AN ENGLISH M.P.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14224, 22 November 1909, Page 6

AN ENGLISH M.P.

ARRIVAL OF MR. WILL CROOKS

SOME VIEWS OF THE BUDGET.

After a drive round Auckland and its beautiful suburbs with his wife and two representatives of the local Labour party, Mr. Will Crooks, the English Labour M.P., who arrived here by the Maheno from Sydney yesterday, had a short interview with a Herald representative upon current affairs in the Old Country. ,

What do I think of Mr. Lloyd-George's Budget?" said Mr, Crooks. "I think it is the greatest ever introduced — the greatest which I have ever known in my life. It eclipses all others I know of, because it inflicts so little injustice upon anyone. The outcry that, has been raised is by the people who for the first time are called upon to pay the supplementary increase by voluntary taxation; by that I moan those who consume tobacco and whisky. Now from my observations I should call a tax on bread a compulsory tax, because we can't do without it, but by placing it upon whisky and tobacco the people taxed are those who buy what are not the necessaries of life and which can be left alone if poverty comes. ' ■ :

" The proposal to tax the land is not very new," said Mr. Crooks, "but to propose such taxation and to carry it out are two totally different things. The proposals are, , I think, simple and fair. For the first time the people are getting an unearned increment tax. The big thing in the Budget is that it provides for additional national defence and for social reform," continued Mr. Crooks. " Social reform is the thing every ' politician at Home is talking about. The development clauses grant moneys for the opening up of roads in inaccessible places, and for the repairing of the main roads. In a word, the money will be spent entirely on useful labour. When the Budget becomes law, next year, provision will be made for the granting of old age pensions to people who had previously received charities. At present the English Act provides that only persons who have not received help can draw their pensions, and in this way it is estimated that 300,000 decent, deserving old people, in poor circumstances, are excluded. The Budget will amend this, and thus satisfy a crying national demand. The Labour party at Home do not forget that 250,000 persons own 40,000,000 acres, and the poor, numbering 38,000,000, do not own If and, in fact, their right to walk on it is questioned. " Yes, the Lords may throw out the Budget," concluded Mr. Crooks, " but I don't think' they would dare, "and the only answer that I could suggest being given if they do is that given by George Stevenson when someone asked him what he would do if a cow strayed on. his railway line: 'It will be awkward for the cow,' he said." Mi-. Crooks upon his arrival was met at the wharf by representatives of the Auckland Labour party, the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Socialistic party, the Trades and Labour Council, the Waterside Workers' Union, and numerous other officials of, trade unions. ,' He was subjected to a great deal of hand-shaking and goodhumoured barracking. One person called out, " Hullo, Will Crooks. How's smoky England Mr. Crooks replied, " Just as smoky as ever." When he got into a carriage with his wife a voice remarked, "I suppose you are used to that, Bill.""Bill" smiled genially in reply, the crowd cheering him again and again. Mr. Crooks was asked to speak at an open-air meeting at the bottom of Queenstreet in the afternoon, but declined the honour, taking a drive to Mount Albert and Mount Eden instead. l Ho explained to those on the wharf yesterday morning that he had come for a holiday, on account of his bad health..

In the evening Mr. Crooks addressed a very largo meeting at St. James' Hall, the main part of his speech dealing with his work among the poor of England. . The Deputy-Mayor, Mr. A. J. Entrican, will meet Mr. Crooks at the Council Chambers at 10 o'clock this -morning; On Tuesday he goes to Rotorua, and leaves there to arrive in Wellington on Thursday. He will arrive in , ChristchuTch on Monday, November 29, and will leave there for Dunedin on December 1, eventuallv leaving the Dominion, via the Bluff, for Hobart on December 6. Aftewards he goes to • Melbourne, Adelaide and Fremantle, and thence Home.