MANUKAU ELECTORATE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 263, 3 November 1908, Page 3

MANUKAU ELECTORATE.

MR. F. W. LANG AT ONEHUNGA. •Mr F. \V. laTtiic. the member for Manukau, who is seeking re-ele>ction, addressed electors at Onehunga last night. The Foresters' Hall was crowded. Mr John Rowe, Mayor ai Onehunga. presided. LOCAL MATTERS. The opening portion of the candidate's address was devoted to references to matters of purely local interest. In speaking on the question of the control of the Manukau Harbour, he claimed that he had d-one everything he could and everything that was necessary in the interests of the district. By keeping the question of dredging before the Government, he had secured a vote of £1000. It had been said that the Liberal and Labour Federation had got the money voted, hut this was not so, for whfn he noticed that the omission had been made he had approached the Minister and obtained a promise that the vote would he placed on the Suppleraentary J—.timates. " And this had been done before anyone in Onehunga could have been aware of the. omission. He had urged the Government to erect in Onehunga a courthouse which -would better meet the requirements of tbe place, but the only satisfaction he had been given was that "the matter would revive careful consideration." His efforts to obtain a reserve to be set aside as an endowment for the proposed new bridge nornss to Mangere had also been unsatisfactorily attended to. "KOADS AND BRIDCrE-S." Mr Lang said he had heard all over tbe electorate, "You vote tfor the Government because they will spend morr. in your district if you get them returned." He had said a good many things about the Government, but had never accused them of that. One of the Ministers had asked for a return of the money voted, and of the three electorates at the top of the list, two were represented by Oppositionists. Someone in the hall had a.sked how much ho had got for his electorate. Well, his electorate was oue oi the two he had referred to. (Applause.) A voice: More credit to the Government. Mr Lang: That is what I say. People had been told that if they gave, a block vote for the Government they would get the money they needed for roads nnd bridges. The block vote for the party in power had been given, but the money had not been received tor necessities —not while the Government man was in. Others were going about the place saying, "What has Lang done! Lang has done nothing." He would tell them what Lang had done.

An interjecting punster: You are too "'lang" about it. The candidate said that be bad received the thanks of the various Toad boards in the electorate for his efforts. Altogether, the votes he had secured amounted to £4000. Only £4407 bad been voted for the MatauTa electorate, which was represented by the Hon. Mr McNab. Comparatively, therefore, the speaker had done well. Mr "Lang then claimed that he. had got what was asked for at the Otahuhu railway station, and had been instr—nental in securing the better train service. A WARMTNfJ PAN. This, the candidate said, -was the first time he had ever been accused of being a "warming pan" —that he was only keep- | ing the place warm for the Opposition. How could this be. when he had come and had lived among the electors, and was again offering his suffrages to the electors who had honoured him with askimg him to represent them and by ret—rn-. ing him? DATE OF THE ELECTIONS. Mr. Lang presumed that the announce- j ment of the date of the elections had come as a very gTeat surprise to the public. The Government had made the i second ballot the excuse, but that was not the reason. The real reason was the gag again. -Everyone knew of the Government's attempt to gag the Press. - There was nothing which this Government so disliked as free criticism. When he said that the springing of the date of the elections as a surprise was another attempt at gagging, he meant that it was to prevent certain candidates from delivering addresses in every part of their electorate. Attempts had been made to gag the •Press in the Second Ballot Bill and the Libel Act. NEW ZEALAND'S FINANCES, i If anyone said anything against the __—tees of the Dominion the Government replied, "You are criticising the credit of i —te country." Weß, if the &_nces were sound, he wo_fd think that the Government's words wot—i be, "Criticise it by all means." THE DAIRY REGULATIOjVS. The dairying industry had gone ahead splendidly in the Auckland province, and it would be. a serious thing if anything happened to cause a ©lump or to hamper I it. When the dairy Tegulationa came I down from, tho committee, a. surprise to the Opposition was effected. They came i down one wftemoon, though they had not i been 4&rnec&ye& t_l tb» *ftifr^**^g*rn»' v *' l ""^ l

