Manifesto.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXIII, Issue 281, 6 December 1911, Page 5

Manifesto.

Prime Minister's word to the people.

CLAIMING RENEWAL OF CONFIDENCE.

[PRESS association. 1 INVERCARGILL, December 5. The Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, has issued the following manifesto to the people of New Zealand : Fellow Citizens. —On Thursday next the Government, of which I am the leader, submits itself to the tribune of public opinion, and asks for a verdict in its favor as to its claims and fitness to continue in your service. The Liberal Government of New Zealand have always been patriotic in the true sense. They have felt and expressed continued faith in the destinies of their country. They have never hesitated to trust the people. They have stood true to Liberal principles, and their arm has always been national progress, democratic enlightenment, and the fullest possible extension of personal liberty, consistent with the happiness and well-being of the people. Such were the ideals of the present Government when you entrusted it with the administration of your affairs three years ago and these ideals we have consistently and resolutely striven to be faithful. No human institution can claim perfection. Xo Government is, but we have honestly endeavoured to promote the well-being of the country and its people. It is for you to say now whether you desire a continuance of a progressive and humanitarian Government in the Dominion or whether you wish to recall to power the party who we.ro in existence before the democratic awakening of 1891. This is the issue, and I ask the electors of the Dominion, before coming to a decision on that issue, to stop and glance at the outstanding features of the political history of New Zealand for the last twenty years, and to compare the conditions of the country before 1891 with what we have accomplished .since. LOOKIXO BACK. What was the condition of the country before 1891:-' It was a country of rich resources and tardy development. Industries languished. Our people were leaving the country by thousands. In the eyes of the nations Xew Zealand was little more than a name on the map, a lit'le insignificant outpost of civilisation. These conditions, which made us virtually unknown, were those which obtained under a system of Government such as the opponents of liberalism in Xew Zealand to-day are* commending to our suffrages. Let the younger generations who have grown up since these days ask their fathers how things were under the Conservative Government before 1891. THE AWAKENING. Tlie vivifying wave of liberalism swept over Xcw Zealand in 1891. The country had to be aroused if it was to be saved. The need was urgent and the man arose. Tin; name of Ballance will be held in everlasting honor in Xew Zealand. So too that of Seddon. These two men were the forerunners of the Liberal policy which has brought Xew Zealand to its present high position among the peoples of the world. The impetus given to national progress has grown and been mighty in its effects. •Notwithstanding the many changes in personnel and circumstances the Liberal Government of Xew Zealand has remained in ideals and principles essentially the same. A Government working honestly and resolutely for the good of our country and for the happiness an wellbeing of the people. WHAT YVIO HAVE DONE. In 1891 we turned our backs on the old schemes and shifts of the Conservative party. We decided to trust the people. We. recognised ihat in the schemes of Liberal reforms and development the voice of the people must be supreme. Our government was, and it is now, a government by the people and for the people. We recognised that we had to take, cognisance of the needs and circumstances of the citizens as individuals, to break down the great landed territories and to aim at equal opportunity for all. Keeping this in view we introduced and carried .through in the teeth of Conservative opposition, reform after reform which has been of acknowledged advantage to the people. We introduced in the faseof determined hostility the graduated land tax. We destroyed hind monopoly, and unlocked the land. Five hundred and eightyfour owners field and had been allowed to hold by the Conservatives between them over" 10,000,000 acres of the country's best land, while in cities the unemployed were ekeing out a miserable existence on relief work at 3s 6d and 2s 6d per day. These reforms alone were sufficient to earn and the polls will 1 am confident, prove that they have earned—the Liberal Government the continued support of the people but wo have done much more. We have been able to introduce innumerable and far reaching measures for the social betterment of the people. We. have broadened and humanised the law with regard to the treatment, of the mentally afflicted. We have labored incessantly in the direction of amending the law for the better protection of women and children, and for the preservation of infant life. To-day in these respects Xew Zealand is acknowlegcd to be in the foreground, if indeed, not in advance, of any other country.

