THE PRIME MINISTER.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2109, 28 March 1914, Page 6

THE PRIME MINISTER.

SPEECH AT TAPANI)!. REFORM ACCOMPLISHMENTS REVIEWED A GLIMPSE OF THE FUTURE. LABOUR MEMBER CORRECTED (By Telegraph.—Press Association.! ; Tapanulj March 27. Tho Prime Minister visited Tapanui to-day and was entertained by tbo Borough Council. In proposing the toast of the "Local Bodies," Mr. Massey referred to the large _ amount of work done by such .men in_ the interests of tbe community and said, ho had recommended to His Excellency the UOveriwr that something should bo done for such men.

Addressing a large public meeting at which tho Mayor presided, Mr. Massey said that so far as finance was concerned tho Government had had a very great deal of difficulty since they cam'o into office. When they came into office they,found tho Treasury Chests had been. depleted.. After tho General Election it became the duty of tho Gov-, ernment in power to go on tbe Loudon market for tlio money it required for public works, and the lending departments, but the next Government in office after.the election considered it no part of its duty to attend to this. The Government. resigned at tne end . of March and a new Government came in ■whicli only lasted .a few months, and it failed to go to .tho moiisy market, but tlio nest went to tho market for a loan. That Government came into! office and he would give them one instance of what it found. It was its business to lend money to local bodies to,carry on developments and tho Government found that there was £77,000 of commitments to local bodies, and only £17,000 to meet, them with. They . would. recollect {hat- previous to 1.912 for several years money had been reasonably cheap and there was no difficulty of borrowing in'Loadon, but ill 191*2 a sharp increaso in tile fate of 'interest took place, the reason being a European war, the effects of which were still felt, • A number of countries made up their minds that they, wanted money for development purposes and they Weiit ■to the Loudon money market and the rate of interest went up because the law of supply and demand came in. The present Government mack* tip its mind that it would take no risks and made arrangements for Mr. Allen to go to London. He went in the early part of 1913 and placed a loan for 3} millions on terms. Tho most serious difficulty, in thft way of financing .was that for some time past there bad been borrowed money on,short-dated debentures, anything up to seven years. When the last was raised by tlio Minister in office it Was raised for two years, and cost nearly £200.000 to raise and the present Government liad to it off. They found . that £8,000,000 were required to pay ©5 short-dated debentures. 1 That was a. serious position to. face. Many people in London approved of these short-dated debentures because so long as tlis security was right they wero the better for them, there was £12,000,000 to bo raised altogether and they had commenced last year by placing a loan of 3J millions. Ihey had to pay • for it, but compared with other countries they got it on very reasonable terms.

. Tho Latest Loan Success, ,Tl>en they arranged with their financial agents to bo ready to placo a louii whenever tho proper opportunity came, fho opportunit.y came and they sent a cablegram to place a 4* million loan, ihat loan was placed attd they were offered £25,000,000. (Applause.) He did not recollect atiythfeg of tho sort taking place in this country or m any other country. (Applause,) He had tho results of tho flotation of loans by other-countries. ■ Thoso Sir. Massey proceeded to refer to, and showed that with _ regard to South Australia, South Africa, Canada, and other countries, a largo percentage'of the moiicy to bo raised had bo.cn left on tho hands, of the underwriters—in one instanco as milch as 80 per cent- At present they felt that the credit of New Zealand stood high, and that tho investing publio in England had every confidence in the Dominion. (Applause.)

Duty to People ami Local Bodies, As to the lending Beijartaqnts., the financial position when the. Government took office was that; no settler, no niaitor how good bis security, could possibly obtain from the fending Department moro than £500. What was the reason? It was part of tho policy flf tho country to lentl money to local bodies. A largo sum of' money was araila.bla,in 1911, and in that year any local hotly could get almost as 'jJiuch money lis it required. Ho knew of ons local body ' that borrowed £ll(i,000., 'Tho rcsalt was that when tho Treasury was almost empty tho Department had to reduce the amount lent out. The present Government had' increased thft amount, which now stood at and it wa.3 hoped that in a few weeks it would be £1250. (Applause.) The- Government had, therefore, doubled the lijnit of lending since coming into offieo 18 months ago. The Government had lent to settlers, workers, and local bodies tho sum of £2,472,715 ill a time <>f scarcity, and therefore tho Government bad done its duty by the people and by tho local .bodies, who required money to carry on th?.Sr operations. (Applause.)

