THE WANgGANUI SEAT.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12647, 7 November 1905, Page 5

THE WANgGANUI SEAT.

MR. HASELDEN AT THE OPERA

HOUSE

Mr. Haselden addressed the electors of Wanganii at the Opera House, for tho second time, last evening. There was only a fair attendance, and the candidate was, given an attentive hearing. ■ _.'_ Mr. J. WT Baker presided, and briefly introduced tho candidate. Mr. Haselden, who was well received, commenced by' expressing the opinion that if there was any man who could bo said to have a mortgage on the Wanganui seat it was Mr. J. W. Baker, who had fought a gallant fight last tiire. Ha reiterated his pronounced opposition to the Seddon Government, and declared himself a straight-out supporter of that gallant and honourable gentleman, Mr. Ma&sey. Mr. Haselden then went on to criticise the Crimii«al Code Amendment Bill, which the Government had sought to force through the House, a Bill which he characterised as a deliberate attempt to "gag" the publio, to interfere with the right of free speech, and to rob the publio of an invaluable privilege. But for tho "stonewall" by which the Bill bad been blocked, they would all have been "gagged" for this election. The reason that Bill was brought down, he said, was to stop a man who had gone about tho colony denouncing the "Government for refusing to do him justice. That man had said some very strong things about the Government and about "Mr. Seddon in 'particular, and why he had not been prosecuted for criminal libel he could not understand. At last, however, the man was in a fair way to receive tardy justice. He also referred to the-allegation made by Mr. Victor Braund, of Wellington, in oornection with the Colonial Bank. What that man had said was, if untrue, perfectly outrageous; but, if true, then an inquiry ought certainly to be held into the matter. Speaking on the land question, the great question of the day, Mr. Hasellen again professed his unwavering allegiance to the freehold. Ha appealed to his hearers not to be humbugged; We had taken the land from the Maoris. We had taken some of it, amexed some of it, and bought some of it for "a,song" and an eld blanket. Wo had taken the land from the Maoris, and we were going to stick to , it. Therefore, don't let us be humbugs, and prato about the land being the | birthright of tho people. If it was anybody's birthright,"it must surely be tho Maoris'. He then dealt at some length with tho Premier's "wobbling," and altogether unsatisfactory attitude in relation to this vital question. He Quoted from reports of Mr. Seddon's utterances in support of the leasehold, and contrasted those utterances with bis present timorous attitude, leading him even to vote for the freehold, as he had done the other day. He (Mr. Haselden) had listened to three of the local Government candidates. Everyone of them was a leaseholder and a land nationaliser, and yet they were all going to support and vote for the man who had voted for the freehold. Where wore their consciences? What were theii convictions worth? Continuing, he touched on and criticis-ed the Government's method of purchasing estates for closer settlement. He contended that every estate should be submitted to Parliament before the purchase was sanctioned. As it was, the estates wero purchased in a "hole^and corner" manner, and the result was that to-day thero were fifteen estates which had not paid interest on the capital invested in them. He condemned "the appointment of tho Land Commission, criticised the ballot system, and ridiculed tho 999 years' lease. After repeating the story of the "settler's dream," with which in his first speech ho had illustrated the tyranny of overinspection to which