MR P. MORTON'S CANDIDATURE

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 273, 17 November 1922, Page 7

MR P. MORTON'S CANDIDATURE

UXIAXIMOUS CONiFIDEXCE VOTE. In the course of an address to a meeting of Eden electors at the Jubilee Hall. Kingsland, last night, the Liberal- i , Labour candidate, Mr. F. S. Morton referred to the criticism of the Hon. C. J. Parr on Mr. T. M. Wilford's speech. ' Probably if the .Minister of Education had been in the Town Hall and heard ' the brilliant condemnation by IMr. Wil- ' ford of the Government he would have shrunk into silence. It had been said , by -Mr. Parr that the Liberal party ' had no policy, but the candidate held in : his hand a copy of the Liberal party's ' policy, which was one he was proud to ' be fighting for. True, Mr. Wilford had not been a<ble to devote the time he should have liked to his policy, but the , main plank of any Government's policy was a sound finance, without which no [ country could prosper, but the incom- ; petency of the Reform Ministers who s were drawing big salaries without giv- . ; ing a return was so great that Mr. i Wilford had had to spend most of his ] , itime in exposing that incompetency. ] Mr. M.orton quoted a few of the samples i , I of incompetency stated by Mr. Wilford. i ij THE LIBERAL FOLLOWIXG. I The Minister of Education had sad ', ' there were defections from the Liberal | camp. He did not refer to defections in the I Reform party that had -been tided over by the offer of Cabinet portfolios. When |Mr. Scddon passed away the party was ' 'not pledged to Sir Joseph Ward, nor ' j was it pledged to support Sir Roderick ' i McKenzie when Sir Joseph Ward went away, or 'Mr. Wilford when Mr. Mac- ' kenzie went away. But the party had realised Mr. Wilford as their right and : proper leader, and if the electors read ■ j "Hansard" they would find that he con- | trolled 21 votes in the House against i j the Reform party. There were renei gade Liberals; one went over only the ' other day. But triie Liberals were like ' .' leopards," they could .fight and did not i , I change their spots. It was only a snake 1 .' that could shed its skin, but it still re- < , mained a snake. Tlie claims of Reform l i were amusing. Amongst other things l • tlaey claimed sole right to the Union i i Jack, and they claimed that they were i i the true Liberals, but said that ; i Liberalism did not belong to anyone in , i i particular. The trouble with them was • , I they were waking up to _ the situation ' and trying to change their spots. MATTERS FIiNIA'X'CIAL. ' Proceeding to a criticism of the ■ ! financial position, Mr. Morton quoted ' the Auditor and Controller-General* ' report that few of the departments ' were efficiently controlled, resulting j ! in loss, difficulty in checking the stores, ' and property, and theft. That was thej ' most damning indictment ever levelled 1 at any Government in this country, and 1 among the departments mentioned toy : the Auditor-General in his indictment ' was the Education Department. The E candidate quoted the Xew Zealand . "Herald" in criticism of the country's '■ finance, read from the "Farmers' Union ' Journal" an extract referring to the '■ sinister spectre of vested interests as I the power behind the throne, and finally i I referred to the reported statement by Mr Massey himself in his speech at i Foxton, that "no country could possibly ; carry the load of taxation that New , Zealand is carrying." One of the reasons i|for the tig load of taxation, he de-

clared, was the fact that the country had been let down by Reform during the war time when OTeat Britain was paying U.S.A. 4/2 and Denmark 4/ per pound for butter, and bargained to get Xew Zealand butter at 1/5J per pound in return for ships that brought British merchandise at prices which were unrestricted. If the butter had been sold at the world's parity at the time, the same as the poods brought from Britain in the ships were, the producers and the | country would have s ot £-23,000,000 jmorc than they did get" | The candidate criticised both destruc- | tively and constructively the Hoard of I Trade, Uie Defence and Naval questions.) soldiers' settlements, education, housing, railway and industrial problems, j and at the conclusion of his address was ] accorded a vote of thanks and con- ; ridencc. !