POLITICAL SPEECH. SIR JOSEPH WARD AT AUCKLAND.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24, 30 January 1911, Page 3

POLITICAL SPEECH. SIR JOSEPH WARD AT AUCKLAND.

A LARGE MEETING. THE LOAN. fE2 TELEG&APH — PBESS ASSOCIATION.] AUCKLAND, 29th January. The Prime Minister, who arrived in Auckland from. New Plymouth yesterday, addressed a largely-attended public meeting at Devonport last evening. The Mayor of the borough (Mr. W. Handley) presided. The first subject touched upon by Sir Joseph Ward was a suggestion from New South Wales concerning the possible removal of the High Commissionership of the Western Pacific to Australia. In proximity to the Commonwealth and New Zealand were, said the Premier, dotted a number of islands, the future of which no one could foresee. New Zealand possessed a cumber of these islands. When it was suggested they should be joined to New Zealand a great many people could not realise the importance of their, attachment, and many looked upon it as unnecessary for New Zealand to extend her territory. No one could tell what the future of these islands would be, some of which lay very close to New Zealand. Some of the more important of these islands desired to maintain their independence, and British rule, as exercised in respect of Crown colonies, brought about neutrality of position so far as any other country was concerned. New Zealand had never shown any envy towards Australia, but it would be as reasonable to suggest that the High Commissionership should bo transferred to Auckland as to Sydney. He (Sir Joseph Ward) put on record the dissent of this country from any proposal of the kind. MEASURES OF LAST SESSION. Amongst the valuable measures of last session was the National Provident Fund, which made provision for persons, and assistance to maternity. If that piece of legislation had taken eight or ten weeks, it would have been a fine piece of work. What other country had made provision to allow a man to obtain a home already built on the initial payment of £10. Under* the Lands Settlement Finance Act an association of men could be formed, and they could purchase land up to a certain value, and the Government would give a debenture to the owner. Under this Act nine associations had purchased land of a value of over £100,000, and other transactions tyere in course oi completion. The value of lands and improvements had risen from £138,000,000 ten years 'ago to £270,000.000. Some of his pessimistic friends said he- was too optimistic. He would sooner be an optimist than a pessimist any day, for one good reason, that if one had a little bit oi optimism the odds were that one would live five years or ten years longer than a pessimist. A little- of the doctrine of optimism might be permeated into the hard-cased, almost unreceivable natures of those who would ntver admit that there was anything good in the State of Denmark. Continuing to speak of the general prosperity of the Dominion, Sir Joseph Ward said it was not so long ago that we heard people in New Zealand crying that people were fleeing ! from New Zealand. "THE DOGS." If a few extra people went away by a ' cteamer, it was cabled through to the press in Australia that people were fleeing the country, and that capital was being driven away. The pessimistic doctrine of that time was that "we wert going asfast as we could to that glorious place known as "the dogs." The number of oversea passengers for the three months ending December last was 6300, as against 4800 for the same period of the previous year. There must be fluctuations- in sucn figures, and in our finances, but we should get out of the bad habit of attributing fluctuations, which could be easily traced, to the Government of the day. In attributing it to the Government they were putting it on the people, for the Government was the custodian of the people. Fluctua tions were inevitable owing to the law of supply and demand, and other causes beyond control, and this should be re adjusted. Some of those who differed from him said there was a lack of conuuence, and that our industries were not expanding sufficiently. It was incorrect to say that a large portion of the money lying on deposit was- idle, and when he heard this attributed to want of confidence he wondered why some people had not more confidence in the country where they had made their money. In time of depression some irfen who had made their money in New Zealand, sent their money out of New Zealand, and then advertised it. Queensland was quoted till it made one feel sick. In one case a sum of money was sent out of New Zealand to purchase land in Australia, and money was no sooner available than the recipient cabled to him (Sir Joseph Ward) "asking if hfc could havo New Zealand bonds tor it. He closed on the offer like a shot (laughter), and used the money to assist settlement in tlds country. If there was anything in this argument used in the past that, population was leaving New Zealand, what was to be thought of tho fact that not one of the Australian States had made such a large percentage gain during tho past few yeais. New Zealand was prosperous, but there was nothing in the nature of a boom. He referred to the naval policy of New Zealand, and said that in deciding to throw in our lot with old Britain instead of having a separate squadron of our own we were taking the wisest course. THE FIVE MLLLION LOAN. Sir Joseph Ward then went on to speak of the criticism of Mr. Massey regarding the five million loan. He referred to a sub-leader that had appeared in, that morning's Herald, in which it was sought to be shown that he had misrepresented the Leader of the Opposition in regard to the recent five million loan. He said he never attempted to misrepresent the Leader cf the Opposition or any other, man. It was a thing he would not do intentionally. The Leader of the Opposi- ! tion, in an interview published on 21st January, said: — "If 1 am right, even approximately, then our loan money is costing us too much, and the credit is not so satisfactory as in a good country like this it ought to be, and there is not the slightest doubt that the issue of the loan has affected our credit." The Leader of the Opposition had referred to statements in the English papers. He (tho Prime Minister) had a number of quotations from British papers, and not one of them showed that any paper or any financier in England had in connection with the five million loan questioned the credit of New Zealand. Most of the men wlio had underwritten the loan were men of long experience, and who fully understood their business. They had guaranteed the loan in return for a payment of x per Vent., and he did not suppose that, the Leader of the Opposition or any sane man could suggest that they could have done thin had they had the least doubt about the credit of the country. As to the time when the loan was placed on the market,. the Government had to be guided by their advisers, but it was noteworthy that it had been so successfully raised although it had been placed before the public just

