THE REBUTTAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 72, 24 March 1923, Page 12

THE REBUTTAL.

SIR JOSEPH WARD'S REPLY. His orpoxET.r ., vo:;sense. DRIVING HOMF T:>T TRUTH. r ■;■.;-;■ - 1 : r ' ■. ■ !: iv ■•_•■■ ': ■ "i sir I a V, . : : i i, \c| ]■■ .:•■••• :' - . > : .'■ • • . -d ti,.M Pr I ■• .■•■ li: 'i| . . . •■ ■ .--. ■ -■■■: arr tl i. ]" ..'c :• ■ ,■ - ' ■ ■ .-i.'.. ■■■ ' ■■ Is goillj !•■ '.. ■ M ■ ■ '■■ I - ■ ■ '! . I.' en pre ci,:. .i iii ■■ .•':■•• nn :ir ■. poli: c, of P..i ■-..i ■■ " - ..:-.. :..-!,■ ai f Miii!-i. r- ■ i " : • '■■.mi aid - m. ral -at .lliic. and • , ■■- ■• ■■■ :i - .n-lv l:o had le'cidi I Inn-; m I ■■■■ m-i. I.i come iner anil 1. n.l a ■~'<: l. I '■■' ..tin r -:,1,. had I,t:i f.,||..« ii.' ■.- round in an endeavour '■• ::■■< • . -i-i -ay. :.in r!,i-y \rere noi .-'"ii'_" in _•■' i In , ii- ! -ay. In the c.ivr. f a .!.n .■■■ i .... Mr. \\ ilfor.l and ..i r :-.i.. . ■ ■. -■ v. .uld : "- r- nly tn lend a hand in i he . anip.ii.'ii. In i l "' bring aiong -onic ~uh u< heip in the battle. TK.V I'Kn I KNT. Sir Joseph rcnmik.Ml t'lai the Prime Minister had de.l.ire.l tliai there was no | eight per eenl nioiiev in New Zealand. lint he had re vin-d n telegram that Taranaki farmers wire pa\i;ig ten per | cent. I "Vim can't knock common -■.■u..e in".o ] the heads of some of the men who oughl to have it knocked into llii-m.' , said -ir Josepli. in rofi-rriiii: to the moratorium. 1 Tile moralorium nuirlit to have been ; lifted ii-iiiHMliatclv t!ie war ended, but now that it had been extended, it could not, be immediately lifted without ruin-J ing hundreds of people, tinle-s something, were provided to take its place. That' meant that there must bo a rsuUioiency j of money to take tiie place of the money . due when the Act w - -111 out of opera- | tlon and when, he -aid. twenty-live millions of money would he rc.piirivl. There was no denying that fact, l-ecause that , was the least amount that would be needed. (Applause.) "WE MUST HAVE HOMES" Tt was true that there was a great , scarcity of workers' homes. The cans ■ was the war. winch had necessitated the reduction of public expenditure, nnd people had to be stopped from building. At , that tim- *he country and the individual j could not get the requisite number of homes, and there was now a shortage j of twenty thousand houses. These homes | had to be provided unless, we wanted to ; have a blemish on our public- records, j our national records, our municipal re- j cords, and our private records ec]unl to j the unwritten blemish on the old Conn-1 try because of lark of vision by the j men there fifteen hundred years ago. j TVhat was the good of any man talking. to him about frenzied finance? Such a| charge was utier nonsense. This country , had to build these homes, lie did not . think the Government should attempt to j build the homes, but they ought to ; advance the money a>. a low rate of in- I terest to enable men to acquire houses i at a comparatively low rental. The , money must be provided without going on the London market, but it could lie provided without the taxpayers Laving' to pay a single shilling. j XEKD FOR PROGRESS. The exigencies of a situation due to the aftermath of the war had to be provided for. said Sir Joseph. Side by . side with that we could not stop the progress of the country while we were providing for these uncial or humane j tilings that put people into independence j and under no obligation once they were , done, for there was freedom an;', independence at their