The General Elections.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8146, 21 November 1905, Page 3

The General Elections.

Mr Stevens.ai; llongotea.

(From car own Correspondent.)

Mr John Stevens addressed the electors ar. Eongotea on Saturday night last, the Town Hall being packed with an eager and enthusiastic audience of over 400 persons. Mr J. Penny, chairman, of the Town Board, presided and introduced the Government candidate, who was received with appiause. Mr Stevens opened his address by explaining that having had three years rest from political and public life he now re-entered the arena with renewed vigour. Referring to his political opponent, Mr Vile, who had in his opening •addresses declared his intention of refraining from personalities he (the speaker) fully endorsed this sentiment and also expressed his determination not to indulge in the like. However, he. reserved the right to criticise Mr Vile politically and in a public way as a public man and to refute any erroneous statement that may have been made by him to the electors of Manawatu (hear, hear.). There were firstly two great questions to be considered, namely, the two political parties. He allied himself with and supported that party which was progressive and had given he.ppiness and prosperity to 1;ho people of New Zealand, i.e., the present Liberal Government. The Opposition, he alleged, had endeavoured to mislead the electors of the colony by continually denouncing the present party as unclean in their administration and had made charges, of bribery, corruption, etc., which were absolutely unfounded. Mr Stevens then quoted some of the arguments which had been used by Mr Massey and hi 3 party in order, he said, to " decry and misrepresent the Government," concluding by referring to Mr Massey's recent remarks at Pukekohe on the Premier's personal attire which he the speaker considered hardly a dignified argument for a political leader to use when criticising an opponent. PUBLIC DEBT. Two of the great financiers of the Opposition, namely Mr Duthie and Mr Vile, in speaking of the public debt, had stated the amount to be £59,000,000 and £63,000,000 respectively. The total public debt on the 31st March, 1904, was 57A millions, but over half that amount or about £31,000,000 was invested in reproductive works and was direct interest bearing and revenue producing. The Opposition in their criticism of the borrowing policy of the Government always failed to place before the electors the j credit side of the ledger such as assets, etc., and referred only to the debit side, j If the assets of the colony such as telegraphs, railways, Crown lands, etc., were offered for sale to-morrow in the American market at a price equal to the full amount of the public debt, the millionaires of that country would fall over one another in their eagerness to purchase. TAX ON PAEMEES. Mr Stevens asked what were the terrible hardships that the Opposition declared the present Government had inflicted upon the farmer in the way of taxation. There were, he said, no taxes levied upon agricultural machinery, farming implements, fencing wire, kerosene, etc. LANDS FOE SETTLEMENT AND ADVANCES TO SETTLEES'ACTS. Under these Acts, which had been introduced by the present Government, there were thousands of settlers who had benefited. Any man who wa3 possessed sufficient means in stock, implements, etc. to work a piece of land could, under this legislation, obtain that land. Mr SteTens proceeded to state that there was a time when under the old Opposition regime private companies were allowed to purchase thousands of acres at 12a 6d an acre and then cut up the land and sell it to the small settler at enormously high prices with correspondingly high profits, which enabled the shareholders in London to live in ease and luxury for which, the struggling settler had had to pay. All this had been done away with by the beneficial legislation of the present Government, and consequently the farming community of New Zealand were at the present time in a very prosperous condition.

CROWN LANDS AND.FREEHOLD,

In speaking on this, which is just now a burning question, Mr Stevens announced that he was a strong advocate of freehold, in fact he • now and always had been decidedly of the opinion that that tenure which best suited the circumstances and requirements of the settler should be given him. Apropos ;of this, his opponent, Mr Vile, had •misrepresented him by informing the electors that in 1597 he (Stevens) had voted against the freehold during a debate on the Lands for Settlement Bill, introduced by John McKenzie in that year in the House of Representatives. This was absolutely incorrect, and he proceeded to give a full explanation of the true meaning of the amendment moved to that Bill against which Mr Vile said he had voted. The said amendment was introduced by an old Oppositionist, a Mr Wason, and was a proposal to give the option of the freehold to a Crown tenant, but with certain provisos and restrictions thereto which in effect entirely nullified the effects of the freehold, and therefore the amendment which Mr Stevens had voted against was but a hybrid proposal, and not a straight-out question of the freehold tenure. As evidenced by his speech in the House in 1882 he asserted without fear of eoutradiction that he w as the first man to advocate the giving of the freehold to the Crown tenants and he had never changed his opinion and defied anyone to prove the contrary NATIVE LANDS. There were some six millions of acres of Native land iv the Colony, 891,000 of which were ' papatupu' and the balance of about five million acres .were said to have the title denned. o AAAennY r °' however > not more than 4000,000 acres of tins area suitable for close settlement and the balance could only be utihsed as forest reserves and for the purpose of scenery preservation and climatic purposes. The open lands were as a rule unfit for settlement-aud could bo used for reafforestation and therefore the Crown should acquire the Native lands and open for. settlement those portions suitable for the purpose, and retain the balance for the hrst-mentioued purpose. All the money accruing tol the natives should be re-mvestcdm the purchase of lands smtable tor cl ose settlement from. Europeans, m order' that each Maori _ might haye the opportunity of acquiring a separate pi ccc 0 J! land upon winch to hve and cultivate in his own individual right, and so breakdown the state of communism in which the Maori lad hitherto

