GOVERNMENT POLICY CRITICISED.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1084, 24 March 1911, Page 6

GOVERNMENT POLICY CRITICISED.

SPEECH BY MR. MASSEY. LAND AND FINANCE. A SUCCESSFUL MEETING AT KAIAPOI. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) Christchurc'n, March 23. JJr. .Mas*ey, leader of the Opposition. addressed a very vell-attcndcd meeting at Kaiapoi this evening. Mr. J. H. Black well, the Mayor, who occupied the chair introduced the speaker, stilting that all respected a man that could fight an uphill fight. 'Well, that was the position of Mr. Massey. Mr. Massey said he was sorry Sir Joseph Ward was away from the colony, hut lit was away on an Imperial mission, and he hoped that those he left behind would Ik able to defend his party. He was ol opinion that the Prime Minister was tin right man to represent the colony at sucli a gathering. • The Imperial outlook was not as bright as they might wish, but lie had confidence in the Umpire and its statesmen. The outlying Dominion! would have to take np new burdens 11 connection with defence, especially 11' naval matters. Sonic wanted separate navies, but he thought there should bt one navy under one control. Charter of Liberalism. He would reply to the charter of I.ib eralism put forward in seven points, am would deal with them one by one. (1) Access to the land with"-security ol tenure. Aud this Government was tin same that had staled that none of thosi going on the land should have the freehold this.was the party that had locked m Native lands. This was the party thai led its members into the lobby to. aetcat his motion • for the opening up of th< land aud giving security of tenure. (2) Access to capital at the lowest Tat< the State could furnish it. If a man len; money on land he was taxed for it. li< lent to the man on the land, and wa: taxed. If he lent to a business man hi would have to pay nothing at all. Ih ; man who owned the money paid n the first place, but passed it on. lh< Government had made it impossibli for citizens to find investment in tin country. Legislation should _be amendei to encourage investment in New Zealand Eeferring to access to land, he had beei on borough councils years ago. e . could borrow from the Government fo 41 years at 31 per cent, interest, and a the'end of the period all was paid off.. I was not so now. The law had beei amended so tiiat a local body wantin; cash had to pay <£1 17s. Gd. per cent. (3) Access to the means of transportatioi free where possible was the Government next plank. They would remember how th Government had increased railway rates and so gained <£100,000 extra. It did no square with the principle. (1) Access to motive power to individua local bodies. The legislation of Inst ses sion rendered the individual unable t mako use' of streams. (5) Access .to justice unimpeded by pov erty or delay. There was room for im provement. Stipendiary magistrates wer not as frco as they should be. The; should be free from allsuspicion of poli tical control. As things were, they de pended on the Government of the day fo their salaries. The salary should bo gooi and made incapable of alteration. The two other planks were access t insurance arid "to free education. It wa impossible for a private member to mov< for an increase of expenditure. Had i been possible, ho would have made th latter freer than it was. The Policy of Humbug, Some time ago he said the policy of tin Government was one of humbug. If tlii were not liked he would substitute hypo crisy. By their actions they had showei themselves'ioppfl«ed to their platform | Either their policy was one of hypocrisy or they were unable to form one. The; were, again stealing planks of th' policy of the parly now in opposition., .• Government was to be judged by its pro posals rather than by what it put on tin Statute Book. This Ministry's firs measure had been one prohibiting tin freehold. (Noise.) Ho was glad to sei that Government supporters were then | ready to recognise the leasehold policy 1 It was more than the Governmen itself did. Settler') ivho were build ing and improving their homes woulc • keep ' on wondering until the; : decided that the only tenure giving then full security'to be trusted for their pur pose was the freehold. When the presen Government came in it found a 'fairlj satisfactory land system, an optional sys teffl, though under the leas-a-in-perpetuitj a man could never get the freehold. Tin lense-in-perpetuity had been knocked oui 'now. A man could work hard and knovi that, when his first term was up he wouk 1 have to pay more rent. Mr. Massey em phasised the right of purchase for al land. The Bill of last session was tin most amazing ever put before tho House It provided for the Government taking land for least-, and at the end of tei years, if good the Government could keej it, if not, could give it back to the ownoi —the "heads I win and tails you lose' principle of compulsory leasing was in volved. He declared that this was bad The Land Bill had provided that a mar ; who, having -100 or 500 acres, found him i self short of feed, and agreed with hi: ■ neighbour to use his land, should b( i liable to a penalty for this. It was an • offence carrying a JCSOO fine or five years ! gaol. The land did not even need tc • be leasehold. A worker or a merchant i could work where he liked. All were en couraged, but in the case of some settlers, s if they acquired an acre in another part i they were criminals. It was not law ant • never would be, but it was the Governi ment proposal, with Sir Joseph Ward's i name at its head. He would not deal 1 at length' with tho amendment he pro- : posed last rear, but one point he would ' make was that each settler should have I the right of repaying the principal. Lot • them pay into a fund to reduce the • amount borrowed for tho original State I purchase. ; Borrowing. [ Borrowing had increased under the i Ward Administration, and the debt had I increased bv <£20,000,000. ill*. Ballance had said JC.iO.OOO a year was enough to t borrow. 11c (Mr. Massey) had admired , Mr. Seddon when lie said a million or a j million and a half was enough, and that he would rather goout than spoil the country's crcdit. Not so Sir Joseph ; Ward." He would have borrowed five millions bv the end of the year.' Re (Mr. Masscv) knew the money had to be borl rowedi! but he would distinguish between i extreme and moderate borrowing. Ho - would not say that the Government had 1 not had power to borrow five millions, r it had come again and again by mstalf ments, but few had thought he would pre- ; judioe the credit by borrowing five milt Hons all at ourc. He thought none were t more astonished than Sir Joseph Ward's 1 colleagues. He had faith in this coun- • ti'v Its credit should be as good as any; - better than Australia and equal to - Canadian. It pained him to say it. 1 but after that, loan we had stood below - the Australian States. The country was s right, its administrators were wrong, /he n Government's answer would be: What " would rou drop? His answer was to bore row as'little as possible, and spend where 1 most needed. 0 r Increased Taxation, ! lie would ask them to nolo the in--1 creased taxation. He knew extra taxa- „ Hon was required by the new Defence ; Act. For each .£1 necessary for that taxa- ■ tion had gone up XX It had gone up ~ by death duties and Customs duties. Cus(l toms were increased a few years ago. It was only to be a surtax and for a short time. Afterwards, when affairs were buovant, ho had suggested that they should be removed. The Government said "No." It wauled to get as much as pos- ? sijile out of the people. So in other matlers: banks, horse racing, even a sug- '' gestion to raise the rent of Crown tenants. ' but that had been abandoned. Some belicved that it was all right so lons as it fell on the other fellow. Take the case y of banks. Did anyone think that the I, extra tax on banks was paid bv tho I. shareholders? It went on to those who . were customers of the institution. So the s income 'tux was pawed, aud similarly all these tas« .were passed on to the people.