basis. Under his proposals there was no taxation imposed, nnd it was not necessary to stop the progress of the country in various ways j if we had only a little imagination and a good deal of courage. •POT/TOY SUMMED W. '■As far as T am concerned." said Siri Joseph ill concluding an hour and n half!) s.eech. "1 shall be proud and honoured to be your representative. It you do mc the honour of returning mc, T shall try to do my duty to the best of my ability. Many difficulties are facing Xew Zealand, affect ing various classes of the community. 1 think it is going to take t:ie use of the brains of the thinking men of all sections of Parliament to help this country to get to the position in which we hope to see it. The whole country is in a state of unrest, and. as sensible people, we recognise we cannot stop that unrest.. We have got to stand our portion of it in the best way we can. Xone of us obj-x't to paying the right penalties the war has imposed on us. It is necessary, and T make no complaint in that respect. I complain of the waste that 5s going on. the pcrpei nation of war taXPS in peace. the want ni implication of those in power, and the disturbing under elements which they cannot see Tenuire to he put riirht. -■ as to yet the fabric on a firm ba-is. !. f,,r one. want to help to ct-r the bus,, riirht. so that the position will not tr"! worse. T am out for thai t.i the leHnr. Y,,n nirree or do not acree. It F should be returned to Parliiment T ceri linly -1i..,,U !„-. tnlkiniX Rlwiiil some of th.-=e things 1 h.ive placed before you. nnd 1 -h.ilM,,. Irvinit to put them ricrlii."" T-oud cheer l ; were given when Pir Joseph concluded his speech which ]|,d lweii f.rlowed will) great interest \ unanimous vote of eimliden.'e w« ' ' *]*■' : '; n "" i t" r< f,,r ,] " , >-™>v-utv. Then t ip audience fans. "For He's , ■T"">- (: 1 K..11..W." The moonlit harbom- was one, more crossed by s;,-Jo-el, ami .■ v.tv happy party of supporters, including more than one cnnvor.cd from Ihe ..] si;,. ~a mp Th " party sang songs, g.ive cheers f or the candidnle. and made the -hort trip a -memorable end to a nuin..iable meetin" gowl deal of louragi". "We ha\e got to change cur present. methods because , f i-mrmManees l.eyond ■the eountr.Vs , •.,!.'• -aid .loseph. "I honestly -ay thai 1 Udievc »,. can do things ;,, a dilTereni way. We cannot do them in tlic presen* way without doing an injury : ■) ourselves and to onj people. What do I get ": Frenzied finance:

! ■:■ :,.. -M-j.-tion of any »<r. or kind, j i ■ ■■ nuihe building up of any sort j ... ■!■:." i MiHiNsHINK CUITIO. j , .; ~.,-j, then explained his policy . ■ ...ri-irn null oi raiUey, •""' s:,,a ~• .. mc! hods-ui obtaiiKiif! m.mi-y . .'■ ~; ~,, railways, it we wanted , . :i1 ,r,..,...i mule u'e wereulive. «ore ' ~,.,-. :,ear.) He explained . ~,, . ,\ , m .,,■ of contractors by i ~.„„., ;' !,', iid-. It was nonsense t" ; , .'■. -~: ,i i: tin- stocks boUrncing <" , . ■, - ,|id fall in value thai I lie loss ; '■ .-.,11 ..ii ill- ji.M.ph of New Zealand. ' ... ::,!-■ l-i-l.n -.'.! 1" 'be man who riaic j .'"■ ,;, ; and if ihcv depreciated .■>• I '' . ,',,..,,. ,„,, !„„. To say anybody , , J,., „;,. ,„,;■,. moonshine. J ■ v , ~.,| |~,\c ,\e been doing for J rrtriO -. r .10-i>n!i "It aim.'Si makes a j , : ',', .. k 1,, i,,'.iir this propof.il Icruied ~, ~ i,, N,.« Zealand «" , ;, .",: : , i/njing thuiiMimU and :.iiii- . • ~.,;-,,.,is of acre.