Sir Joseph Ward

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 1457, 8 November 1911, Page 5

Sir Joseph Ward

Addresses Awarua Electors.

Warm Reception at Winton.

OPPOSITION'S POLICY OF MISREPRESENTATION.

AND DISTORTION OF FACTS,

(Preai Association), luveroarglll, Last Night,

The Premier,' Sir Joseph Ward, addressed the electors at Wiuton this evening and received a most cordial reception. Such a large orowd had garnered in Winton to hear the Prime Minister that the Hall originally engaged was not nearly large enough to accommodate them and an adjournment was made tu a larger hall, where fully 1500 people soon packed inr

Sir Joseph was loudly cheered as with his paity he made his way through the crowded hall to the platform. The Mayor of Wiuton, Mr J. P. MoWilliam presided and at the concjusion of his introductory lemaiks, three rousing cheers were given for Sir Joseph Ward.

In'his opening remarks Sir Joseph made sympathetic reference to the death of Mr Massay's fat.ier, and Went on to say that in his remarks with refn-ence to mattars in his electorate he was not going to allow any feeling of bitterness to influence him towards hi? oppocent for the AWarna seat.

MACHINE MADE SPEECHES. Sir Joseph spoke first of what he termed the Oppositi"u's pulicr of misrepresentation and distortion of fact 3, and referred scathingly to the maohine made speeches of innocent dnpes of the Opposition party, which were putting many ut good man wrong in New Zealand. He quoted Mr Fowlds on his retirement from the Ministry in confirmation of his contention that no charges of Tatnmauyism or corruption could be upheld against the present Government. He qooted also the late Mr T. E. Taylor and his successor, Mr Isitt, in the same connection.

THE PUBLIC DEBT. . He hail a good deal to say about the increase in the public debt and quoted masses of figures to show that most of tha works constructed v*ith borrowed money were iuterest bearing. He also submitted records to show that comparatively little opposition had been Bhown by members of the Opposition party to different lean proposals.

THE DREADNOUGHT LOAN. His remarks in justification of the Dreadnought loan were received with cheers. He referred in detail to the benefits to settlers from the Advances tOjSettlers Department and the financial soundness of that Department. Last year a sum of £2,400,000 was loaned to the settlers of New Zealand, and for the first six months of this yea! the settlers had received about £1,400,000 from the Advances ta Settlers Department. Sir Josaph also spoke of the success of; the Government Annuities Act aud gave particulars of the various classes of unemployment and the increased cost of living. LAND LEGISLATION. He resented very streuuously the unfounded statements that the present Government had no land policy and claimed that at the present time there was a choice of fno less than eight'different kinds of tenure. In the amount of laud settled he had beaten his predeoessors by over 100,000 acres. It had been said that as Minister for Lands be had not been a success, and that he knew nothing about lands. But he claimed that he had put more vigour into the Lauds Department than any other Minister in the past 15 or 20 years, and the results showed that this was so, ;££, STATE GUARANTEED ADVANCES. The Prime Minister referred to some results of the working of the State Guaranteed Advances Act, and criticised in passing the attitude of membsrs of the Opposition in this regard, when the Bill was before tho House and at the present time.

THE MOKAU. The whole story of tbe Moba.ii land transaction was dealt with fully.

THE GAMING LAWS.

Speaking of the gaming lawß Sir Joseph Ward said that he was not sorry for one thing he had done in this connection. All sensible people recognised that the gambling laws had rou riot. The amendments made oonhnod bettiag to racecourses, did away with tnte shops, abolished telegraphs to racecourses and made the oalliug of the bookmaker illegal, Ho was not, and never iiai been, against hois 9 racing. He Inlieved as a sport it deserved encouragement, bin as a public man be dirt not approve cf tbe former state of affairs aud maintained that there were abases that had had to be taofeleri. The abuses bad all been removed aud rightly

THE LICENSING LAWS. With regard to the licensing laws, he said the question not bsine a party one, the law as-now amended should be given a trial. If there were any fuither ohauges it ought to be on the lines of a 55 per cent, majority for National Prohibitipu, and three-fifths for district NolLoenee, Id the event ol prohibition

being carried lie did not think the

revenue should be made up altogether from a tax on the land, and certainly not from a tax on small land holdings. DEATH DUTIES.

Numerous instances weie given of the incidence of death duties ia support of the conteuticu t'.at this form of taxation was just aud equitable.

The Prime Minister mentioned that the earnings from ten public departuifnts created by the present Government, and most of them by himself, amounted to neatly one and a half millions,

2 TEE FIVE MILLION LOAN. He spoke at length and with same degree of indignation regarding Opposition criticism of. the five million loan, and iitclaiorj that Opposition monitors were in possession of all the information members of the Government possessed. He had read tlio cables in the Honse. The nett return was £9h'-6. Foil det ills oonld not be obtained from the High Oom-mis-iouer until the sale of the remaining £142,000 cf stock wag compktsd. The expeus-s of the loan amounted to £110,480. AN ORIGINAL METHOD.

The Opposition pursued a method not followed anywhere else in the world of adding the discount to the expenses of the loau and calling the total thus obtaiueed the exneuse of raising the loan. A COMPREHENSIVE SPEECH.