the settlers of the colony wero subjected, Mr.. Haselden went on to refer to the great-growth of our public debt, which, he said, was being piled up in outrageous-r fashion. He criticised the borrowing«=policy of tho Government, and incidentally referred to the peculiar and unsatisfactory transactions connected with the flotation of tha last loan. This loan,' ho said, was bad business. It meant that they had to pay interest on tho full amount, and,.in the end, pay back £100 for every £91 15s. received from the lenders. He next referred to the Stato ocal mines, which,, he .said/ were intended to bring about a reduction m tho price of coaX • Curiously' enbugh, hewsver, the' price of coal had' increased sinco the State coal had come into the market. He voiced a similar criti- ! cism of tho State Accident and Fire Insurance Companies, -and then went on to refer to the Public Revenues Act, which, ho said, had teen passed by "foul and abominablo means," or, in other words, by what was known as "tho £40 steal." He explained the pernicious effect of this measure, which ho characterised as a blot on the Statute Book and a disgrace to the Parliament which had placed it there. Not only had they .passed this iniquitous Act, but they had increased their own salaries. Sir Harry Atkinson had, v-ten times were bad, commenced the necessary retrenchment by cutting down his own salary and the salaries of his Ministers" and tho highly-paid officials. But tlia Government had been persistently and consistently adding to their own salaries^ and the salaries of the Stato officials, until to-day it cost no less than six million two hundred thousand to "run the show!" Speaking of roads and bridges, he referred to the continual neglect to which this district had been subjected by the Government. Tho Government candidates, all of them, had advocated the roading of land before settlement, ; yet, while recognising that this o.ught to be done, they pledged themselves to vote for the Government that had never done it. He touched on the persistent neglect of the Parapara road, which, as they all krew, ought to have been completed yoars ago. He had nothing to say against tho co-operative labourer, but ho had a lot to say against the cooperativo system, which, ha said, was started as a relief system and had' developed into the national method for tho prosecution of our public works. ■\Miy? Simply becauso- the Government had found it to be a useful voting machine. He asserted that to-day all sorts and conditions of men were being rushed on to the co-operative works for electioneering purposes. In concluding his remarks on the subject of roads and bridges, he cited statistics to show how the public money wasdistributed under the system of "spoils to the victors." He referred at some length to the subject of freetrade and protection, and expressed himself as an .advocate of a policy of freetrade within tho Empire. In this connection ho dealt with "Mr. Gatenby's audacious assertion" that ho (Mr. Haselden) didn'.t know what he was talking about. In reply, he instanced a case of "protection in p. pill box," which, he said, Mr.. Gatenby would possibly understand, - and-the point of which was that tho pill-consuming: public would have to pay perhaps 150 per cent, more for their pills under protection than they would havo to pay under freetrade. He spoko at some length on the Government's policy of railway construction, which, in effect, he. characterised as a policy of creeping, crawling, inefficiency j and incompetence; He advocated the shortening of the railway line between Wanganui and Turakina. At present, he said, the distance by rail between Wanganui and Turakina was 24 miles, as against '12 miles by road. After

