The Election Campaign.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 273, 23 October 1902, Page 3

The Election Campaign.

HON, W. J. STEWARD AT WAI

MATE

On Tuesday evening in the Oddfellows Hall, Waimate, the Hon. W. J. Steward, M.H.R. for Waitaki, addressed a fair meeting ol electors. Mr J. Manchester presided. Hf regretted the small attendance, which was no douht largely due to the late unreasonable weather. He said the speaker would not take up much tune with the work of the past, but would deal with the great questions of the future. He advised the electors to select the right man to represent them in Parliament, and make clear to him how he was to act. He was sure that the meeting would give the speakei a respectin' hearing, as the questions to be dealt with were too important to trifle with Mr Steward said be had two things to do : To review the work of last session, and discuss the great questions of the day. The past session had been a quiet, uneventful one, but one in which a great deal of useful work was done. Some 150 Bills had been before the House and 89 had become law. He dealt with some of these latter. The Aids to Public Works Act, which gave the Government power t 0 BORROW 12 MILLIONS for public works, £750,000 for railway construction, £450,000 for rolling stocks, £500,000 for roads and bridges and £50,000 for telegraph extension. Some people had been alarmed at the borrowing of the Government, but borrowing for railway construction at least was nothing to be alarmed at. The railways not only paid interest, but left a small balance. The interest was £3 6s 3d per cent and the errnmga for the past two years had been 2s lOd per eent more than this. The total interest on the New Zealand debt was at an average of £3 15a per cent, bub that for the railways was only £3 6s 3d. The reductions on the railway charges had a tendency to increase business, and they would pay more in the future. Then the railways lad a value indirectly. Thej saved traffic on the roads and increased the value of property. He thought that main trunk railways should be pushed on so as to bring them into the list of eirning lines, This was better than doing a little on every line under construction. He thought that a light line from Qlenavy to Redcliff would be a paying line if it could be constructed. Ho said that many people were crying out loudly at the increase of

THE PUBLIC DEBT, and yst they at the same time wer« clamouring for grants for roads, railways and bridges. There were people who had no ideas ae to the future expansion of the country; they lived _ only for the present. Examining the items of the fifty-three million pounds of dsht of the colony, he said that over 28 millions of this was paying for itself; railways, telegraphs, land settlements, loans bo local bodies, etc., all of which paid more in interest than the loans cost. Other monies spent on such purposes as immigration, developing goldfields, tourist resorts, were, ha held, profitably expended. Then the money spent on defence was merely an insurance premium; This accounted for all the debt except that incurred for the Maori *Var, an I the deficieuc es in revenue and the charges for raising loans, etc. Th 0

