LABOUR OPENS THE CAMPAIGN

Evening Star, Issue 19994, 11 October 1928, Page 15

LABOUR OPENS THE CAMPAIGN

m HOLLAND INDICTS REFORM, PLAYING INTO BANKS’ HANDS LAND AGGREGATION AND WORKING FARMERS’ NEEDS. [Pkb United Press Association.] MASTERTUN, October 10. The Loader of the Opposition (Mr ‘H. E. Holland) opened the Labour Party’s election campaign to-night in tho Mastcrton Town Hall, which was comfortably filled The mayor (Mr T. Jordan) presided, and welcomed Mr Holland as leader of one of tho chief political parties in tho land. Mr Holland was applauded heartily as he rose to speak. Ho said he wished to express his gratification at the splendid attendance that night. To him it was an indication ot the great interest that was beng taken in the political situation ic'd m vhat appeared to him to he the greatest political battle ever fought in New Zealand. (Applause.) lie realised that it would bo futile for the Opposition to offer merely destructive criticism, as the aim of an Opposition was to replace the Government of the day, and it could only do that by offering a constructive policy to replace that of the present Government. While there wer<> three main parties in tho field, tho real fight would, of course, ho between the Reform Party and the Labour Party. He did not think the United Party would bo a very serious factor in the contest, and he contended that ‘he an 4 i- Government votes for tho United Party candidates would in the end amount to support for the Government,, for an analysis of the number of divisions from the time Mr Coates came into office would show that in the vast majority of cases by far the creator proportion of the Liberals vor/'d in support of tho Government. In any case, at the United Party Conference the chairman's declaration of hostility to the Labour Party was unmistakable. Whoever found himself in opposition to the Government had no choice whatever but to vote for the official Opposition candidates if he desired to displace tho present Government. THE FREEHOLD PROMISE. Dealing with the land policy, Mi Holland said the Reform Party had pro. mised farmers the freehold. He wanted to ask any farmer whether ho had got tho freehold. Under tho administration of the Government an enormous record of aggregation had been built up which left the position that fewer than 7,00 b bondholders held nearly ,30,000,000 acres of the rural lands, while nearly 80,000 held less than 14,000,000 acres out of a total of 4-3,500,000 acres of rural lands. Recently die estates "I 50,000 seres and over had decreased in number by one, but tho area of each estate had increased by over 3.000 acrea. What was true of aggregation in areas was also true of aggregations in values, for the land tax returns revealed the Fact that 8 per cent, of the landholders furnishing such returns held more, than ji per cent, of tho values, while 92 per cent, of the landholders held less than 33 pei cent, of the values. Under Reform the mortgage system had developed probably to a greater degree than in any othei country. Whoa the Reform Party mum. >nvo office the capital value of New Zealand stood at £315,500,000 and the mortgage liability £33,500,000. The latest figures showed that tho capital value now stood at while tho mortgage liability was £302,606,000, representing an increase of 82£ per cent, in tho capita] value and 242 per cent, in tho mortgage liability'. Interested newspapers and wealthy neople were fond <*f saying that wages wore too high, but they covered up the fact that one of the principal difficulties tho farmers wore up against was the vary high interest bill they had to pay year hy year. The amounts of money harrowed at low rates of interest had progressively decreased since the accession of the Reform Party to office, while the amounts borrowed at high rates bad proportionately increased. The average rate of interest for the past three vbars stood in the vicinity of 6 1-3 per rent., which meant that the interest hill on the sum total of the registered mortgages amounted, to over £19,000,000. Since the major portion of tho mortgage bus was in rural areas, this meant that the farmers’ r.liar-' of the interest bill was certainly not icss than £10,000,000. If the Government had set itself tho task of

