POLITICAL CAMPAIGN.

Mataura Ensign, 3 November 1911, Page 7

POLITICAL CAMPAIGN.

TdE WAKATIPU SEAT. MR FRASER AT WAIKAKA. Th© member for Wakatipu (Mr Wm. Fraser) opened his election campaign at Waikaka last evening, when there was a large attendance of ladies and gentlemen despite the fact that the night was inclined to be rough. Mr D. Lamb was voted to the chair. In introducing Mr Fraser the chairman referred to their member's services to the district and the country generally. Had it not been for their member lie would never have had the pleasure of addressing such a large meeting. Mr Fraser had practically made Waikaka. —(Applause.) Mr Fraser, who was cordially received, expressed his acknowledgment of the chairman's flattering sentiments. He would have been very disappointed if this portion of Wakatipu had been relegated to another electorate. This he had feared might happen before the Commissioners brought down their report, but happily Waikaka was still in Wakatipu and he believed the electors were just as pleased as he was.—(Applause.) in 1893.

Mr Fraser dealt with the genesis of the present Opposition and political -patters as they stood in 1893,. when he firSTentered Parliament, in an interesting and instructive manner. At the time of the election of 1893 no one was accepted into the Government fold unless he gave a distinct pledge that Ihe would support the Government—an absolute pledge and in some cases, it was said, a written pledge. Accordingly — and it was not a difficult matter to foresee—men arose to take up the position of critics. The Government's attitude at that time had certainly .influenced him im 1894 to throw in his lot with the small number of Opposition members at that time—there were not more than a ■doaen of them then, and they were not faced with an easy task. He foresaw then that the task before the Opposition was a long and a hard one. They knew that all sorts of innuendo and misrepresentation would be laid at their doors. In this they had not been disappointed; but still they had always stuck to their work. Why was it necessary that there should be such keen criticism? He soon found that the legislation which was being brought down was hurriedly conceived and carelessly drafted, and the efforts of the Opposition were not altogether in vain, and many of the points they raised had resulted in amendments which were now law. What reward did they ever get for their pains? Very little indeed. Over and over again it had been said against them that they were opposed to the principles of many of the Bills before the House, which was unfair and untrue. Supporters of his in his own electocfte were told: "Don't vote for Fraserr' this being a special word of advice to old-age pensioners, who were informed that he objected to the principle of the Old-Age Pensions Act. This statement was contrary to fact, because he had never objected to the principle of the Act. Recently Sir Joseph Ward had investigated the divisions of some years past, and this had given him an opportunity of saying that on such and such a date a member of the Qpposition (for instance) had made such and such a statement. Sir Joseph generally referred to a time 16 or 17 years ago. It was quite correct for him (Mr Fraser) to say most of such divisions had nothing whatever to do with the principles of the Bills hut merely referred to questions of detail, and there was no justification for the statements that were made that the members of the Opposition were reactionaries. There were now 27 members of the Opposition, and of those only six, he thought, were members of the party 14 to 18 years ago. The whole party had since that date won their seats pledged to support the Old-Age Pensions, Advances to Settlers and Land for Settlement Bills. It was simply childish nonsense for the Prime Minister and his party to talk of the Opposition in the manner they did.—(Applause.) Liberalism.

In these days, continued Mr Fraser, they heard a good deal of talk of "Liberalism." His experience of Liberalism extended over 20 years, and it appeared to him that a man had no right to be called a "Liberal" in this country unless he was prepared to submerge his personality and swallow all his own views and support the Government. He had always understood that the true meaning of the word Liberalism was the support of principles. Such Liberalism, did not apply in New Zealand, and he thanked God that he was not such a Liberal.—-(Applause.)

