FAIR TREATMENT.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 20 October 1922, Page 5

FAIR TREATMENT.

GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC VOTES (By Telegraph.—Special to Star.) WELLINGTON, Oct. 19. - Glimpses of electioneering contests going on while Parliament is at work were provided in the House to-day, j when candidates' statements were submitted to Ministers for their opinion. Mr. Masters (Stratford) raised a protesting chorus when he asked the Minister of Public Works if it is the policy of the Government to penalise districts in the matter of public works grants if they were not represented by members of the right colour. He hastened to assure the interrupters that he was not complaining on his own account, but had quite another object in putting the question. He had been treated most fairly and reasonably in all grants for his district, but the Reform candidate for the electorate had stated in a speech in Stratford that, had he been returned at last election he knew, and could state authoritatively, that the Stratford-Main Trunk line would not | have been stopped at Tahora. Mr. Vigor Brown: Too thin. Read it again. Mr. Masters: If you had been over here you would have heard it better. (Loud laughter.) The Minister of Public Works replied that he had listened to the telegram read by Mr. Masters, and all he could say was that it was news to him. The Government had scrupulously endeavoured to allocate public money without fear or favour, keeping the country as a whole in view, and not any political party or candidate, and from what he knew of the Reform candidate for Stratford the suggestion seemed quite foreign to him. The j question was quite legitimate, and he l was glad it had been put, because it -was often said that because a man was of a certain political colour he would not get the plums. "If there was any reason for that being said in the past, : I cannot say," continued the Minister, amid laughter, "but so far as I personally am concerned, and from knowledge of my colleagues, this is the thing we have absolutely endeavoured to avoid." Another testimony to the fairness of allocations came from the leader of the Labour Party (Mr. Holland), who put a question on the' same lines to the Minister of Public Works. He said that the Government supporters in his district were declaring that the Government would not spend money in Buller while it was represented by the speaker. "I know this is untrue and is generally untrue," added Mr. Holland, who asked if the Government would grant j him a return he had moved for, to show the amount of public money voted for each electoral district in New Zea^ land. This would provide a complete answer to -he Government's own misguided supporters. Mr. Massey remarked that he was glad to hear the member for Buller say that he had no complaints. I Mr. Holland: I am not satisfied, but I say that the allocation has been fair. The Premier, continuing, said that the return asked for would take months to compile. The most important objec-, tion he bad to it was that some parts > of New Zealand were well provided with roads and bridges, as they had been settled for many years, while I others required roads, bridges, tele-. phones, and even schools, and comparison would not be fair.