dialling tho nrico of money cheaper, it would lia.„ served tho interests of I ho fan . jrs to a. far greater degree than could possibly bo achieved by means of the various iax_ reductions to which it had resorted. He contended that ~.0 tax reductions made in past years, while they had enormously benefited the very wealthy landowners, had brought little or no relief to the working farmer* The only real effect of tho abolition of the income tax in tho caso of landowners hod been to relievo a handful of wealthy men of tho obligation to pay direct taxes amounting to r-nothing over £220,000, and even in that case G per cent, of those affected received 52 per cent, of tho amount of relief. Ho small farmer would pay income tax under the Labour Party proposals, but the Labour Party would make tho landowners with large incomes pay income tax. DRIVEN OFF THE LAND. A statistical record of the land transfers in Now Zealand revealed the extent to which the Government's policy had operated to drive ipen off tin; land. Since 1912 the year in wine i tho Reform Government first took office, there had been more than 484,000 land transfers, which meant three transfers for evu’y landholder (unlading those city and town landowners whose holdings were less than an acre), in 1927 there was employed in land occupations 12,359 fewer people than there were in 1924. Those were tho Government Statistician’s figures, and it was only iair to ,-ay that they had been disputed by tho Government. However, during the three years m which this reduction took place there were 104,000 land transfers. Since tho Government Statistician laid it down that the cost of making transfers amounted to a fraction over 5 per cent, of the eensid. ration money involved, it followed that the people of the country were paying enormously for transferring Ivul from one owner to another. The area of land transferred since 1912 amounted to nearly 40,090,HUG acres over 39.000,000 of which wore in th o rural districts. He did not suggest that all those transfers could have boon avoided Very many of them were legitimate l and necessary. hut, on the other hand, very many were tho fruit of the Reform Party’s land policy, which fostered speculative "ambling in land values 'and accentuated the disabilities which belonged to the mortgage system. ’Mr Holland proceeded to deal with tho land agency system, which, he said, grew out of the mortgage system, and which depended tor its existence upon recurring land sales. H ■ furnished figures ihdibatiug the uneconomic effect ol this system, and declared that while -the Lamur Pnny would not forbid the land agent to put out his sign it would make Bleuc provision for effecting transfers at the cost of doing the work. RURAL CREDITS FAILURE, JLr Holland said the Government carried a weighty responsibility in the njatter of the aitempt to wreck dairy control or tho marketing ol New Zealand primary products. The problem

