THE ELECTION

Northland Age, Volume 25, Issue 27, 22 October 1925, Page 3

THE ELECTION

MR. BELL AT KAITA iA. Speaking at Kaitaia on the I2th inst Mr. Bell said inter alia : —Almost three years ago I stood on this platform and solicited your support as Independent candidate with 1 this one reservation that in the \ event of no confidence being ; moved against the Government, then I would vote with the Government. I think on 21 occasions during the last 'Parliament that! no confidence was moved and | that 01 every occasion I have 1 carried out the pledge I gave i threa years ago. Had i not given ! that pledge, under conditions j which I found, I would have done exactly the same as I have done I those p Ist three years. Had I j done otherwise, had cast my vote t against the Government the con- 1 ditions would have been very! bad indeed because we would I have placed the Government of { this country at the contret of the ! Extreme Socialist Party. Since 1 1 then many important ch ages I - have taken place. Firstl the ; death of Mr. Massev. Evervone i 1

death ot Mr. Massey, everyone spoke well of Mr. M issey in the House, the Labour Party stating he had always carried out his promises and that was a ver fine thing. ( Applause.) A very fine tribute paid to Mr. Massey, and unnoticed by the Press, and I do not think published in any paper in New Zealand, because a pressman did not happen' to be near at the time, was when the , body was lying in state thousands P of people stood in a line waiting their turn to go past when an old decrepit lady about 80 came up and placed a little bunch of dowers on the coffin of the late Prime Minister. Now I will go on a few months when it became necessary to select a new Prime Minister for New Zealand and therefore in the interests of the people of New Zealand it devolved upon m« to take a hand and 1 did my best tor the selection of Coates (Applause). I am one of those who has the courage to stand on this selection of Mr. Coates because I knew he is a man who is fearless and will do things. We have come to the parting of the ways, Only two I parties in New Zealand at the present time, the Extreme La b•ir Socialists and those who are opposed to them. Unfortunately those who are opposed to them are split up into sections. There are the “Die Hard” Liberals, the Country Partv and the Labour and going on as you are doing,splitting into sections, you are only going to place the Extreme Labour Socialists in power in this country. Make no doubt about what you are to oppose, whether you are going to support the Government or the Labour Socialists. Re the question of newly formed Country Party you have be -n absolutely misled. When 1 tell you I was the founder o 4 the party 16 years ago when Sir Joseph Ward was in power it will probably surprise you to know 1

was one of the three who organised the party and took it down to Wellington, The reason was the the Government was trying to introduce the Leasehold system into this country. I will now goon to deal withthe great question of agricultural banking. You have been tcld that the late Prime Minister was opposed to the agricultural l inking system and I am going to tell you that this is entirely lintre. The late Prime Minister did not object to bringing agricultural banking into this country, what he did Object to was the raising ef five million to guarantee the finances, i was one of those who was prepared to go ahead with the scheme in any shape or form. Not withstanding that you have been told that the lata Prime Minister was opposed to agricultural banking in any shape or form let me tell you that we sat some 2 or 3 or 4 times in 2% months getting information and we were not able to get a s igle man in Nkw Zealand whc had more thanjtsuperficial knowledge of the banking system. At the last interview Isuggestedsending a man home lo investigate the whole (Irng. When Mr. Coates became Prime Ministerhe decided to send two men on the same mission and immediately objection was taken. They are on the and when they return they will be able to give us val able information which we an not able to get here. It will be n the interest of the country fo the •farmer to have a bank of his own, more especially where he can raise a loan for 20 or 30 years instead of having to renew his mortgage every 3 or 5 years as is usual now. I do not say tor a moment the banking system is going to cure the whole of our troubles. lam one of those who

advocate closer settlement. Out national debt before the war was 80 million and after 220 million and when portioned over a popuI ition ot 1,000,000 you realise it is not possible to go on under these conditions and we must go j in for closer settlement and attract largo numbers from the Old j Land, At the present time the | Government bring out 10,000 year I and twere are some of us whohave | stated not enough, and others too many, but it has been found after careful investigation that 10,000 j per year is all that we can take ; under present conditions, butwith j closer settlement of our lands we i will be able in a few years to inc- ! rease the number five-fold. I A number of the men coming out under the Government system j are not fitted to fit into colonial : life. Theclassof people we want j out here are farm labourers and | small tenant farmers, also boys md girls from Dr. Barnado’s home [ who in the past have been drifting to Canada, and from reports of the Canadian Government 96% of these young settlers have made good in Canada, and there is no doubt there is a better chance *f making good in New Zealand.

