REFORM FUNDS.

Grey River Argus, 9 July 1927, Page 6

REFORM FUNDS.

WHO PROVIDED THEM? Did Mr. Coates Make a Pact? Speaking on the Address-in-Reply on Thursday last, Mr 11. E. Holland, Leader of the Opposition, said:— “ There was the usual interesting announcement in the Governor’s speech that a Licensing Bill would be brought down. He asked would it be a Government Bill or would the Government pursue the method which it had adopted on so many past occasions of introducing the Bill, leaving the House, to fight over it for a day or so, and then withdrawing it or allowing it to drop? While he was on this subject he would like to ask 1 lie Prime Minister if, before the debate ended, he won'.-I toll them whether a compact was enlf-red into with the brewers :n connection with the 1925 election; and, if so, the nature of the “omyaet? He was «ure Ihe House and he countiy would be Interested to know the details of that ••onipaet. ’ ’ Mr Coates: What is the compact the lion, gentbunan is referring to? Mr Ho'lanJ: “That is what I want to know—what '.no compact was.” He was asking for the details of the. compact. Whatever it was, it apparently brought an immense amount of money into the Reform Party’s funds, and it m.D t be dis* .ucerting to the Prchi--1 ition members of ihe R-f-> ni Par:y to know that the huge advertisements wiiich helped them to get elected on false promises -were possibly paid for out of some of the brewers’ momy. Mr McLeod: Quite an eas' r statement to make. Mr Holland said it would also be easy for the Prime Minister to give the House the full facts. The other day he (Air Holland) received the latest number of the farmers’ paper, “Ear ning First,’’ containing a set of verses explaining “How the 1925 elections were won.” and this was what the paper said: — “They met in the realm of a mighty king, With the butter province under- his wing; They met to got hold of the farmers’ votes, And fix all the cookies to vote for Coates; On how to do it, each had his say, They soon decided on Kipling’s way — The certain road, which is Pay! Pay ! ! Pay! ! !

There were brewing and butter interests there, Men who had money enough and to spare; They drew up the rules and they made the game, They marked all the cards and they stacked the same; Won the election in half a day, Ne’er a newspaper could say them nay, The press of New Zealand was in their pay! ” There was a definite statement there that the brewers were present at some meeting held to organise the vote for Reform. However, they would all await with very great interest the Prime Minister’s statement as to the matter. UNRULY TORIES. During the course of Mr Holland’s remarks, Reform members became both angry and unruly, and eventually the Prime Minister and others were sternly rebuked by the Speaker. At the conclusion of Mr Holland’s speech, all sections of the House fully expected that the Prime Minister would make a statement; but Mr Coates sat silent, and the Hon. J. A. Young, Minister for Health, was put up to answer the Leader of the Opposition. Mr Young protested that Air Holland’s statement was “unfair and unwarranted.” He said he would give it an unqualified denial; and then went on to suggest that the liquor trade had subscribed to the Labour Party’s funds. Air Holland interjected that the donations received by the Labour Party had been acknowledged in detail. Cornered in his effort to libel the Labour Party, the Minister sought to escape by declaring that the statement had been published in full was “all eye-wash,” and that there were not many people who would be deceived by it. Air P. Fraser: You judge people by your own standard, do you? Air Young: One hears these rumours Air Fraser: They arc a lot of lies, anyhow. Air Young thought it very unfair that statements should be made such as those referred to. Air Holland: Very well. Let us compel all political parties to publish in detail the donations made to their funds. NATIONAL PARTY VIEW. Air G. AV. Forbes (Hurunui) said that it would be a very fine thing for the country if it were possible to put party funds on something like a legitimate basis. Party funds -were a necessity, but a party should be extremely I careful how the party funds were made up. There should be no obligations attached to subscriptions. Large sums of money had been spent by the Gov eminent party at the last election, and one was entitled to ask where that money came from. Air 1). Jones: Do you suggest that it was got wrongly? Air Forbes: There is no doubt that when large contributions are made there is a danger that the public may think that a party is guided by the amount of the contributions. Definite charges had been made against the present Government. It had been said that the Government had received contributions from the liquor party ami from the commercial interests. The latter statcine'nt had been made by the chairman of the Dairy Control Board. Air Al.-Leod: It is a deliberate un t ruth. Air Forbes: At any rate there is no doubt that we ought to make every efforts to keep our politics clean. Air b'orbes suggested that the Prime Alinister later might set up a commit toe to consider the advisability of making allowances to candidates. Mr Forbes was

