FROM THE HUSTINGS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 10729, 29 October 1928, Page 3

FROM THE HUSTINGS

“MUSTARD CLUB” PARTY. HOX. DOWN IE STEWART TWITS UNITED PARTY. SIR JOSEPH AND HIS COAT OF MANY COLORS. “The Government, at this election has to withstand attack from two quarters,” said the Minister of Finance, the Hon. W. Downie Stewart, opening' his campaign. “It has to face a frontal attack from the Labor Party, and it is also being fired on from the flank by .the. United. Party.”. The United Party until quite re-‘ cently had been wrapped in such mystery that some people thought it was the same as the Mustard Club. There still seemed to ;be some justification for this belief, because now that it had announced its astounding borrowing policy this was certainly hot stuff.

RESTORING CONFIDENCE. The problem in New Zealand was not, as was so frequently 4 alleged, the problem of land aggregation or land monopoly, but of restoring stability to farming conditions, and restoring financial confidence in farm securities. in this respect he disagreed with Sir Joseph Ward when ho said it was necessary to import £60,000,000 for farmers’ finance. In Air. Stewart’s opinion, there were large sums of money in all financial institutions awaiting investment if they could ho assured land values were stabilised and the security was adequate. To lend vast sums of money at less than the market rates would only produce a fresh inflation of land values, and recreate tho artificial conditions from which the country was just escaping. That most sensational feature of this election had been the proposal of Sir Joseph to launch the Dominion into a vast borrowing policy. SVhen Sir Joseph resented tho suggestion that he was too old for politics, Air. Stewart agreed with him. "His .complaint is exactly opposite.” ho said. “Ho is too young, too dashing too extravagant, too spendthrift —in short, too much of a plunger for the . careful and prudent, people of New Zealand.” LESS BORROWING. If Sir Joseph Ward succeeded in mposmg his spectacular programme on the taxpayers of tho Dominion, than all the work Air. Stewart had been engaged in lor some years past would disappear in one night. During all tho time lie had Been under a cross-fire, being denounced for borrowing too freely, and at flic same time by ' rho same critics being denounced for not borrowing enough for State advances, land settlement and housing. His difficulties ui reducing expenditure has'been increased by ihe necessity for providing for unemployment, hut in the main he believed the policy had met wfth public-approval. '. SHOWERS OFi (GOLD. Then suddenly appeared Sir Joseph Ward, who rook the electors to the top of ail exceedingly high mountain, and showed them showers of gold being spread broadcast over town and country, and said: “Al) these treasures shall he yours if you will only kneel down and worship me politically..” A curious contradiction was that in recent years Sir Joseph had been one of those who had maintained that loan expenditure was too high, but Air. Stewart supposed that, like the Joseph of old, he had a coat of many colors. Mr. Stewart, went on to detail his objections to Sir Joseph Ward's proposal. He said to carrv out the undertaking Sir Joseph had outlined, fie would need millions in excess of £iO,OtK),OOO. The present heavy programme of loan expenditure was quite adequate, and shouTd be contradicted rather than extended.

“COME C»\, TOMMY.

INVITATION THAT WAS NOT ACCEPTED.

The Prime Alinister took up an interjection in a very neat fashion at Otautau. Mr. Contes was speaking of the difficulties of the timber industry, and a man who is known to he an experienced worker in the bush but had not heard of the measures which have been taken to put. the industry on a sound footing refused to accept Mr. Coates’ remarks. Every now and again 'lie wanted to g.Ve .a little speech, 'Of ‘hisboVn,. until" at last the Prime Minister -thought it was time he was dealt with. “I will tell you what I will d0,.01d man,” lie said. “When I .finish I’ll give you five minutes up here; but if you keep on interrupting we will never get through.” it hour later when the address terminated, but Air. Coates had not forgotten, tie had heard the man’s Christian name and he called: “Come on now, Tommy. It is your turn. Come on and give us" live minutes of thu brightest and best. They are all here and we will listen to what you have to The crowd was delighted,. and urged the greatly embarrassed ’’Tommy” to go up on the platform, but he held his seat and blushed.

The Prime Alinister jet him out t(y laughingly remarking: J'AU right, Tommy some other time, eh?”

LABOR’S PROGRAMME “A POLICY OF EXPEDIENCY.” “In its present form,” says the “Otago Daily Times,” “Labor’s land policy possesses an innocuousness which may cause many electors to wonder how it could possibly receive tlie support of the party that is committed, by its objective, to the socialisation of the land. “It is, however, to be correctly viewed as a land policy that is adopted merely as a temporary device designed to allay, as far as possible, the apprehensions of the public, that have been excited It frank declarations in the past of the aims of the party. This*land. policy has been undergoing at successive conferences, a process of dilution. It has become undisguisedly a policy of expediency. The party has thrown its principles to the "winds in ihe hope of attracting support which may have been frightened away from it by its stark proposals for the destruction of all private interest in land. But these proposals have not been abandoned by the party. They have simply been placed in cold storage. The present policy is designed to have the effect of lulling the public into a sense of false security, it is wholly inconsistent with the avowed objective of the party. Thar, objective,- it is necessary to repeat, is the socialisation or the means of production, distribution and exchange. • If this objective were realised there would be no land of any description. The State would become tho sole owner. It is to that- end that the programme of the Labor Partv is ultimately directed.”