-1 “tuning R, V/L/H 111 iICTT kLiCil I,IIIU. , As far as training is concerned j | one of the finest homes I have ‘ seen is at Bloek House, near Bulls . j subscribed to by sheep owners, I j 3,000 acres. I STATE FINANCE DEPART- [ j MENT. This department has been very much criticised during the past 3 years applicants having to wait long periods before they could get their grants so causing discontent. Half my time was taken up interviewing State Advances Repayments are about £130,000 per year, and it has been possible to clean out a large number of the old applications. Spleedid work is being done by the department and it is very pleasing to note that the delegation from Canada spoke of the State Advances in New Zealand as one of the finest in the Empire and one which they stated was better than the Rural Credit Banks in their own country —splendid tribute to the depart- ! ment which has been severely "criticised because of delay in advances. TRUSTS Trusts are doing a tremendous amount of harm. Here is something that has taken place in our , own district. £160,000 was spent in erecting works at Moerewa. Before that fat lambs were worthless. We find the works have been freezing 10,000 sheep,lambs, and cattle, but owing to the demands of tne Trust they were in danger of closing down. As a result of my efforts freights were put up on live stock on railways as the Trust were taking steps to buy sheep to ship down to West- ; field. AGRICULTURAL WORK ! When our fathers came here 1 60 years ago thev found a rich - virgincountry andit was not nece- ; ssary to go in for scientific farming with a result thousands of acres have deteriorated to such an I PVtpnf it k’JC O Irv-iz-ve-t I

the land and that deterioration has taken place all over the North and wherever you look. The Government are taking steps to finance theee people to purchase manures. As far as agricultural education is concerned the Government are increasing the facilities which m“ans that the young generation of farmers will be placed in a different position to those in the past 60 years and as far as I am concerned I am one of those who is going to give every assistance to the Government extending the system of agricultural education because as a result of that education we are going to be able to handle our land problem. With the question of re establishing deteriorated lands is closely wrapped tap the question of constructions of roads. It is no use asking men to provide manures unless you give him the means of

getting to his land. Dealing with the roading for the whole of this country I draw your attention to the fact that large sums of money are wasted by public bodies. The Public Works are now to inspect the proposal and if a County Council does not get their sanction the work does not proceed. NORTHERN RAILWAY Prior to 1922 only 60 chains per year was being done which was a useless proposition and expensive and the proposal was that all men and plant be shifted to main line and when that was finished shifted back to the Okaihau line which would be put down with the same expedition as the main trunk. The main line would be completed in about ten months and in a lew months thg first batch of men will be shifted to Okaihau 60 chains per year will be increased to two or two and

half miles. As far as he was > ; concerned he would allow the 1 j engineer to select line route. ■j It has been said by some that' | there has not been enough money spent within my electorate. Foi--1 lowing as the actual figures supplied by Public Works: —Year ; ending March 1922 ... £31,649 „ 1923 ... £47.138 „ 1924 ... £47,012 1925 ... £64,262 You will see that the expenditI llre of roads alone in the Bay of i Islands electotate has doubled during the past three years. Now lam n u going to say that the j Government in doing this are ) giving anything to which the j Bay oi Islands electorate is riot j entitled, but state that we should all share alike. It is the p >licy of the Government spend where most urgently required, Old-age pensions have been increased 2/6 per week in certian sections and later allowed i:i all sections and I am one of those who realise and hope to see as years go by extension of privileges to old age no matter how prosperous country may be we will always have some tobe cared for, in their old age and whohave probably rendered a great service 1 to their country in the past. 1 KAURI GUM I do not know whether you are

interested here in kauri gum, but the matter is of importance when many diggers are having great difficulty in getting a living in the Far North. In connection with the Control Board the Government are supplying by way of loan an extra £25,000. The kauri gum industry brought some millions of money into the country and Mr. Massey promised the £25,000 to help and Mr. Coates carried out that promise. Re the harbour boards here at Mangonui. Owing to a dispute here the Bill did not go through arriving too late for the last meeting of Parliament. I do not know of there is anything else 1 have to say. Probably at the end of my address you will have questions and any reasonable questions put you will get a courteousauswer. I want again to appeal to you and point out the ruinous statements made by members Extreme Labourists such as Mr. Parry and Peter Frazer and the time has come when you must decide to light this menace ot Socialists and Communists. Communism and Socialism has a strong hold in our Empire. You have had an example ot shipping held up in New Zealand and Australia and only as the election was pending did it suit that the strike shonld be ended otherwise it would sull be going. Cast your vote to Coates. Last time 1 got the majoriiy of votes when I was standing as Independent, and if there are those in the hall to-night owing to trouble in the past bearing a grudge against me, then target Allen Bell and cast your votes for Gordon Coates. (Applause).