The speeoh ooutained a comprehensive reierenoe to all the legislation undertaken by tlio Liberal Government.

Iu answer to the allegations of public money having been spent on private land in Awama, Sir Joseph declared that he had never at any time, to his knowlege, authorised any public money to be spent on private land. . Hs was instituting inquiries and if there were cases where money hfd unwittingly beeu so spent, then refunds would be insisted upon. :'At the conclusion of his address of two and a half hoars, Sir Joseph Ward was accorded a vote of trunks and unabated the Government of whioli he was the distinguished head. OTAKI ELECTORATE. CHANGE OP NAME WANTED.

LEVIN CHAMBER MOVING

Levin, Last Night, a The Representation Oommissioueis are to be approaohed by the Levin Chamber of Onmmerce with a request to have the name of the Otaki electorate altered to something hotter descriptive of the district. It is poiutad out that Otaki is at preseut an unimportant part of the whole, though once the only town in the district. The Chambar suggasts calling the electorate the Hnrowhenua electorate, afte l ' the County in which four-fifths of the constituency is situated, and suggests the transference of headquarters to Levin, whioh is now the prinnipal town and the most centrally situated one in the electorate.

THE PALMERSTON SEAT.

MR R. MoNAB.

Mr MoNab addressed'.the electors at Stoney Greek last night. Mr McLeavey ocoupied the cliair, and there was a lair attendance. After auswering some questions re limitation of areas ami'duties on motors and bicycles, a vote of thanks was given the candidate and the Ouairmau. TO-NIGHT'S MEETING.

Mr R. MoNab will address the electors at the Opera House this eveniup. In the unavoidable absence of his Worship the Mayor, Mr J A. Nash. Senior Oounoillor E. J. Aimstrong will preside. The meeting commences at 8 p.m. The dress circle will ba resfrved toi ladies and their escorts,

WHAT THE POST SAYS. The Wellington Evening Pest has the following in its editorial of last evening:—"A Government without a land polioy is at sucli a time as the present very nraoh like a Government without a backbone, and that lias been the Government's position ever since they lost Mr McNab. Is it possible that they propose to approach the eleotors iu tuis invertebrate condition, trusting to Mr MoNab's election for Palmerstou North to supply them with a backbone and a polioy?"

;MR BUIOK'S CANDIDATURE. Mr D. Buick's lady supporters are requested to meet at the Orient Hall, Church street, tu-morrow afternoon at 4 o'clock.

Mr W. Meldrnm will address the electors at Kairanga on the 13th, Makowliai lot 1 ' at 0.80, and Carnarvon 15th at 8 p!m. This evening Mr Meldrnm speaks at Glen Oroua. RANGITIKEI SEAT.

The Rangitikei election is going along on very pleasaut lines. Mr Newman is busy ronnd the Nnithem division and how Mr Meldrnm impresses his hearers was shown by the remark of Mr R. E. Beckett, Mayor pf Marton, in introducing him, as chairman of his meeting:—"Mr Meldrum uomos as more or less of a stranger to you and 1 therefore have groat pleasure ir saying ha is ono of tho best of good fellows I have mot. (Applaus 0 .) The Liberal party is exceedingly lucky iu having a candidate so very popular and so justly esteemed."

Mr Newman spoke at Marton as if the Government had increased the cost of food to the workeis. Mr Melnrmn pointed out that this was incorrect. The ta»'cs on food when the presaut Government came into power were 20 poi cant. Thoy had (joins down now, spread over all foods, to 4 per cent, .fjAqaiu Mr Meldrnm points oat, In reply to the alienation that the farmers were excessively taxed, that the total umouut paid in land tax was £024,000; tlio total revenue collected £10,000,000. Land tax, therefore, only represented one-scventceutli of

the revenue, so that it could not be said the land was unduly taxed. (Applause.) Mr Jones, speaking here for the Dormers' Unlon-and Mr Masseyquo.W the. Cheviot estate as a proof tliat ti.o L.I.P. tenure did not prevent aggregation ana ha. p-i *«' out that the settlors tiiero hau ucyuired no less than 45,000 acrfs outside Cheviot. Acconiiup to tlie Liberal candidate for Bangitihei, this argnwent is absurd, us they had not been able to aggregate in Cheviot, but were only able to aggregate vtJißre the freehold tenure obtained. . Some of the Opprsition monitors, including Mr Ndwman, are dcoiaiinß that the Government is spending too much on public buildings. Mr Herms (who would be a member cf the Cabinet if the Opposition were returned to power at any time), on October 39th, when the (mention of the new Parliamentary buildings was before the Hons?, urged the Government not to be "tno parsimonious," but to build a building that would be 'good 200 years hence." Mr JJlslier (who would also no donbt be a Cabinet Minister in a Masssy ad- . ministration, were such a thing possible) urged the Government to build a great National bnildm*?, and not to be afraid ot gpaodiug money, Mr Meldrum lias been poiutiug out the mcousistsnoy of these things, and that they ouly b<ar out what Sir Joseph Ward said, that those members who go abont prating about ■ government borrowing so muoh are the worst in importuning the Government to give ' thorn grants for their districts—and to meet their demams he would have to ask the houbb to sanction a loan of no less than £10,000,000*