While our opponents have talked land reform we have consistently worked to place people on the land, and to-day there are 150.000 souls throughout the country on the land as the .result- of our policy. In the- face of determined opposition of the party which now asks to be entrusted with the Government, the Libera] (government, established a beneficial system of old age, pensions and set an example and furnished n model in awakening democratic countries in other parts of the world. Acts havo been passed placing education on a more liberal basis. Opportunities for the poor man's children have been multiplied by the- multiplication of scholarships. In educational matters New Zealand is now admittedly one of the most advanced countries in the world. The. health of the communities has received our attention. No previous Government in New Zealand had ever attempted to do for the individual citizen what the Liberal Government has done aaid is doing. We won from Par liament, in the face of protracted -opposition, the power to make advances to settlers. Factories ' and Shops and Offices legislation was passed for the general benefit of those concerned. A system of conciliation and arbitration,

which, though not perfect, has been of great service to both employers and employees, was passed. These are only a few of the important reformatory measures which have been placed on the Statute book. " The Liberal Government can claim to have made New Zealand in every department of social activity the most advanced country in the world. PRESENT AND FUTURE. New Zealand's prosperity is solid beyond question. Its population to-day is greater by 400,000 than in 1893 and obviously the work of the Government has greatly increased. New Zealand to-day is the most prosperous country in the world. Industry is extremely active. Our workers throughout the country are employed. Traders are doing well and money is in plentiful supply. The great money magnates of the world know that, our financial position is sound and they have proved their belief in us whenever a New Zealand Joan is put on the London market. With our finances as sound as they are, with our rich and wonderful country waiting to be further opened up, with only half a million people, we cannot pretend to have reached .the limit of our development. I am in favor of borrowing within reasonable limits for lending to settlers, workers and local public bodies (so long as it is done on ample security) for the people, and for the furtherance of necessary railway and reproductive works. Injudicious borrowing I am as strong against as any man in the country. In view of the wonderful progress and development in the. Dominion the loans we have raised have been both judicious and necessary. Of the total .amounts since 1906 some, four and a half millions have been advanced to settlers and the interest is payable by them. £2,318,900 has been advanced to local bodies, on which the taxpayer pays nothing in interest. £l,600,000 was devoted to the purchasing of lands for settlement and the interest on that was paid by way of rent and not by the taxpayer. £4,815,688 has been spent on railways and the interest is paid by the users, and so I might go on. There is no question about the outlook. It is distinctly encouraging. ATMS AND INTENTIONS. What are our aims and intentions? We have marked out our course and we shall resolutely adhere to it. Our ideal is a progressive democracy directed to humanitarian ends. We shall maintain our policy of land settlement, and which has placed 150,000 souls on the land. We shall continue to distribute the burden of taxation so that it shall in no case fall hardly on the shoulders of the working majority of the people. We shall continue the construction of railways and Ihe carrying out of public works in an order strictly related to the

"greatest good of the greatest number." YVe are extending the principles of the Old Age Pensions scheme by making provision for the support of fatherless children. We have in the past done much for, and are earnestly desirous of doing justice to. our railway employees and all the branches of our public service. We propose to offer still further help to the settlers and the farmer and worker by furnishing them with cheap money. We are assisting widows with children by providing them with pensions, and mothers by the contribution of £6 as a maternity fee. We are cheapening the telephone service, as we have already cheapened the railways and postal and telegraphic services. We are increasing the postal facilities in remote- districts. We are making provision for a plentiful supply of cheap water power, ensuring widely increased employment. We are providing a sinking fund for the repayment of the whole of our existing and future loans. ■Our finances are on a sound and linn basis. In conclusion, 1 recognise the greatest aim of every democratic Government is to give equality of opportunity to its people. It has been with this aim that all our battles have been fought, and nearly all our great legislative measures carried. It was with this aim thai we brought to the hands of the small settlers some twelve millions of capital at the lowest rate of interest and we have so helped 32,000 settlers. It is with this aim that we have lent £1,800,000 in a few years to 6487 workers. Contrast the opportunity thus given with the days when small farmers had topay 8 or 10 per cent, and more for their money with legal costs and procuration fees into the bargain, and when working men were unable to borrow on almost any terms. The aims which guided us in the past shall continue to bo our aims in the future. Our opponents by "whatever name they describe, themselves, are the same party who were in )iower before us, and who have tried to stand in the way of progress, and have persistently opposed Liberal legislation. If you want a safe test to which side Conservative or Liberal, is on the path of progress, ask yourselves behind which party stand the great landholders. 0 Land monopoly and progressive smaller settlement are as far asunder as the Poles, and no man can be a true friend of the principle of smaller settlement, who is supported by, and stands in public life as, a champion of the great landed interests. DEEDS, NOT WORDS. Finally, 1 ask my fellow-eitiy-ens to judge us by deeds, not words. To survey fairly and impartially what we have attempted, what we have done, and on that test not in the vague promises of our opponents, to decide for themesleves whether the Government is to continue along the path of progress and development, or is to be handed over to the party of privilege and reaction. JOSEPH GEORGE- WARD. Invercargillj December 6. 1811.