THE- RED FLAG. The United candidate for land told his supporters that he. would pledge himself to fight for constitutionalism as against the La-bor-Socialist tactics. They had seen some evidence already of red fedism against- constitutionalism at the re- 1 cent Gfeymouth outburst, when the Red Flag was produced, and thp Red Flag song was sung. Tho United Party would not accept the sunnort of the Labor Party to gain the Treasury benches,

‘ T7OT FI. iTiNG JHj G VMF ” The action of some union secretaries in attempting to collect union dues as soon as a man Sound work was commented on by the Prime Minister m his speech to-night. “Some of these fellows,'' he said, “were out of work for months and yet as soon as they got into a job the demand for the dues was iallowed by a threat of a summons.'’ “I don’t believe it,” an mterjector said. “Well, you can believe it/’ the mine 'Minister replied. “‘I have documents to prove it. It is not playing the game. They might give a man a chance to get started again.” : .NATIVE LAND PROBLEMS. “I believe that the large area of land lying between llotorua and Taupo has got a future before it,” said the Hon. A. D. McLeod at Greytown. ‘ ‘.lt will be our policy to develop that country, and it will be necessary for the Government to provide 25 per cent or one-third of the development costs. That subsidy should be provided either in oi direct assistance to the farmers themselves or the providing of toad or rail access so that fertilisers can !,o obtained at the lowest cost.” Proceeding, the Minister said the problem ot the area of which he spoke and of al] other unoccupied areas was the Native land problem. That was the problem to-day, as it had been tor half a century. Right tlirougn the area between Rotorua and Taupo these were gradually being dealt with. Consolidation had been going oil as purchases were made and a great deal had heon done in the last three years. Much credit was due, he said, to the Prime Minister as. Native Minister, Mr. Coates know the Maori mind from A to Z, and wiih him in this work Native members of the House, had toon closely associated. NOTES AND QUIPS. Before a solitary boy is brought overseas to Flock House, the Government. should see that New Zealand boys are given the. same opportunity,” said Mr. F. N. Bartram, at Point Chevalier. “I've got as much chance of winning Tatt’s as Sir Joseph AVard has got' of putting his £70,000,000 scheme into operation”-—Mr. F. X. Bartram, at Point Chevalier. In a speech lasting a little over an hour, Sir Joseph Ward proposed to borrow £70,000,000. Heaven only knows what ho would have borrowed if ho had spoken till ten o’clock.— Mr. J. Lee. M.P. “The shade of Seddon stands in protest to-night against that, chicanery,” said -Mr. Bartram at Auckland. ‘•Seddon would turn in his grave if he knew his old lieutenant was leader of a party fighting the socialistic tendencies of Reform.” Continuing, Mr. Bartram said there was nothing n the United policy apart from the proposal to borrow £70.000,G00. ‘T suppose that, like • Joseph ot old he has a coai of many colors. ’ said, the Hon. \Y. Downie Stewart .of the United Party leader. He-., was .speaking .of 'Sir. Joseph’s',.hold borrowing' proposals,■''a“'eufibiis ' emit riidiction being that Sir Joseph had been one of those who in recent years maintained that loan expenditure was too lrgh. “Could the candidate tell us whether (lie Hon. A. I). McLeod meant Tinman beings or guinea-pigs when lie se.id in the House that a family of five could livo on 35s a. week?” This ouestion was put to Mr. G. C. Munns, United candidate for R'osldll. “Guinea-pigs,” ■ was his answer. ‘‘Our industries want mere money” said Air. J. Lee, M.P. “We want to make more bread, more jam, more biscuits—. A voice: And more beer. Air. Lee: I don’t know why my friend’s mind always reverts to leer. 1 wish he would not do it. ... It always makes me uncomfortable to see a man wake up in a comatose condition and say ‘more beer.’ (Laughter). “Good old Harry!” came a chorus from some “front benchers” when Mr. Y. IT. Potter made reference to the leader of the Opposition, during a recent speech. “Half a minute,” pleaded Mr. Potter, of the most persistent interjejetor. “You are not talking in your sleep, are you?” Then, later, ho observed, “If Mr. Holland came on to this platform and offered you a brick for a lemon drink, half of you would squeeze it.” (Laughter).