MR. MASSEY'S DEFENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 124, 26 May 1911, Page 6

MR. MASSEY'S DEFENCE.

"WINTSTER'S FURTHER COMMENTS. ' {By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent) WEIIANGTOH, Thursday. "Mr. Massey'a reply 5s very tame after the boastful promise of 'nuts to crack,' which he made at the beginning of the .week," said the Minister for Education '(the Hon. G. Fowlds) to-day when dealing with, the latest interview given by Mr Massey to the Opposition Press." He complains all about my taking four lines ou"t of his speech on the financial etatement without the context, and he calls it a species of politics that one ■would imagine would not be indulged in by any fair-minded politician. This is yery funny, coming from a gentleman, ■who, in his previous interview, insinuated that I had jeered at the farmer members of Parliament without making any reference to the cause of my criticism on the occasion referred to, and from a gentleman who is at the head of a party organisation which at the last election, circulated thousands of leaflets or pamphlets with so-called extracts from my speeches and speeches of some of my colleagues, wrung from the context in the most outrageous fashion. As an exponent of what the single tax would do Mr. Massey is the soul of candour and exact knowledge. I note that he does not attempt to question the accuracy of the figures I gave at Pukefcohe. Let mc repeat them. They are extracts from table 4 of Parliamentary return B 17, A 1907, which showed that 22,890 owners of country lands out of a total of 45,068 —i.e., more than half of them—own less on an average than £181 woHh, and if all the other taxes were Rbolisbed they would pay on an average li-ss than £9 a year. If you take Customs duty at £3 per head, which is less than the average for the last five years, that means £15 for a family of five persons, father, mother, and three children, or a saving of £6 per year per family, without taking into consideration the profits of the traders on the duty paid and the enhanced price of local products. That remission of taxation would mean a very handsome return for the ' decreased value' of the land men tioned by Mr. Massey. I notice that Mt. Massey announced his intention of dealing with mc in the future only on the platform," said the Minister in conclusion, adding, "I think his decision is a wisp one."