MR. JENKINS AT REMUERA

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 254, 26 October 1928, Page 8

MR. JENKINS AT REMUERA

A CROWDED OPENING.

BUSINESSLIKE GOVERNMENT.

COATES' PARTY SCARIFIED

"The best first address I have ever heard," said the proposer of the vote of thanks and confidence at the Remuera Library to Mr. Harry J. Jenkins, the United party candidate for Parncll, who opened his campaign last night before a crowded audience, in fact many people had to stand all the time and many more were unable to get in the hall at all.

Observation and experience, said Mr. Jenkins, taught him that certain fundamental principles had to be. followed to achieve success in commercial life, and reason said that those same principles were also essential in conducting the business of the State. He claimed to have certain knowledge of business and finance gained through the hard school of experience. The Government, was the greatest and most varied business we had, therefore the country required men with varied experiences. That he claimed to have had, as a farmer, merchant and a manufacturer, plus the experience of extensive travel. The most urgent matter to be dealt with as affecting the great mass of the people, continued Mr. Jenkins, was a reduction in the cost of living. That, he believed, would be • best brought about by the redistribution of taxation. Customs and excise duties were the commonest and most comprehensive forms of taxation. On the other hand income tax provided for-payment by the man who had the means. He considered that the present distribution of taxation should be immediately revised, so that the man who could pay did pay. We should keep our tariffs as low -as possible, especially within the Empire. The high protective tariff tended to congregate the people in the cities. High protection might be essential in countries where the people were mainly industrial, but it was a short-sighted policy to pursue in a courtry like New Zealand, which was so essentially suited to carry an agrarian population. In 1915 our Customs receipts equalled 29 per cent of the total taxation. In 1927 they equalled 51 per cent. These figures would show why the cost of living ]|ias not been reduced. The fairest way to levy taxation was upon income. The Reform party repealed the tax upon incomes derived from land, relieving 20«4 of the biggest- squatters of £221,• 000 in taxation. They only paid land tax now. The tax on incomes up to £1200 was increased, but it was reduced between the £10,000 and £100,000 mark, relieving .237 taxpayers of £1,327,000 taxation. This meant that £1,548,000 was taken off the wealthiest and placed mainly upon Customs, affecting the class who did not pay any income taxation at aTI, owing to their very limited means.

The whole system of tariffs needed revising. The duty, on flour was raised from 30/ to £4 10/ a ton by the Reform party, and that protection meant 2d per every 4lb loaf. The tax paid by the public; companies, is a most unfair and unjust tax. It should be repealed or amended, provision being made to collect front foreign companies.

Land Settlement. " It was vital to New Zealand, said Mr. Jenkins, that settlement of the laud should be consolidated and expanded with the utmost energy. The present Minister of Lands was temperamentally unsuited to the post. In no public utterance of his during the course of thepast few years could there be found one grain of encouragement to the prospective settler. He placed the cost of settlement per head at up. to 200 per cent above the figures prepared by experienced farmers. He had repeatedly discredited sirfall farming, with which opinion the Prime Minister definitely and publicly disagreed." Thore were 14,000 fewer people on the land to-day than there were five years ago, and the area shOwn in occupation was practically stationary. In New Zealand over 95 per cent of our exports and 70 per cent of our, total wealth came from the land. Other countries encouraged the prospective settler, giving land and assisting to train and start him on a self-supporting holding. Before building fresh .railways we should endeavour to bring into cultivation the land at present lyihg idle adjoining existing railways. *The swamp area lying around Mercer, if drained, would, be amongst our jnost valuable assets. There were 300,000 acres of practically iulimproved swamp lands -lying idle alongside the 'railway line within 100 miles south of Auckland.

Too much thought had been given in New Zealand to educating the people for the professions, and not sufficient thought for educating them for a life upon the land. We had something like three men in the legal profession to 'every one in that profession in Aus--tr'alia.

The greatest menace was possibly the control of our State institutions by the Departments and its heads rather'than by the Ministers of the Crown. Their numbers had increased since Reform took charge from 60,000, receiving salaries amounting, to £8,000,000, to 82,000, and 1 salaries to £18,500,000. That was a very big percentage.. More especially when we realised that the total breadwinners in our country only amounted to 500,000. T> give an indication- of Departmental influence Mr. Jenkins drew attention to the fact that out of a total of gross expenditure of £57,000,000 by the State, £31,000,000 was not subject to annual appropriation .And £11,000,000 of this was spent by heads of Departments without being submitted to Parliament in their Estimates. That £31,000,000 Was increased from £15,000,000 when Sir J. Ward was Minister of Finance in 1918. After referring to the extravagant maimer in which the Reform party bad; been piling up the national debt, Mr. Jenkins gave startling instances of the tragedies caused by the Government's' muddling attempt to put soldiers on the land. , ■ ' _ When ouest?on time came ah aslced if: Mr., Jenkins would vote with Labour to put the present Government OUt. V ' " V' Mr. Jenkins: Yes. A Voice: And put Labour in? - Mr. Jenkins: Nol In answer to further questions, the' Candidate said he would, tax trusts off the faoe of the earth. He was a prohibitionist, and favoured the two-issue ballot paper and the bare majority. At the dose of an excellent meeting- the. candidate was given a vote of thanks and confidence, the only dissentient voice being that of al woman. A laugh greeted her shrill "No!" , Mr. Jenkins thanked the meeting for its magnificent also thanked tha solitary lady for having the courage to show her independence. '