GOOD WORK.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 10733, 2 November 1928, Page 7

GOOD WORK.

MR. LYSNAR PRAISES COATES CABINET. CORDIAL MEETING- AT WAINGAKE. PUBLIC TRUST POLICY. NEED FOR REVIEW OF ITS' METHODS. Waingake electors, totalling between 30 and 40, attended the local schoolroom on Wednesday evening when Mr. W. D. Lysuar, sitting member for Gisborne, opened his country campaing. Mr. Lysnar’s address 1 was listened to 'with the greatest interest and a number of questions were asked, after which a vote of thanks and confidence was carried unanimously and by ' acclamation. Mr. J. Parker was in the chair and, in introducing Mr. Lysnar, remarked that he had already represented them for nine years, that he had done very good work in that time p.nd that he had clearly showed that he had the interests of the electors and of the district at heart. WHO HAS THE. SWOLLEN HEAD?

Mr. Lysnar opened wih a definition of his position, stating that lie stood as an Independent Reformer, with the proviso, however, that, under no circumstances would he b» instrumental in putting extremist Labor into power. Nevertheless he did not feel disposed to give an unqualified pledge to Reform,' for *• considered that he could hest serve the interests of the country anti the electors by maintaining his status as an Independent. •Regarding the other two local candidates, continued. Mr. Lysnar. he wished', to point out that neither had come forward with an explanation of his platform, preferring rather to skirmish around .in the country districts without giving details of his programme. To the speaker’s mind, they should both have opened in Gisborne and filin’ •explained their policies. Ho had held hack to give them an opportunity of pointing out where lie had failed, but still they had not eome forward. Mr. Clayton had made many wild attacks on the Government and Mr. Coates, but that would not take him far, for lie should get down fo what was best for the Dominion p.nd how the United Pariy would bring such matters into being. Mr. Lysnar denied omnhatienily that Mr. Contes was afflicted, as‘the United candidate stated w ; tb a swollen head. It was Mr. Clayton who hail the swollen head, remarked Mr. Lysnar amidst laughter, because he had been invited to eon test, th« seat. Mr. Coates had net done all ho had honed to, nor had the Reform Government, for both were seriously hampered by the fact that 1 manv Reform members were pledged -in many' ways through promises ’made to their constituents LAND TAXATION PROBLEM. Mr. Lvsnor also outlined, in terms of his City Hall address, the progress of the country under the Reform Government. Mr. Coates had been in power during very troubled times and, jp was nearly always tile case in jffch circumstances, the people tunned round and cast the blame on iRe Government. There had been ifequent, complaint against the high taxation following the war, hut that, was a matter of necessity, and it. was an unfortunate feature that, in ’ times of high taxation, it was the poorer man who was hiti first. Yet, in suite of that last factor, which could bo amply proved by authoritative statements, there was Mr. Holland saying, if ho could get into power, that lie would increase the taxation, particularly as regarded the land tax The land tax, stated Mr. Lysnar with emphasis, was quite high enough already, and. if it were increased, the land-owner? would have- no money left with which to make improvements on I,heir holdings. Ho had been striving to obtain a better basis for the taxation of land owned by" farmers and he believed that a system ot income tax would bo far more equitable, but lie was opposed to the imposition of both the income tax and the land tax. As an example of the ill-working ;of the present of taxation, Mr. Lysnar quoted a case of a farmer owning 5000 sheep. Two years ago, that man would have lost £SOCO; in the following year his loss was half that amount, and this season he should make a profit of £2,500 but he would still, over those years. *be £SCOO behind. And. throughout the period, that farmer was paying the same amount of tax on his farm.

UNITEDS 5 RAILWAY POLICY. After commenting on United’s borrowing nolicy, on the lines of his Citv Hall address, Air. Lysnar added that he could not. see where they eould claim any superiority over Reform. In connection with their borrowing of £10,000,0X1 for railways development, according to' some statements of the United policy, tins was to be spread over 10 years, but there was also some talk that they would raise £3,000,000 in the * : ' s r year. Even* should the latter plan be the one intended, the'v were only on a par' with Reform, for the present Government were raising £3,000,000 this year for railway dcvelopmont. , , Air. Lysnar also pointed out the many State works benefits gained h’this district during the Reform regime and classed as ridiculous Air. Clayton’s charge that lie had been responsible for holding up of the Gisborne railway line, also oxplain-mo'-whv lie (the sneaker) preferred the inland route. He also defended the policy of the Government in concentrating meantime, on the worlon the Wairoa-Napicr section, stating that, except for some viaducts and tunnels, this portion was now well in hand. It was far better, he smd to complete half tho line at once, than to spread Hie construction all over the place, doing patches here and there," and not making one section readv for use at an early date. Regarding the Premier’s promise to TUish on" with the Icral line, A[r. Lvsnar stated that, recently, he had noted that more men were being emnloved on tho Auckland line than on" the Napier-Gisborne line. He bad immediatelv pointed this out io AH Coates who. forthwith, had transferred some of the men from the Auckland line to the Napier-Gisborne line, living tin to his-promise ihnt Hie local line ‘would lutve preference. The speaker also dealt at length with the subject of railways as m bis City- ITaR address. HOW TO' SETTLE THE I AND.