When the time to debate them ax rived, the Speaker asked permission to deal •with another matter. This other matter had taken much longer than the Speaker had reckoned, and only 25 minutes remained for the discussion on the dairy reg—a tions hefoer the House was to rise. The Govern—ent members talked the question out until the time came to rise, and then the Speaker offered to sit for some time longer if the House would agree, but tbe Government members refused to do so. Thus the Opposition had been defeated on this question. THE BARE MAJORITY. The candidate said that he would admit that certain people had a very taking electkraeering cry on the bare majority question. They said, '"Why should you need three-votes to coirotera.ot two ?"' The reason was to give stability to tbe thing; to present see-sawing from one issue to the other. If the local option poll was decided on a bare majority there would be continuous warfare between fcbe two opposing parties during the interim. But if No-license was carried by a three-fifths majority, the continuance party would know that it had come to stay, and would be quiet. It would be. tyranny if the 'bare majority was to rule on all social questions. It did not follow that a man in favour of tbe three-fifths majority was against No-license. EDUCATION. The Opposition had supported the Education Bill, but they now found that the provisions did not mean what they had taken them to mean. He did not approve of the attitude ttte Minister bad taken up. According to the interpretation the Minister had given the committee, a first-assistant teacher in grade 10 who was now in receipt of £240 annually would not reach the minimum for six years. On the other hand, a teacher appointed to the position for tbe first time would straightaway he risen to the miniffliM after the first year. He described the regulations respecting the salaries of teachers as '"extraordinary legislation." What, he asked, would be thought of the Arbitration Court if they said" "This is the minimum award, but you arc not going to get it for five years"? OCR DEFENCE. Mr. Lang considered that our navy was our first line of defence, and he said that what we required was a force which would prevent an invasion of enemies. There had not been a member of the House who had voted against the increase in the subsidy to the navy. The volunteers weTe not encouraged as they should be. He strongly approved of the increased naval subsidy from £40,000 to £100.000. RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION AND EXPENDITURE. In dealing with railway matters the speaker dealt principally with the comparative allocations for the. North and the South Islands. .He endeavoured to refute the. assertions of the Hon. (J. Fowlds that the present Government had gradually beeu reducing the gap in the railway expenditure in the two Islands to bring the North up to the Smith Island. It had been argued that the difference had b°n wiped out, but what was the real position? The Prime Minister and the Hon. Mr. Fowlds. however, differed in the figures they gave. The figures given in the Year Book showed that there were 456 miles more railway open for traffic in the South Island than tbere were in the North Island. In 1002 the excess in the South Island had increased to 535 miles of railway, and the increase continued till in 1007 it had reached 570 miles. This showed that there was not even a small decrease, but an increase. It also showed clearly that there was favouritism towards the South Island. There was one railway in the South which ran only one train a week. There were eleven lines under construction in the South Island, as against seven in the North Island. When several of the lines demanded for the North Island were granted and commenced matters would be e\ cned up. He also complained that the work on the railways was sent to the South in undue proportion. He. considered that more work should be sent to Newmarket. THE ISLAND SERVICE. Another unfair thing which he laid at the door of the Government was trie voting of £7000 for the Tahiti to Wellington service. The real idea of this was to substitue tbe old 'Frisco service to Auckland by this service. It would l be Wellington to 'Frisco via Tahiti. In Sir Joseph Ward's first important speech, before he came into prominence he bad spoken against the service to Auckland, and the. candidate supposed that the Premier had not altered his views. SECOND BALLOT BILL. He had opposed the Second Ballot Bill. There would be no distinct ada-antage, and this measure, which had be.e n imported from Germany, would, he thought be wiped off tbe Statute. Book before the election following thai which was approaching. He then critcised the. bill with a view to showing thai, the bill would not do what was claimed for it. NEEDED A STRONG OPPOSITION. The candidate expressed a desire to emphasise the need 1 for a strong Opposition. The. Opposition had been responsible for much of the. good legislation on the Statute Book. (A droll voice: " Really.") Mr. Lang said that he wished to give all credit to Sir Joseph Ward for introducing the penny postage, and imme- ; diately afterwards took unto the Oppositon the credit. (Cries: "No, no; back pedaL") ! He had intended l to state the OpposiI tion platform, but time prevented him. . OTHER MATTERS. ! The candidate refuted statements which had been made to the effect I that he was an advocate of cheap wages. He held that there was far too much I legislation. Let us have more administration and less legislation. He attributed the depression in New Zealand) to the tightness in the money market and the shortage in the exports. After answering a number of questions, Mr. Lang was accorded a vote of thanks and confidence. The. motion was by Messrs. G. Moody and C. McLeod.