after the announcement of the fact that the conference on the constitutional question had been futile, and that a, general election must take place in Great Britain. The Government, however, had secured a guarantee of the whole of the money before that . announcement was made. They ought not to play the game of talking about the country being financially weak. If such a thing were true the fact of talking about it would soon be used against them. Much had been made of the fact that the loan had been floated at a discount, viz., £93 10s. Money, however, could not be got except at a discount, and the men who criticised them for not doing better reminded one of those" who, when they were asked to do anything important, could only perspire, fret, and fume, wrap a wet towel round their heads, and telephone to their wives to send the ambulance along. (Laughter.) The men who underwrote our loan were men of the greatest possible experience, and yet we had men in this country who knew nothing about it criticising and condemning, but without being able to tell them how to improve upon the methods adopted. _ The Prime Minister repeated that portion of his Stratford speech in which he stated that a number of other British countries had recently raised loans of which the underwriters had to take a much larger proportion than in the case of the New Zealand loan, although these other loans had been raised on terms which gave a wider margin of profit to the investors. He also stated again that although the underwriters had retained about half of the New Zealand loan, they were holding it voluntarily for their own investment purposes. This meant that had these people not come in as underwriters they would have had to go on the market for nearly one-half of the loan. THE NEED FOR BORROWING. Reverting to the criticisms of the raising of the loan, he said that the only logical inference to be deduced from these criticisms was that the amount of the loan was too large. He was quite prepared to" take his full share of the responsibility for the raising of the loan, but his critics must do the same. With the single exception of the water-power portion, every item of the loan had been voted for by every member of the Opposition. If men after voting for the loan which was required for public purposes made statements bearing the inference that the money should not have been borrowed, thej r were really only condemning their own actions. What was the good of constantly crying "peccavi," and suggesting that we were borrowing too much money? In New Zealand to-day we had not finished making our railwaye by thousands of miles. Those who had railways to their doors might be content, but what about the thousands of men and women in such places as the Far North and the interior of the North Mand, who were eking out a bare existence without such advant- , ages in regard to means of transport? What were we putting"~all these people j on the land for? What were people crying out for more land (including the opening up of the native lands) for if it was not with the understanding that thousands of more miles of railwa5 r e had to be constructed to give access to these portions of the country ? Did they know that Canada, a country that was so often quoted against* us, had borrowed more money for one railway than the whole of the national debt of New Zealand ? THE ETERNAL DEPUTATION. He went on to S2y that every year, for several years past, and particularly since he had been Prime Minister, they had had deputations from all parts of the country 'going to Wellington every year, and asking through the representatives for very large grants for railways, roads, bridges, and the one hundred and one little things that were required for the development of the country. With the exception of two members of the House, who had asked for comparatively little, there was not a. man in the House who had not asked for a great deal more than it was possible to give them. If he were to state the total amount asked for in comparison to the sum available it would absolutely stagger them. These people, however, never expected to get all they asked for. (Laughter.) The sums applied for amounted in the aggregate to millions more than was available. Such things as schools, roads, and bridges, and telephones for the back-blocks, were necessary for the progress of settlement. Supposing Parliament stopped making provision for all these works, what would happen? Within two or three months half the business people in the country* would be insolvent, and twothirds of the men now in employment would be out of work. Within the next four years < four of ths Australian States were proposing to borrow about seventeen millions of money for development" purposes, and if we stopped our public work 3 policy in New Zealand, the bone and sinew of our country would be drawn to the other side, not in thousands but_ in tens of thousands. Durin°the next fifteen years the country woul3 have to spend twenty millions or thereabouts. Although some people complained of borrowing, he would venture to say that had we allowed private companies to construct our railways we would have 7000 miles of line instead of 3000. When dealing with public money, however, we must live within ourmeans. NEW ZEALAND DOING VERY WELL. On the whole, New Zealand was .not doing so badly, said the Prime Minister in conclusion, after he had consulted the clock. It was doing very' well. Let them judge by results, let them ask themselves whether they would prefer to live outside of New Zealand as a matter of choice. People had left the Dominion to return to the Old Land for good, and twelve months or so afterwards there was an announcement ' in the papers that Mr. and Mrs. So-and-So liad returned to live in this country. One asked them why, and they said that out here there was freedom by comparison with the Old Land. Those traditions that so sharply maa-ked grades of society were on the whole non-existent out here. They said that life, compared with that of people in similar conditions in the Old Country, was superior in evory way, so one found that many who had given a practical trial to living out of New Zealand came back. Distant fields looked green, of course, but one should realise that the fields of New Zealand were greener than the green fields far away. (Applause.) The following resolution was then carried almost unanimously: "That this meeting accord to Sir Joseph Ward a hearty vote of thanks for hie able and interesting address, and express continued confidence in the Libe?^ Government in which he is the distinguished head." Cheers weie given for the Prime Minister. 1 * ______ _— __