjects contained in the Speech, especially with the cost of living. He disagreed entirely with the theory that /■., Lthe increased cost of living was due ' to increased .wages. . In his opinion .the chief causes were commercial ino-j nopoly, land monopoly, and "taxation j ■to raise money for public works. He ( ; admitted the honesty of the .Govern-j jnent'.s remission of duties on the necessaries of life, but the remission had i • been collared by commercial monopolies. He contended that it was ten times more reasonable for the State ■to fix the .price of a commodity than that its price should be fixed by com'mercial monopolists. There existed ; iu New Zealand a system of monopoly so complete that it was practically impossible for any small or financially weak firm to operate successfully in opposition to them. He" regretted | that the Monopolies Prevention Act had not yet been put into operation. Sir Joseph Ward: "It has!" "•Mr Veitcli, continuing, said lie had not heard of it; but he was glad ■to learn that it was so. He thought .there was a flaw in the Act in that there was no provision in it for a Parliamentary investigation prior to staking action. The cost of living was immensely influenced by commercial monopoly. It was a subject which could be dealt with. Anything could he dealt with if courage and determination were brought to bear. He hoped that, which-ever party came into power would promptly and sincerely take the matter up, and deal with' commercial monopolies. As to taxation for public works, every .year from £600,000 to £BOO,OOO was f transferred from the consolidated revenue to the. Public Works Fund. It seemed like good finance, and looked at purely as a matter of finance Its soundness might be good finance. What lie objected to was that the money was contributed from the earnings of the rank and file, and Was went in developing the x-ountry to the immediate and considerable benefit-of the landowners. "At ■the close of last session." he proceeded, by wav of illustration, "we had a ' proposal that the Government should buv the million acres of land adjacent to the Main Tnink line. If the land had been acquired before the railway was built we should have had the railway for nothing." (Hear, -"~f hear I) However, he believed in lettj n nr by~gones be by-gones. A bar-

ON CASTING VOTE OF SPEAKER MR VEITCH STICKS TO HIS PLEDGE , THREE LABOURITES VOTE FOR WARD (By Telegraph—Press Association.)

gain was a bargain, and should be respected. The Labour Party never repudiated a bargain. In connection I with the freehold question, he had • a proposition to put forward, name- , ly, that the State should be allowed I to repudiate its bargains made with ' the freeholders. If the leaseholders j were to He given the freehold at the I original value, why not- allow the 1 State to resume, at the original value, the land which it had parted ' with? (Laughter). He assured members that the Labour Party were not unreasonable. He expressed the hope- that when thev were called on to give an account of their works.— lie did not know whether in three years or three months hence (Laughter) —it would be admitted that the Labour members had not borne themselves unworthily. Dealing with railway matters, he held that the railway men had received concessions from time to time; but surely they had a grievance in that the matter they had placed before Parliament last session should have , been sidetracked. It should have been referred to soine tribunal, failing Parliament, having, time,'to deal with it.. In conclusion;, he said, that the workers I were' leaving the Arbitration Court. I because it failed to give them satis- | faction. Arbitration was right in j principle. 'J'he .Court had been established to abolish sweating, and had done so thoroughly. That function it was not , now called on to exercise at present. The Court's business should be to investigate monopoly. Both employers and employed were being squeezed by monopolists. Mr Veiteh was warmly applauded by both sides cn concluding his speech. MR ROBERTSON'S POSITION, j Mr'Robertson (Otaki) held that the whole point of the Opposition criticism was directed against the adminis-1 tra.tion, and if there was a change therein, as had been promised, there! could-, as far as he had been able, to ' see from the Opposition's criticism,, be no objection to the Liberal policy being pursued. He held that Labiur was not receiving its due for the services, it rendered. The cost of production was never so low as at the present time. That was due partially to the introduction of labour-saving machinery. "With regard to the unrest; in'the railway service, lie was of opinion that the Government were to blame for giving in to the con-stantly-reiterated'criticism of the. Qp;] .position. The railways should bei considered as primary developers of 1 the country, and should be safeguarded to the";utmost. "When: compulsory military, training had... been allowed to pass without consulting the country, the democracy existed only for party purposes. He desired to make his position clear in regard to his pledges. He denied giving a pledge to those simply opposed to the Government. He had said he would assist to overthrow the Administration, and had stated that he was just as strongly opposed to : the J Massey party. The no-confidence mo- j tion was hot simply to turn out the Ward Government, but to put Mr: Massey in power. He would never ( •assist in A doing this. /. He ..was -'in th© position- that'*he must keep the. -spirit j or' break the letter of; his pledge; .or' vie©'. versa. -He; pliose : ip-- break f,he J "letter and keep the ' spirit of his pledge. After a consideration of the various factors, he had come to the conclusion' that he could not assist in giving a new lease of life to the M'aasey party. The country looked for a lead from the party in power, I and if this wa»s given by l the present Administration, they would once more lead the way in democratic re- ■ form. MR ATM ORE. Mir Atmore (Nelson) said he came into the House a froe man. He had refused 'nomination by both parties, and stood as an Independent. He' stood as a protest against the American system of, "spoils to the victors." He was prepared to give credit to the Government- for nearly all its legislation, which had been asked ,for by the people. Members' votes were too much influenced by Party considerations. He supported •compulsory military training,' . which was necessary, seeing that the volunteer system had broken down. He dealt with the "yellow peril," which was a real one,and said a man was a criminal who opposed the training of his children in the work of defence. Referring to the land problem, he criticised the leaseholders' position, and said that the unearned increment could always be obtained by means of taxation. He believed in each man having a small freehold. Aggressive Socialism was making headway in Europe and Britain. By granting the freehold, they would stem aggressive Socialism. which- was ultimately hound to come. He asked the Opposition if it was prepared to take up the Government land policy, and also apply its policy on the Native lands to ordinary lands. ■Mr Massey: "Treat them both alike!"