Getting Tired. The speaker said he recognised that the people were getting tired of such spurious Liberalism and that their desire for a change was predominant. He would not say that the Government was "going out" at next election, but he would say that the Opposition party was going to be largely augmented. There had been a great deal of complaining about 'misrepresentation and . abuse, etc., on, the.part of the Opposition towards the Prime Minister, but all that he knew was that his party had similarly suffered during the past 20 years. Continuing, Mr Fraser said it was with a certain feeling of pride that he said it was acknowledged that in financial matters he had always refused to deal with them from any party He considered that finance much too important a matter to be the plaything of party.—(Hear, He had always given the Gov«rnment credit or blame according to W his views of its actions in financial matF , ters, and. without speaking with too i much pride he thought he had a rigSt to say that b'Js views on finance had generally been accepted as those of a careful \ student of the affairs of the country.— (Applause.) He might be wrong, but he had honestly given his views to Parliament and the electors, and his action in this respect would never vary.—(Applause.) Finance. , Mr Fraser said that in his speeches he endeavored to deal with

the Dominion's finances on as few figures as possible—to summarise the position and make it easily understandable. The last Budget, he contended, was an extraordinary document. It was full of figures, and the first part of it was a rehash in regard to past financial transactions, Which were made to bear an interpretation which he would say was a little short of reality, to say the least of it. The balance of the Budget attempted to depict in roseate colors the future of the country, during which everyone was going to be happy and contented at someone else's expense.—(Laughter and applause.) The revenue for the last year ended March 31 and apart from what was carried forward from the previous year was £10,297,274—a large amount. Sir Joseph Ward called it a record revenue, and it certainly was most satisfactory indeed. The expenditure was £9,343,106, leaving a balance of revenue over expenditure of £954,168'. Of this excess revenue the sum of £367,685 had been paid into the Public Works Fund, together with a further sum of £432,315, carried forward from the previous year, making a total of £BOO,OOO, an amount the Prime Minister had promised to pay into this fund. Accordingly tjie real surplus was £586,483, arrived at by deducting £367,685 from £954,168. That was the real surplus, and that was how it should have been placed before the electors of the Dominion. Why the Government could not have been satisfied with such a fine result he could not understand; but it apparently was not satisfied and had inserted in the Budget the fine total of £1,385,000, without taking into consideration the £BOO,OOO paid into the Public Works Fund. The attitude the Government had taken up was a blemish on the Budget. The Prime Minister was particularly sensitive regarding other slight discrepancies in i the Budget; for instance, lie had never | known a Budget to be so full of small errors (some of them were somewhat big and in some cases glaring). A member of the Opposition party wanted to know the why and wherefore of such errors, but Sir Joseph instead of saying that he had just returned from England or that matters had been disorganised by Mr Fowlds' resignation or other reasons took up the attitude of insisting that the Budget was right as it stood. The main features of the Budget were all right and the financial results shown were very satisfactory except that the increasing growth of expenditure was becoming a very serious matter. Every year in the Budget after he dealt with the past year's figures the Treasurer proceeded to give an estimate of the current year's affairs. And it was a common failing with Treasurers for the last 20 years (or previous to that, perIhaps) to under-estimate the revenue and over-estimate the expenditure, bringing out a result apparently satisfactory but which would be quite at variance with the actual state of affairs at the end of the year. In order to show how far out the Estimates were one only needed to investigate the quarterly returns to September 30 last, by which it would be seen that the Prime Minister had under-estimated the revenue to a very great extent. As to the expenditure, every year this went on increasing; and it would continue to increase, because there were certain items of expenditure which always would entail more and more money being spent. Take the railways, for instance: Every mile of line opened meant increased expenditure. There was also the increase in the interest on public debt so long as borrowing was continued. Then there was a large increase (of necessity): in defence.

If Bad Times Came. At present, continued the speaker, the country was prosperous and everything was buoyant. Prices in London were high, the crops were good, exports were large and the country was prosperous. If bad times came, however, what would happen? Would the expenditure decrease ? He said, No; for the expenditure appeared to be practically a fixture and took a lot of working down. With regard to the revenue of the country, it'would fall and most of those present would remember the time when the exports of the Dominion fell £4,000.000 in one year. At first the people were told that there would be no difficulty in tiding over the situation but the Prime Minister eventually had to admit the true position and said that the expenditure would be reduced by £250,000 a year. What did that mean? It meant'that under pressure of hard times he could reduce the expenditure by a quarter of a million. This in itself was an admission that the Government was lavish and extravagant in its expenditure. By such evpenditure, 'however, he did not mean on # roads and bridges, etc., but the cost of administration. In a country like New Zealand they had no right to spend -he enormous amounts they did on administration. And were they to wait until bad times came to curtail -this cost? When the bad! times came was that the right time to turn Civil servants loose "to live as best they could? No, the proper time to go in for retrenchment was when' the country was prosperous and when Civil servants could get other employment. Sound-finance should always have an eye on possible times of depression. Cycles of I prosperity and depression occurred and in the times of prosperity provision should always be made for the times of depression. He had not much faith in the Government's promises of retrenchment. What about the £250,000 reduction that was promised? It amounted to mighty littleIn one Department, that of Internal Affairs, it had! been professed that large savings had been made but when these were looked into it was found that the saving consisted of a comparison between a year when a census had been taken and a considerable sum of money had been expended on the reception of the American Fleet with the year following when the expenditure had not run out of ordinary channels. After the depression had passed away Sir Joseph Ward made pointed reference to the fact and indicated that it was not necessary now to proceed further with the retrenchment scheme. He (Mr Fraser) had expressed his views in the House regarding the Prime Minister's action which he considered very wrong. • Borrowing. It was true, as the Prime Minister

