A POLITICAL JOKE.

Grey River Argus, 20 July 1922, Page 8

A POLITICAL JOKE.

MR LYSNAR UNDER FIRE. WELLINGTON, July 15. In the Address-in-Rupiy debate Mr W. Lysnar (Gisborne) declared that I he. had come into Parliament pledged to support the Government that he considered best for the interests of the country; :nd he found himself compelled to support the Massev Government. (Loud laughter.) Mr W. A. Veitch (Wanganui): It broke your heart, didn’t it? (Laughter.) Referring to proportional representation, Mr Lysnar charged that the plank was a straight steal by the Liberals from the Extreme Labour platform . (Laughter.*) Mr J. Edie (Bruce): Didn’t Air Massey steal it in 1911 ? Proportional representation, said Mr Lysnar, would drift Bolshevism into power in New Zealand. (Laughter.*) Air Massey hud not realised that at first; but when he realised it he threw it over. (Laud laughter.) Air I). G. Sullivan (Avon): Do you agree with minority government? Mr Lysnar/ It is not a question of agreeing with minority government. It is a question of agreeing with the devil you know. (Loud laughter.) I admit there are defects in the present system, but we don’t want to introduce worse evils. There were only two parties before the country to-day —the Reform Party and the Extreme Bolsheviks’ Party. (Laughter.) The Liberals were snapping up or trying to snap up the platform of the Extreme Bolshevik Party. Replying to an interjection. Air Lysnar contended that the Government Im J substituted another electoral system f°* the second ballot. It had substituted the old system. (Laughter.) Air Sullivan: Do you mean to say that was what tho Government intended when it promised to substitute a better system? Air Lysnar: Certainly, it was. (Daughter.) It was a very prudent wav of putting it. '* (Loud laughter.) The Government has substituted another system, and the only reasonable one. (Laughter.) His constituency had long been represented by a Liberal; and it had been turned by tho neglect, of tho Liberal Party into the Cinderella district of the Dominion. ’Pho Liberal Party had left their native land laws unreformed and their roads unmctalled. Dr Thacker: That is why you could not get your wool away. (Laughter.) Another Liberal member: Are things much better now? Mr Lysnar: The Reform Party has improved matters by metalling the roads. Dr Thacker: Tell us about your wool —why you could not got it out. (Laughter.) Air Sullivan: Bimetallism? (Laughter.) : Mr Lysnar complained of the heavy burden of taxation on Ihe primary producers. The land and income tax, lie ’declared, were crushing the lifeblood ! out of the farming industry. In some 1 cases it had taken three years’ wool I to pay the laud tax. That was common in the Gisborne district: and men who had been worth thousands a year were now practically penniless.*'' He urged the Government to bling the Aleat Export Control Act into compulsory operation. If it was not made compulsory it. would not be any real good. Mr Sull.ivan: Do you brlievo in compulsory unionism? (Laughter.) .Mr Lysnar: In this case I do. (Laughter.) He contended that the individual farmers should vote for tho board, and that the nomination system should be done away with. Otherwise it fell to the mercantile element in the farming community to vote for the board, an I tho mercantile element became the do minaiit factor. He had been told by six or eight farmers that at one of their conferences they were frightened to vole. A Labour Member: Why? Mr Lysnar: Because, the mercantile men to whom they owe. money were there. They knew what the mercantile men wanted, and were afraid to vote against them. A Labour Al ember: They must own

them, body and soul. Jlr Lysnar: Pretty well, lie contended that e.i.f. sales must be stopped. It was a wrong principle, and ho had never allowed it in his affairs. Only recently his ngents had sold some i>. his produce e.i.f., and he bad told them that they had no right to do so; they had lost him £5OO by it, and must nor do 'it again. ill- L. Al. Isitt (Christel) meh N.) said that be had been personally misrepresented by the previous speaker. What he (Isitt) had said was that he had been returned by the Reform vote; that the Reformers had voted for him because :• Bolshevik was up against him. (Hear, hear.) •Mr Lvsnar: “Voted for you!” Loud laughter greeted the great emphasis put on the “you.’’