Mi li.iiid Hi iivay .Settle nent Act w ■» referred to by Mr Ste'.v.i'il, Be uphel I the paying of £l-50,010 to the Midland Riilway Debenture holders as thev had a moral cltim, ev o if tli-y hud no legal was politic, as it would not make English capitalists shy of New Zealand investments. He favoured the increase of the Navy Subsidy to £40,000, which was only about 5d per head as against 15s per head paid by the British taxpayer. The Railway Superannuation Act was a. good measure, and he favoured a similar! scheme being extended to school teachers" and the whole civil service. Some very important Native Land Acts were passed, preventing sharp practices in dealing with native lands. A group of Bills dealing with agricultural matters had,, become law. That providing for con* certed action in dealing with the SMALL BIRD NUISANCE and the raising of special rates for this purpose was a good measure. The Stud I Bill and the Trotting at Auctions Bill I wers to be submitted to Farmers* Unions I and A. and P. Association* for their opinions. The Factory Amendment Bill wa* not framed to admit of factories r closing on the same day as shops, though the speaker had done his best in this direction. Next year the matter would be altered, or Saturday afternoon made the compulsory half holiday all over the colony for all businesses. The money had been voted to allcw of the Government proceeding with the opening up of the STATE COAL MINE. The Fisheries Conservation Act had been amended so that now a person was allowed to fish on his own property without a license. An amendment had been made in the Old Age Pension, allowing a person to own a house valued at £3OO without deduction from the pension. Mr Steward referred to Bills which had been rejected or act persevered with. Ho mentioned the Absolute Majority Bill, which he had supported. The objection to this measure, that it was too complicated, was a slur on the intelligence of the electors of New Zealand. The Land Act Amendment Bid was an important measure whiob had not been proceeded with. It was intended to prevent dummyism and speculation by refusing transfers unless a settler had resided one year on the land. Provisions were made for the Government expending accrued thirds and fourths not claimed by local bodies, on road works, for rerniti ing taxation ou bush lan 1 or swamp laud. Power was to be given for the s. e of small areas of land for dairy factories, etc, at a low rate. Other proposals were made by private members, and as these were large orders the Bill had been held over for.consideration, A proposal io all iw BBTTLERB THE FREEHOLD had been made, but the speaker did not support this. 1 Ho urged that a settler should be allowed to pay off part of the capital value o’ his section, never paying more than nine-tenths of the va ue. This would prov mt the re-aggregalion of big estates. He all) proposed that new leases should contain a pr»vision for revaluation every 21 years, the tenant to have the option of renewing his lease or of getting valuation for his improvements. The limi que cion would come up before the next session, and he would not countenance the purchase outright by a settler. T e House had not time to deal with toe question of trusts last . session, and though it was a difficult subject to deal with he thought that some thing should be done to prevent capitalists from grinding down the working cla-ses ny raising the price of foodstuffs in which they had the monopoly (Hear, hear) The State Fire in-uranow scheme was, in his opinio , a-< feasible as that for Life Insurance or Accident Insurances. He had always been of the opinion that the Bible should be taught in schools, subject to the majority of parents desiring this, and to the minority having tho option of attending instruction in scriptures or not. Ho was of opinion that this matter should be settled by referendum, Ths teaching should be undenominational in character and consist of simple lessons, avoiding all passages which were read differently by the various churches. This would, he was sure, result in great good. (Hear, hear). He had a little Bill to bring up last session bat had no time. Tnis was, that any person who desired to give religious instruction could have the use of a school house outside of school hours. This was brought on by a school committee at Pareora refusing to let the school to an Anglican clergyman for me ai a Sunday school. THE REFERENDUM BILL had been kept back as the Opposition had threatened a stonewall. This would have meant the sacrifice ef other valuable Hills, but Bill would, no doubt, become law next session. The question of Bible in schools could then be decided this way. Another matter that could be settled w-s the totalisator question. Years ago he had voted for the introduction of the totalisator, but he hid been disappointed in the machine. It had developed gambling throughout the colony, and if they could not have horse racing without gambling they should

ABOLISH RACING altogether. (Applause). Two or three other questions would have to come to the referendum ; one was the Liquor Question. There was a kind of referendum now, bat there were a number of thinking people who favoured State control. He did not favour this, as he thought J b would nob be a success. Then the money required to be borrowed to buy all the hotels in the colony would be an enormous amount. Then, again, some people were of opinion that the interval between the poll* on the liquor question was ioo short. They declared that public-houses would be better furnished and fitted up if the publican were sure of a license for a lenger period. He was against this, favouring the present Act well carried out. If electors generally favoured the extension he would not stand in the way, but thought it beat to leave well alone. He did not favour a bare majority decision on the liquor question. It was nob morally wrong to take alcoholic liquor—the excess was the objectionable feature. It was not fair to impose total abstinence on moderate drinkers, by perhaps a minority of the electors. If three-fifths of voters vote for prohibition it would be reasonable to suppose that a majority favoured no license. The present system gave them a reasonable right to assume that they had a real majority in favour of any propoial carried. (Applause.) Still, he favoured this question being submitted to the people’s referendum. The question of the Elective Executive was another which was specially fitted to be decided by referendum. He proposed last session to submit this question alone to the referendum, but this was negatived. He explained his proposal m detail, expressing the opinion that the people at a referendum would support his view* Referring to the question of a separate hospital for Waimate, he said city members of the House supported the South Canterbury Board m keeping the district intact. If a boundary could bo mutually arranged something could be done. The speaker went on to speak of

