PARTY FUNDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 154, 2 July 1927, Page 11

PARTY FUNDS.

AND PARTY PROMISES. TEE GARDEN OF EDEN. A NEW HEAVEX AND A XEW EARTH. TEMPERATURE HIGHER XOW. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLIXGTOX, this day.

Lavish advertisement during the general election provides a constant topic for critical members, and this discussion was resumed in the House today by Mr. W. A. Veitch (Wanganui), who said he was not so much interested in the explanation of Ministers as to the size of their fund as where the funds came from. "What about your own?" queried a Ministerialist. Mr. Veitch: "It won't take me long to tell you. We are rich in the goodwill of citizens, though not in funds in the bank." He was interested to hear that Reform's funds were less than £15,000. The standing orders required him to believe that statement, and he would do his best. What were the promises made in return for those funds ? He made the statement as a responsible man that it was impossible for a political party to accumulate a vast sum of money "proiiigately spent without having made some promise to someone. Hon. A. 1). McLeod: "What promise?" Mr. Veitch: 'The promise of a change of Government would be more popular in the country." The law provided for a maximum of f 200 to be spent by and ou behalf of any candidate, but tliis clause was gravely violated last election. He advocated an election court, which could sift any charges ci this kind and investigate expenditure with a view to ascertaining its legality. Campaign Advertisements. The production of election campaign advertisements to discredit the Reform party is not exclusive to Labourites, for Mr. Veitch produced one bearing the portrait of Sir James Parr, in which it was stated that £2M,000 had been spent, on schools for workers' children in his electorate. "Over what period?" queried a member of the Reform side. Mr. Veitch: "I am reading the advertisement as it is. That's the only honest thing I have. (Laughter and "cries of "Is that all."'). Mr. Veitch said it had been claimed that Reform was pure and clean, but Sir James Parr's advertisement set out that all this money had been spent on schools, and 360 Government loans had been granted in Eden—surely the Garden of Eden —to induce people to vote for him. Mr. Veitch said he had been through the backblocks of Xew Zealand lately. A voice: "What doing!" Mr. Veitch: "Doing my duty to the country, and telling the* truth about sßeforin." ..-Where ever he had gone he had seen that there were schools that were deficient in comfort and accommodation. In some districts there were no schools at all, and in others schools were overcrowded. Yet a Minister of the Reform Government could use this advertisement to get votes. It would be interesting to know if this sort of thing applied to other Departments of State. Hon. A. D. McLeod: "You know it doesn't." Mr. Veitch said he had lost his faith in Reform. Mr. Coates: That doesn't trouble anyone but yourself." Mr. Veitch: "Thatdoesn't trouble me." When the Prime Minister went to the country in 1925 he promised the electors a new heaven and a new earth, but he had since given them something with a temperature higher than either. The Minister of Lands, who sought to reply to this statement, endeavoured to show that Mr. Veitch had not always been true to Liberal principles. His record in the House, said the Minister, was one of political acrobatics. Mr. Veitch: There are some members of the Reform party equally agile. Mr. Sullivan: Your leader (Coates) came into the House originally as a Liberal. Mr. McLeod declared that he himself was a better Liberal than Mr. Veitch had ever been. (Ironical laughter.) Mr. Veitch: Xow we will have some politics."