ELECTION CAMPAIGN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14807, 10 October 1911, Page 4

ELECTION CAMPAIGN.

THE PARNELL FIGHT.

SPEECH BY SIR JOHN FINDLAY.

A CHAMPION OF THE NORTH.

THE NATIVE LAND TROUBLE

COMPULSORY ACQUISITION.

Sis John Fkdiat delivered his first speech in connection with his candidature for the Parnell seat last night at the Oddfellows* Hall, ■Parnell. It was not to be expected thai he would have an easy task. From the time the doors were opened it was clear that there were foes as well as friends among the gathering, and almost throughout the speech, which lasted about an hour and a half, interruptions "were frequent and noise almost continuous. The opposition was not of such a serious nature, however, that, silence could not be obtained, and when specially interesting matter was in hand the candidate received good attention. As the evening passed, Sir John evidently improved his position among his hearers, and the interruptions grew much less frequent and vociferous.

Half-an-hour before the time for the address the hall was packed, and from that time on the people outside occupied themselves in a vain endeavour to squeeze quarts into pints. They did manage to | a certain extent, for the hall, nominally full with about 400 people, was made to contain probably double that number. j Those within kept themselves in a suitably humorous frame of mind by calls of " Trot out the Doctor," and " Fish oh !" There were hundreds of people who could not gain admission at all. A temporary relief was afforded by pressing into service as a gallery a sort of loft which runs along one side of the hall. A ladder was erected to allow the gallery to be attained, and there was enthusiasm among the crowded audience at its fresh use. But it paled to silence alongside the vociferation that greeted the first lady who, with her skirts held closely by an attendant cavalier, scaled the ladder and took her place among the gods. When Dr. Findlay arrived he was greeted with prolonged applause, mingled with a chorus of hoots that promised something lively to come, but which did not last long. Mr. R. S. Briggs (Mayor of Pained) occupied the chair. His introduction of She candidate was received with appj«uee, bob with antagonistic cries as well. He asked for such a fair and impartial hearing as a Parnell audience was noted for giving, whether it agreed with the speaker's politics or not." '.'..-....

A Mixed Reception. Sir John Findlay was greeted with hearty applause, a. large section of the audience, however, venting its feelings- in a chorus of hoots. He began his address in some difficulty on account of a current of interruptions, which rose at times to a great clamour. As a rule he took no notice of ■ interruptions. unless they were so effective as to prevent anyone hearing him at all. - ' ; -'.- ■■ ',- He declared that he came forward-as a candidate with all the disadvantages of a stranger. He was a native New Zealander, and the fellow-citizen of all New Zealanders, not merely of those in, some particular locality, and he hoped to be treated in this spirit, and not as an intruding alien. He was merely exercising th,e right every New Zealander had to offer himself for election by his fellow colonists.

Why he was Standing for Parliament. i His short answer to this question was | that he believed he could be of service to ; the country in which he was born. He i had worked for the last five years in the Cabinet and in the Legislative Council, as ! a Minister of, the Crown, and did "not think that his labour had been barren of \ good results. But he felt that in a democracy a public man's authority and influence, if it was to be effective, should be based directly on the will of the people. (Applause.) The work of government as i the years passed grew ever more difficult. Not only in the work of administra- | tion, but particularly in the devising of i new schemes and consequent legislation, there was an increasing call 'for thought, | patience, and industry on the part of those lin Parliament. He was standing because i he thought he could be of assistance in | this increasing and complicated work; bej cause most of the qualities he possessed j for this work he owed to the advantages ! the educational system of this land had | conferred upon him. But why he stood was from his hearers' point of view less important than what he stood for. He stood for what he believed to be the cardinal principles of progressive Liberalism. The basis of Liberalism was freedom. Liberty to be of real value must mean freedom of opportunity; work to do and freedom to do it: a chance to earn a livelihood and liberty to take advantage of it. The great aim of progressive Liberalism was equality of opportunity. This was not based upon any process of robbing Peter to fill the pockets of Paul, or upon any principle of share and share alike all round. It was not robbing a man or woman of selfrespect by doles of charity. It Mas not spoon-feeding the idle into social parasites. It was the State furnishing the materkl conditions by which willing and industrious men and women might secure by their own efforts comfort and economic independence. *

