PRE-SESSIONAL ADDRESS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 26 June 1913, Page 5

PRE-SESSIONAL ADDRESS.

BY MR C. R. SYKES, M.P. LEGISLATION REVIEWED AND FORECASTED. In the Masterton Drill Hall last evening, Mr U. R. Sykes, M.P., addressed a mating of about 200 el actors. His Wur.-hip the Mayor (Mr J. M. Corailiut") occupied the chair, and introduced Mr Sykes to the audience. THE LIBERAL GOVERNMENT. Mr b\kes, who was received with applaustr. said it was some eighteen months ago since last he had the pleasure and honour of addressing the Masterton electors. On that occasion lie stood as a Parliamentary candidate soliciting their suffrages. That night, thanks to the confidence and support they accorded him on election day, he was there to address them as a Parliamentary representative. As one with a brief political experience of a single session, and yet 'such an experience had probably not befallen any politician for the last 21 years. He had seen the last remnants of the great Liberal party, under the leadership of Sir J. G. Ward, a party grown old and effete by a long and interrupted tenure of office, but yet clinging tenaciously to Dower; saved from defeat, for the time being, by the resignation of its leader, he had soen the self-same party, under the leadership of the Hon. T Mackenzie, unceremoniously turned out of office, giving place to the present Reform party, under the cniidance of the Hon Mr Massey. Thus, in the brief space of 18 months lie had seen the fall of two adminis- j trations and the accession to office 'of the third. Surely never in the political history of this country had such a course of events been witnessed. He would, however, be a prejudiced, ignorant, and unfair man-who would endaavour to disprove or deny to the old Liberal regime the credit of some good and wise legislation. The Advances to Settlers, Old Age Pensions, Bank of Naw Zealand legislation, the Universal Pennv Postage, and other beneficent legislation, the Lmperial and patriotic spirit which prompted the late Mr Seddon an despatching ten contingents of volunteers to South Africa was surely a record of which any true Liberal should-well- be--proud. The great Liberal party, once so strong numerically and mentally full of miative and eood intentions, gradually. but naturally succumbed to the effects inseparable from uncontrolled power. THE REFORM PARTY.

The Reform party came into power to find that the finances of the country were in anything but a satisfactory condition. 'To find that there was a depleted Exchequer. The country: was committed |o« expenditure totally unwarranted. -By: the .funds available or'iri sight. 1 For instance, of.glants> fer ; bridges and railways of some £bjV,{W had been made and there was only £17,000 in the Treasury to meet those" promises. Short dated loans were falling due. The Otira tunnel, a white elephant, heaped .on the shoulders of Parliament a huge liability to meet. Money had to be provided to make the superannuation funds solvent. An insurance of £lO,000 per annum haji to be set aside against fire on public buildings, which have been built out of loan money, and if burnt, rebuilt of loan money. In the matter of land settlement the liabilities of the Government, for purchaim were £304,963, money available was only £52,615. WORK OF PAST SESSION. However, the financial stringency had been abated by the flotation m London of a three million loan by the Minister of Finance (Hon. Mr Allen;. What had the present Government done during the past session m fulfilment of the promisee made by the Reform\ party during last election, whereby-they gained the confidence ot the people? PtTBLIC SERVICE ACT.

