TIT BITS FOR MEMBERS.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 282, 27 November 1919, Page 9

TIT BITS FOR MEMBERS.

REFUSA— OF A BRIBE.

STATEMENT BY MR. YOUNG. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) HAMILTON, this day. During the course of a political address here Mr. Young, M.P., stated that he was recently offered a bribe of £1,000 if he used his influence to induce the Government to purchase a certain property for soldiers' settlement at the owner's price. A Voice: Why did you not put him up? Mr. Young added that the offer was ■made in wribing by a friend of the owners. The speaker immediately sent for the oiT#ner, and told him the first thing he would now have to do would be to reduce the price by a full £1,000, and that the Government would have to make searching inquiry into the actual value of the land. He regarded the offer as an absolute insult, for it meant that the soldier boys would have to pay the bribe. He refused to associate himself with such bribery. (Laud applause.) The speaker said that during his term of office he had many tempting offers of tit-bits, but refused them all. He could defy any man to point a finger at him and say he had not done tlhe straight manly thing while he had been in Parliament. (Prolonged applause.)

CAMPAIGN IN MARSDEN.

MODERATE LABOUR'S VIEWS. (By Telegraph—Own Correspondent.) WHANGAREI, Wednesday. In the course of his speech at Mangawai the Moderate Labour candidate, Mr. A. H. Curtis, declared that he would nbt bind himself to support the official Labour party. For that reason he was out on a moderate platform, and had refused in addressing a meeting of the Labour party in Whangarei to make any concession to secure the a.-surance of a solid Labour vote. He had again and again stated that the present leaders of the Labour party, with their extreme views and enunciations, were the greatest hurdle that real Labour interests and progress had to overcome. He believed the new House would contain a very strong representation of Moderate Labour, and it was with these representatives of Labour that he was prepared to throw in his lot. He would never consent to become the "tied-houoe" of the present official Labour party.

THE RAGLAN SEAT.

MR. BOLLARD DEFENDS REFORM. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) HUNTLY, Wednesday. Mr. R. F. Bollard, Government candi-1 date for the Raglan seat, addressed between 300 and 400 people jo the Miners' 'Hall, Huntly, last night. Mr. R. L. Roberts, chairman of the Town Board, presiding. Mr. Bollard, who received a good hearing from all save a few interjectors in one part of the hall, spiritedly defended the Reform party's work, and also that of the National Government. In expressing regret that the National Government had dissolved, he .said it would in his opinion have been much better if the two parties had continued to work together for the solution of the big problems that confronted the country. The candidate spoke at some length on the measures passed for the assistance of returned soldiers, and discussed the improvements to the legislation relating to pensions. After answering a pretty big budget of questions, Mr. Bollard was given a hearty vote of thanks.

THE AUSTRALIAN DROUGHT.

AMAZING MORTALITY. Some observations of trie fearful ravages occasioned by the drought amongst sheep on Australian estates were made this morning by an Auckland gentleman who recently returned from a visit to the Commonwealth. Taking New South Wales as one of the worst instances of the vagary of nature so typical of Australia, he stated thai*, the death-rate was positively amazing, for of tiie eight million lambs that had .been added to the Hocks during the past lambing season no less than six million had succumbed. Not only had the lambs perished, but the mothers were also unable to withstand I the additional demand on their already | strained physical condition, and were dying in thousands. ~" I The situation was particularly acute I in New South Wales and Queensland, and so severe is the phenomenon that the grass is dying out to the roots, and hundreds of acres of formerly verdant pas- I ture have now been reduced to a sandy I waste, which is stirred up by the wind j and rapidly scattered over further devus-1 tated areas. Squatters are optimistic, however, over the recuperative possibilities of their holdings, and contend that once the clear sky gives way to moistureladen clouds and copiously disperses these over the country the latter will immediately respond with the necessary pasture. Another of the outcomes of the drought has been the Hooding of the stock markets, it being realised that it is better to sacrifice the stock to the low prices prevailing than to the inevitable fate awaiting them on the runs. The supply is much in access of the demand, and a percentage of the stock is of such inferior quality that it is only fit for] canning. I