of the middleman was one that had to Ira faced, and 1 lie New Zealand iarmers primary products often had to pass through six or seven hands before they reached the consumer, Co-operativo marketing affirmed by the dairy suppliers’ emphatic vote was intended to meet this difficulty, Mr Coates and his Government surrendered as soon as the Kims of Tooley street began to thun der, and the interests of primary producers were made matter of secondary importance y , Mr Holland spoke of a farmer who said: “Coates gets things done. Ail right, 1 am one of the things.” Mr Holland said that, tracing tlio history of the rural credits legislation from the year 1922, when the Rural Credits Association Rill was placed on the Statute Book, that Act had been rendered inoperative, principally by reason of the “ joint and several principle which it embodied. that Act had been on the Statute Book for sis years, and not a single association had been formed and not a single loan had been made under its provisions. In 1925, as the elections approached, the Government endeavoured to pacily the farmers, who were demanding agricultural banks, by setting up a Royal Commission to investigate the rural credit 'systems of Central European and other countries. He suggested that Mr Poison had been placed on that Commission in order to get him out of the way while the 1925 elections were proceeding. The Commission reported in 1920, and in the same year the Rural Advances Bill, in which many of the Commission’s recommendations wore discarded; was brought down. That Bill, which became law, provided for the establishment of tho rural advances branch of the State Advances Office, with a farmers’ representative added to the board, which was empowered to go on the market and borrow money for the purpose of making long-term loans on the security ot first mortgages. The operations of tho board were no doubt hampered in the beginning by the fact that one subsection of section 8 of the Act provided that tho securities issued should not he secured on public revenues, ■while another sub-section set out that both principal and interest would bo payable out of the Consolidated Euud. He traced the history of the rural loan, and declared that while the privatelyowned banks were publicly stating their readiness to assist the Government in tho matter of rural credits legislation, at least some of them were sending out instructions to their managers that the sale of the rural credit bonds was not to bo pushed. Side by side with the Rural Advances Bill of 1920 the Bank of New Zealand Bill had been introduced, empowering the bank to spend £5,625,000 for rural credits purposes. That measure had been on tho Statute Book for two years, and only a lew hundred thousand pounds had been made available for rural credits under its provisions. For all practical purposes that Act appeared to bo a dead letter. The Bgnk of New Zealand had been paid 1 per cent, for selling rural credit bonds to itself. In 1927 Mr Coates came along with yet another proposal affecting rural credits, and this time he brushed aside the State Advances Office altogether and created an entirely rew organisation—the Rural liitreiucdiatc Credits Board, consisting of seven members, ono of whom was the public trustee and another a farmer’s representative, it did not appear to him that this scheme would in the end make mere money available for rural credits than was hitherto the case. Neither the multiplication of boards nor yet the conditions attaching to the loans would materially improve tin? position from tho point of view of the farmers, whose pressing need wa-a finance at low rates of interest. The Government had allowed its policy in relation to tho Post Office Savings Bank to ho influenced by tho private financial interests to the detriment of, both the farmers requiring rural credits and the workers requiring finance for homo building. GOVERNMENT AND THE BANKS. Following on attacks that, wore made on the Post Office Savings Bank by Sir George Elliot and other bankers an announcement was made by the Government in 1927 that it was proposed to reduce the maximum amount of in-terest-bearing deposit in the Post Office Saving- Bank from £5.000, at which it then stood, in gradual rtoges, back to the old limit ot £SOO. Following this announcement and again following the legislative effect which was subsequently given to it, heavy withdrawals were made from the Post Office Savings Bank. This left the Govcrnni.nt under necessity of borrowing from tho banks at up to probably 5t per ecu', money it previously held at 3.J per cent. In 1927 the excess of withdrawals over deposits umounted to nearly £■'l.ooo,ooo. As the Pc. , Office Havings Bank suffered the privately-owned banks benefited, as their figures in denosits (levmided. Running through tho statements of Sir George Elliot and several Ministerial pronouncements there was a marked similarity of idea and expression. The banks’ attacks were also directed against the State Advances Office, and they were materially aided by that within one month of its 1925 victory the Governmen i raised the interest rates charged by the State Advances Office from 4i per cent, to oj per cent. Tho profit made by the State Advances Office from its inception to 1926 was certainly not less than £1,250,000, and when t'liis profit wiv- iakon into consideration the cost of the whole of tho money borrowed up to that time was round about £1 2s 9d per cent. Ti.ero was, therefore, no need whatever lor iho Government to raise the interest rate on State advances. In tho beginning of 1927 tho associated hanks, following tho example set by the Government, raised the overdraft rate from 6$ to 7 per cent. At tho annual meeting of the Bank of New Zealand in the same year the chairman announced tho usual dividend ot 2s 8d per share, and a bonus of 1 per cent, in addition. The dividend and bonus combined equalled 17 per cciii. on the actual cash invested. This Jack was eloquent testimony that_ the bank itself was in such a position that there would have been no need whatever to raise the interest rate. Indeed, Mr Watson, ono of the bank’s directors, emphatically stated that the resources of tho bank were quite sufficient to cope with the temporary excess of imports without raising the rates oi interest on advances. Mr Holland declared that the extent to which tho Government submitted to dictation by associaled banks provided a. strong argument lor a State bank. In the same year, and almost at the same period that the banks raised their rales, the Government definitely re-strict-d the advances. Foi tho year cml d March, if'2B, there was a decrease of maHy £1,500.000 in I he amount a 1,-a'.ic’d i.o settlers as against K 27, and a decrease of nearly 'ji,250,000 in the amount advanced, ier tho workers’ homes in tho same period. GOVERNMENT BY REGULATION. One very undesirable development iluring recent years had been the manner in which the Government bad taken power to make regulations by Orders in Council, which overrode the. statute law. The Education Amend-, incut Act of 1919 was a case,in point.. Section 15 of this: Act, provided lintno regulation under the section -hi'ulct be invalid because it was contrary to : :re provisions of tho Act There, was no reason whatever why the law itself ■ '.nnhi not ho so written as io nr: n !’■■> e re-ary provision, but h was a dangerous thing to pine? in I.he hands .of any Cabinet the pawm to do something about which Parliament itscl; had not,been consulted _ Referring to the appointment of thn general manager of railways, Mr Holland said that when the Prime Minister dispensed with Hie Railways Board and snlisl iluled a general manager mr it. he had no authority whatever under