The Public Service Act passed last! session was now in full operation. It gave the Commissioners appointed at j the beginning of the year complete i control; of the service. The death*, knell of political control and political promotion had been sounded. Appointments l were to be by merit and abifity, alone. "The Reform party had always stood for equality of opportunity to everyone, in the civil, service, in access to land and all things that ma-ke for the good of the people.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. The reform of the Legislative Council was undertaken. A Bill was drafted having for its object the appointment of members to the Council by the votes of the people, instead of as in the past by nomination by the parky in power. The Bill was, how* ever, killed in the Upper House, and it would therefore be necessary for the.Government to- make sufficient temporary appointments "to enable the fiijl to be put through. OTHER MEASURES. An amendment of. the Widows Pension Act in providing for the orphaned children was also a piece of legislation for which the Government could take credit. The granting of the right to acquire the freehold to the l.i.p. tenants was also carried through. The Government had recognised the services of old soldiers . by passing the Military Pensions Act. An amendment of the Justices of the Peace Act was carried through where-:; by a person charged with an indictable offence, if in the opinion of the presiding Justices, the means of accused are insufficient to enable him to obtain legal aid in the preparation and conduct of his defence, and that in the interests of justice it is desirable he should have such aid the said Justices shall on the committal of accused . certify to these facta to the Minister of "Justice, The ;Aged and Infirm Persons Protection Act,' was passed whereby arrangements can be made by the Court to manage the affairs of those who by reason of their age, illness, or mental infirmity are not competent to manage their estates. There was now on the Statute Book am Act called the Mental Defectives Act, but if that Act was put into operation it meant that a person coming under it becomes a lunatic and proceedings have to be taken to have the person declared a lunatic and pdrhaps confined in an asylum. Under the Valuation of the Land Amendment Act, passed last session, a settler will be enabled to claim a full exemption on the capital valuation for all improvements effected by him on his farm, a right which, according to the opinion expressed by the Valuer-General, had not obtained previously. The clearing of bush, stumping and draining swamps had not hitherto been exempt because improvements were not visible. Loans under local bodies, where the settlers are paying principal, interest and smking fund, will now be accepted as improvements. The preservation of native bush and the planting of shelter trees were also encouraged by the Act. \ ' THE RAILWAY SERVICE. Increases in, the.pay of.! he second division of the railway ■'; rvice had been ma^e,,.and "tie pay of some of the junior officers' of the first division had been increased. The general increase in salary, of the first division would come lip for review during the coming session, when he hoped that matters would be satisfactorily ad-

justed. The railway servants should enjoy the same classification as those of the post and telegraph service. They were all an exceedingly fine stamp of men, of whom any country should be proud and they should be adequately paid for their services. In the first and second divisions every day off duty on account of sickness was mow deducted off the annual holiday. This regulation was not in force in any other department of the Civil Service, and should be discontinued. An amendment of the Railways Act

was necessary to remove the disability. These and other measures calculated to do good to the whole of the community have bean brought into operation during the last session: But -still a deal of. industrial and social legislation which was embodied in the policy of the Reform party had yet to be passed into law. For instance, the reform of the Old Age Pensions Act by making the qualifying age for women 60 instead of 65; the promotion of legislation in favour of compulsory insurance against sickness or invalidity, somewhat on the Mnes of Mr Lloyd George's scheme, but in a modified form. LABOUR MATTERS.

The reform of the economic system of the Dominion in the direction of promoting industrial peace and restoring public confidence, in order to encourage local industry was necessary. The Arbitration Act, which was now on the Statute Book, was passed into law in 1894 and for many years, appeared to give satisfaction toall concerned, at any rate, the country up till quite lately had been comparatively immune from industrial strife in so far as the strike methods were concerned. So much so that New Zealand had been acclaimed as a land without strikes, where peace, grosperity amd contentment prevailed, iut quite recently the aoostles of syndicalism, a doctrine which was opposed on principle to conciliation or arbitration and agreement in any shape or form, came into prominence. "To hell with agreements" was the dictum enunciated by one of these revolutionaries, "Cancel your registrations and strike at the most inconvenient tim© for your -exploiter, the employer." And so, yielding to this advice, union after union had cancelled their registration and in; many.cases "downed tools." If their i | grievances had been real ones those grievances had been righted, but if the strike was contrary to public opinion it was unsuccessful. The Act under present conditions was and should either be wiped off the Statute Book altogether or substantially amended. If amended let it contain not only a proviso that before a strike shall take place a secret ballot conducted by a disinterested person sh all be held, but that the wives of the workers shall have a.vote ajs well, as the men. If a strike took' ,plac6 the/ women; ', by far !the* greatest -sufferers. The 'children^i mwstVbe clothed and fedvand roof Tnust 'be-; kej^^over; their; ne»d. ; Doubtlessi these "matters' we*e;thoujght of when men strike, but tbey come home with added force to the women. LOCAL GOVERNMENT BILL. For some 21 years a promise had been made by the late acfministratiom to bring down a Local Government Bill, but that promise, probably owing to the difficulties surrounding it, had never been kept. Such a measure was very badly needed.- Provision should be made for the setting up of a competent Public Works Board, whose duty it should be,.to' classify the country districts according to' the urgency their legitimate needs, and according to the rates ( which are now being paid by the va-, rioiis Counties. The amount of subsidy recommended by the Board and approved of by the 'Minister should be handed over to the Local Bodies for, expenditure in urgent necessary Works. The present method 'was tx> say the least an haphazard one, and should be discontinued as soon as; possible. CUSTOMS TARIFF.

