THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17338, 9 December 1919, Page 10

THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN.

PREMIER IK AUCKLAND. TWO SPEECHES DELIVERED. BEFORM PARTY'S OBJECTIVE. \ . RECONSTRUCTION PROBLEMS. Tor the first time since the election campaign opened in Auckland the Prime Minister addressed a meeting of voters last evening. The first part of the night was spent at Mr. Clutha Mackenzie s ■meeting at the Broadway Theatre. Newmarket. The doors opened to ticket-hold-ers at a-quarter to seven, and at that hour there was already a considerable crowd gathered in front of the buildingAs soon as the general public was given admission there was a considerable rush, »nd all vacant seats were filled by the time the meeting was duo to commence. I'he appearance of Mr. Massey and Mr. Mackenzie was responsible for an outburst ttt considerable applause,, mingled with a little hooting. The Prime Minister's address received a good hearing. There was &. certain amount of interjection, but no instruction. Mr. Massey was in good form and scored heavily in several goodhumoured exchanges with those in the Lack of the halt. The great majority of his hearers were with him, and occasional objections to his statements were speedily drowned in applause. Crowds Outside the Hall. The scene outside tho Newmarket Theatre was an animated one throughout the evening. A number of people were surprised to find that only the holders of invitations were admitted at the outset, ; Probably 200 had collected at the entrance by 7.15 p.m.. They were very orderly, a.id the force of about twenty police j under the local heads of the Department, : had little to do but keep the footpath . clear, in which they met with no trouble. About ten minutes before the half-hour tho gates in the entrance hall of the theatre were throw* open, and there ensued a strong rush for the interior of the building. At that moment Mr. Massey arrived, and ho had to thread his way through the crowd in the doorway. This he successfully accomplished, smiling and raising his hat to those who saluted him. Among the latter all were not friendly, but there ■wa,* nothing in the nature of a hostile demonstration. Only One Untoward Incident. More people arriving on the scene towards 8 p.m. found the theatre accommodation taxed to the uttermost, and ■were unable to gain admission on' any pretest. Several remained, and they were presently joined by many others, obviously Labour supporters, who were loud in their condemnation of the persons responsible for their non-admittance to an already crowded hall. The conduct of all ■was, however, exemplary, and the wait for the termination of the Prime Minister's speech and hie departure for the Parneli meeting was a quiet and orderly one. ' At 8,30 p.m. the car |in which Mr. Massey had arrived was seen to back into the yard at the rear of the theatre. By this time the assembled crowd numbered some 500 people, and most of them rushed toward the car as it entered the yard, '•he gate was shut, however, and two mounted constables were stationed outside it.* v The crowd stood off and waited __. patiently ..for a few more minutes. Then trere was a shout as the mounted men moved off, and were speedily followed by the Prime Minister's car. As the latter passed through the crowd and headed for Parneli cheers for Mr. Massey arose, immediately followed by a chorus of lusty "boo-ing." At this stage someone in the crowd threw a rotten egg at the occupants of the car, and the? missile struck the chauffeur in the eye. There was also an unfriendly demonstration as a van containing the majority of the police who had been on duty drove off in the track of the Prime' Minister. The crowd then dispersed quietly. ; Enthusiastic Reception at- Paraell. The arrival of the Prime Minister's car tit Parneli was the signal for a display of enthusiasm by the waiting crowd, and Mr. Massey was cheered as he walked from the car to the side entrance of the theatre. An attempt by some of the crowd to force their way into the. theatre was promptly checked by the police, who cleared the lobby and kept the people on the street. During the hour the Prime Minister was speaking the utmost quiet prevailed outside. Some people went home, but the majority waited to catch a laat glimpse of Mr. Massey. There was an outburst of cheering as he appeared and a half-hearted attempt at hooting- was completely drowned. GOVERNMENT'S POLICY. MR. MASSEY AT NEWMARKET. NEEDS OF THE FUTURE, * ] DEVELOPMENT OF RESOURCES Addresses to the electors of Auckland East were delivered in the Broadway Picture Theatre, Newmarket, last evening, by the Prime Minister and by the Governfent candidate, Mr. Clutha Mackenzie. The Mayor of Newmarket, Mr. C. Leek, • presided over an audience which filled every seat in the building and overflowed on to the street outside. The arrival of Mr. Massey and Mr. Mackenzie was the signal for a great outburst of applause and cheering, in which a certain amount of hooting that commenced was quickly drowned. t Commencing his speech, Mr. Massey Said he was not going to indulge in anyparty wrangling. He left that sort of tiling to others. If he was attacked he could defend himself, whether in the House or anywhere else, but that was as far as it went. The war, continued Mr. Massey, was a thing of the past. The question was now of tho future and v. hat use was to bo made of the future. No one could have foreseen when last he spoke at Newmarket, at a recruiting meeting in 1915, that the Dominion would send away to the front 100,000 men and heap up a war debt of £100,000.000. Yet this had been done. Though not prepared, we had carried our policy through, and now the country was face to face with the results of the war, the most pressing of which was a total debt of £200,000,000 on which to pay interest and sinking fund. In order to meet this enormous liability, continued Mr. Massey, it was necessary to go in for a policy of development such as this country had never known before. The output of produce and the volume of exports must bo increased. The experiences of the war had shown what the country could do, even with all the best men away. Those who were left, and the women and children as well, had worked so that the yield of produce and the volume of exports had been maintained and increased, tjince March, 1915— date when the Imperial requisition of produce commenced—the Dominion had received from the Imperial authorities the •°"m of £113,000,000. When the present iTancement came to an end in June next 'to £19?™ r,nn U ' ta ! ° Uld have ■»«"«» thaPr? 10 ' 00 ' and P erha moro than 3l fh« u\ ** re l ,eated . was done when awal„ • m " n of «»-Dominion were w7° n «stvlc e . They WVre now back- * i turnerJk°°° who would never repolicy, of devil, them *hack » vigorous >* .- ? °u\ mi,sl b<s Pursued. Worn' S h had quoted,%id Mr . m P^p? 0 tid°\T« for lh * industr * " f M^-.to we f- oWnen the

