THE ELECTION

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 140, 11 December 1919, Page 7

THE ELECTION

WELLINGTON NORTH

MR. H. O. BROWNE IN THE

TOWN HALL

DEFENCE OF LIBERALISM.

AN EXCELLENT HEARING.

Mr. H. Oakley Browne, official Liberal candidate for Wellington North, addressed a meeting of electors in the Town Hall last evening, and was accorded an excellent hearing. The hall was fairly well filled, the proportion of women being noticeable. Mr. J. J. M'Grath occupied the chair.

The Chairman, .. in introducing the candidate, said he had known him for some fifteen or twenty years, and could safely describe him as an honest, wellinformed Liberal. He had been most agreeably surprised at Mr. Browne's magnificent opening address in Sydneystreet. If Mr. Oakley Browne was not as well known as either of the other candidates when he first opened his campaign, he had become better known than either. (Applause.) He did not think there was any better-known candidate in Wellington and one with a better chanco of success. (Applause.) The candidate at the outset met with interruptions from one person, who challenged him to a debate on any platform, and when this was ignored by the candidate proceeded to., interject again. At the request of Mr. Browne for fair play, applauded by his audience, and at a threat of calling in representatives of law and order, the offender got up and went out. ATTEMPTS TO SHACKLE POLITICAL LIFE. Mr. Browne went on to deal with the sheaves of questions showered on him, as on other candidates, from all sorts of organisations all over the Dominion. Ho considered it unfair to ask a man on his entry into political' life, to pledge himself to courses which depended on circumstances not now existing and conditions which might arise at some later date and alter the whole situation. He condemned as iniquitous some of the demands made on candidates to put them in impossible positions. He thought he would be doing a public duty in taking up this attiture towards such attempts to shackle and fetter political life. (Hear, hear, and applause.)

Mr. Browne said it was more than ever necessary for men who came be-, fore the public to make their position known to the electors. He was a Liberal —(applause)—and had always been a Liberal. Sir Joseph Ward had been criticised for leaving the National Government. He had joined the National Government to help to win the war through motives of, patriotism. When the war was over 'and the pact was ended, he folt himself free to leave that Government of land monopolists and aggregators. (Hear, hear.) Liberalism, which had done so much for this country, was once more coming back triumphant. (Applause.) They had had seven or eight years of government by a class for a class. All over the country tbpy found tho great estates coming together again—aggregation and reag--gregaf-ion. It was all very well to pass legislation; the question was how it was administered. It wanted a Liberal Government to administer Liberal legislation. (Hear, hear, and applause.) He had only to refer to the controversy regarding th> Masterton seat as proof that the Reform Government was a Government of land monopolists. In 1908 Mr. Matheson stood down for . Sir Walter Buchanan, then Mr. Buchanan. In 1911 Mr. Matheson offered himself again, and was again induced to stand down, and the same occurred in the present year. If Mr. Massev had no ay in the choice of candidates, then who was to say he ha* a choice in the nolicy? Who was the power behind the throne? Mr. Browne suggested it was Sir Walter Buchanan and the landed squatters. Let them do away with old-man government and give the younger generation a chance. (Applause.1) RIDICULOUS FALSEHOODS. Dealing with _c allegation that the Liberal leader was tied to the Red Feds, the candidate characterued it as a ridiculous falsehood. The Reform Party had come into power in 1912, through the defection of four members pledged to vote with the Liberal Government. The Reform Government existed only by minority rule, and that was why they .had abolished the second ballot and opposed proportional representation. The Reform Government had remained in office since 191fl by the mistake of a returning officer in Dunedin. The candidate referred .to the curious history of the Otaki election in 1911. Mr. Field was then a Liberal. He did not know what he was now. In the election of 1911 Mr. Field had to face a second ballot with the Labour candidate, Mr. Robertson. Mr. Massey had then sent a telegram to the Otaki electors, which was published in the Otaki Mail. It read :" I trust, in the interest of the Dominion, the Opposition will join with Labour in ousting the Ministry, whose first thought is for themselves and not for their .country." And under the editor of the Mail put:

" Vote for Robertson." That was the sort of man who talked about combining against Labour now. (Hear, hear.) Never before in the history of New Zealand, continued the speaker, was there such need for statesmanship. It was for the electors to return candidates of honest convictions, pledged to carry out a policy for the good of the people as a' whole. The Massey Party was the party of vested interests. The working people had not had that meassure of relief and humane treatment which was their due. The dawn of a. new world was coming, and on the 17th the death would be announced of the Conservative Reactionary Party, and New Zealand would come into its own. (Applause.) After a reference to H.M.S. New Zealand as a voluntary gift, which had shown remarkable foresight on the part of the Liberal leader, and which had falsified the croakings of the Reform Party in those days by war service, equal to that of any ship in the Navy, the speaker turned to the manner in which the Prime Minister and his colleagues had stepped aboard the battle cruiser on her arrival in New Zealand with all her honourable battle scars upon her. (Applause.) And these were the men who had condemned and ridiculed the gift, and used it as a lever to get into power. COST OF LIVING PROBLEM. On the question of the bonus to one section of the Civil Service, the candidate held it should be common to all. There was nobody who had suffered more by tlie war and the rise in the cost of living, than the men of fixed salaries. "What about the bonus?" asked a member of tlie audience. "Oh, ybu'l Iget that when the Liberal Party return to power on the 17th December." (Loud applause.) The cost of.living was felt most keenly by men of moderate incomes. It was due to several causes : First, to the scarcity of goods, through the breakdown of transport; .second, through profiteering j third, and most important, to the inflation

of currency, due to the tremendous efforts made by the Dominion to win the war. One of the remedies was a State bank. During the seven years of its existence, the Australian • Commonwealth B^nk had accumulated resources amounting to £65,000,000, and reserve profits were nearly £2,000,000. These belonged to the public, instead of going to pay dividends to shareholders. The Commonwealth Bank was destined to become the bankers' bank, with all the benefits derived from such a financial position. That was what the State should do in New Zealand by having its own bank. Another way of reducing the cost of living, and securing funds to meet its liabilities, was to increase taxation on the higher levels, such as Death Duties. He blamed the National Government to some extent for the rise in the cost of living, by not tackling the problem earlier. (Hear, hear.) "POLITICAL TRICKS." ■ The Ashburton incident, proceeded the candidate, had been described by the Prime. Minister as a political trick. The Prime Minister forgot it was one of those tricks that might rebound and hit him. Mr. Vernon Reed had been disqualified on an election petition over the Bay of Islands Seat for twelve months, and Mr. Stewart was elected in his stead. At the end of twelve months Mr. Stewart retired, and Mi-. Reed was elected in his place. Mr. Stewart received a seat in the Upper House, and was there to-day. Let the people who made allegations of political tricks remember that. In conclusion, Mr. Browne said, that if returned to Parliament he would do his utmost to represent the people worthily. The applause that followed was most enthusiastic, and lasted some time. In answer to questions, the candidate said that to prevent aggregation and reaggregation of land, he would urge an increase in' the graduated land tax. The questioner pushed the question further, and asked if the candidate would agree that a square mile of first-class land was enough for any man. "Yes," replied the candidate heartily, "and make New Zealand a country of farmers, and not land speculators." (Applause.). Subsequently a number' of earnest questioners got up, and.there was some difficulty in hearing. The efforts of, the chairman succeeded in reducing the interrogations to orderly sequence. The candidate expressed himself in favour of giving everybody one day's rest in seven. He would^ certainly, if returned to Parliament, support a six days a-week Bill. A vote of thanks to the candidate for an able and instructive address, and a vote of confidence in the candidate as a. suitable representative of Wellington North in Parliament, was carried unanimously with enthusiastic applause.