GENERAL ELECTION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 4 December 1922, Page 7

GENERAL ELECTION

(Continued from Page 5.)

Hail file Soil) rijilii of note issue, and ilk', rigtil aim LU Uvijr nil Ihq gold produced in the Dominion. Cold rUU! remained aii one price in New Zealand to the loss of those engaged, whreas it advanced to £6 lOskuid £7 10s ail ounce elsewhere. They were trying to line! out where the gold produced in ! New Zealand went feo« The banks at [>l'('KUni did hot held tiki iililii ]iif‘ starting: They kept the big than going ailtl tile little tnahdowti. Deposits carried 110 IbtCl'est wiiiitdvtit. An agricultural baiik wuiild bp Hid as a side line ttt _ il Staid Bank: Mr Massey tried to cahkhtflitge tile isSUe by it rural credit sclleiiie;,, TliiS WAS' iljt ilbsimlitjb The Stale think would do iiway with the mercantile firms. It could never foster monopolies. It should never be under political control. If it were it would immediately become a failure. Anything that the State owned Mr Massey had made a failure of. He instanced the State collieries in this reaped ; In regard to electoral reform theV •Were out for proportional representation witli the maintenance of the country quota. He did Hot think it necessary to maintain the country quota. It Would lead towards an elective executive which Would be a very good thing. Why should they have one man on the Treasury benches drawing a big salary while another who had to fight for the people was drawing little or 'nothing. New Zealand was overgoverned at present. Mr Massey formerly was in favour of proportional representation but Was now against it. SHIPPING TROUBLE The fourth plank was industrial. They believed in arbitration but not in the present system, Representatives of workers and employers should meet and choose an arbiter and if they could not agree themselves agree to abide by his decision. Under the present system the employer could bring weightier pvidence.

They had a trouble on at present. The men’s wages had been reduced but there was no corresponding reduction in fares and freights. At the present time the shipping companies were getting a bigger profit at their expense. The employers wore trying to turn the arbitration system into the coal mines by all sorts of pin pricking but the miners could not go out on strike as they were so poor. All the seamen did was to say they would not go to work for a week. If they had debarred anyone else front going to work it would have been wrong. The combine hau been allowed to browbeat the men. When these men wanted to return to work they should have been taken on. They could not bind a man to work, lie had a right to work or to leave as he desired. There should be a good day’s worjv for a good day’s pay. He was not in favour of strikes which were always against the small man and benefited tiie big man , There should he Gbvcnimcut advances for industries. For instance if a number of settlers wanted a butter factory the Advances. Department should build the factory because the people would produce more butter fat. Mr Massey, instead of helping the farmers, took out £2,130,000 from the Advances Department which should have been kept there and this money was not available. '

LAND Land was a big plank in the platform. Special consideration should be shown settlers in the Nelson district. The freehold was only a. myth for the land tax could make a man pay more than rent under leasehold. Settlers should never be allowed to become depressed and to throw up their land which would return to waste land. The freehold gave a man more heart. A very large portion of the Nelson district was now under the State Forest Service owing to a pet scheme of Sir Francis Bell, and this was a very bad thing for the district. There was no hope of birch trees producing. timber for a great many years to come. Houses costing between £3OO and £4OO should he built for the settlers. If they had a house to go to they would do very much better, and lie would encourage settlers by giving them a bonus on production which was the only way to keep settler's on the land. There should also be Government log haulers for t-ho use of settlers. A small proportion of nrofts should be taken off to pay settlers in ease of disablement. This would lake the burden off the taxpayer. Bush areas should be limited. There was no use in a man taking up 3000 acres with only one pair of bands to fell it. He had been twelve years on the land hoard and he had secured many concessions for the people and many .were nw in Fery comfortable positions. From time to time be bad been helped by his colleagues. He stated that a certain member of the Land Board had been, victimised because he was fighting for the people. On one occasion a member came to ■him and said lie knew lie was right but he was going to do as the Commissioner told him.

