The Hawera Star MONDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1928. MR VEITCH’S FIGURES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 29 October 1928, Page 4

The Hawera Star

MONDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1928. MR VEITCH’S FIGURES.

Delivoraii every evening by 6 o'clock la H&wera. Manair.. Normaaby. Okaiaiva. Eltham. Ma.ngatoki. Kaponga. Alton, TTurleyvlllts Patea. Waverlev. Mo_oia, Wbakamara. Ohangai, Meremere. Prasei Rnail. and Ararata.

In the course of his speech at Haw or a on Friday night, Mr W. A. Veiteh, one of the leading members of the, United Party, in his efforts .to .prove that New Zealand had been grossly mismanaged by the Reform Government, made use of some figures' which, if accepted at their face values, were calculated to convey a. very gloomy impression to his hearers. He told h.s local -audience, as he had previously told the electors in his own -district and elsewhere, that, in .1025 1926 anti 1927 the "departures to Australia; wore 66,756 people, amd the arrivals from Australia 28,990, so that “New Zealand lost in population to Australia alone 37,761.” This statement had been challenged by the N.Z. “Herald” somod ays before Mr Veiteh came ‘to Hawera, but the speaker was evidently disinclined to abandon a. point which he believed to be serving him well in -hi® campaign. against Reform, for he repeated the statement arid the charge with all the emphasis at his command. For the benefit of any who may I have been impressed by tjjie weight of “official , statistics” quoted by Air Veiteh, we offer the following comment made by the Auckland journal on this particular point: “It is a simple matter to identify the statistical returns upon l which "this statement is balsed. The explanati on of it is /that, Mr Veiteh has compared two entirely different things. The number of arrivals he quotes represents arrivals a.t. New Zealand ports of persons whose ‘last permanent residence ’ was Australia, other arrivals being classified under ten headings. Against them, he sots, not thenumber of persons whose last permanent residence was New Zealand, but the number of persons, of all classes, irrespective of nationality or residence or ainy other classification, who left New Zealand ports for Australia. If Mr Veiteh had made a reasonably intelligent Study of the returns from which he selected his figures, he would have found that in the three years, the number of Australians who eahid to New- Zealand to reside permanently was 5030, against which the movement of New Zealanders" to Australia was 5464, so that /the loss of population to Australia, wa/s not 37,761, but 428. When a member of the standing and experience of Mr Veiteh seriously pre- ) scuts'such a. .grotesquely garbled statement in, criticism of the Government, electors may well hesitate ltd accept at their face value similar statements by candidates with smaller reputations.” It is hardly to be supposed that the repetition of this contradiction of bis statistical deductions will influence the future, .utterances of Mr Veiteh, who invariably clings' toi his opinion- once he has made a solemn pronouncement thereon. His Hawera. speech provided fresh evidence of this habit of Mr Veitehof riding rough-shod over any argument brought, forward to combat his own case. We refer to hi® frequent I references tO" Mr Coates as a “young and inexperienced Prime Minister. ’ ’ He forgets that the electors can ascertain for themselves .that Air Coates is but eight years his junior, and that he has sat in Parliament an equal number of years' —seventeen. It maybe, though, that we do Mr Veiteh an injustice in saying he “forgets.” It is due to his long experience to acknowledge that he may realise the average elector win not bother to examine very closely such statements about a- public main whom he does not. know personally, thus giving those who attack a .political opponent on personal grounds an opportunity to “get away with it.”