that there should be a line up the Wah> gaehu to Karioi, there tapping the great central line, and diverting the produce of all that great inland district to the port of Wanganui. This scheme was, he.considered/.as practicable as it was comprehensive -and desirable, and the people of Wanganui should insist upon its being carried out. Speaking of workmen's homes, the principle of which had been appropriated from .the Opposition, ho exposed the ridiculous and inequitable scheme proposed by the Government, a scheme under which a workman would have to pay £1000 for a place worth £350. Mr. Seddon, the leaseholder, was perfectly willing to sacrifice his principles in order to get another lot of loan money to spend, but ho (Mr. Haselden) was of opinion that in the matter of State homes for workmen the leasehold, and not the1 freehold, principle should obtain. There was no rule without an exception, and it was here, in the matter of Stateprovided homes for workmen, that he recognised the exception to the splendid principle of the freehold. Mr. Haselden then referred to old age pensions (another Ministerial appropriation from tha Opposition) and mentioned that years ago Sir Harry Atkinson had advocated a much better scheme than that brought into effect by the present Government. Ho challenged anyone to name any one thing which the Government had initiated. They had no originality, and never had airy, and all tho reforms to which they laid claim had either been borrowed or stolen from their more truly liberal opponents. On the other hand, the Opposi--tion stool before the country with a clean, sound, definite, and progressive policy. As an instance of the deceptive 'electioneering tactics of the Government party, he produced arid explained one of the papers (referred to in our leading columns) which were accidentally placed in the box of a member of th' 3 Opposition . ,He showed how the figure:) given in this paper (and which wero intended .only to be seen and used by Government candidates and supporters) were absolutely misleading, erroneous, and false. Mr. Haselden concluded by again clearly defining his position as a straight-out opponent of. the Government, and was warmly applauded on~ resuming his seat. In answer to a question as to why, if ho was a good party man, he was opposing Mr., Bassett, Mr. Haselden said ha would tell them the whole story. He camo to' Wanganui to stand for the Wanganui electorate if he had the chance. He would tell them that plainly. When he came here he did not know, who was going to stand. So far as he could see there appeared to h& no one coming. He understood that Mr. Carson's-health .was such as to prevent him from contesting the seat. He wanted to get in touch with the party, his idea being not to announce himself as a candidate, but >to deliver an address to the electors and to allow them to say whether or not they considered him a suitable man to contest the sea* in the Opposition interest. He had no intention to force the position, but his hand was forced, and he had authority to mention the name of the gentleman who forced it. That gentleman, Mr. Conway, called at his (Mr. Haselden's) house and asked him if he was going to stand for the seat. He replied that ho was thinking about it, as it had been his ambition for years to represent the Wanganui seat, and he generally got what he wanted. He had thought of contesting the seat when Mr. Carson was in England, and would have done so had he not considered it unfair to step into the field behind another man's back. Mr. Carson said, "If you are not going to stand, I am," apd he added that there was a clique in Wanganui who appeared to think they had a mortgage on the seat. Mr. Conway said he would give him three days to make up.his mind. He (Mr. Haselden) was much exercised in his mind, because, while he was anxious to stand, ho believed Mr. Conway was. better qualified than he was to fill the position. Ho (Mr. Conway) was a wealthy man, with a university education and plenty of leisure, and was a gentleman well qualified to hold a seat in Parliament. He asked Mr. Conway to let him consult a few people before deciding, 'and it ended in this—that he had to announce himself or Mr. Conway would do so.. He consulted Mr. Bryce, vho said he did not intend to stand. He intervie ved. Mr. Peat, and received *• a similar answer. He spoke to Mr. Carson, who told him ho did not then contemplate entering the field, but if later on his health improved he might do so. Hj (Mr. Haselden) said it would not do .to wait, as there might be half-a-dozen others out. and he then announced his own candidature. After that he heard Mr. Bassett's name mentioned as a probablo candidate, but he did not at tho time think that Mr. Bassett would really stand. . Had he known of it before ho could have contested another seat. He had been asked to contest tho "Rangitikei seat the moment he landed in New Zealand. But Mr. Beckett was out, and he was too good a party man to split the vote. Later on. Mr. Beckett stood down, and Colonel Sommerville camo out. If Mr Bassett had come out 24 hours before him (iMr Haselden) he had so high an opinion of -him that he would not have opposed him and would now have been fighting for, instead of against, 'him; tout as Mr Bassett never approached him !he would now see it right out to the "end. . He did not blame Mr Bassett. There was no reason why that gentleman should have consulted h-im, but if he had done so he would have gone for the Rangitikei seat and left him a clear field in Wanganui. .i In answer to other {questions the candidate said he was opposed to a State Bank; he could not tell them what good the hotels had conferred on Wanganui, except that it was handy to get a feed or a drink when one wanted it; he was opposed to any interference with the State system of education, but if the people insisted on having the Bible read in schools they would have to grant State aid to Catholic schools. In response to the Chairman's inquiry as to whether any one had any-, vote to propose, Mr F. Beavis, after a brief pause, said that as no one else appeared to speak he had much pleasure (the remainder of his remarks were drowned by a storm of good-humored uproar, but he evidently sought to propose the customary vote of thanks to the candidate). When the noise had subsided /Mr Allison proposed a hearty vote of. thanks to Mr Haselden; but to this Mr Beavis objected that it was not in order, as he (Mr Beavis) had already proposed a similar motion. Mr Allison good-naturedly agreed to second tlie motion, which was then put' and carried by acclamation, thevusuar compliment to the Chairman terminating the meeting. • ,;;' L

Mi. T. B. Williams will address the electors at Eastown at the Road Board room this evening at 8 o'clock. .■ -