said, that by no means the whole of the money borrowed by the Government was being spent. The amount really spent was that borrowed for the construction of railways, roads and bridges, etc. The £5,000,000 loan also includes about lj million for the Dreadnought, the balance went to Advances to Settlers and Local Bodies etc., and yielded interest thereon. There had been much criticism lately regarding the manner in which their loans were raised. He had not spoken publicly on this matter during the year and he had not raised" his voice in condemnation of the amount realised as a result of the flotation of the five million loan. He thought that considering the circumstances at the time, which were somewhat adverse to any country raising money, the price paid for the loan was not excessive at all. That, at any rate, was his opinion.—(Applause.) Certain circumstances had militated against a high price being obtained for the loan. But while he said this, a lot of criticism had been levelled at the Prime Minister in connection with the matter, and Sir Joseph was not blameless. He claimed to have done something marvellous. His critics had not forgotten the fact that he had been dealing with a five million loan and that only 18 months previously he had expressed a sentiment to the effect that he could not conceive how anyone could be so foolish as to put five millions on the London Stock Exchange at one time. That was the Prime Minister's remark, and why should he complain about his critics when they reminded him of what he had previously said ? He (the speaker) did not say that Sir Joseph Ward was wrong in his methods on j this occasion, but he was certainly ' venturesome, though he presumably i had the best financial advice he could i get in the matter. As to bor-' rowing in the future, what was to be : done? He had always set his face j against short-dated debentures with a ; guarantee of a few years. That system j was not solid finance, but it was what ■ was still going on to an extent. He ' was glad to say that there was not aj single member in the House at present ] to advocate the system. It was true j they had obtained money on short- j dated debntures, but not as a rule from London. It must be remembered that | considerable sums were lent each yeari by the Post Office Department to the \ Government. He did not object to that; system: it did not affect their credit, j the country paying 3 J per cent. | for it. All this money consisted of j short-dated debentures for the reason j that the Department could not afford to lend its money on any other system j with the prospect of a demand on the! part of its depositors at any time for j money. What he objetced to was bor-. rowing on short-dated debentures in. j Australia or London—a practice that' was unfortunately fairly common some j few years ago. It was not, however, i done now, and he was proud to say that j even 12 or more years ago he had de- j claimed against it and that now it ha'd j not a single advocate in the House. j

Public Debt. The member went on to refer to the Public Debt Extinguishing Bill which he condemned! as unsound in principle. Why (lie asked) did the country borrow at all? Because the excess of revenue over expenditure was not sufficient for its purposes for roads, bridges and the like. Assuming that there was a surplus of £500,000 and £1,500,000 was required for public works £1,000,000 •would require to be borrowed. If the £500,000 were reduced to £150,000 required for Sinking Fund then £1,150,000 would have to be borrowed. It simply meant robbing Peter to pay Paul. (Laughter and applause.)