Seven Points in Liberalism. j Me insisted that true Liberalism could he translated into terms of access to opportunity provided by the- State. This access might be divided under seven heads (1) For the landless, access to land with security of tenure and in living area*. (2) For men without money, access to capital at the lowest rates -and on the l easiest terms at which the State can provide it. (3) For all, access to transportation and communication by road, railways, and other means for produce, persons, and business exchanges at charges as low as will leave the State without loss. (4) Wherever possible, access to electrical power, light, and heat, for industrial and domestic purposes at the lowest rates at which the State can furnish these needs. (5) Access to life, accident, invalidity, or unemployment insurance on the most reasonable terms possible. (6) Equality of access to justice for all, so that wealth i shall have no advantages over poverty lie- ! fore the justice seat. (7) Access to educa- : tion, free, from primary school to univer- : sity. (Applause.) These seven heads em- ' braced the provision by the State not onlv j of the material conditions of self-improve-ment, but also of the training and education and equipment requisite to enable 'each man and woman to make the best of these material conditions. Such State assistance might be called what they pleased —socialism, communism, paternalism, or grand-paternalism, according to taste. It 1 did not matter what name or label was attached; the important question was ! Will such State assistance enable an everincreasing majority of the people to live happier, healthier, and more comfortable lives? If it did that it vindicated itself and called for most strenuous support. But in addition to these seven accesses to oppoi;- j iimity, giving willing and strong men and ;

women the means of getting on, there must also be provision for the old, the weak, and the helpless. Humanitarian Legislation. Dealing with the humanitarian side of progressive Liberalism, Sir John Findlay stated that herein he made an appeal for attention to the women especially. (Loud cries of "Oh!") The Candidate: I was not referring to the people behind me. I meant the young women, not the old ones. He described the new proposals in connection with the old age pensions, reducing the age limit and especially increasing by half the amount payable to the parents of young children. He referred also to the National Provident Fund at some length, and drew attention to the work done in assisting the poorer classes through the financial stress of maternity and sickness, in charitable aid, the care of defectives and orphans, and reformative treatment ofcriminals. In later addresses, he said, he would deal more fully with these matters, and would show that they had already gone far along the lines of the seven principles he had mentioned, and had fully justified them. ■

Appeal for British Fair Flay. During this part of the speech the candidate was frequently interrupted, principally by more or less inarticulate noises, many of the audience confining themselves to expressions of deep incredulity. The interruptions rapidly became worse, and the chairman had at last to call on the disturbers to be quiet, or he would ask a limb of the law to eject them. This had a momentary effect. A little later, Mr. Mack, one of the candidates for the seat, also appealed for a hearing as good as he himself had in the same hall. (Cries of "Good Old Mack!") The interruptions continued almost unabated for perhaps 10 minutes, the candidate continuing to speak as best he could, but being brought to a standstill pretty frequently. The Mayor again interposed, and declared that he had never seen anything like the conduct of the meeting. He begged for a fair British hearing. But there was more uproar when the speaker rose, and it continued as an accompaniment to his voice, so that he could not be heard more than half-way along the hall for some time. The audience, easily distracted by anything fresh, obtained immense amusement from a man who stood up at the end of the lofty gallery and insisted on making a speech on his own account. He could not be heard for the noise in the hall, which only subsided when he had been coaxed down the ladder, and the ladder drawn up to save further trouble with him. It was explained by someone that he was not a Parnell man, and a lady remarked that all sorts got in there' somehow. &

Credit for the Industrious. Sir John Findlay proceeded once more with his speech, and in. a very short time the audience became, interested, and for most of the time thereafter they listened attentively and quietly. Dealing next with the subject of access to capital, Sir John said that it was very important to devise means whereby any roan, with only his good heart and hands, could obtain increased facilities for credit. (Hear, hear.) The co-operative banking system would make capital available to the worker. (Hear, hear.) Last year £3.600.000 had been lent to the settlers and workers, at rates far lower than it could be obtained elsewhere. Kut there were difficulties, delays, and, about these loans which the co-operative banks would be free from, and they would demand no other security from the borrower than his honesty and industry. The State would be amply protected by the liability of the members of the bank, and the certainty" that those men would be sure of the reliability of the men they lent the money to. And the interest chargeable, 4£ or 5 per cent., was very low, in view of the fact that no security was required. From the fact that, the tank could refuse money to any man not of good character, the institution leaded to hive a moralising influence. For instance, a man who drank could not raise money front it, and soon found it paid him to stop" drinking. ■■"■■■.■■■■■. "■':■' »Pt- A %