LAND SETTLEMENT. He had been doing his best to gob more land cut up in this district. So far 112,209 acres had been cut up in Waitaki electorate. He had brought other estates under the notice of the Lanos Department, bub no agreement had yet been made as to price. The Albury estate of 19,209 acres had lately been acquired, and ffbuld be disposed of shortly. He had been instrumental m

I obtaining a number of grants for the district for road works, details of which he gave. One thing he would like to see altered. The grants every year fir exceeded the money available, and Ministers had the right of determining which votes should be paid. The speaker referred to the legislation which he had been instrumental in having passed. The one man one vote principle became law at his instance, the Shearers’ Accommodation Act, Payment lof Jurors Act, Act to reduce mortgage charges, and numbers of others. He had been in Parliament for 31 complete sessions ; he had never been fined for absence in all that time. Mr Steward referred to the work ot the Liberal Party. He had been a Liberal throughout his career. He had never voted against a Liberal measure nor spoken against a Liberal Bill. THE INCREASED DEBT

of the colony had been pointed out at a reason why the Liberal Government should go out of power, and he would give a few figures to prove that the debt per lie >d of the population hid not really increased. , When the present Government came into power the debt was, roughly, thirty-eight millions, and now it.was fifty-two millions. Tnat was ap increase of fourteen millions. Of this increase some eight millions was spent on objects which returned interest, most of them more than the money cost to borrow The money borrowed to buy land for settlement, loans to local bodies, purchase of native lands, a Ivances to settlers, put chase of Bank of New Zealand shares, and advances to dairy companies certainly increased the debt „f the colony, but as they returned more money than the amount of the interest, they did not add to the burdens' of the people. Thus, only six millions could really be put down as increased debt, and as the population had increased some 180,000, the burdensome debt of the co'ony was now £56 5s per head, or £4 less than in 1891. (Applause.) The power to bear the burden had increased with the population. The private wealth of the people Sad increased enormously in the last dozen years, and adding to this wealth all public properties, we had 383 millions of pounds, a very good amount to set against a debt of fifty-three millions* The Liberal Government had placed great numbers of settlers on the land, building up homes ail over the colony. These did not have more than £IOOO in arrears of rent The Advances to Settlers Department had not one penny of bad debts. There was now an old age pension scheme, small in amount, but still a boon The women had the franchise The colony had sent over 6000 men to South Africa to fight the battles of the Empire. And all this had be-n done 'with not one penny increase in taxation. He agreed that prodigality should be avoided, but apart from that he thought the colony was in % sound position financially. Ho thought that everything pointed to the fact thtkt New Zealand had a great future before it, and in the course of time would be in reality the Britain of the South. (Applause.) He had good health, was never in better trim, and he was going to rxn in the elec-oral race to win. He bad the strength of a good conscience. He had always acted as he th 'Uglit best in the interests of toe electorate. He urged the electors to consider well how they cast their vote —to cast it for the man they thought the best. He advised the people to see that their'names were on the roll and that they voted on election day. He hoped that he shoul■ be returned with a bigger majority than ever. He thanked the people for their patient hearing, and asked for questions. The first question was with reference to Bible reading in schools, which had already been dealt with. Mr G. Dash asked whether Mr Steward favoured a three-fifths majority in dealing with the totalisator by the referendum. He replied that the three fifths principle was a good one in any such question. Mr J. Smith asked whether Mr Steward was in favour of preference to unionists in decisions of the Arbitration

Court. Mr Steward favoured this provided everyone had the right to join the unions at a fair rate.

Mr Smith asked Mr Steward’s views on the State Bank question. He was doubtful of the success of a State B*uk which bad power to advance money on security. It was a very complicated question, but he thought it possible later to take over the Bank o New Zealand and carry on certain kind of banking. Mr W. Gale asked if Mr Steward would favour a Bill to extend the period of compulsory vaccination to twelve months.

Mr Steward said that he favoured the abolition cl the conscience clause in the Vaccination Act. He favoured stringency in this direction rather than laxity. Mr W. Petit moved a vote of thank* to Mr Steward for his address, and a vote of confidence.

Mr F. Smith aeconded this, which was carried by a few “ Ayes,” no one Toting against it. On the motion of Mr Steward a veto of thanks was carrie 1 to Mr Manchester for presiding, and this brought the meeting to a close.