existed. By this means there would be an opportunity for the proper assimilation of the 42.500 Maoris m the colony with the Europeans of this country, and as efforts were now being made to educate the Maori girls of this colony, it was perfectly evident that when they had finished'their education they would have no alternative but to walk out of a ladies' seminary into a Maori 'pah' with all the environments of the old Maori 'kainga,' whereas if the rising generation of, Maori were induced, and assisted by. the State with, advice there would be a hope that the young Maori men and women would take .advantage of the means of civilization thus offered, but on the other hand if something in this direction were not done and the money accruing from the sale of the residue native lands were in vested and the annual proceeds handed over to the Maori he would upon every conceivable occasion hypothecate his income for years, spend it in weeks, and thus become one of the most undesirable class of remittance man. INCEEASES IN OLD AGE PENSIONS. This, Mr Stevens thought, was a great and good work on the part of the Government of the country in comiog to the assistance of the aged poor. (One of the audience here interjected " Nonsense !" whereupon Mr Stevens retorted that any man who begrudged assistance by the State to the deserving poor of this country was mean enough to take away a bit of boiled rice from a blind chicken. Cheers and laughter.) It was ridiculous if a country as prosperous and as wealthy as New Zealand was to-day should endeavour to shirk its evident duty in so assisting the old people. He strongly.favoured she increase which the Government had been successful in bringing about. LOCAL MATTEES. Mr Stevens thought that it was quite time that such a large centre as Eongotea should possess a post office of its own, and if returned would see that something was done in that respect. He also mentioned the necessity of a courthouse being built here, and went on to speak of the great advantages that would accrue to the district if the connection were made of the Manawatu Company's tramway from Sandon to Greatford or the Marton junction, and thus give the greatest possible facilities for exporting the enormous number of millions of feet of timber which would shortly be produced in the interior of this island along near the Central railway line, besides enabling the people of the backblocks to visit the sea coast with the greatest facilities possible, especially if the present Foxton railway were extended to the health resort at the mouth of the Manawatu river on the sea coast.

In reply to questions Mr Stevens was not in favour of a referendum on Biblereading in schools ; he was in favour of maintaining the present free secular and compulsory system of State education, but if reasonable recognition could be given to Catholic schools, without in. any way interfering with. the present system, he believed such a proposal worthy of favourable consideration; he was not in favour of extending county franchise to the floating population of the colony. At the conclusion of his address, which had lasted some two hours, Mr Stevens was accorded a hearty vote of thanks and confidence, on the motion of Mr P. Ehrhorn, seconded by Mr Carl Anderson. A vote of thanks to the Chairman for presiding concluded a most successful meeting. (Per Press Association.) HOKITTKA, Nov. 20. The Westland branch of the New Zealand Alliance decided this evening to adhere to the policy of the Alliance and nominate a candidate for Westland against the Premier, in order to ensure a valid licensing poll. The meeting wished to emphasise the fact that no political significance is to be attached to the candidature. The candidate selected is a farmer from Wairarapa, whose name will be divulged to-morrow.

INVEECAEGILL, Nov. 20.

Mr J. W. Baymond, Opposition candidate for Invercargill, gave, his first; public address tonight.. He said.'he would give the freehold: to Crown tenants at an' advance on the original value. As to prohibition, the power was in the people's hands, and was not now the subject for legislation. He spoke strongly against the administration of the Government and their financial methods. He would favour a plebiscite on the question of JtSible reading-in-echools, but not in school hours. Mr Eaymond had a good hearing from an audience of 800, and a vote of thanks and confidence was passed with some dissent.