THE COMING ELECTION.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 255, 14 October 1911, Page 3

THE COMING ELECTION.

HAWKE'S BAY SEAT. MII. < I.A PH AM'S < A.N I) 11»ATI ’R 1 Mr. G. Siiei.cer ( lapiiam. nn In e’e pendent Labr. ir camii.late for tin Hawke's Bay seat, gave his first public address it the Princess Tlir-afre. Hastings. L-o t r veiling. There v.as an attr-mlarice of about .'/hi pi <<p!e including a fair proportion of I’uiies. anil His V,>.rsliip the Mayor presided. Mr. I'lapliatn. u'.n •,v."s received with applause, thankerl the electors for coining in st:<-h large numbers and went .n to say that a few weeks ago he was congratulating liin:self that this year he would be away from the whirl <>f a politic;.l eanipaign. but it was not to 1.-e s and from tin' convincing ma.jm-r in which Inhad been approached l.e could not but help coming forward. Meeting, like the one at which they wi-re liic-ii assembled gave liiem the opportunity <>f clearing t-p misunderstandings ami insinuations which arose from time to time, and a good many had

arisen on the present occasion. , Wilt n he erdt rtd the contest three years ago it had been said that he • was oat to split, the Liberal lote and h t Sir William Rtis><-!l slip in. , Litt his action in assisting the Liberal candidate at the second bal--1.4 had completely proved the absurdity of the suggestion. Recently it had been said that Mr. Campbell : had induct d him to come out and was pa.iing expenses, with the itlva tot again splitting the Liberal vote, i He (the speaker) hope <1 to be aide to <lo enough splitting to place him at the head of the p-dl. (Applause). F»i;t the statement was as untrue as tht' previous one, and Mr. (’ampbeli was no more payitig his expenst than In* was paying Mr. ( ampbeli s. which was hardh likely. (Applat’se). His expenses were bring [mid b.v persons who had watched his actions whilst a member of the 11.-i.-t--ings Borough Coom-i'. who had Lein present at the meetings and did not depend <i:t repmts tn the newspapers. Mr. Claplinm rr fei re I at length to his sen ices on thHastings Count ih which, he claimed, vere always in the interests cl' th-' pet,pie ; and also to his work in supporting the investigation of thr' Napier Harbour question al the time of the last loan poll. Defining his position in regard l<> the present (ioieruiiient. tiie speak er said that at the last election he was a Government candidate, but he was afraid he would not get the Governmi'nt brand on this occasion. He was out in the interes’s <;f ImH pendent Labour and Liberalism. He was not an Oppositionist, anti had n > more intention of allving himself with Mr. Massey than he had of Uy i'lg into the middle of next week The Opposition t lairm d to lie the great Reform Part?, the true Libefale. but their main policy was absolutely t onst'i va* ive. Howevi r much in- had lost faith in the present (lor ernment lie was not a supporter of the Opposition. If elected he womn do his level best to change the personnel of the present Ministry, because it was not the (1 iverument it was supposed to be. Iwetit.v years ago the party in power had starttti out on a splendid Liberal police which should have taken them much fwrthi r '.head than they were to da\ This was instituted by the hue Mr. Ballance, ami if his ideals had been followed they would not have had the Hon. Georgt- I’owltL having the Ministry at the present time. The ]ir< sent of a Dreadnought by Sir Joseph Matti without consulting the [leople was followed liy suspicions that it was done tor his t,wn ends, but not withstanding these suspicions Sir Joseph Ward had g-me Home ami by accepting a title ha i become an autocrat and an aristocrat. He (the speaker) did not tiiink the pct,pie wanted one of either >1 th< se classes leading this country. The Covernment should get back to the lims laitl down b.\ Mr. Ballance itisteatl of running after red b.ei img 1 which came acro.-s the tiaeK.

RAILWAYS. 1 Ihaliim with the question of rail | wavs Ihe s;>< aker said that when the) Opposition decbiri d the railway .- were not returning the interest char ged oil the money invested. Mr. -vi i I Far h:’<! raised the freights and fares. Then Mr. Massev had told them at Hastings that the < iovern te.-mt were to blame for iiti-rvas in.-', t’he fares. The poli- y in Xew Zealand in regard to railways, telegraphs and telephone seri let s si: mid be in the providing of the greates: utility for the people and not in the directicn of making a high rate of imerest New Zealand was one of the b ailing countries m providing publicly own td institutions like railways and tele graph '■ >rvic i's. and the fares and rates c< ninared favourably with other parts of the world. The initiatioi of the penni postage syst- m v.as a marked feature i:i the uti.ity of post o:T:.es in Ni W Zea::.ml. THE LABOUR QUESTION. The speaker -aid l.e was satisfied tiiar if there had not been any big labour question he would not have been a candidate for election. The question was the most important one before the country anil should be taken in hand before the land policy. The Opposition parly had a labour polit'v. but eii?l not make it clear. When speaking to landed people he v. as <.>fte.n told that labour laws were alright as long a» they did not go too far; restrictions were spoken <d ; thev were told ot the I’liiilihi between empioyir and employee, and that labour was making unreasonable demand'. Ihe speaker wtnt on