Good Times anc! Gooct Wages, The Post Office Savings Bank was. a good index of tho condition of tho Dominion, and recently tho .deposits had greatly exceeded thowithdrawals, showing that the country was in a prosperous state. (Appla,u.se-.) Before "the Government took offiqe there were many doleful predictions. It was said that if they, "tlie Tory crowd," came into office,, there., would be depression, bad times, low prices, low wages, that everything would. go wrong, and that thoro Would be scarcity erf employment. What had been the result? , 'Tho country was never rfioro prosperous, than itwas to-day, and the. outlook Was ljeve-r brighter. . (Applause,) The policy cf the Government, sumijaed up in a few words, .was—good' times., good^Wag.cs, and equal opportunity Jot all.' (Applause. ) The country was a hive of industry, and anyone who. did. his best would do well for. himself aiid for tho country. (Applause.) Accomplishments of 20 Months, Tho Government had no reason to be ashamed of its legislation or of its administration of tho last twenty months. Tho Government was out for develop* niont of the country, and to do that it was necessary to borrow money. "We must borrow money, but tho Government would see that the taxpayer* got full valuo for every shilling harrowed, and expended on their behalf. (Applauso.) It bad also been said that money was being spent unnecessarily. As a matter of fact, when the "Government took officc they .found that the railway men in tho Second. Division wero not being paid ordinary labourers' wages. There was dissatisfaction and unrest, and tho Minister of Railways had recommended, that the wages of these men bo increased, to watch recommendation Parliament had agreed. The right thing was done, hecauso during Iho strike trouble there was no moro loyal body of workesfs in tho Dominion than the railwaiy employees,

(Applause.) Teachers' salaries had been increased; and more would yet be done for the teachers, and the pay of the police had also bceii increased. So far as the Public Service was concwited, the Government believed in the principle that goad men wero entitled to good wages, but they had bo time for tho wasters who wero dear at any price. {Applause.) If tho Opposition did not believe iji that principle, let them move, a want-of-confiilcnce Motion, and lie was prepared to abide by tlio result. (Applause.) The Land Question.

On the land question Mr. Massey said he had already laid the foundation stono of their policy, and built a substantial : structure on it, one that would last for centuries to come. (Applause.) Tlio policy of the Government was to con-; vert the land policy of tho country irom leasehold to freehold, and they had done,'it. The cffoct of th& legislation of 'the Government had been to promote settlement, aiid to give settlers confidence, and between 19,000 and 20,000 settlers who ivere Crown tenants bad now the opportunity of becoming freeholders. There was a provision in last year's Land Bill that when a number of settlers went info tho backblocks and took up ]<i:id, every penny they paid by way. of interest, on capital was to be used to Rive acCesß to their laiid; but even that was not enough, and ho proposed to ask Parliament to do something more important' in the forthcoming session. He did tjot propose at present to discloso the Government pfilicy ill that particular matter. . (Applause.) During the year the Government had purchased no less than £j).jfl.(!Go worth of land, with an area of between 140,000 and 160,000 acres, P l ™ nearly the whole of it had been settled. There wero one or two blocks in the.South that did not go off so well as expected, but in th© great majority of cases wliest the land was opened for selection every section. > vras taken up, and as a .rale by a very good class of settlers. The Government proposed to continue that sort of thiwr. As long as there was a .demand for land to junto the hind available. Tliej'.. did not propose to do arty injustice to the land-owners. They introduced an amendment of tlio Land ■ and Income Tax Act in 1012 aiid passed it iniv law, as a result of which revenue was increased to tbo extent of £40,000, 'but tho Government were aut after revenue. They, wanted to show tho.se bud-owners who held large blocks that it Was their duty to subdivide, tbe laud, aitd it was better to subdivide it than to hold it in larco blocks, and the legislation of 1912 had bad .that effect. He intended to fey a return sh the table of the House in connection with this matter that would surprise a good many of those who had been criticising what tho Government had do.no in regard to the land. (Applause.) '