Dealing with land settlement, AH Lysnar expressed the opinion ti””' as most of the first-class land in the Dominion was now taken up. the restrictions on file size of the other holdings should be lifted. This limit of 64-0 acres was far too narrow and gave a settler little chance of doing well, when the class of land available was considered. A good scheme for the encouragement of settlers, particularly from Home, he considered, was to rut up a block into sections and have a general manager supervising all of them, with community farm implements, on a form of group settlement. Regarding State interference wiih private enterprise, Mr. Lysnar stat-

ed that he was mainly in opposition to that principle. They had no right, for instance, to representatives on the meat and dairy boards and he had strongly opposed this in the House. In the case of railways, however, he felt that something should be done to even uu the competition of the ’buses and was in agreement, in a certain point, with the steps taken in this connection. Nevertheless, too great- a buiden had been placed on the heavy ’buses and this should bo relieved to some extent. PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE. “There is a great deal of feeling,” said Mr. Lysnar, “that the Public Trust Office is trespassing too much on the business of legal firms and even of commission agents and of similar concerns. I have brought this up jp the House and urged that this department be put on a better basis, for it is spreading very rapidly. The Government guarantees all estates going through the Trust Office. Something should be done, also, about the ownership of Public Trust buildings—at present this is hanging in the air. The whole position requires rergedy and an effort should be made to give the Government quid pro quo for the assistance it gives the Public Trust. That office should pay taxes as other concerns' do and it 'should -not '.have' these little perquisites' which are denied' to- others. Suppose the Public Trust Office makes a huge profit—who gets it? I hope something can be done in this matter and that my representations in the House will bring the reform about.”

RELIGIOUS EXERCISES IN SCHOOLS.

The speaker also defended strongly the suggested religious exercises in schools, stating that he could see no harm in these, 'smcc the hymns and portions of the Bible used had to, be approved by the associated churches and the teachers were not permitted to give more than grammatical explanation of iho passages used. Any present systeip of religious instruction was, if wished by the school authorities, allowed to continue. Surely, such a scheme as suggested during the last session of Parliament was far better than the present system whereby any person was allowed to come into the school arid take the classes? “Certain portions of the Bible and certain hymns would, no doubt, l>o objected to,” added Mr. Lysnar, “but that’s nothing. I take it that all of you in ibis room would object stronglv if you wore compelled to sing th» ‘Red Flag’ and other Cofnmunistic hymns. (Laughter). I can see nothing wrong with file proposal as long as the religious denominations have a say in it;” • '.. LABOR AND FINANCE. “With Labor in powor, with all their extremist views on finance,” stated Mr. Lysnar, “the Dominion would rapidly find itself in serious financial difficulties. You need only look at Labor's administration of finance in Australia to see how it wdrks out. Thev tried to float a loan at Homo a short time ago and only 2d per cent was taken up. .At the same time, the Dominion floated a. loan and the whole of it was snapped un in an hour or two. That’s the sort of position which will come, about if Mr. Holland gets in. I don’t say Sir Joseph Ward is as had, but I would like to know where, lie will get all the cheap money he is talking about.”

After emphasising the debt. N.Z. owed to the Highways Board, for which Mr. Coates was responsible, Mr. Lysnar pointed out £2,000,000 -would he available for works this year, thus relieving the county councils and thereby the ratepayers. .After protest by the speaker'against the previous apportionment of funds a» it affected Wairoa and this district, Mr. Coates had solved the difficulty by introducing the petrol tax. hut. other matters remained to he adjusted. To the speaker a flat lieence fee for all ears did not, appear justifiable and the tyre-tax also required remedy. He believed that, perhaps, the best plan would he to cut out all license fees etc., and have simply the petrol tax. The third party insurance scheme was coming in and . that was a very wise provision in the speaker's, opinion. “Who takes the risk?” asked Mr Chas. Gibson. ....... “Oh, the insurance companies,” replied Mr. Lysnar. “The Government will schedule out the. policies among the companies and you will be able to indicate the company vou prefer,” added Mr. Lysnar. “Why doesn’t the Government take out the policies and not, put them ori to companies ” asked the chairman.

Mr. Lysnar replied that it was a business principle to re-insure under such circumstances and the question also introduced the point of Government interference with private, enterprise.

