MR. SEDDON ON THE STUMP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12524, 17 March 1904, Page 6

MR. SEDDON ON THE STUMP.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir,— is simply nauseating to seethe disgusting egotism displayed by the Premier in his various speeches to the Southern electors, his address at Kaitangata being a sample of high falutin. Mr. Seddon was in his element, as he had just received an address from the Otago Coalminers' Union, and if you only notice, Mr. Seddon is always more at home when addressing a body of trades unionists, who have benefited at the expense of the other members of the community by the legislation passed by the Minister for Labour for their special benefit. "With your permission I will criticise that part of his speech which more immediately affects the farmers of tie : colony. , • The Premier told his audience that the value or the real estate in the colony had gone up during the past ten Tears by £43,000,000, and that the export of" produce had gone up from £7,000,000 to £15,000,000. -"■' Mr. Seddon does not tell bis audience that the increased exports and consequently higher value of property was entirely owing to the fact that the colony had the high privilege of being under the Premiership of Mr. Seddon, but he leads them to infer that if Sir W. Russell or Mr. Massey had been at the helm in his place for the past ten years we would undoubtedly have gone to the dogs .Now for the facts. John Ballanee took office just at the time the: colony was recovering from a period of depression, not caused by the Government he succeeded, but by • the extravagance of the: Grey Government. ; At that time things were rather in a transition state j farmers, being rather slow, had not gone in much fop butter factories, and they had only got the refrigerator on sailing ships, so that our frozen mutton' was ; not always salable on its arrival in London; in fact, both industries were only in the experimental; stage. But that they would have developed just a3 well if Mr. Seddon had been Prime Minister for the Great Mogul, instead of being in New Zealand, is an undisputed fact. I feel certain if we had had either Sir William or Mr. Massey they would have looked more after the interests of the farmers and' less for experimental labour legislation, , so. r that we would have had people induced to go on the land and thus swell our exports, instead of sons and daughters! of settlers being brought off; the land to join .the labour trusts in towns, : getting • more wages than : they could possibly get by tilling the ground oi dairying. Then, as showing the farmers: what they had gained .by the Government's legislation, ho tells then- "the grading ; system had brought the price of butter from 3d up to lOd per lb." What bunkum! The factory system is principally responsible for that, and not _ the grading system. Neither did it .originate with our Government, as the Canadian, . Victorian, and Danish Governments had all appointed graders long' before ours thought of doing so. • Mr. Seddon next informed his audience that ' the New Zealand farmers' best market was New Zealand," and he instanced the fact that one had to pay more for mutton chops in Kaitangata than for the best New Zealand mutton in London. It is pitiable to see the Premier of the colony descending t?.-? 110 * 1 miserable claptrap as the foregoing.' 'Farmers' best market was New Zealand!" Where would our farmers be if they were depending solely on a fifth-rate town in Britain for a market for their produce? And yet this fifth-rate town, equal to the town population of this colony, would not require' us to subsidise them to deal with us as the protected trades unionists here, do. But the farmers are hardly likely to forget the time when New Zealand was their only market for meat, when splendid legs of mutton were being hawked about our streets for sixpence each; a grand market for meat or anything else then, and would bo as bad to-dav if we had to depend on it. And is Mr. Seddon not aware that it is only where the 1.0. and Arbitration Court is in active operation that high prices are charged? For' the past 12 months, when sirloins of beef were ?d pes lb in Auckland, a friend of mine, near Whangarei, had sirloins of beef delivered foi: Qd, and 6d for steak. At Pukekohe another gentleman told me that meat was so cheap that had it not been for the excessive railway charges he would have got .. it from that township. Thus Mr. Seddon will see that the higher price of meat- in Kaitangata has been caused not by the higher price the farmers were getting, but by the better wages he had just been boasting brought about, • although he did not say so, by' Arbitration Court awards. V I now give a last quotation from Mr. Seddon's speech, delivered at Lawrence, and as it is about the most sensible thing he said on his tour, 'the Press Association sent it verbatim : " Above all things," he says, " make the country prosperous, give opportunities to the people, and at once an increase will be noticed in both the marriage and the birthrates, so the sovereign remedy is to put people on the land. It is wonderful what a number of children the farmers have. Marriage is not a, failure in the country districts of New Zealand." And who has prevented the people going on the land? The Seddon Administration, who have retarded the natural progress of the colony by passing labour law for the benefit of then trades and labour trusts, thus bringing our settlers' sons and daughters into the towns, where they were attracted by higher wages than they could have got working the land, and so our exports are not half what they might have been if we had had a farmer as Premier. Tier- me respectfully inform the Premier' that he will be just as successful growing graces on Mount Cook for export to France as "he will be in making New Zealand a great manufacturing counter, exporting her manufactures through all the" habitable globe, as Britain does.

One more extract and I have done. Coming to the question of mining, the Premier .said that- in the last 10 years the number of eorJminers had increased by 20,000, arid the tonnaaro of coal had increased from 673,315 tons in 1392 to 1,365,040 in 1902, an increase of 691,725 tons. Not only had the industry improved, but by reason of the legislation the conditions under which the work was carried out had been improved. There had not been a single protest from a mineowner in the colony against the recent; legislation. I cannot see for the life of me how the Seddon Government can take any credit f°* the increase of coal won. And then Mr. Seddon says, "There had not been a single protest from any mineowner ill the colony against the recent legislation." Why should, they protest? _ .All they require to do is in-, crease the price of coal, and the poor consumers must pay, no matter what is charged, because this js one of our legalised close la- J bour trusts, whose objects are to destroy competition, and exact an artificial price. from the people for the necessaries of life When will the eyes of oui country setderr be opened?— l am, etc., A Fabkeb's Bor. Auckland, March 14, 1904. :