to say that these restrictions came f,.->in i itiier ti.i' Statue Book or the Arbitral ion Court. With regard to, Festrietions concerning partners re- ) maining on th’ ir premises, it had ) been said that it was ridiculous and ; would Laie to be withdrawn. but he considered it was quite justiheil. L ; had been found that in such pl t. e ■[ as Wellington that the labour lav > weic useless in dealing with Chinese ( laundries. wl.er<- eveivone a- a putner amt the (. hine>e ti.ul file oe-i , ~t it. Tin v were able to . cl their biisiiie-s undercover whilst our > < imt ltd o‘ ' 'ill- uh.II lU, Jjiieatrn- J ,-U Th's restriction was not mt. ml , K l to >h u 1.1 exe.pt V.h.K 't " D , mr. <aty Tin- ie<ti;.-i:ie h g t -I.L ;

non which had caused ferment had come from the -Arbitration Court, and was backet! up by the unions, but ir had to be remembered that the restrictions would not be enforced by the Court unless they were justified, and when Judge Sim was on the bench the employer did not get the I worst of the deal. When people j spoke of getting rid of the Arbitraj Eon Court they had to remember that ■ the whole forces of labour were beI kind it. Continuing. Mr. Claphant i said that one of his opponents had j stated that when wages were increased the cost of living went up. Some of the working people might be discouraged. He considered the ! increased cost of living was not due !to increased wages, and he pointed ' out that when refrigerating niaehinj cry was invented antt farmers were ■ enabled to place their meat on the I Home markets in first class comli- | Eon, and received immense profits i from this source, the price of meat j increased to Cd. and 9<l. per lb, and I everyone would admit that a good ; many shillings were spent on meat. | The same thing happened in regard ! to the export of butter, and yet the I high cost of Irving was attributed to J increased wages. These exporters were receiving huge profits from the British people, increased the cost oi living, but the working man got no ! increase in wages. He had to strugi gle for existence. A driver worked from, say, 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., his wages were £2 fi -, whilst it cost him and liis family £2 15. - to exist. The wages question had never received fair consideration, and though the necessaries of life went up in cost, the wages question remained at a standstill. The question was one that would have to be faced by this cottn- • try, and if returned to Parliament he i would endeavour to have placed on i the Arbitration Court men who ! would see that the workers who ! created capital could live up to the i standard of civilisation and make provision for later years. —(Applause). If people would look beyond the man in immediate employment. to those dependent on him and his home, they would not take such anarrow view of the wages question. Whilst it was true that some tradesmen were not able to pay increased I wages, there were hundreds of others who were making huge profits and were in a position to give the worker a chance of a better living. It was a want of sympathy with the employee by the master that had created the difficult question now before the country. Another candidate had advocated the Victorian system of Wages Boards. He (the speaker) would like to know what that candidate was after. Under present conditions an employer had the privilege of giving higher wages to better workers, but if the Wages Board came into vogue he would also have the privilege of giving a lower wage, anti he hoped they would never come. The wages question was involved in the land question, and the Arbitration Court should look at the wealth of the country before deciding what a wage should be. Looking back over the early history of the world it would be seen that a man was always able io get an existence for his work, but despite all the inventions of reci nt centuries he was still hardly able to get existence. THE LAND.

The Opposition said that all Crown lands should be settled before estates were taken. In this district ihe Crown lands available were very few indeed, and they were not worth settling, otherwise they would have been taken up long ago. If the people of Hawke's Bay knew the existing state of affairs they would go for cutting up the big estates and not wait for the graduated tax. One family owned IDO.odo acres, and 40 families owned land valued at £l,303,035. The Premier was now considering legislation enabling estates to be acquired at a fair value, and he (the speaker) would heartily support him. If returned to Parliament he would not be contented until tht' largo areas of land at present in the hands of a few people were in the hands of the people as a whole. His idea was that an estate should be sold at public auction. The condition of Ireland had shown what happened under a foolish system of landlordism.

QUESTIONS. In reply to question, Mr. Ulapham said : If he was not in the second ballot he would not lend his support to any particular candidate ; instead of iccording his vote on that day he would go home and plant onions. He was not in favour of religious intsruction in public schools, nor in favour of grants to denominational schools. He believed in the system of training cadets at school. Imt was not ab- > solutely in favour of compulsory l training as laid down in the new Dej fence Act. i He favoured the retention of the I present licensing legislation, and the three-fifths majority. He always voted for prohibition. On the motion of Messrs. A. M. Robertson and Scott, the candidate | was accorded a hearty vote of thanks i for his addre.-s. ! A similar compliment to the Mayor I for presiding concluded the meeting.