Mr Atmore did not believe thepeople desired another election. The best brains of both parties should get together and solve the pre,sent problem , leaving party considerations aside. He condemned the Party system, the Judicature Amendment Act, also the gift of the Dreadnought. Ho asked for a definite pronouncement from Mr Massey 011 the graduated .land tax. Touching on the Labour question, he said this was bound up with the cost of living. There would be no occupation for the agitator if they did away with the party system and got down to the root of the trouble. The Governor's vSipeech contained a truly Radical programme; but it could not be carried out for a number of yours. They must try to increase their primary prod news before this oould he done. Me opposed the Second Balilott, which must be abolished. There was an, uneasy feeling throughout the Dominion that the. Opposition were lineal descendants of tho old "squatter -party." If it succeeded to power, tho Opposition would have to introduce a Radical pro gramme, otherwise t heir reign would bo short. MR. FTSHER SPEAKS.

Mr F. M. ft. Fisher reviewed the history of the Ward Administratio - -, retailing the. blunders made by the Promier and the oanses leading to the ill-fooling in the Libera! Party. Sir Joseph Ward's heredity title had cost him thousands of votes. His gaming legislation was responsible for tho defeat of the Liberals. He quoted many mcttnJbarH of the Ministry on tho causes leading to the downfall of the. Liberal Party, which tm divided

against itseftf. He criticised the legislation passed iby the Government:, and the suggestions of legislation contained in the governor's Speech. He ga o the Government credit for some of the legislation passed, but complained that some of the planks of the Opposition's progra'mmc 'had been " iaippropriated. Why, he asked, had not the Government introduced last session some of tho proposals contained in the Govei • nor's Speech?- They had a .majority of .twenty-four...'than; but they had made no endeavour to carry out what w;i.; now proposed. He objected t<j tho lack of facilities afforded members-for tho perusal of Departmental -pa pin® and documents. A SORDID DESIRE. Mr Hanan- said the Opposition were "possessed of a sordid desire to gain the Treasury Benches, and ipersonal aggrandisement, at any cost. They wore an, off-shoot of the old Tory party, and held their views. THE DIVISION. Ayes (39) Noes (39) «T. Allen Brown Anderson Buddo Bell Buxton J. Bollard Carroll 11. F. Bollard Clark Bniflney Colvin Buick Craigie Buchanan Davey Campbell Dickie Dickson Ell Escott Forbes Fisher Glover W. Eraser Hanan Guthrio Lauren.son Harris McOaiLlum Herdman 'Macdonald Herrio R. MoKrau',io Hiue T. Mackenzie Hunter Millar Lang Myers Leo Poland Malcolm Reed Mander Russell Massey Seddon Dr. Newman Sidey E.Newman R. W. Smith Nosiworthy J.C.Thomson Okey Ward Pearco Witty Rhodes Atmoro Scott Isitt F. 11. Smith Rhidcs Statham CJoatcs Sykea Par at a G. M. Thomson Ngata. Wilson Rangiliiroa Young Payne Pomare Hindmarfih Veitch Robertson The Speaker gave his casting voto in favour of the Government.