A VISITING MINISTER

Evening Star, Issue 14554, 1 May 1911, Page 2

A VISITING MINISTER

OPPOSITION MEMBER'S WELCOME. [Special to the Stab.] MANAIAfMay 1. There was some amuaing political repartee, which developed into a more serious political argument, at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Kaupokonui Cheesq Factory, near here on Saturday, the participants being the Hon. T. Mackenzie, Minister of Agriculture, and Mr Dive, the Opiwsition member who represents Egmont in Parliament. When Mr Dive introduced the Minister he reminded him that tho district urgently needed a railway, and that the dairy-producer considered that a man should be sent Home to look after their interest. The Minister got up. to speak, holding a handful of notes of statistics. Une sheet fell to the rround beneath the platform! "Downfall ot the Ministry," said Mr Dive laughingly. "The wish is father to the thou-ht," remarked an onlooker. By this time Mr Mackenzie had his notes complete again. " See how quickly it recovered," lie remarked, amid loud laughter, and went on seriously to deal with Mr Dive. He had heard the necessity for a railway repeated before, but the Government ought, he said, to be careful before adding to the Public Debt of the country by borrowing money asked for mostly by the very people who afterwards turned to rend the Government for plunging a beautiful colony into the whirlpool of debt.—(Laughter ) The Government were going to consider the sending of a man to Kngland in connection with the dairy industry. "So they ought." interpolated Mr Dive. "What'about his friends, who say tho Agricultuial Department ought to b© wiped oui?"- asked the Minister. "They say it ought to be reduced £IOO,OOO per annum, and that our experimental farms ought to he cut up." Mr Dive: Who says all this? The Minister: Your friends. —(Laughter.) Mr Dive: I haven't said it. The Minister declared that instead of curtailing they ought to increase the expenditure, because it was a necessity that there thould be a man in England who woidd lc.ok to the quality of tho cheese and butter sent there in order to advise New Zealand producers where to correct their errors. Mr Dive : Do it. The Minister: You want my department cut down by £IOO,OOO, but we are going to consider that matter, and we have a surplus to enable us to do it. —The Five Million Loan.— " There is economy and there is false economy," declared Mr Dive at a later function apropos of the proposed railway which he advocated through hk district. The Hon. T. Mackenzie's reply to this was that if the severe criticism of the five million loan was to be regarded as a reflex of the public mind it would have great influence in determining their line of action in regard to railway construction. Every member of the Houso had supported that loan, and everyone tried to get his share. Was there an item with which they did not agree? Did they not want tho Dreadnought, the money to spend on the purchase of estate,} for closer settlement, and the million and a-quarter for roads, bridges, and railways? The railway vote was mostly spent in Opposition members' districts, and he found that it was the Leader of the Opposition who advocated spending still more on the Otago Central, though it had been clearly demonstrated by expert evidence that the line had not yielded more than 6s per cent, on a capital ior which probably 4 per cent, had to be paid. He believed that if the objects of tho borrowing were explained eveiywhere not a progressive man in the country would be 'found, to object to it, so long U6 it was for the development of New Zea-land.—-(Applause )