The Government had indicated that the Customs Tariff would, be considered in the coming the speaker trusted opportunity Would be taken to do something which "wouldtend to reduce the present cost of living. -Despite the fact that wages to-day were higher than those obtaining some 20 years ago, the wage; earners were very little better off. The cost of living had gone up and the purchasing power of money had gone, down. The only way to enable the workers to get the benefit of inr, creased wages was by. reducing or altogether removing thfe custom duties on food and articles of every day use. Heavy duties were being paid by 95 per cent of the people im order that 5 per cent might find employment at protected industries. It was estimated that the taxes on boots and shoes cost the .people of this Dominion at least £119,000 a year more than all the wages paid in all the. boot factories in New Zealand- ft. would be well to pay the people to; give the boot manufacturers, the 'who|e ofvthe labour they required tection oh footwear. ,and yet save some £119,000 per annum. THE LAND BILL.

During the session it was anticipated that a comprehensive Land Bill would be introduced, which would be calculated to take the place of previous Land Acts and their amendments. In this Bill the settlers under the Settlement Act would doubt-

less be given the right to acquire the Ireehold of their sections. • Drastic clauses to prevent reaggregation of those lands would have to be inserted in the Bill. The Land Laws Amendment Act of 1912. provided that in any future land ballot© preference, was to be given to the landless family man and disappointed applicants. This regulations was very sound in principle, but still he felt that sufficient land should be offering to allow married or single men"to get.land r in fact to allow all bona; fide applicants the chance of securing a;section of land. Crown lands and settlement lands were being rapidly opened up for settlement purposes, but quite half a million acres would be required to exhaust the available supply of bona fide settlers. There should not be one disappointed or rejected applicant who was a desirable settler as long as there was an acre of undeveloped and uncultivated land in New Zealand. The succeasful

applicant should not be allowed to transfer thejr sections for a lengthy period—say"lo yt?ars. And if having eifected a transfer after the period indicated they should not again be allowed to participate in another ballot until all bona fide landless applicants have secured a section of land. Everything should be done to prevent gambling or speculation in Crown lands. Those lands should be open to bona fide settlers only, settlers who are prepared to intensely farn; the land they occupy. A provision should also be inserted in the Biii empowering the Government to assisi the struggling bush soitier by advancing him money, us payment for the •.bush he fells, thy grass seed ho sows, and for the fencing that has to be done. In order to provide for the maintenance of his family and to provide funds to allow of him stayino homo for a period to fell his bush. Tht settler, under present conditions, must needs go afield for his work during the major portion of the year, bflt flie time occupied in doing this wouiu be best spent, in the interests of himself and the country, in making his selection productive and thus profit able. Or, as an alternative., when a large block of bush land was being opened up for settlement purposes, instead of conforming to the present and past procedure of throwing the land open for settlement without proper provision being made for access to the sections, the whole block should be felled, grassed, and according to the natural configuration of the country, fenced and roadc-d. The total cost of such would be charged to the block and allocation to the sections. By these means the land would be made immediately productive, and the settler would thereby avoid some of the liard, strenuous woiK of pioneer life. AFFORESTATION. Any thoughtful°person, said Mr Sykes, must vww with a certain amount of alarm the fact that in do years or thereabouts our timber resources will be practically exhausted, and it was high tame that a progressive scheme of atrorestation and- reafforestation was evovled and put into, operation. It was true much had, been done in this direction by the late administration. A Forestry Commission set up to inquire into the whole question had just completed its work, and the result of their labours would be awaited with interest. But one thing was plain, even to the casual observer, and that was that adequate ..provision'for future supplies ' lof timber mu&fc be inade: State } money cduld not we'll be expended on J a more profitable undertaking. TAXATION. If there was one question ' more than other—save perhaps that of labour—that was engaging the attention of economists all the, world oyer the question of tee incidence or taxation.: The7,present:, system cfc • or tfcev Band- and;vlhcbme Tax "Actand-■; naediumi-i.^f' ;the« ■ Customs; certainly was a means of collecting- mfficient taxes and revevnues from, the pockets -of the taxpayers to meet all engagements, yet individuals were not always called upon to, "contribute according to ' their means." The married man with a family, be he rich or poor; .widow perhaps entirely, dependent for" her living on the wages earne3 by her sons arid daughters'are to contribute comparatively more to the revenue than the wealthy bachelor, or the young man in recejpiia>f: •a;gi»d salary l or a good wage." This was>. manifestly unfair and some, rational solution of the problem should *«e forthcoming. In connection with the question of taxation an anomalous position arose by the imposition of an Income Tax on the one hand and the Land Tax on the other; Land Tax was levied on the unimproved value, with an exemption of £SOO. Income Tax was paid on incomes of £3OO and over. He could cite very many cases in proof of the unfairness of the principle, in so far as it applied to small farmers. On a certain farm of 200 acres the capital value was £4290, improvements £IO9O, unimproved value £3200. and the land tax payable £l4 6s Bd. Income on capital value at 5 per cent, £214. Income Tax payable, nil. He was quite aware of the fact that the : land tax was considered a penalty tax, that it was levied for the object of compelling owners of land to put ■ that land to the best possible use. But was it land monopoly for a man with a family to hold 200 acres of land some distance away 1 <f . 'ket? He quite admitted that the man with; -tf large area of land should :he required to pay taxes according to his ability, but to penalise smaiVfarmers was altogether wrong and should be remedied.