the law for what ho had done, and as a matter of fact the general manager was illegally in office until the amending Bill of last week had received the Royal assent. He was of the opinion that £3,500 was too high a salary to pay as an individual salary lor the management of the railways, and tho superannuation provision which made it possible for the general manager to retire at the end of eight years on £2,300 a year could not be justified. Every public seivant with broken service now had an unanswerable claim to have his lost lime counted for superannuation purposes ou the same terms as had been provided in the case of the genera. 1 manager oi railways. (Applause.) Public servants desiring to regain their superannuation right on terms much loss liberal than those granted to- Mr Sterling had been turned down. Mr Holland ridiculed the accounting system under which certain branch railway lines were classed as non-paying. Last year nearly £500,000 was taken from the Consolidated Fund and treated as railway reserve in order to cut down an actual loss of upwards ot £3,700,000. In the interests of production the railways must be kept going whether they paid or not, and any loss made should ho shown plainly.

IMMIGRATION AND UNEMPLOYMENT. Tho Government’s policy had resulted in an unemployment problem unparalleled in the history ot tho dominion. It was in tho main duo to tho immigration system lor which the Government was responsible. Not only was this so, but advantage had boon taken of tho position oi, the unemployed to torco into operation a lowering ot wage rates on rebel works to a level on which no maiT’ed man could possibly maintain a family. A vigorous public works policy plus systematic endeavour to place unemployed workers in the work to which they were accustomed would substantially minimise the difficulty, hut there could be no solution of the problem while the Government’s immigration policy was continued. Stateassisted immigration was only justifiable when the immigrants could bo found permanent work at standard wages without displacing tho workers already here. Given capable political government and efficient economic organisation, this country could carry 10,000,000 people, but this stage of organisation had not yet been reached. The position was made worse by the fact that the Government had brought thousands of immigrants to New Zealand each year, substantial numb, rs of whom had engaged in land occupations, if the number ol immigrants who had gone on the land could bo ascertained, it would be found that tho New Zealanders driven off during recent years would bo very much greater than appeared on the surface. In saying that lie was making no attack on the immigrants themselves. He laid it down that once the immigrant arrived in New Zealand he must bo given tho same opportunity as the people already here possessed. Tho Government, while pleading inability to find money for the multitude of urgent requirements, was finding £1,000,000 for the Singapore base. It could lend £15,000 to the Radio Broadcasting Company without consulting Parliament, and it could remit to a, wealthy newspaper £9OO in re.soect of Customs tax on American machinery, which could have come in duty tree if it had been made in Great Britain. Public servants had a solid cause for complaint against tho Government. Their wages and salaries had been cut down at a time when immense tax reductions wore being made to tho wealthy, and promises since made to them had not been kept. At the very least they were entitled to the restoration of the 1920 standard. There was never a time in the history of New Zealand when State enterprises wore in greater jeopardy than at present. Tho manner in which the Government had surrendered io tho banks in regard to the Post Office Savings Bank and tho State Advances Office, ami tho manner in which tho Public Trust Office was being attacked, meant that the whole of ou. State enterprises would be in jeopardy if the Coates Government were given another lease of office. Mr Coates would come before them declaiming against Socialism. Let them bring him right up against it. He should be asked if he were prepared to destroy tho Post and Tel eg*, oil Department and the Public Trust Office, and hand over the ways to private enterprise. Referring to Hit* pod*.ion in 'At- .n Samoa, Mr Holland said tho natives w'-re not now paying (b?ir taxes as a protest against oar policy. While Colonel Allen was displaying tact, and as an administrator was in every way superior to General Sir George Richardson, it was quite clear that there was little chance of a norma! condition being restored until the banishment and deportation order rnad:, without trial hud been cancelled, the, elementary prineipl'-s of British justice restored, and the Samoans met on a basis of conciliation and justice. Given these essentials, ho was convinced the mandate could be succossl'idlv administered .

