MR. PIRANI'S CANDIDATURE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 118, 20 May 1914, Page 2

MR. PIRANI'S CANDIDATURE

FIRST SPEECH AT WANGANUI. Tlic Opera/ House at, Wanganui was packpd on Monday night, when Mr. 1?. Pirani delivered his first, address to tho electors. In the course of his remarks Mr. Pirani said the flying squadron and their leader had been making things so merry in the North Island that it was just as well for those on the other side to reply to a good many of the statements made by the squadron. One reason he was contesting the seat was because the Wanganui Herald asked him to when he voluntarily resigned the Palmerston North seat in 1902. He would, ho went on to say, first deal with Sir Joseph Ward's statements l regarding the Government's naval policy. He was sorry the question had been brought into the arena as a party question : it was too big to be saenfied on the altar of party politics. In 1909 Sir Joseph Ward arranged to bring two Bristol cruisers to New Zealand. If one was no good, as Sir Joseph Ward had said, two would be a great deal worse. At the Imperial Conference in 1911 Sir Joseph Ward suggested that the self-gdvertiiiig dominions should x provide twenty-five Dreadnoughts in five years, the wst being 10s per head of the population in New Zealand, which would give £562,1)00 for fifteen years. What had wo got from the agreement that Sir Joseph Ward made with the Admiralty for the protection of New Zealand and the trade routes? The Pyramus and Psyche, ships that were not fit for scrap iron. The Massey Government had wanted the agreement made by Sir Joseph Ward earned out, and had offered, in addition, that £50,000 a year which Sip Joseph Ward had offered if they would carry out that agreement. The Admiralty replied that submarines and destroyers were no use in New Zealand waters, and proposed that a flying squadron should be stationed in New Zealand. But everyone who knew anything about the Pacific knew that, apart from the protection of the trade routes, there were island and other troubles which required the presence of a warship. The New Zealand Government, had no power to compel tho Admiralty to carry out the agreement. The Government had to do something.. ( They proposed that the £100,000 at present paid to the Admiralty should be stopped, and I that the money should be Used in New Zealand ■ itself for ttaining our own young fellows, for improving the docks, and other purposes. The Bristol cruiser business had not been proposed at all. (Hear, hear.) What had happened was this. The Government had slated that next session it would bring down a proposal for a. Bristol cruiser for protecting the trade routes. If the Imperial Government was going to do nothing he said one Bristol cruiser or two 'might be provided for New Zealand. The prime cost Of a. cruiser would be £377,000, and the cost of maintenance, wages, salaries, etc., would mean £72,000 a year to New Zealand, so they would see there would be no terrible extravagance. The proposal was a very fair one, as the Bristol cruisers ranked second to tho great monsters' in use at the present time, and they would be very effective in protecting our trade routes. In referring to Sir Joseph Ward's statement that the Hon. James Allen had given him and his Government a certificate of character by admitting in the prospectus to the loan raised in London that the surplus as declared during the last seventeen years had been correct, Mr. Pirani asked : "Do you think it would be a proper thing for a statesman going on the London market to cry 'stinking fish' ? To show that there was good reason for casting doubt on some of the surpluses declared, Mr. Pirani quoted from the report of the Public Accounts Committee of 1898. That committee, nearly all the members of which were supporters of the Seddon Government, discovered that just prior to 31st March the Railway Department 'sold' to the Public Works Department £30.000 of sleepers. The latter t)epartment got its money from loans while tho Bailway Department got its from the Consolidated Fund. The surplus was the surplus in the Consolidated Fund, and not in the Loan Fund. So, by 'selling' £30,000 to the Public .Works Department (of course, it was only a bogus sale), tho Government got £30,000 put into the Consolidated Fund, and so increased the surplus. Directly after 31st March, the Railway Department proposed to buy the sleepers back, but the Auditor-General refused to allow this to be done. The Treasury admitted that the £30,000 was Used to increase the surplus, and more than one witness said that transactions of a similar kind in that year amounted to £187,000." Mr. Pirani went on to contend that the cost of tho Dreadnought does fall on the workers, that the new death duties operated harshly on poor legatees) and that the only reason why the Liberals had dealt fairly with the railway men was because the railway men had agitated for their rights. He stated that it was at his instance that the Railway Appeal Board was included in the Railways Act,_ and Sir Joseph Ward had time and again vetoed the judgment of the board, and tho Liberal Government had defeated the efforts of the "left wing" to obtain an eight-hour day for railway men. He denied that Mr. Massey had appointed political rejects to tho Legislative Council, and as to the Old-age Pensions Act he read a list showing that a large number of Liberals had voted against the measure. Sir Joseph Ward alleged that the Massey Government had increased the cost of living by 3.30 per cent. _ As a matter of fact the only alteration the Massoy Government had made in taxation was to increase the graduated tax by £40,000. As to the land question, ho advocated the abolition of gambling in Crown lands by means of the ballot box, and the inauguration of a system of selection of applicants. Any applicant should bo allowed to register his name at the Land Office, and, after enquiry had been made' as to liib bona fides, the name should bo placed on the selection-list in the order of application. -When the land was open for selection tho applicants should bo compell to exercise their option within a limited time. Legislation should be passed, blocking the registration of titles for more than & prescribed area of land at the Land Transfer Office. If the graduated tax was not sufficient to ensuro the subdivision of estates, it should be increased, and provision made for compelling the subdivision of larger estates at the death of the present owners. He believed in the reterendum on the Bible-in-schools, and that the Wanganui River service should be a State service. Mr. Pirani was accorded a vote of thanks.