MR. BARBER AT NEWTOWN.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 121, 20 November 1908, Page 3

MR. BARBER AT NEWTOWN.

Mr. W. H. P. Barber addressed Wellington South electors at Newtown School last evening. There was a full attendance. Mr. B. Dawson presided. He denied that the candidate was parochial in his views. Possibly many of Mr. Barber's supporters last Tuesday had been "too cocksure about 'Mr. Barber's return, and had not taken the trouble to vote." Mr. Barber opened his address by icferring to the Second Ballot Act. After what he had seen of ite working he would, if returned, favour a repeal of the Act. Referring to charges made against him he said he, for one, had never been a slavo to party. On no occasion had he ever gLwen his vote when it was not in accordance with his own ■convictions. He defied anybody 'to pointto a single vote that he had given that was not given according to his ownconviction. He- had further been accused of being the nominee of "the trade." That was absolutely untrue, and it was a gross injustice to him and cowardly to give currency to such a statement. Mr. Wright had been using the No-license Party for his own end, and that most unfairly so. Now, h© (.Mr. Barber) agreed with the Hon. R. M'Nab that tho license question could not be settled satisfactorily except by the existing law of a three-fifths majority, with which he was in hearty accord, in common with both 'Mr. James 'Allen and Dr. Chappie, as well as Mr. M'Nab. And yet Mr. Wright advocated an absolute majority on this question. Mr. Barber then referred to the legislation of last session, making special reference to the alterations to the Advances to Workers Act, by which half a million pounds had been advanced to two thousand workers who were not earning over JB4 a week. This would ultimately greatly reduce the high rent difficulty, even if it did not immediately reduce it. He believed also that the Advances to 'Settlers Act had, in this time of stringency, averted great numbers of forced sales and attendant financial disaster. No one really laiew, but thosef connected with finance, what a crisis New Zealand had passed through. The State Fire Department, too, had had the effect of reducing the premiums for insurance by one-third. Surely that office had justified its existence? Again, there was the State Coal Department, which had brought down the price of coal, and that experiment had surely amply justified its existence. Mr. Wright wilfully misled electors when he told them that if returned he would endeavour to get the duty on th© necessaries of life reduced ; hut there was no duty on necessaries of life that could not be produced in the Dominion. There had not been an increase of taxation during the past twelve years, except in regard to the graduated land tax, which dia not affect estates under a value of £40,000. There was a duty of £1 a ton on flour and £1 a ton on potatoes, and that duty should be removed. But it • was the country party who urged for its retention. Nevertheless, there was no reason, except for the support of trusts, . why New Zealand, with its matchless climate and assisted by the freight handicap imposed on goods from overseas, fchould have further protection. He denied the charges of gross extravagance so frequently levelled at the Government by Opposition candidates. In his concluding remarks, Mr. Barber said the whole sixteen planta in his platform of 1905 had been given legislative effect to — a boast which could be made by few, if any, of the members. A vote of thanks and confidence was given to Mr. Barbel".