THE EGMONT SEAT

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 22 October 1925, Page 6

THE EGMONT SEAT

Mil. GREEN AT NORMANDY. SPEAKER WELL RECEJYED. Air W. C. Green, National candidate i'or the Eg in out electorate, addressed a we.l-attended meeting at Normality last evening, JVLr O. Co.adj a member of the Norman by Town Hoard, presiding. ■ Air Green, at the outset, said lie had been asked to contest the Egmont seat by the National Party, and lie had consented. Proceeding, he .informed his audience of some of the aims and objects of the National Party. One of the lhain planks was the unity o,f all those who desired to see the interests of the country placed before the interests of party. They had only to follow the doings of the Government for the past three years and they would see that the interests, of the country were being sacrificed for party. Secondly, the Nationa.l Party was out to try and end the three-party system —a system that was causing weak administration ; and the way to end the present unsatisfactory state of affairs was to put the National Party into power and so make possible the forming of a strong Government. Mr Green contended that the present Government was the weakest that had ever sat oil the Treasury benches. It had been elected in a minority, ancl had formed a Government with the assistance of several disgruntled Liberals men known in the political world as “rats.’.’ “What is to be their reward for voting with the Government.’” asked Mr Green. “Their reward is to he seats in the Upper House when they retire,” lie added. “They are afraid to contest seats in this present campaign: A GOVERNMENT PRESS. “Of course the press of this country is practically owned by the Reform people,” said the speaker. “1 think 1 am safe in saying that 95 per cent, of the press of New Zealand is more or less owned by the Reform Party. They bolster up the present Government and their Ministers and make you believe that these gentlemen are heaven-born statesmen.” Proceeding, the speaker pointed out that- the interests of the small farmer and the working man were hot the same as those of the wealthy .fanners and big combines. There was no doubt that the Reform Government was catering for -the support of the trusts and combines ancl the wealthy people. A voice: That is quite right. PIN A NOE. “I will just place a few facts before you,” said Mr Green, “that will show you. the crying need for a National Government One of the things that the present Government know ..little about is finance. I think that the present Minister for Finance, .Hon. W. Nosworthy, is the weakest Minister we have ever had on the Treasury benches. 1 think that the sooner we scrap him the better.” Continuing, Mr Green sliowed how the national debt had increased since the Reformers took office in* 1912 front about £95,000,000 to £228,000.000. He would deduct £79,000,000 borrowed for war purposes, and that left £54,000,000 that had been borrowed .in a short space of time by a Government that went into, power as a non-borrowing one. tie did not contend that any country could get on without borrowing, but the present Government- had borrowed unnecessarily. This year they had committed the country to a further 73- millions of borrowed "money. The Government was also wasting money. When the Reformers came into power they were collecting £448,000 by way of" income tax. To-day they were collecting £3,386,000 from that source, and they wore not taxing the wealthy in proportion to those who could least afford to pay. The Customs duty was the duty that hurt those who could least afford to pay, and it was this duty that was causing the high cost, of living. In 1912 the Customs duty amounted to £3,279,012; to-day it was £7,569,385, an increase of £4,390,377. Although the Government had this • excessive Customs tax, they decided to give a rebate to racing clubs. However, he didn’t blame the' racing clubs, the speaker himself beling a. member of one. Then, in spite of the reduction to racing clubs, the Government decided to raise the rate of interest in the Government lending departments —quite a wise thing, because they wanted to keep up the rate of interest. DECAYING BIRDS. “It- .is time rftlie Nationalists, ior Liberals, had a "look at the pigeon holes,” said Mr Green. A voice: Stick to the old name, my friend. Continuing, tjie speaker said they would remember how the Reformers, before they took offiiqe, were crying out ii.ir access to the pigeon holes of government. When they got there they were asked: “What about those pigeon lio’esP” They replied that when they got there they were empty —the birds had all flown. “Let the Nationalist party in,” said Air Green. “They will line! the pigeon holes full of decaying birds.” . ADMINISTRATION CRITICISED. The speaker 'referred to the Land and Income Tax Bill as a Bill passed for the "benefit of the wealthy Squatters, and from Government returns showing the number «of sheep owned by 33 well-known wealthy, farmers of Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa, he showed how with wool at Is 9d per. 11) tlie annual revenue of those lew men allowed of a. rebate to them which tota led £122,440. And yet the Government .said they wore out to legislate for the whole of the Rum try. The fact was that the of those 33 men were touring other countries and spending their money outside the Dominion. while their families were also being educated outside tbd* Dominion. He did not blame them, but it was not in the* interests of the country. 'Hie State Advances Department had been brought into operation by the Liberal Government for a purpose, naine.y. to give relief to those who were struggling. Immediately the Reformers cot. into, power they nailed up the windows and barred the. doors and said that the Treasury was empty. Very soon, however, they opened up again, but,at a higher rate of interest. At the present time a person whose property was unencumbered cc.uld borrow money from the State Advances Office at 4£ per cent., plus 1 per cent, sinking fund, but if the property was encumbered, 5£ per cent, plus 1 had to be paid. The man with the mortgage to pay was the very one who required money at the cheapest rate, and the difference showed that the Government was not treating all alike For house property a person could raise money from the State Advances Office to the extent of 95 per cent, of the value of the house, but for land 51 per cent, had to lie paitl, and only up tb 75 per cent, of the Government valuation was available for borrowing. With the difference in the rates of interest the Government was only for one class of people.