THE FINANCIAL POSITION. The financial position of the country was sound, It was true the Dominion was one. of the most heavily indebted countries—-per head- of popu-laiion^-ia-the' world, but dt was wonderfully productive, and as ■ Jong. • as! —ras they had- been for scm& -years long would the country be prosperous. Great r caution must needs be observed in the future expenditure of loan moneys. Great and urgent developments were yet necessary, and money must be spent in developing the country, but the money must be expended judiciously . and well. They musjt demand twenty shillings worth of work and material for every pound expended, and the public works undertaken must be interest bearing. JSo sentiment, no log-rolling should enter into the business.

It was pleasing to note that for the year ending March 31st last the exports of the country exceeded the imports by £936,204 as against a balance of £197,577 the previous year. During the last five years the imports have increased by £4,035,374, while, the exports only showed an expansioji; of TJiere> bad. been a steady expansion of importsand violent fluctuations of exports. The interest required to meet engagements, on money borrowed, publicly and privately was roughly£4,ooo,ooo per annum. The excess of exportsover imports must reach that amount for th& Dominion to be self sustained :md only in the years 1910 and 1911 did that occur, and then there were exceptional circumstances governing the position. In other years the difference has to be made up out of loan money. While not overlooking the fact that a deal of imports such as iron, wire, hardwood, etc., were utilised in the construction of railways and public and private buildings —thereby increasing the assets of the country—yet due caution should be observed in connection with public and private expenditure, otherwise if the stream of borrowed money were checked by some reason or other, grave financial difficulties might be experienced. Reasonable economy should be practised. THE DISTRICT'S REQUIREMENTS.

Dealing with the inmediate requirements of the. district, Mr Sykes dwelt:on the great importance of arterial roadg to a district such as that surrounding Masterton. He would

like to see the main arterial roads taken over by the Government, and the by-roads attended to by local , _... '<.,.;■■'■■ ■":■■■. ■ ■",',;■'■'•.' JKeferriisg the opening, jx&,o£ the EStet■;■ Gbiust. by.: tvfc-C- syMf '• ■was of opinion i>bitt work ipf ;~" -the utmost importance, aJod he thought that if the Government did not see its way clear to take up the work, private enterprise and capital would be found for the carrying through of the undertaking. The value to Masterton and the whole district of such a sclime, if carried into effect, would be very. £-eat indeed. In conclusion,' Mr Syke s said that since being returned to Pari, a ment he continually kept the interests of the worker and employer alike, ily before him, and he would <-orW tinue to work for the progress oi vh« district and also the "Dominion as af whole'.— (Applause.) ~ LABOUR UNIONS. ' At the conclusion of Mr Sykes' address, Mr IU Mcßae asked whether the 3|a*sey Government would ; ho prepared it impossible foif fifteen. men to break away from tho union of. wln'ch/ they are, uiembers, and form another union. -;;'.'.'.' Mr Sykes replied that at presen ii the law permitted such a happening, and a number of men were quitewithin their rights in breaking away and forming another union. Personally he was prepared to support g proposal to prevent this. THANKS.

C--i the .moticn !' Mr H. Bannister, sconded by IL; 0. Percy, a hearty voe of thanks was accorded Mr for his able address, and on tho motion of Mr Sykes a vote of th.nks to Mr Coradine for presiding, wta carried.