.; Quicker ■ Land' Settlement. . In referring to the land question Sir John Findlay said this had a special reference to Auckland. Every man who had the interests of the country at heart would recognise that the more people were got upon the land the better it would be for the future. They had to check the drift of population to "the cities. To meet this several agencies were already at work, two of \ them being the Land Act and the Land for Settlement Act It had always been said that the Government had not done enough in this direction, but as showing what the Government had done he pointed out that during the past five vears there had been 8200 settlers settled on the land, and these, with their dependents, numbered 40,000 souls. Under the Land Settlement Finance Act 117 people had been settled, and guaranteed and found money to the extent of £250,000. He agreed, however, that while much had been done in the past land settlement must proceed quicker in the future if we were to achieve the destiny that was open to us. Under the present system there were many difficulties. One of these was that our Crown lands were diminishing rapidly, and under the settlement now going on within six years from now we would have very little good accessible land available for settlement. What, then, was to be done? They were told that they must turn to the acquisition of the large estates in the hands of European owners, but for these lands the prices asked were so prohibitive that some wav must be found to avoid the enormous debt that would be crowded upon the country by continuing such a. policy. ■ '

Detect in the Ballot. They would agree with him there were some defects in the ballot system. He had known men leaving these shores to seek homes elsewhere because they could not get land under that system, and it was now intended to bring in a proposal to reduce that evil. They found that in the Auckland province, excluding the population of the city, there were only six people to the square mile, while, including the city's quota, the population was 10 to. the square mile. In England there were 350 people to the square mile. With such a sparsely populated area a? they had in the North they could realise, if the right expedient was hit upon, what a magnificent future lay before it. He had endeavoured to find where there was a large area of good land which the the State could acquire now for probably onethird or one-fourth the price it would have to pay for it when that land had roads and railways put through it, and where the settlers placed upon that land could, by working a portion of their time on the roads and railways, make ends meet until they got into more ' flourishing circumstances. (Applause.) In addition to reaping the advantages he had named upon the lands to be acquired the settlers would also derive benefit from the system of cooperative farmers* banks.

East' Coast Settlement. They wanted to bring about a position so that a man with £5 in his pocket could get a living area of land to live on. They proposed to achieve this by setting aside large areas partly for individual application and partly for associated settlement, by which families could apply to the Government and so reap the advantages he had mentioned. On the East Coast, in that great strip of country north of Gisborne, they had a large tract of country, containing* fully 250,000 acres of good land, available for settlement in this way. What had prevented its development in the past was the fact that it had no roads, but it was now proposed to construct these through it to the different coastal bays, giving almost immediate access to the outside world, and also to push on with the construction of the main arterial railway at the same time. There were also other areas north and south of Auckland which could be dealt with in a similar manner, and he predicted that when this was done the North would experience such a period of prosperity as it had never seen before.

Native Lands. Dealing with the native land question, Sir John submitted" that the time had arrived when the Maori should be dealt with the game as the European. After they had satisfied themselves that a sufficient area had been reserved for the Maori.

the remainder of his land must be subject to compulsory acquisition. Legislation would be introduced in this direction. In the vears past they had so educated their Maori brother that he was now able to undertake the duties of citizenship equally with other people, and he was of opinion that the day would soon dawn when the special representation now given the Maoris would not be necessary and would be dispensed with".

The Future of Auckland. Proceeding, Sir John said that after performing his duty to his country a member of Parliament should look after the interests of that portion of the country he represented. He wanted to sec the Auckland province pushed on. We were going to have here probably the greatest commercial and industrial centre in the Dominion. These interests would demand from the Auckland representatives in Parliament the best protection and advancement that could be given, and he assured the electors of Parnell that if he was elected by them as their member he would do his best to serve them in that respect. A glance at the map showed that railway construction would make this the greatest railway centre in the Dominion, and as a result probably one of the greatest railWay stations in the Dominion would be erected on the land which -was about to be reclaimed on the foreshore. The workshops at Newmarket would also have- to be enormously increased, greatly increasing the number of workers there. Jutting out from the new reclamation they would probably have the greatest export wharf Auckland possessed. They would have increasing industries along the foreshore, and it required no prophetic vision to see that Parnell, which was affected, would soon become one of the greatest centres of industrial activity in the Dominion. A further fact to be borne in mind was that if the population was going to increase they must root out slum conditions. Here they had splendid opportunities for townplanning. The man who represented Parnell could look forward to being of great service, perhaps of greater service than in representing any other constituency. (Cries of "Oh:" and laughter.) He hoped to have other opportunities of placing before them further cardinal principles of Liberalism.