RETURNED SOLDIERS Referring to the Government's revaluation of soldier farms lie said some 22 gentlemen throughout the country had .been appointed to investigate the position and report back to the Land Boards. If the present •Government was in power the soldiers 1 would got very little assistance. He had got no- j thing against the. gentlemen appointed! to do the jot) and lie did not blame j thorn for taking it on. But it would cost the country £12,000 to £20,000 and if the Government was going to give this as a free gift to its supporters it would be far better to give it straightout to- the returned soldiers. His (Mr Patterson’s) .party would make the re-valuation straight away. When the matter of settling soldiers mi the land came up at the Land. Board, everybody wanted to get land and every fanner,' or nearly every farmer, wanted to sell his land to a soldier. The soldier found flic farm with the assistance of the farmer or land agent. The Land Board had to take the valuer's word. This rush lent itself to boom values. Prices went up and civilians were crying out for land. Everybody thought butter-fat was going to keep up. He had nothing to say against, the members of the Land Purchase Board. They were good men and he had nothing against (hem. Mr Patterson instanced purchases in Nelson district whore the Government was bound to lose a great deal of money. Ho did not blame the Purchase Board. He blamed the Department. If these losses had to be faced on the Department's own purchases, how«could they blame the soldiers’ purchasers. They should write down the soldiers’ properties straight away. Some soldiers had bought on good terms before the rush and did not requird assistance. •

‘ DEFENCE Mr Patterson said he differed from his party in regard to the Territorial system. His opinion was that the old volunteer system was much better. The British fleet should be subsidised to a

greater extent and it should be a con. dition that we bad an independent squadron in the Pacific and one that we can! hdvo control of. It was also necessary to' have niti aeroplane service. Tiieir ninth plank was A State line of steamers. Th« Union Compiifi'y could have been purchased at sma-l cost compared with money paid for charter during the. HW. With n Slate boo of steamers they would have the markets of the l world open to tluidi, they could bring back goods from other countries in return. jS T *>K*' Public Worts?. A Vl b ol pfosectiliOh e§sci<M»! in Iho construeliob of roads fttirf , A jail way had been coiistrucU-d .« Mr * efindtirate alongside a gofid road. H}d electric wOrfe should be pushed on wr • It Would reduce labour troubles so iar as codl raining waS cOilceriied. Regarding afforestation, !5, f biaucis Ilfill hd,d n. ernsto for rcafforestatiofl A ri “ a wilderness bad been made of a large portion of the proven,, It would take 300 years to rejuvenate tiieio bush mmU It was all in the interests of tlm mg sawmillers who were at the back of the Government. Royalties were a loss to the county councils. These lands wore limit bn'tbtight. They could previously get firewood Ot fencing posts from then!, ■ but flow were deprived Of this. The Government bad Imported large quantities of coal to defeat in(i who were not asking for' an ullfstn thbia. ’ .. „ „ In regard to railways, the i-ove-.i----merit allowed motor services to run against them. Mr Massey was trying to make the railways a failure to get them back to private control. “If I ( bad * manager,” said Mr Patterson, and 1 was giving him £30(30 a year and bo was losing £3OOO a day, be .would not stay long in my employ. 1 Would economise, beginning at the top first. Mr Patterson said bis idea of running the failways was to carry all produce at one freight. At present they found that lime and the, apnle industry enioyed prii '>era did not get. He would ■ ‘-ana system applicable to all produce, also people would be allowed to travel both ways on one fare. Housing should be made as applicable in the country as in the towns. He_was nlso up against trusts and combines. The banks were blocking the primary industries. Paper for newspapers was controlled and big combines could buy it and there was no chance for the small people. The Mail said he had made a false charge against the Press Association, but to the best of his belief the Press Association sent instructions to report the Reform Party good reports, the LiberaPLabour fair reports and Labour as little as possible. The papers got special privileges to disseminate news for the benefit of the people,/ and there should be no favouritism. He was still of the same opinion and would hold yt till the Press Association published its instructions. Petrol was three times as high as it should be. In regal’d to cement, 150 men bad been put off. This hit everybody in the North of the South Island. ' Tliis had been, done for the benefit of the shareholders. The Takaka branch of the Farmers’ Co-op. baa closed down and other business had ceased to exist. The Chairman of the Board of Trade had been appointed manager of the Flourmillers’ Association. This was a surprise to everybody. In regard to tax-free bonds, this again was playing into the hands of the big men. In conclusion, Mr Patterson said he had tried to explain the planks of his policy. The Reform Government had governed by heads of departments and commissions. All sorts of promises bad been made, but the Government was now in a state of collapse, and Mr Massey was looking to the old Liberals 1 to help him back. A vote of thanks was accorded Mr Patterson and a similar vota to the chairman brought the meeting to a close.