proceeding to quote from a statement of the N.Z. Alliance with respect to the Reform Party and the licensing question, when he was pulled up by the Speaker. The matter he was quoting reflected on members of the House. AIR WRIGHT’S BURLESQUE. The Alinister of Education (the Hon. R. A. Wright) was next put up to defend the Government, the Prime Minister still remaining silent. Air Wright described the references to the Reform Party’s compact with the brewers as c ‘ sob stuff. ’ ’ All lion, member: Hot stuff. Air D. G. Sullivan: It’s not soft stuff, anyhow; it’s hard stuff. (Laughter.) “A SET OF GREENHORNS.” Air Wright said he could not imagine any brewer putting money behind him. He had seen an advertisement in the paper that the Labour Party was going to raise £30,000. It was unBritish and ungenerous to make statements against a political party that it was being run by a certain section. Air Sullivan: AVhy not publish a Reform Party balance-sheet? Air Wright: Surely the hon. gentleman thinks we are a set of greenhorns. There may be people who subscribe to the Reform Party’s funds who would not want the fact to be known. Air Holland: Hear, hear. (Laughter.) Air AVriglit next proceeded to say that some people who were known to be supporters of the Labour Party had secretly given contributions to the Reform Party. (Laughter.) To suggest that a party was receiving funds from certain interests in the community, he declared, was totally unfair. Such a state of things would be intolerable. If the Labour Party got £30,000 for their funds, said Air Wright, we didn’t got half that. The Leader of the Opposition: “Are those advertisements uot paid for yet, [ then ?” Air AVriglit: “AVe have not the good fortune of the Labour candidates, for the members of the Labour Party get all their expenses paid.” Labour voices: “Oh, no.” Air Holland: “Alany Labour candi dates would wish it were true.” “NOT WORTH IT.” The Alinister denied that the members of the Reform Party got any expenses paid, declaring that they had to pay their own expenses. “I have never been able,” he said, “to get anyone to pay my expenses. Perhaps they don’t think I am worth it.” l.:bour -.Dembors: “Hear, hear.” Air AVright went on to assert that on one occasion a prominent Labour supporter bail contributed to his election fund because the said Labour supporter had drawn Air AVriglit in a sweep, and therefore wanted him to win. Air Eraser: “ i'hat would certainly be the only j ossib'e reason why lie would support you.” (Laughter.) Another member suggested that someone had been tugging hard at the Minister’s leg. MB VEITCH SPEAKS HIS PART. On Friday the matter of the Reform Party funds was again raised by Air AV. A. Veitch, leader of the non-exist-ent Liberal Party. Air A’citch said he had been interested in the statement of the Alinister of Education that the funds available Io the Reform Party at last general election were less than £15,000. “The Standing Orders,” he said, “require me to believe that statement, and I am doing my best.” (Laughter.) I trust that I shall not be asked to go out amongst the people of New Zealand to induce them to believe it. What were the promises mmle in return for those funds? I make this statement as a responsible man — that it is impossible for a political party to accumulate the vast, amount of money that was profligately spent throughout this country at the last general election without having made some promise to somebody. and we would like to know.” VEITCH AND WRIGHT AGREE. Air A'citch further said he agreed with the Alinister of Education that it would be going too far to require the treasurer of a political party to make known the names of those who subscribed to the party funds. “There are people who subscribe to the Liberal funds for altruistic reasons, and who for good and sufficient reasons do not want their names to be published,” remarked Air A 7 eitch, amidst laughter. “That applies to all parties.” Air Holland interjected that the Labour Party published regular lists of the donations to its election funds. Air A r eitch retorted that the names of the donors are often hard to read—and the Reform Party members laughed loudly. Air A T eitch’s idea was undoubtedly to suggest that funds for the Labour Party came from foreign sources. MR COATES STILL SILENT. Air Coates still maintained a most significant silence; and the Hon. A. D. McLeod next essayed to defend th.* Government and the Prime Alinister. Air McLeod declared that the Reform Party had not handled one-quarter of the money that had been stated.* He agreed with every word that had been spoken about the wrongful use of party funds. The Reform Party had tied itself to no one in the matter of funds, and never would do so. Mr AlcLeod’s defence was very halfhearted and unconvincing, and he quickly switched off the matter of the Reform Party funds. DESTROYING WHAT DOESN’T EXIST. Air AlcLeod proceeded to make an assertion that he had the record of a meeting at which a serious discussion had taken place as to how the Reform Party could be brought down by attacking the Prime Alinister and destroying his popularity. He made no charge against the Leader of the Opposition or the Loader of the National Party in this connection. His experience pf the Labour Party had been that they fought fair. If he laid any charge against anybody, he would lay it, perhaps unfairly, against the Leader of the new Liberal Party. However, the idea was, as he had shid, to destroy the Prime Alinister’s popularity. A voice: “You can’t destroy what doesn’t exist.” Air Parry: “There are also some in his own ranks who arc working to bring him down.” Air AlcLeod nodded —and his nod spoke volumes. The public are still wondering why Air Coates emulated the oyster.