OUR TRADUCERS

Evening Star, Issue 14308, 5 March 1910, Page 11

OUR TRADUCERS

SPIRITED MINISTERIAL DEFENCE. [Special to the Sxau-1 CHRISTCHURCH, March 4. At the annual show hold under the auspices of tho Cheviot A. and P. Association the Hon. T. Mackenzie, Minister of Agriculture, in proposing tho toast of tho .-Usocialion at the conclusion of tho luncheon, touched upon the subject of some flagrant misrepresentations with reference to tho Dominion that had appeared in the columns of Washington and London papers. “From Sydney,” said Mr Mackenzie, “is telegraphed the otatement that the butter factories’ delegates consider that as the system of grading butter in operation in Australia and New Zealand had been a failure tho Federal Government should bo urged to discontinue tho system. You may not be greatly interested at tho moment in the grading of dairy produce, but it is one of our growing industries, and promisee to do more for deter settlement of our country than any other industry. or, indeed, anything else. As tho statement ie entirely incorrect as far as New Zealand is concerned, 1 take this, the earliest, opportunity of giving it an emphatic contradiction. Instead of tho system being a failure hero it has been a thorough success from the time it was introduced in 1804. Tho number of complaints received against it have been almost infinitely small for years past, and the leading men engaged in dairying throughout the Dominion candidly admit that it has been tho means of raising the standard of quality. The producers and merchants are evidently well satisfied with the method. As proof of this it may be mentioned that practically the whole of the dairy produce purchased for export is arranged for on the- basis of the Government grade certificates and marks, and the system is highly spoken of by many of the principal produce dealers at Home. The New Zealand farmers would not entertain the idea of tho grading of dairy produce being discontinued, as it is a protection alike to them, as well as to_ the merchant. The system of discrediting our country .abroad is reaching a_ comma point, ami’it is lime that ramofliing war. said. Yesterday my correspondence-brought copies of newspapers published in Loudon and Washington, each of which contained misleading articles reflecting on the Dominion. The paper published in London to which I refer is a well-known financial organ. The article to which I refer begins ; ‘A friend in the colony has obliged nr,’ and then follows an account written to mislead people regarding tho !position of New Zealand. Referring to the increased debt of £52,C00,0C0 sitico 1391, it sneers at the interest-yielding results from our investments, which more than repays the whole interest we require to remit to the British This article goes on to ray : ‘ It is impossible to be sure of the true vitality of anything in in country whese entire industry is stimulated ami sustained by means of doles out of loans.’ When, ono remembers that you farmers here to-day are representatives of these who by their enterprise, industry, and energy are helping to export from onr | country nearly £20,000.000 worth of products a year, a quantity not equalled by any oilier country in the world, and when it is remembered that this year shows the greatest credit balance between imports and exports that has over cccurrcd in the history of this Dominion, a difference over last year in onr favor of £5.000,000, can all this bo said to be the result of doles? Again, this same article quotes a journal published in New-Zealand in support of some of its contentions and remarks, and pays : ‘A« wo have more than once indicated, tho land is oaten up by officialdom as bv locusts, and every branch or the Public Seivice is redundantly staffed for corruption purposes.’ Is this not sufficient to make any New Zealander indignant? If this is true what a reflection it is upon the people of this Dominion ! If it : s not true then it is a slander which Humid be repudiated by every lover of his homeland. 1 have under my charge three loading departiiienirj of the Stale viz., Agriculture, Tourists’ and Health Resorts, and Commerce. Will any man dare to state to mo that I would tolerate for a moment the appointment of an officer for corrupt purposes? If this sort of bu-i----mcs goes on you will find that good men will refrain from taking part in public life altogether, as they now do in America. The members of the Ministry, in the face of the greatest pressure for extravagant expenditure, are doing their utmost to carry on the weak of this country on .sound economical lines. We are making enemies daily because tee arc doing right, and tho country should support us in these efforts, and it is not encouraging to have to contend with and combat such reflections as I am alluding to. Honorable public men will not always put up with such reflections, and if tiie public get what a section persistently says they now have they ate going the very best way to bring that about. ’1 ho article in the \t a.-hniglou newspaper is pmbab'y by 'the same friend m tho colony." It bears the following headings in large black type: ‘ New Zealand Plunged Headlong into Debt’; ‘ls Being Stcadilv Abandoned for Better Fields by All Who Can Get Away’; Work Scant'. Wages Poor, Living High ’ -As in the London journal, so in the V. asliir.glon paper, exactly similar illustrations are given without giving credit tor the icsults obtained. Take Hie increased deb! of £4.C00.080 alluded to. Wire one sum alone of that amount equalling about- a quarter of it went for the purchase of the Maun wain railway, which yields directly more Ilian we require to pay for the money, and it is the key of the whole of the system of the North Island railways !”om'Wellington, ami in view of that its value to the country can hardly he overestimated. 1 think’ it is only right when our country is traduced to speak plainly about the matter. This is no party ques-tion-—it is above and beyond that.—(Applause.) It is (he credit of onr Dominion that is at- stake. Wc have a magiiilir-nt country here, requiring population of the light, class and money at low rates of interest to develop it. 'ihese misleading reports alarm the very people wc require, and prevent them coming' here, and also increase the interest charges on tho money you and the State require for the country’s development. In public, as in private matters, borrowing is good or had in proportion to the ability that is shown and the nature of the investments dealt will). Our Public Debt is considerable, but we have six times its value, in assets. Whv, in tho Old Country, they have one railway company which alone has a total liability in round figures of £125,000,000, ol which £42,887.000 only is in ordiuaiy shares, the balance being composed of liabilities on debentures, preference shares, and guaranteed stock to the extent of £82,800.000. This one company's liabilities cxuyd our total debt, by over £45,000.000, whilst _ its assets are, not a third of what we in New Zealand have as against our indebtedness; and will it bo said that that company is xotteii, or that England is on the verge of bankruptcy? We have one of the grandest countries under the sun, and given an industrious population ami capable administration there can be no doubt as to the splendid future that is in store lor this Dominion. "-'■( Applause.)