The speaker also contended that the country was governed more or le&s by commissions. They had the recent commission in connection with the Lysnar charges, where, as the result of the statement made to a Minister that Lie Government was favouring trusts and combines, the country was put to the expense of a commission in order lo white-wash the minister concerned. The commissioners in that case got £8 8s per clay, the chairman drew £672 for 80 days work, six reporters drew £SOO lie twee u them, and the .secretary, who was also the Alinistei s 1 secietai , drew £3 5s per day. AVhen all the expenses oir tii© commis-sion weie tailed up it would be found that it would have cost the country £B,OOO. “1 say it is simply scandalous,” said Mr. Green. Then there were numerous other commissions, amongst which y.as a revaluation board's commission which cost £44,000. The speaker said he cud not think that commissions should be set up outside . Parliament. The electors sent men to Parliament to do thenwork, and every time anything came along commissions were .set up to do it. At the present time there was an agricultural banking commission set up. The National party promised the electors that if they ' were returned to office 'they would establish agricultural banking in this country. o'ne of the three commissioners appointed in connection with the agricultural banking proposal was a member of the associated banks and, of course, he would he against agricultural banks. Air. Poison was in favour of the proposal and the other commissioner —the Government nominee—eras anything, and he would come back anything after the enquiry abroad, which would mean that the commission would end up where it started. The State Fire Office, which had been set up by the Liberal Government had reduced rates by about a third, hut immediately the Reformers came into power they tried to strangle it. They sent out circulars stating that those who had insured with them could insure with whom they liked. The increased cost of the High ..Commissioner’s Office was referred to. In Sir Thomas Mackenzie's time it cost the country £IB,OOO per annum. Sir James Allen was sent to, All Sir Thomas’s place and they would all agree that Sir James did not fill the position as well as Sir T lioinas. However, when Sir James was sent Home the cost of the office increased to £47,575 —an increase of 250 per cent. “One of the benevolent measures that this Government has given us is the Dairy Control Act,” said Mr. Green, “a thing that I have fought hip and thigh.” However, in s-pite of all they could do it was put on the Statutebook, with the object, they said, of ping the poor struggling “cockey.” He had now before him the Control Board’s balance-sheet, and that board claimed against other things that it had made a saving to the dairy producers. in insurance, and if it had done nothing else it had justified its existence by this alone. “It had certainly got a reduction in insurance,” continued the speaker, but the board goes on to admit that it knew of one large factory that had lower rates than the figures quoted in its balance-sheet, and there were possibly a few other factories in a similar opsition. Mr. Hawken was the Government nominee on the Control Board, and the speaker CQiild understand why Mr. Haw ken had helped to ram the Bill down the farmers’ throats. He did not mean anything personal, hut Mr. Hawken was not a dairy farmer. Although the advocates of control had said that they were paying their own expenses, he noticed that. this was not the case. The speaker quoted which lie alleged showed that ‘the hoard had wasted money. The money' that iiad been spent on the 12 members of the board one year amounted to £15,870. “If you return me,” he said, “I will do all I can to strangle this Dairy Control Act, and I will see that the money is not wasted in this way. I don’t think it is fajr that the Government nominee should be put on this board and he allowed to draw a State salary. And at the same time he is stumping the country instead of attending the producers meetings. ’- Mr. Green had explained during his speech that there were other things that he could .speak .about, which would .support his claims for a National Government, but as his meeting had started at 7 p.m. and the proprietor of the pictures required the hall at 8 p.m. he had to cut hi® address .short. When Mr. Green concluded questions were invited by the chairman, but none were asked.

Air. O. Clever thereupon moved \a vote of thanks to the sneaker, whirlmotion was seconded by Str T. Hurleyman and carried with acclamation.

The meeting then terminated with a vote of thanks to the chair.