A Han with Ideals. , He had been charged with being an idealist. •He admitted that he was. A man with health could achieve what he believed he could achieve, and that was equally true of a nation. New Zealanders had the grit, ability and energy to achieve high ideals if they would set them. He recounted the advantages which surround people of the Dominion, and asked whether a man's hands should not be fully occupied-in making the best use of them. He had been taken to task for being a socialist. If these ideals he had indicated were socialism, then he was one. His socialism required self-help to meet State-help more than half-way. It did not depend upon some unfair division of property enforced by law, but upon the means of bringing to the willing hands of men and women the material'means to raise themselves to comfort and independence. It meant the payment of 7s 6d a week to the widow and each of her children, and to all the members of the family of a sick worker, and nobody could deny that was a good socialism. His socialism was not here to promise to the ear and leave the broken word to the heart of the worker. He had been called an extremist, but he repelled that charge. The extremist should not have control, of public affairs. The best path was the golden mean between two extremes. They could not point out in what he had been extreme. He concluded by saying that among his audience were many who were hostile to him, but he was not disheartened in the least. He could stand twenty times as much hostility, or he would not be worth his salt. (Applause.) When they knew him better many of those who were now hostile to him would regard him as a friend. The candidate sat down amid prolonged applause, intermingled with some slight hooting. >

Questions. ;;; Sir John Findlay replied to a number of questions. There was no truth, he said, in the report that Sir Joseph -Ward was going Home as High Commissioner, and that he himself had pledged himself to become Prime Minister. He favoured the Licensing Law as it stood until it had been given a fair trial. He was in favour of State control of hospitals, though private hospitals could be well conducted under State inspection. In reference to the allegation that female employees in private hotels had to work 105 hours a week without a half-holiday, he said that it was his plainest duty as a man to assist inr preventing that state of affairs continuing. In view of the urgent necessity for better university accommodation, and if no better ground could be got for the purpose, he was in favour of the Government House grounds site for the college. ' He denied that the Government valuations had resulted in increased taxation, because they were always below the market value of the land concerned. Nor was it true that the rents of workmen's homes were higher than those paid for similar houses privately owned.

Vote of Thanks and Confidence. Mr. W. F. Bines then moved the fol-j lowing resolution:— '{ That this meeting is of opinion, after hearing the able speech of the candidate, that he is a fit and suitable person to represent the electors of Parnell in Parliament, and that this meeting accords him a hearty vote of thanks and confidence." , * Mr. C. E. Palmer, amidst uproar, seconded. - A member of the audience offered an amendment, but the chairman declined to take any amendment at that meeting. A show of hands was taken for and against, only a moderate proportion of the audience voting, and the motion was deflared carried. Sir John returned thanks amidst a renewed outburst of applause and hooting, and moved a vote of thanks to the chair, which was carried. Three hearty cheers were then called for for Sir John Findlay, and were heartily responded to by his supporters, who almost completely drowned the hooting of his opponents. Cheers were also given for Lady Findlay.

THE WAITEMATA SEAT. MR, ALEX. HARRIS AT DEVONPORT. , Mr. Alex. Harris, the selected Opposition candidate for Waitemata, addressed a -attended meeting in .he Masonic Hall, Devonport, last night. Mr. Wm. Handley (Mayor of Devonport) presided. Mr., Harris criticised the attitude of the Government on the land question, and advocated the freehold tenure as the only satisfactory and secure tenure for the settler. He favoured a more progressive policy for the settlement of Crown land*, and deplored the large tracts of native lands lying idle and not contributing rates to local bodies or taxation to the Crown He dealt at length with railway iidnnnistration, and regretted that the Government had not undertaken the Parnell tunnel duplication, as other less important duplications had been made in other parts » of the Dominion. He contended that the Government was far from democratic, and instanced in proof of this the manner, of their appointments to the Upper House. An elective Upper House by direct representatives of, the people was the only rational and democratic way of appointing members. He favoured a non-political Public Service Board for the purpose of making Civil Service appointments, and advocated a Local Government Bill to assure finance to local! bodies. Dealing with local matters, he advocated concessions in con- 1 nection with telephonic communication with Auckland, grants for roads in the back blocks, and a hospital for the district. ■ , ' A. number of, questions were put, and satisfactorily answered. * On the motion of Mr. C. P. Murdoch, seconded by Mr. S.'*C. Macky, the candidate was unanimously accorded a vote of thanks for his address, and confidence in him as the official Opposition candidate for Waitemata. , , Mr. Martin (Opposition organiser) briefly addressed ..meeting. .