THE REFORM RALLY AT MASTERTON.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1310, 13 December 1911, Page 6

THE REFORM RALLY AT MASTERTON.

LARGE AND ENTHUSIASTIC GATHERING. SPEECHES ))V MESSRS. HERDMAIf,.SYKE>, AND HERBERT. (Br TclcEraDh-Bnocial CorrcsDondonU Mnstcrton, December 12. "One. of the most exhilarating meetingt F have over spoken at," was Mr. A. L. Ilcrdman's expressed opinion of the mooting ha addressed in the Town Hall Inst night. Tho building was packed in every corner where people could bo stowed, fully a hundred being accommodated on the stage, and there was not a hostile interjection from end to end. Mr. Pauling presided, and supporting Mr. Herdman on the platform v.'ere Ihc two Reform candidates (Mr. 0. K. Sykos, who is confeting the second ballot, and Air. A. If. Herbert, who was defeated at tho first ballot). All the party were greeted with a round of hearty applause when they took their places on the stage.

Presage of Victory, Mr. Sykos delivered a short address. Ho suggested that the huge assemblage in the hall presaged a victory for Reform on Thursday. It had been said that Mr. Henlman was a relic of the old Conservative party. The statement was preposterous, flow could he have scored nearly four thousand votes but Thursday if ho had been a Conservative? The. object of his visit was to lay before the people of Masterton the Reform platform. Ho had not'come to protect the Reform candidate who was .quite able to protect himself. There was not, one good ground for the whining and grizzling tha.t some pooplo hod been indulging in about his coming. Mr. Sykos went on to emphatically deny a series of rumours circulated witft the object of damaging his candidature. It had been said that he was opposed to the old age pensions. (Laughter.) Ha pointed out that one of tho plank.s of the Reform party was to give the pension to women at CO years of age instead of G5. ne had never said that farm labourers wages should bo 10s. a week, and he had never said that 7s. a day was a fair wage. His primary object was te oust the present Administration which had become effete, and tho onlv wav to do it was to return straight-out men who would vote against them.

The Time Has Arrived. Mr. Herbert was the next speaker. "I undertook this Sight," he said, "not for personal pain, but with the object of ousting a party that I knew were effete and not working for the good of the Dominion. Continuing, he said: "The tim« has armed when the people of Mastcrtoa should arise and turn out a Government that has allowed the cost of lirin? to mount to its present level, a Government that has allowed the prico of administration to rise so abnormally high, a Government that has kept this prosperous country drunk with borrowed monev—on* of the greatest curses of this country. The time will come when we must foot the bill, and it may come when we are least able to bear the burden. The Gov. eminent has had a chance to reform it self from within, and now it is the tint? of the people to reform it from without(Applause.) 1 hope the time is corning when New Zealand will rise from ita state cf bondage, and go in for something new in government and something good." (Loud applanse.)

Mr. Herdman's Speech. Mr. Hcrdman was warmly applaided on rising to speak. He slid he was going to speak in the interests of Before, and to express the policy advanced by the leader oi his party (Mr. Massey). Democracy had been defined as government of the people, bv the people, for the .people. In >ew Zealand democracy tad degenerated, and the state of this?; had come to be government cf the people, by the Government, for the Government. Hu nialu objection to the Government wu ilieiV,',autocratic' metheds. The pccjU should rule, and cot the stsilt bani w!w happened to get into jowsr. Sor.e a~bers of the Government party were toad of saying that the Opr.:?;t;oi we:s a:t constructive, that ta» *•?;'- good at criticism, cipab'o cf Fdunr i-?i--s----lotion to pieces, but that they coj_d ;c« raise an edifice of tfcsir.owi:. br.t i? suggested that it was s-cstm-tial construction to at tw downfall of an 12* wasteful administration, to c=er a nctor scheme ot railway maMseiuent. to offer a scheme to place the whew T"ic .:■: Service on a better footing, under rates political influence and patronage w«r.,i bo impossible, acJ uuJcr which the rß!f--lic servants would have tetter masters; to submit a scheme that would the expenditure of money on rcaos ana bridges, to bring down an effective Mine land' policv. and to show.thst by eiocc-n-.y and prudence in administration they could give to the workers oi >ew /.raInnd better conditions ot lite, and if the Opposition could show that they wore going to stamp out once and for all i be ctato of things which made people look to the Government for favmrs-nioney here nn.l billets there-and if thev con d show that in addition they could raise the whole tone of public lite to a higher level, and do good to the .national character Mirek thev were entitled to sa\ that the Opposition" had a constructive policy. (Applause.) . . . „ Political Influence.

He elaborated at some lougth the need for reform in control of the C-ivil service raising laughter by his citation of i-islanei's of (he appointment to the government tervice of people ludicrously unlit for the positions which I hoy were intended to occupy. Such appointments ot people who were fortunate, enough to have iwlilical influence would go longer be lws-iblo if the service were freed troin political control, and handed ovei to 1,0 administered by commissioners responsiblo to Parliament, and not to llio Government. It had been said hat this would mean creating dfspoU. l» t «lo were the despots now? Did not the Government exercise all the powers of dc™ot? lie outlined also some of the reasons for reform , in the ?}Stan of the allocation of nibl o w™ks moneys. The present njc hods gave Iho Government power to u.-o tio countrv's money to keep themselves in office by bribing tho electors, and valued that power so highly that tne> wo Id never part with that power of he o«n iril. But Mr. Masscy had pledged himself to take away this power from the Government of tho day. He Mr Herdman) was not. sure who her it, wou d be wiser to hand over control to cZaMoncrs or to,extend tho powers of kal bodies. Mr. Hordman criticised „"-o .'" Government's railway managemeat, 'showing by the change of policy announced by Sir Joseph Ward and Mr. Millar that their policy had no contiiu It. no suggested that it wasidle to suppose that anyone not an expert could manage the railways properly, and tho Opposition proposed that our railway vs em should be controlled br an expert Commissioner. Long and loud applause and cheering marked tho conclusion of Mr. Herdman's address. Mr \Y Morris moved that tho meeting tender Mr. Hcrdman a bearty vojfl of thanks for his address, and that the meeting further express the opinion that, the Word Government should be turned out of office. The motion was declared carried unanimously, amidst n tremendous outburst of cheering. Thero was no mistaking the hcarhnoss of the cheers given for Mr. Sykes before the people left tho hall. A Keen Fight. Tho election fight in Jfastcrlon is jjio keenest within tho memory of most oi tno electors here, and certainly Mr. Hogg s lighting us he has not had of twenty-oiio years. Assured of his on success at tho first ballot, his supporters wcro incline.) to take i""!,* (visilv but now both Mr. Hogg and his Worn Is are working with fwnwed "WI is reported that, some iwplo linre Wn -,rv" busy in an endeavour to convince .vorvlxxlv MtfpecW of haviini voted for Mr llerl>crt that it was Mr. Herberts ill. thai all llw flttpiwrl P«HI to l«m in the first ballot shooM p. ta Mr. Hogg in tho second, w1,,r , l, j l n i l '? lf of Mr. Herbert's ads and Uiosa of h« most Ixnstod friends, is an absurd dory. Neoaloss to sav the Uefonn party in the electorate are working VW T hard and they nro oonlideiit of sncce.ss.