Farmers' Co-operative Banks. A measure had been brought down last session to establish farmers' coI operative banks. In the Budget they found this installed as a splendid idea. Provision was to be made under it by which money could be lent to farmers who had Tittle or no security to offer, but who had a knowledge of farming and who were known to be honest, hard-working and industrious people. How was this to be done audi who was to lend the money? Perhaps they thought the Government would lend it, but as a. matter of fact the Government would not lend one penny piece without security. The "loan" was to be effected in the following manner: At least 10 farmers must join and form the bank. The definition of a farmer was a man who had some security to offer. When the bank was formed it elected five of the body as a'board of directors and the chairman of that Board was the manager of the bank though the bank need not have an office at all and the manager or directors were prohibited from receiving any salary. If one member of the bank desired to borrow money he went to the Government and askeu for an amount up to £SOO. The Government then applied to the Board to know if it agreed to lend the £SOO to this particular individual, and if the Board Avas satisfied the money was forthcoming and the Board had to pledge the property of all the shareholders as security for the loan of £SOO. Was not that a lovely scheme? By it the Government took credit for a loan which was really at the expense of the co-partners who had to pledge their properties. All that he had against it, however, was that it was utterably impracticable. "Who was going to have anything to do with such a proposal.

IF YOU HAVE Cough, Cold, Nose,- Throat or Lung Vouble, Stomach, Bowel or Liver Complaint, Rheumatism or Neuralgia, us* SANDER'S EUCALYPTI EXTRACT, drops in a tablespoon of water. Remember, you cannot expect the good effects from any sort of Eucalyptus. SANDER'S EXTRACT CURES berause it contains ethereal and antiseptic substances not contained in othei Eucalyptus products. The latter hav< caused grievous harm and a death hai resulted from their use. Do not apply an ointment to a sore It keeps back the secretion. To wounds, bruises, sprains, burns, ulcers, eczema •rnd other Skin Troubles applv SAN >ER'S EXTTJACT—IS d-ops* in B ablespoon of olive nil. The effect wil' Airprise you. SANDER'S EXTRACj HEALS because it is freed from the «r ritating constituents contained in otnei Eucalyptus preparations It heais whrr r.< h<rs irritate.

Land Settlement Finance. It had been pointed out that in Germany the system of the two Bills was successful, but in that old-settled country conditions were entirely different to those obtaining in New Zealand where the population was of a floating character and the people were always moving about. This invariably followed! in any new country where there was not the same permanence of dwelling as in Germany, for instance. He was speaking of the Bill as it had been brought down. Perhaps Sir Joseph Ward thought ihe would catch many votes by it, but he (Mr Fraser) did not think the Prime Minister would be successful if that was his object. The Government twitted the Opposition at being good for nothing else but to carp and criticise. What else could or should they do but criticise? Why should' they give their brains to the other party who would quickly enough take advantage of them? Mr Freser at this stage dealt with the Opposition platform at considerable length, fully explaining its clanses. •