LABOUR’S RECIPE. Going in to speak of the policy of the Labour Party, iir Holland said that it piPdaed itself,_ if returned to power, to give effect within t-lirco years to the spec ho programme ho bad oaflined in a pro-sessional address. Jt would introduce a Land Hill to bread; up big estates. Two methods would he adopted—purchase by negotiation and compulsory acquisition; Where an owner objected to the valuation piaced on his property there would be a right of appeal, in tin first place to a tribunal consisting of representatives ot lot: 1 bodies and of land owners in the immediate district, with a representative of the Valuer-General’s DopMiment. 'P'ere would bo a further right of appeal to another tribunal consisting of a Supreme Court judge as chairman, representatives of land owners throughout the laud district, and a representative of the \ alnerGeneral’s Department. • Where the case went against the Government before both tribunals it would purchase I ho land at the price fixed by the higher tribunal. The Labour Parly would giajo the graduated land tax more sternly lo enforce the subdivision ot hi go u.siatcs. It was better, in the ’party's view, that twenty owners each of 1,000 sheep should occupy a given area than that, it should ho field by one family owning 20.000 sheep and employing perhaps two or I lin e men. (“ Hear, hoar.”) The Government should io prepared to go further than it had in cheapening fertilisers, ft should he, prepared iv iv«essacy to incur a lie-vy loss for the sak” oi increased production. Mr Holland su'd he knew that seme h-fil-ings voic ton small at present. Two ili.'i.sai d acres might be too small, and 200 acres might he callable of subdivision. Laud that was compulsorily resumed would bo oltcrcd for closer settlement under lease, with a per-petual-right of renewal with periodical revaluation and absolute protection of .the tenants’ improvements. Heavily timbered land would bo cleared by the Slate before it was opened iur settlement. Roads to new settlements would be, made, and the streams bridged by the time the ..settlers,-.were on the land. ThctLii.bmtr Party would set up a State ■bank, winch would finance public and local. body works and primary prod notion, providing cheap credits nistcad ol benefiting private shareholders. The Laf-onr Party would institute a system of insurance armimt unemployment. It would amend the Education Act in the d'recMon of providing free bocks-and rcrinirites, giving teachers the right of appeal against non-appointment. It would abolish the system of “ boy conscription.” and reorganise the national defence system. It would cast the inlluetice of .Now Zealand in favour of settling international disputes by arbitration and not by war. Mr Holland appealed to his hearers

to examine_ the policy and proposals of tho political parlies. lie was convinced that every endeavour would be made by certain elements opposed to Labour to precipitate industrial turmoil before polling day. That method had been resorted to on many occasions in almost every country where tho parliamentary system obtained. Labour’s winning battle ground was in the constituencies. and that was where the fight would bo fought,. Labour, he said, was hampered by lack of funds. It stood alone in this respect. Every penny that came into its funds was publicly acknowledged. On the licensing question lie said that Labour would leave tho issue to the electors, but would institute preferential voting, so that whatever tho number of issues a democratic decision would ho possible. Ho declared that it had been admitted in the House by the Hot,!. A. D. M'Lcod that ballot papers containing three Hsues had been printed at the time the Prime Minister brought down a Bill providing for a poll on two issues. Mr Holland indicated that he did not accept the Government’s' explanation that only absentee voting papers had been printed. Ho said that Mr M'Lcod had admitted that 120.000 papers had been printed, which would work nut at about-10,000 for every No-license electorate in the dominion. A hearty vote of thanks to Mr Holland was declared carried;-