- vi laud nith- ; . ~,„;,., ~;„„> pie,e for thvm. Wh:,. ;■•;■•(; iMTiimciit did noi d« tha". in ; ;.',„ !,,,,d for snldici , --: i Hear, hroir.l ,;'.,',' •, onhl hiiu- beiMl no lan.l boom. ■ . . ,- r-n mi t'ac land at £:»>. £■!«'. »"'• . , ■'.', ~ ~,, ~,,,,,, i ha,, it is w.irlh. Tiieiv ....', ;,,,,. l:,-..n no men walking off and . ,;• •• ih. ir all In-hind them. There ! i 1,-.,.- !.ecn no soldiers getting their j •.',,,';.■, i: it ■• could no*, pay capitalNeii, . , ,:.. i;,.riii.j another millstone added to , a|i-.-!idy' roiinil their necks." Ii ,i;,.- further with tho railways, sir . ,!„,./, ;.i election time and telling people j i;.,';!•., ,|" |lii\\ irniny would be alive 511 . ~,.. lience. when 'it was evidently ; i ;ended i i luiM' the railways HnWu-d? 11,,.,.,. , v; ,s ii gr.oil deal of criticism j IcudVd at the New Zealand railways. !■ U.i- not the railways that were wronir. |..ii i|,,. iKilifv of the (lovernmenl. that; k'.m wroM" The railways and the rail-,' •. ivnieii "were frenuently blamed for Iliings for whi'h the llovernmenl was! i.-:.,.n-i'le. With a proper policy, he | knew ,<i his own knowledge the railways w..uld aivo good results. Hv' had seen; I lip railways of many countries, and New j /.■iihiTiil railways. (mm the point of view | ~f maintenance nnd rolling stock, were, ! ctter t linn nil of them. j s ; r .10-enh mn.'e nn imnortaiit point j u'len he said thai }vM about the time i ,< •!,,. (invpvnn'nnt to purchase the! Miitamntn estate with Government stock! *■; i.re-en , were the very : iHOple who applied <o him and his col-; l. ~.-„*.! <|.o lovf'v sTliibriouo term "The j Seven Devils of P<vinlism" for what the Adniinist ration was then doing. (,iriBRLIXC OVKR TAXATION". Pealing with taxation. he said New /.■aland, beyond all question, was the must lieavilv taxed country in the British Empire, and no quibbling would a her the position. There had been an increase of sixty-ei<rht millions of fresh debt in this country since the end of the war. It had rispn from one hundred • nnd fifty millions four years ago to two hundred and nineteen millions in 1022. The heavy taxation with which Xew | Zealand was burdened affected every ■man and woman in the country. Tndustry could not stand it. Some of the businesses that used to be among the finest in the country were unable to bear it any loncer. and these businesses were very l.;<j employers. lie wanted to pee conditions in the country stabilised. That was what he was out for: that wis what lie would strive for. One of the points that his opponent claimed superiority on was knowledge of the diiirving business, hut the fact was that In-. Sir Joseph. h?d been mixed iin with fnrmers all his life. He had, when in office, raised large sums of money to help farmers out of their difficulties. Another point made in favour of his opponent was that he had had local body experience, but it was not mentioned that he (Sir Joseph Ward) had been on various kinds of local bodies for many years, and had cot to the top of all of them. When he arrived in Tauranga this evening he hud heard a rumour that he had determined not to stand for Tiumnga again if he were elected on the present occasion. tlißt he had determined to stand for somewhere else. The fact was that he had represented only one seat in Parliament in tlu thirty-two years he was there, and he would repre-, snnt only one other seat, nnd that was Tauranga. (Applause.) He had often been asked to leave his old seat and stand for another, but had refused to do *o. If elected for Tauranga he would stick to the people of Tauranga as lonas the people stuck to him. (Applause.)!