MR LYSNAIt’S STATE ADVANCES SCHEME. Referring to the State Advances Department, Mr. Lysnar'stated that it... was doing good wo.rk... but it was not meeting the • position fully. 11 was about 18 months or so behind in dealing with ' applications for loans. He did not favor a State bank, but he considered that there should be a bank which could loan nut money on long terms. Something in the nature of an agricultural bank might meet the position. . hut *' scheme appealing to the speaker was that which involved each horrower in taking out a percentage of his loan in shares in the lending institution. When one man failed, a call could he made on all the shareholders and thus the loss bo widely dist>-' ed. The Government could guarantee £5,000,000, allowing 2-5 or even 121 per cent on each debenture, making £20,000,000 or £-10,000,000 available for loans.

SOLDIER SETTLEMENT. ; “Opponents of the Government are always blaming it for the I’aiitire of soldier settlements,”' stated Mr. Lvsnar, “but Mr. Coates’ policy has been a good one. Of £30.000.000 advanced. ' about '£5,000,000 lids been written off in order to relieve the position. I believe that more should ho done in this direction, if it. will make the position of the settlers more secure. Another £2,500,000 or £5,000,000 would not be at all unreasonable, though, it is unlikely that nearly so much would be involved, for all the, weaklings afe now weeded out and the stickers only aro left. I advocated this in the" House, hut the Labor and United Parties strongly opposed it. Such a move could not be termed a loss to the' Government-, for it would make, the men more secure on the land and is also due to them as a form of gratuity for their war services. In conclusion, Mr. Lvsnnr referred to ihe strenuous hours of the past session, stating that, during the latter three weeks, he had rarelv been in bed before 2 He had discovered that a nap of 15 minutes was wonderfully refreshing * “Why not a spot.?” came an interjection. Mr. Lysnar passed over the interruption and added that a sleep of an hour, however, made him very drowsy when he awakened from it. He also pointed out that, during the discussion on the Mental Defectives Bill, they had been sitting for 23 ■Hours on end. {

QUlviTiOX TiMK. Questions wore thou invited. ' Iho chairman asked what became of all the profit from the 'Public Trust Office. Mr. Lysnar ronlied that it was all used in administration, building new premises anti for staff improvements. “But 1 thought the Government made a good thing out oi‘ it?” saitl the chairman. •‘No, they don't get a penny out ‘of it,” repird Air. Lysnar. •'The position is all wrong.” •‘ls the Government .liable for losses incurred by the Public Trust!-' asked Air. .Chas. Gibson. Mr. Lysnar replied that they certainly wore, for they guaranteed all estates entrusted to the office.

MANGAPOIKE-TE ARAT VALLE ROAD.

Afr. Cribson asked that Air. Lvsnar should do all in his power to have the Alangnpoike-Te Arai Valley road declared a main highway. In support of his request. Air. Gibson stated this was undoubtedly the best route to Napier, having better grades than via "Alorere and plentv of metal available at almost all points. One day. he said, it would tie the main, through road. There were several bridges to he eonstructed,„ but. when these had been put up, more than half the summer traffic would.jis.e .that route and it was hardly fair to expect the riding to boar the heavy maintenance costs, which would arise.

In reply, Air. Lysnar stated that he would be very pleased to do all he could in the matter. He had been informed by officials that this route was better graded and than the other one and, certainly, if anything like 50 tier cent of the through traffic used the road, it was only just that the Highways Board should take it over. He had been assured by the Minister that this roar! woo'd "ne onened no as earlv as posihle and. onro'that were done,' there was lit tie doubt that the Board would at once take it over.

BETTING SHOT'LL) BE LEGALISED.

Air. F. AVyke inquired whether ttie candidate favored the law which forbade such bodies as school committees from holding euchre tournaments.

“Alost- certainly not,” replied Air. Lysnar. “It is a very foolish law, but it. opens tip a big subject, the gambling spirit, which is inherent m the British people. I think the best thing would be to legalise all these gambling methods, rather than have the present dishonorable, back-door methods of betting. AY? all know that about - half the people in N.Z. are law-breakers bv reason or betting with bookmakers. “Wo have legalised the tote." remarked Afr. Chas. Gibson.'

“Yes, hut that’s onlv one thing,” replied Afr. Lysnar. “And the tote eaters only (or the one section of noonlo—those who have time to attend the races, it is a shame, too, that all the -money goes out of the country to TattersaU’s. The Government would benefit by greatly increased revenue if betting and such sweeps as Tatt’s were legalised. They have not studied human nature in Ibis respect and they must do that.” (Applause). / On the motion of Air. Parker, seconded Hy Air. F. Shanks, a vote of thanks and confidence in Air. Lysnar was carried unanimously bv acclamation.