A Local Matter. Continuing, the member said that when he list visited Waikaka it was brought under his notice that certain people in Waikaka were imbued with the idea that he had had something to do with Mr Jas. Paterson getting "that 50 acres of land." He would say now once and for all that there was not a word of truth in that statej ment. He knew nothing of the matter until it was nearly completed'. He believed it had also been inferred that ! he had rendered some assistance to Mr | W. F. Inder in the same matter. As ■ a matter of fact, he did not know Mr ■ Inder was acting until a month ago. j Most of the electors had known him ; for a long time and no man had dared to say that he had ever uttered a. dej liberate untruth or desired to deceive I anyone. When ho gave his word he ! expected it to be taken. (Applause.)' j He thought, however, that there might ( ' be some strangers to him now in the j district and in order to acquaint them ; with all that had occurred he had put j the following notice on the order paper j when the House met: "That copies be laid before the House of all corresjpondenoe relating to the granting of j 50 acres or thereabouts of the Waiikaka Commonage to Mr Jas. Paterson, j the said grant having been made to j Mr Paterson in lieu of compensation | for loss alleged to have been suffered i by him through the construction of the I Waikaka railway." This motion was I granted on the 7th of the same month. i Mr Fraser proceeded tb read a precis ■ of the correspondence regarding the I exchange of land with Mr Paterson j dating from May 8, 1908, when the | Under-Secretary for Public Works ! wrote to the Under-Secretary for Land's \ stating that Mr Paterson would have ! substantial claims against the Governj ment for land taken for the railway, ! and these would be obviated if 35 acres of the Waikaka Common!; ge could be transferred to him, thus compensating him for land taken and for cutting off about 80 acres of his land ! from water. On January 12, 1909, Mr I Paterson wrote inquiring what the i Lands Department intended to do reI garding the matter andl received a ' reply stating that the Crown Lands ranger had reported that he (Mr Patj erson) was willing to take a crossing in dieu of exchange and was arranging i same ivith the resident engineer. Mr Paterson on January 18 repudiated ■this and in several letters stated that it was reported that the commonage reserves were all being disposed of; that the suggested exchange would be best both for the Department and himself, and that access to water was worth three times as much as any compensation he could receive. Mr Paterson was then written to asking him to forward a sketch showing the area- of ■ commonage land he required to give i him access to water. He forwarded a sketch on May 31, 1909, and on July ] 14 he "telegraphed asking if a survey ! of the exchange had been authorised. I Mr Paterson received a reply stating j that a survey had been authorised, i On July 24 the Commissioner of Crown I Lands, Invercargill, wrote to the Un- ■ der-Secretary for Lands forwarding a ; copy of a telegram from Mr Fraser protesting on behalf of the Waikaka residents against the alienation of any part of the Commonage as proposed. Mr Fraser received a reply that an area not exceeding 50 acres had been granted to Mr Paterson by the Public Works Department under the Public Works Act, 1908, and that the Lands Department had nothing to. do with the matter. On August 17 Mr Paterson was asked to refrain from fencing I or working the land and he replied the same day that the exchanged land was all fenced and ploughed. The Under-Secretary for Lands on November 2 was asked to issue a certificate of title in Paterson's favor. On Novemiber 20 Mr Donald McGregor wrote to !the Prime Minister objecting to the [land being granted to Mr Paterson i because (1) Paterson's land was not much affected by loss of water, (2) there was a railway embankment alongside the water and it was easy to put a stock track below the railway, (3) the I land granted contained gold and only needed water to make it, (4) the land was worth from £5 to £7 per acre (o) a number of people in Waikaka wanted land now that all the dredging land was about marked out, (6) Paterson bad already 800 acres of good land. On December 23 the Minister for Public Works wrote to Mr McGregor stating that before the land was granted to Paterson the matter was fully i and very carefully considered in all I its bearings and the conclusion arrived j at was that the value of the land j granted was appreciably lower than the 1 amount which it would have cost thej Government if his claim for all losses j sustained by reason of construction of ! railway works had been adjudicated' upon by a, Compensation Court. I Continuing, Mr Fraser said he I thought he had completely refuted the j story that had been circulated. More-1 over, he had another object in sifting the matter besides the mere clearance of his own name. It had also been ' i said that Mr D. Lamb had been mixed up in the same matter, but it would hj" seen that Mr Lamb's name even did not appear in the correspondence, and any correspondence he had' had with their chairman was after negotiations had been completed. ; School Commissioners' Leases. Mr Fraser touched briefly on the matter of the School Commissioners' tenants and their expiring leases. He ,

was sorry he had not been able to bring this matter to a satisfactory conclusion yet though he hoped something would be done, soon. He had done his best and bad approached the Minister for Lands and urged that justice should be done to these individuals, and that was just where the matter stood at present. Personal.

He supposed some of the electors (there might lie some) thought he was no longer fit to represent them. Did they see evidence of decadence, mental or physical—(laughter)—to prevent him from fighting their battles in the Parliament of this country? If they thought he was in any way unfitted for his task be could assure them that be. would not be on the platform. If again elected he would do his best as he had always done for Wakatipu and no man could do more. He had not done badly for Waikaka, and ho was proud of what he had done and was glad to know that he had furthered the interests of honest settlement in the district. In conclusion, Mr Fraser spoke of his efforts in obtaining the railway to the township. "But for him he knew they would never have got the line, and now there was a cry that anyone could have accomplished what he had done. The railway, he was proud to say, was a good railway and had not been foisted on the country like many others as a never-ending burden.—(Applause.)

The member concluded an address of an hour and a-half by stating that he would lie pleaded to answer any questions, bin none were forthcoming. Thanks and Confidence. .Mr.J. Robertson moved a. hearty vote of thanks to Mr Fraser for his address and continued confidence in him us member for Wakatipu. Mr 1,. Uobinson seconded the motion which was carried unanimously. In returning thanks the member said it was something far a man to have represented a district like Wakatipu for IS years and i<> have such a fine meeting. He had not much doubt regarding the forthcoming election : still the matter was in the lap of the gods. "Be the verdict, what it may," be concluded, "I will never forget my pleasant connection with Wakatipu." The meeting terminated with the cust.e;i ■>!;, vote to the chair.