A FINE START.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 247, 18 October 1928, Page 12

A FINE START.

MR. FLETCHER IN GOOD FORM.

POINT CHEVALIER MEETING.

REFORM AND LABOUR ATTACKED.

The United party's candidate for Grey Lynn, Mr. John S. Fletcher, opened his campaign at iPoint Chevalier last evening. The hall was crowded, and the speaker was given a fine reception, being accorded "votes of thanks and confidence.

"Any man who can make money in Dunedin is clever, and quite capable of looking after any financial interests we have," said the chairman, Mr. W. J. McMillan, in introducing Mr. Fletcher. Mr. McMillan added that Mr. Fletcher was absolutely honest and sincere, and would make a worthy representative at Wellington for Grey Lynn. "In fact, we out this way consider that we have got the pick of the United candidates," said the chairman.

Mr. Fletcher began by assuring his audience that he intended to make the fight a clean one, although he would indulge in some hard hitting. "This election," he said, "must be fought on the definite ground of whether electors are going to have their rights taken away from them." Mr. Fletcher was referring to the big increase in expenditure out of the Consolidated Fund. It was an amazing state of affairs that the .people of the Dominion should not have the right to control the country's purse strings. Last year the Reform Government spent £11,000,000 without consulting the people. The Consolidated Fund expenditure in 1922 was £21,999,604, in 1923 it was £21,317,579, while for the year 1924 it stood at £20,994,864. When Mr. Coates was returned to power in 1925 with an overwhelming majority the expenditure began to rise, for it increased from £21,762,617 in that year to £23,225,253 the next year, and last year it reached £23,928,889. Mr. Massey was entitled to credit for reducing this expenditure in 1923 and 1924, but when Mn Coates took office economy ceased. "And last yea'-." added Mr. Fletcher, "the Reform Govcrspent £11,000,000 without placing t,iat huge sum on the Departmental Estimates. I am giving that as the Auditor-General's figures. And yet no protest was made by the Official Opposition?'

The candidate, after strongly criticising the Reform manifesto, said that finance was the life-blood of a the country. ,In opening his campaign, Sir Joseph Ward outlined one of the boldest and most daring moves ever suggested in New Zealand—to borrow, during the next ten years, over £70,000,000. It was sound to borrow such a sum instead of throwing money away, as did the Reform Government on hydroelectricity. Sir Joseph Ward, if he got into power, wanted the money to complete railways that were still uncompleted, so as to make them interestearning. Sir Joseph Ward was the Dominion's foremost financier, and a wise, bold and enterprising man. Land Settlement. The United party offered a definite land settlement scheme, said the speaker, who added that he was a strong advocate of the zone and group system. He urged the opening of some 14,000,000 acres of potentially productive land near the existing railway lines and projected railways. Good pumice land could be had for from £5 to £7 per acre. "We are not going to send young men out to the blackblocks where there are no roads. Instead, we will encourage men who have gone off their farms to go back." *

Mr. Fletcher favoured agricultural education for New Zealand boys on similar lines to the Flock House scheme.' There should be an agricultural school for Auckland, where boys could be trained for three or four years, and then proceed to group settlement training farms, ultimately to become owners of the land by ballot, and on either the freehold or leasehold principle. Something, was necessary to stop the enormous drifts from the country to the towns. The Reform Government had lost over £5,000,000 tlirougli being too harsh on them. However, that loss was nothing compared to the loss of the soldiers.

Mr. Fletcher, stating his party's policy on taxation, believed that the burden of taxation should best be carried by those able to bear the burden. "We are going to see that the big squatter is fairly taxed," he continued. "There are nine families in New Zealand whose annual incomes total over a million pounds a year, and yet they are not taxed, because they derive this money from the land."

"The biggest factor in the coat of living is the question of transport," said Mr. Fletcher. The United party wanted the whole question of transport studied thoroughly, instead of it being muddled up by Reform. First there was an Order-in-£ouncil, then an Act of Parliament, a Government Commission, and then another Act of Parliament. Was it sound business for any Government to be stampeded like that? he asked. The figures quoted recently by the Manager of Railways,. Mr. Sterling, were described by the candidate as most misleading, for he did not state what it cost to remove goods to the purchaser from the railway stations. Three-quar-ters of a million pounds were lost by the railways last year." Unemployment. While admitting that the Government spent over £800,000 in relief works, Mr. Fletcher said that the unemployment was largely due t8 the compulsory clauses of the Dairy Control Act, involving a loss of £2,000,000 to dairy farmers. This started depression and created a feeling of uncertainty. Not only Reform, but the Labour party endorsed the Dairy Control Act. "Had Mr. Coates, some three or four months after he got into power, carried out his promises, he would have been lauded as a great man, but he failed," said the speaker. Even big Reform newspapers, had, by their leading articles, criticised Mr. Coates and told his party how to solve the unemployment problem by opening the unexpended balances of the main highways fund. If this money was released for reproductive work, it would mean that 4000 men could be employed for 12 months at a wage of £4 per week, while with the money from this fund the material for road work could also be purchased. "Isn't it folly to have men walking the streets when jve have money to employ these men at economic wages." (Applause.) "But the . Government would rather spend money in opening up Orakei for the benefit- of men who could afford to pay £1500 for a single section." (Cries of "Shame;") Mr. Fletcher then , answered a large number of questions. On the motion of Mr. Sipgletoq, who said that Mr. Fletcher was a worthy man to represent Grey Lynn, the candidate was accorded a hearty vote of thanks and confidence, there btiing only owe dissentient. '