MOTUEKA SEAT

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 43, 14 November 1932, Page 10

MOTUEKA SEAT

Four Candidates Take Part in Campaign CONTENDING VIEWS t ■ Dominion Special Service. Nelson, Nov. 13. Nominations will close next Wednesday for the Motueka seat, rendered vacant by the death of Mr. G. C. C. Black, and the candidates who have already embarked on energetic campaigns are Mr. K. J. Holyoake, the oflieial Coalition-Reform candidate, and Mr. P. Webb, the oflieial Labour nominee. Mr. R. J. York, Mayor of Motueka, recently announced that he would go to the poll as an Independent. Mr. F. C. Turley, who was announced as an unofficial Labour candidate, addressed meetings, but later stated that he would not seek nomination. Mr. R. McKenzie also took the platform at the beginning of the campaign, and described himself as an Independ-ent-Liberal-Labour candidate. The byelection will be held on December 1, and there are about 95 polling places in the electorate. Mr. Holyoake has spoken in many parts of his electorate during the last week. In a recent address he pointed out that the only way out of the present economic depression was through the medium of co-operative effort and desire fsr the welfare of the country as a whole. The Coalition Government was based on this very spirit of co-operation, he said. “The Socialist mask has slipped, and in the past few months we have been given glimpses of the wrecker, and the will to wreck, which is evident behind the soft soap and hot air poured out for the worker. This is no time for half measures. This is a time for national thinking. More, this is a time for Empire and World thinking,” said Mr. Holyoake. Mr. Holyoake’s Platform. The candidate referred to the hop industry and drew attention to the fact that Mr. Hamilton, representing the New Zealand tobacco growers, was one of the primary producers’ representatives at Ottawa, i Preliminary negotiations were conducted at Ottawa with the object of ensuring a market for New Zealand hops and to carry the. matter further Mr. Hamilton had proceeded to England. Following up plans which were under discussion at Ottawa he had been able to make satisfactory arrangements for the disposal of New Zealand hops. Mr. Holyoake said that, as a hop grower, he had recently f received a circular issued by the secretary of the Hop Growers’ Association which advised all growers to grow at least the same acreage as they had done last year. This did not appear in the agreement, but it was a benefit which arose from the Ottawa Conference. Referring to the Government guarantee to the fruit industry, Mr. Holyoake said this cost was about £lO,OOO per year. This assisted the grower to ship the fruit to tlie Old Country and elsewhere. The Government guaranteed 11/- per case, so the grower could go to the bank with this guarantee and draw funds against it. Otherwise few growers would be able to ship their fruit as few had the money to do it. The growers now were paying per case with’ a general fund, which readied about £lO,OOO annually. The guarantee did not cost -the Government any great sum.

Mr. Holyoake has had the usual battery of questions. In reply to a question at a recent meeting he said he was not in favour of commissions to decide questions. Conditions were changing from day to day, and the Cabinet Ministers were forced to refer matters to commissions. They had not the time to attend personally to all questions.

He would vote against the cutting down of old-age pensions. He stood tor no party, but was behind the Coalition Government. He was not in favour of the cutting of the soldiers’ economic pensions. The coal industry should be protected, even if a dumping duty was necessary. The candidate announced that he was in favour of social services being maintained and even increased, but this could only be - done if the position of the country allowed it. He was not in favour of abolishing the present duty against wheat, but would favour a dumping duty on it. Mr. Holyoake spoke on the unemployment relief and sustenance questions, and said he considered the country should get some return rather than pay a dole. The Case for Labour. The opinion that if Labour won the seat it would be an expression of public feeling, which would so strengthen opinion against the Government as to cause it to halt in the hopeless policy it was carrying out, was voiced by Mr. Webb, the Labour candidate, in addressing electors in Motueka last Thursday. Mr. Webb said that since the Reform Party had taken office in 1912 there had been a continuous undermining of the great social principles of the Seddonian period, and since the Reform and United Parties coalesced this process had been followed with a ruthless unconcern for the public interest. Mr. Webb stressed the need for the preservation of the coal deposits in New Zealand, and referred to the opening of eight State mines by the Seddon Government and the co-opera-tive mining scheme, by which 600,000 tons had been won from disused or supposedly worked-out mines. The candidate said that if he was returned he would make a close study of tobacco, fruit and farming industries of the district; he would endeavour to nave water laid on to assist miners in Collingwood and surrounding districts, and would do his best to urge the Government to re-establish Onakaka iron works, and to make use of cement instead of bitumen/ Speaking at Riwaka last week Mr. Webb dealt fully with bls attitude during the war, and referred to his imprisonment. , He said he had opposed conscription unless it was accompanied by the conscription of wealth, his attitude being that it was immoral for the Government to forcibly take a man’s life unless it was prepared to take over all his responsibilities also. The candidate added tht he was sent to prison for advocating precisely the same ideas as were advocated by the present Prime Minister of Great Britain, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, and he also said that when Mr. Philip Snowden was in New Zealand at the 1914 election on a prohibition lecturing tour he had personally congratulated him for setting his face against the terrible calamity which had come down upon the world.