Putting Mf, Webb Right. Mr, 'Massey drew attention to a report m" a speech delivered by Mr. I', 0, Wohb, M.P., at Greymouth, in which Mr. Webb had Said that Mr. Massey had approached-Mr. Hickey, the "'Red Fed." of Waihi, to induce him to stand against- tho Liberals, but thai, he (Mr, Mickey 1 had refused , absolutely. If '•that- referred to this year, he (Mr. Massey) canld give -it an unqualified denial. If it referred t.a tliroe years ago,' until an arrangement couldho Wade with him as head of. the party, lio arrangement could bo. made, aiid ho never heard of anything of tho s<jrt. Mr. "Webl) had also said that tho moneylending institutions, of which hp (Mr. Massey) was tho leader, had had a splendid 'imo last year. The. statement was that ho (Mr. Massey) was the director the money-lending jnstitutioixsi _ Well, he had been a mosey-, borrowing institution himself. (l.au<r,h-tc-r.) 0e had not been connected with any money-lendiiig institution except when- ho- approached his banker for an, ( m-«rdraft. (Rcnemcd laughter.) An- , other statement made by Mr. Webb was that "many of the 'specials-' at tho time of the strike were criminals just out of «abl, but when it came, to shoot-ins : dawn Workers any old filing would do." There were no workers shot down, there was no shooting bo fat as lie Was aware o.\ tho part of tho s.pficiais, hist there was on the other side. To say that many flf the njoii wero criminals Just out of gaol was tmo of the grossest slanders that could ho uttered about as respectable a body of men as could be «sot together in aiiy part of . the world, . He denied a statement made by a New Zealander in Sydney that neatly all tho Metropolitan, olid many of the country, papers were owned by the Government, and quoted dozens of eases of journals that did not support tho Government- ■ Tho gentleman in question, had & grudgo against the Government. His party meant to win the 1 election, but he .would off the Treasury benches to-morrow sooner than descend to tactics that were degrading ■ t<o every man and woman in the Dominion. (Applause.)

Parliament Grants and Local Bodies 1 Subsidies. In tho coming session steps would be taken to put the system of Parliamentary grants oil a more satis-faetery footing 'with tho object of removing political influence, and subsidies to local bodies would be increased. A Bill would be introduced to deal 'particularly with Wostland where • the land system ■ was the most- complicated he lmd overheard of. I.x dosing, Mr. Massey said tho question the electors would nave to decide'at the coming Action was this: Was tho Government justified in suppressing the industrial strike at tho end flf last year by the means thoy adopted? If the people thought that tho Government did right .in opening the ports, in .restoring commerce, and in setting tho industries of the country going agahi, then let thftm Vote for tho Reform candidates, but if thev thought- tile Government did wrong Jet ifceni veto against tfiu Government,. (Apnlan.se.) Mr. G. H. Stewart. (Crookston) moved a vote of thanks to Mr, Massey fd.r his address, and of continued confideiiea in tho Government. Mr. G! Howat (Tapanui) seconded the motion, which was carried with ringing eliecrs.

THE COfrIING SESSION. Ounedin, Maidi 2?. The .Prima Minister - iitfgrined n reporter 10-day .thai lie. did Hot expcct the tomiiiK session to lie lis strenuous us tho record one last year, The legislative programme, though containing a VUWW.T .of important Bills, will not ho So lteavy and lie sites- uq necessity lor a prolonged session. In-alt probability the House will' meet on SvOto 25 and the Session should end. with all the tvoilc done thoroughly iii the third week of October. Swcral of the most important Bills were," said Mr. Slassey, well advanced by the -Drafting Department, and one of two ar© ctonftleteu. Among ffia firai to be considered would he tho Education Bill and tho legislative Council llciorm IMB. The latter would not differ from that of Inst session in griftcode, nitlioxtgh several details had upon altered or added. H, was probable; that five,or six calls to the council would ha made before Parliament open* cd, th-wi'li no elections have yet been made, The Electoral Bill affcctirtf; tlie Boiiso of Representatives would he sub-. mitted this session. A Local Government Bill tt'o-nld he brougl.it down, tho main purpose iioing in the direction of cSta'tjlishiiiK a better systetli as regards the allocation of. money for imbue works, roads, and bridges. There would' he anofFtOr taiid Bill to remedy certain defects "til the existing laws. It would] probably contai.it provisions for adjust- j iug tho difficult conditions oil tho West ! Caii-st-. sfr. Jlassey mentioned that an opportunity for youths trained in , ctHmecHon' with the Dominion naval sohgnio would bs available in the near future. ;