POLITICAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 439, 27 October 1908, Page 3

POLITICAL.

Mr. Gardner at Foxton

Mr. O. Gardner, Independent candidate, delivered his second address to the electors at Foxton, on Saturday. There were about forty present. Mayor Gower presided. The candidate was accorded a patient hearing. Mr Gardner, on rising to speak, was received with applause. He said members are elected for three years only, therefore the seat is now vacant and the liberty to offer himself to the electors is a right which every man, with few exceptions, possesses. If a candidate can show that he has the welfare of his country at heart,' and had endeavoured to fit himself for the position, he had no need to apologise for wishing to enter Parliament. He came before them as a young colonial, a farmer and flaxmiller, an employer of labour, and, above all, as one who has made a hobby of the study of the great social and political problems which the civilised world is face to iace with. As an independent candidate, he had to overcome a certain amount of prejudice in the minds of the electors. He stood as an independent, be. a use he tnougnt that our party system has so developed that it is time we abolished or altered it. The party system was introduced in order to take the power over the Ministry from the King and make the Ministry responsible to the House. It has so developed that the House is now becoming responsible to the Ministry instead of the Ministry to the House. Mr. Stevens was reported to have said at Marton on the question of the Elective Executive that he believed in evolution not in revolution. Now revolution is a going back while evolution is a going forward. Originally each of the Ministers was chosen by the King and was responsible to him ; now they are chosen by the Prime Minister, and a:e, through him, made more responsible to the House. If they were each chosen by the House, they would be made still more directly responsible to it. and the speaker claimed that such a step would be evolution and not revolution. Neither evolution or revolution is stagnation. He then dealt with the Elective Executive and finance. A charge made by the Opposition is that our taxation has gone up per head, therefore a greater burden is thrown upon the people. It seemed to him that this argument was as absurd as if they were to say that because there are twenty million sheep in the Dominion and one million population, therefore everyone' owns twenty sheep. 1. he truth is that, except for Customs duties on tbe necessaries of life, our taxation is not a poll tax, but a tax on wealth; therefore it appeared to him that the one question is not, has our taxation gone up per head, but has it gone up per £ ? Has our private wealth increased at a greater rate than our taxation ? We know that the rate of tax has not been increased. In fact, as far as the mortgagee’s tax and customs duties are concerned, it has been reduced, so that the increase in the amount contributed through taxation can only indicate increased prosperity in the country. When they consider the large amount of money spent by the State on public works and the cheaper freight, etc., if our public revenue did not increase it appeared to him that there would then be cause for alarm. He objected altogether to customs duties on the necessaries of Hie. There seemed to him to be two principles upon which we can impose taxation ; one is to tax a man according to the wealth which he possessed ; the other to tax him according to the means of producing wealth which he possesses. The first is represented by our income tax, the latter by our tax on the unimproved value of laud. But a customs tax on the necessaries of life is neither a tax on wealth nor on the means of producing wealth. It is a poll tax that means that it is a tax on men, women and children, so that it is a tax on a married man with a family, as against a single man, and yet his means of paying are certainly no greater. He was asked on one occasion whether he was in favour of a tax on bachelors. >He was notin favour of a tax on bachelors, but was still less in favour of a tax on married men with families, and that is what a customs tax on the necessaries of life amount to. In referring to local matters, Mr. Gardner claimed to have been the means of preventing the grubbing of flax from the Moutoa estate by some years ago calling a meeting of the Foxton people to protest against the policy of the Assets Board, which threatened to kill Foxton as a manufacturing centre. The result was that,a deputation from Foxton waited upon Mr, Seddon, and urged the Government to acquire the estate as a flax property. This they would not do, but the Assets Board was induced to discontinue that grubbing policy. He also claimed to have been the chief means of getting our grading system of hemp established. The idea was not his, but he first proposed to the Flaxmillers’ Association that they should take the matter up, and, as chairman of that association, he in conjunction with the late Mr.C. Austin, induced the merchants and millers of the colony to concur in the movement. He also piit the matter before the Ministers and got the system established, which, to a large extent, has been the means of raising our industry from an obscure one to the fifth export of the Dominion. On the motion of Mr. T. Jones, seconded by Mr. P. T. Robinson, the candidate was accorded a vote of thanks, which was carried with

acclamation. A similar compliment to the chair concluded the meeting. Mr. Stevens at Sandon. Mr. John Stevens addressed a large meeting of electors in the Sandon Town Hall, on Saturday night. Mr. J. A. Bailey presided, and in introducing the speaker he said it was manifestly to the advantage of the constituency to have the services of such a parliamentarian as Mr. Stevens, who had worthily represented the district. He was a member all could approach, and the county councils in the district had made lull use of his services. Mr. Stevens dealt extensively with the land question, native lands, dairy regulations (in connection with which he said that on receipt of particulars from any objectors he would do his best if returned to have alterations made which would be of benetit to dairy farmers and at the same time consistent with improving the quality of the out out). The Farmers' Union he had said when addressing it, would not benefit the bus:ness of farming if it mixed politics with farming, and such had proved the case. The individual members had now allowed the union to allow each member his own opinion on political milters. In answer to questions pul by Mr. Williams, Mr. Stevens said (i) He was in favour ol giving Crown tenants the right to purchase provided those who preferred leasehold under the Lands for Settlement Act, and endowment lands, were not interfered with. (2) In all cases where lauds were to be disposed of, other that endowment lands, which could only be leased, he was in favour of intending purchasers having the option of tenure. (3) He had always held that taxation through the customs was not the way to foster such industries as the farming industry which he represented, though there were industries in their infancy which ueeded fostering. He favoured a “free breakfast table,’’ free raa chiuery, and free everything that enabled the farmer to increase production and exports. (4) He knew of no proposal in the direction of altering the law as to voting for counties, road boards and rural districts. He was not in favour of allowing a floating population to impose taxation on farmers and settlers. (5) Asked if he would resist any further attempts to nationalise the means of production, distribution, and exchange, etc., he said that tbe question could not be answered by a straightout “ Yes ” or “ No.” It should be divided into about twelve different questions, as many in fact as the members of the present Opposition about. He complimented the framer on the ingenuity the question displayed. He was not in favour of discontinuing the development of the coalmines by the Slate ; he was not in favour of discontinuing the construction of railways by the State, nor discontinuing the establishment of post and telegraphic offices by the State ; but was decidedly oppose I to handing over any such works to private companies. (6) In answer to Mr. Jitkius he said if those interested in having an estate acquired and cut up into 5, 10, 15, and 20 acre sections for workmen’s homes would get up a petition he would forward it to the authorities with a recommendation that the prayer of the petition should be granted. Mr. J. H. Perrelt moved a hearty vote of thanks and continued confidence in Mr. Stevens as member for Manawatu, and said he had voted for Mr. Vile last election, but was convinced that Mr. Stevens had attended to the wants of the district, and had done his best for the Dominion as a whole, and therefore he had much pleasure in proposing the motion. Mr. J. M. A'Court seconded the motion, which was carried with acclamation. A vote of thanks to the Chairman an I three hearty cheers for Mr. Stevens concluded the meeting.