The effect ef all these taxes had been-to reduce the people's income. No country was ever benefited by heavy taxes. At prespnt the taxation of New Zealand was heavier than in any Australian Slate—he believed than in any other State of fhe Empire. He had facts and figures, ami would prove his statement.

Public Works. Last vear the Public Works vote was for 4:2,(100,000, this year 4:2,800,000. All the members had to do was to vote. It was all in the hands of Iho Minister. Private members knew nolhing except of their own district. The system led to abuses, and was wrong because they could have no check nil the spending. Last; year they had spoken of a new Local Government Bill. Boiled down, if meant lhat school boards and education boards were abolished and their power was transferred to local bodies, who would have to find the funds. Such money should come as at present, from the consolidated revenue. Ho had spoken of the Works Department as a despotism, ne might go further and say that (lie whole. Government of the country was a 'despotism. As to t'i'e postponement of Parliament, it seemed to him that it said that there was only one man fit to be Prime Minister. He believed that all that was left for the people of this country was the right to bo taxed. The Executive had usurped the power belonging Parliament as the direct representatives of the people. The Legislative Council members had as much to say as members of the Lower House, but were responsible only, to the party that put them there. He' believed in the Second Chamber, but it should lie independent. This quality was lost when the life term was abolished. The remedy was to liave the members elected by the system of proportional representation.

The Civil Service. The Civil Service was one of the biggest in proportion to population in the world, and the Civil servants were as good as any in the world. There should be public service boards as in Australia, so tliat there should lie equal chances for the children of each and every man. (Applause.) Ho believed the system would bo better for the railways where there was too much patronage. All over the land the were too many who voted on the strength of the belief in favours to come. He would ask any Government, supporter what was the policy of the Government. If he didn't know it, why did lie support it? But lie only knew it was from afternoon to afternoon, lie did not say a Government should not change its mind, but when a Government changed so. of ten as to mnkc it clear that it merely wished to hold office at any cost the people thought of Reuben "unstable as water thou shall not excel." Thd Government should put forth their policy and stand or fall by it'. (Applause.) Here were the opinions of Government men. Mr. Ross, on November 18, 1910, had.staled (hat the Government, was departing from all Liberal standards. Mr. Graham, of Nelson, had said this was the most incongruous Ministry lie had ever seen. Mr. Barclay, ex-member for Dunedin, and a Government supporter, Had said few could deny that the Ward Ministry was an utter failure. Its members jumped to save their skins. Sir Joseph Ward would be known as the india-rubber .Minister. (A voice: A good name, too.) Concluding, Mr. Masscy reminded tlicm that his speaking and their listening wild be of no value if (hey did not think for themselves. If they believed that the Opposition was honest and had done its best, and believed like him that a charge was for the best, then let them give the other fellow a chance. A vote of thanlcs was carried on the motion "f Mr. Edward Saunders, seconded by Mr. S. Renaldi, with loud acclamation.