■war Began pontic ■?srs?k« had been dropped. It -was now essential to prosecute the scheme of railway construction. The lines north of Auckland must be pressed, on, particularly the one making a connection ■with WhangareL So must the great East Coast line, which would eventually run to Napier. Then there was that line connecting with Taranaki running-from some place in the King Country, the name of which had escaped him for the moment. A Voice: Waiuku. (Laughter.) Mr. Massey: Thank yon for reminding me of Waiuku. I was up there a few days ago. And it is no mean city. (Laughter and applause.) The Prime Minister continued that improvements must be made in the Main Trunk line and service. Disregarding some attempted. interruption, he said we must look forward. In years to come railways would be built where they were not thought of to-day. "At five shillings a day," persisted an interjector," who insisted on having his voice heard. Mr. Massey: That's all right. A man is generally taken at his own valuation, and if that is all you are worth I am sorry for you. Beading and Hydro-Electricity. Continuing, the Prims Minister said we had to go in for a reading policy in this country, and in this district in particular. He had seen a great deal of the South Island recently and must say that in respect to reading this district was behind the rest of the Dominion. Take the main road to Hamilton for instance. A great portion of it had never been formed and had never had any metal placed upon it. The roads must be improved. i Another thing that was urgently required was a hydro-electric system. The value of the water power was now realised. A few years ago never a thought was given to the power that was being allowed to run to waste in the rivers and streams of the Dominion. In years to come these would be fully developed.

I Land Settlement. 1 The next question wa3 that of land ! settlement. More must now be" done than had been done in the past. During the war the policy of land settlement had largely been suspended. It would not have been fair to the men who were at the front to have carried on whye they were absent and unable to participate in it- Land! settlement had been pressed vigorously during the last 12 months. There were still millions of acres, however, not yet touched. There was land, also, which was net producing as much as it should. < A Voice: Why don't you let the work-1 ing people get some of it? I ' Mr. Massey: There is man in New I Zealand who" cannot get land if he has! the same grit and energy as those who have already taken it up. " i A Voice: Where is the money to come! from? | Mr. Massey: Go to work, earn the! money, and do as the early settlers of this ! country did. (Applause.) Somebody had ; spoken of the people of Pukekohe. " They went there into tha heart of the bush", as it then was, and without a half-crown in their pocket, and look at the position they were ia now! A Voice: All the good land has been snapped up. Mr. Massey: There is as good land a3 any in this 'country which has not yet been touched.. And in saying this I know what I am talking about. there was also land, he continued, which was not producing up to its full capacity. It was being held by land speculators and others. These people had to be made to work it or get out. A Voice: They are pretty slow in doing it. , Mr. Massey: Yes, and some of them are good Liberals, too. (Laughter.) Dealing with native land, the Prime Minister said that some 70,000 acres had been purchased by the present Government, and so far as he was able to judge the whole of it would be on the market and available for settlement within the next two years. Much of it was on the route of the East Coast railway line of which he. had spoken. They would not need to be told of the purchase which the Government had made from the natives ,of -Orakei. That, of course, was not settlement land, but he believed it would make one of Auckland's finest suburbs. The Cost of Living. The cost of living, proceeded Mr. Massey, was a (thing the existence of which everybody acknowledged, and for which a remedy must be found. He had been disappointed that it had not gone down since the war ceased. There had been a slight increase since then, though the movement had not been great. There were other places where it was worse. A Voice: What about Queensland? ** Mr. Massey replied that the cost* of living was higher in Queensland than in any other State in Australia, and. there was more unemployment there. In answer to interjections, he said he was not in the habit of saying a thing unless he was sure of it, and he had statistics to*- prove ! what he asserted. The outlook in Queensland at the present time was very serious, but he hoped that they would get over the present condition of affairs, for it was not pleasant,-to think of a neighbouring State being in such a situation. In Queensland, and in every other place that he knew, the cost of living was higher than in New Zealand. , Mr. Massey then proceeded to discuss in detail the causes operating* As re- j garded imported goods, he said there was ' little possibility of getting at the causes ] and eliminating them. So far as the j goods produced in the Dominion -were j concerned, the energies of the Board of j Trade had been directed' to keeping down ' rices. He detailed the arrangement that ad been made to keep sugar cheap, and claimed that it had resulted in a great saving for the period during which it had been in force. As regarded meat, the arrangement whereby the butchers were enabled to obtain carcases from the Imperial hooks had helped largely to keep the prices from rising. With regard to butter, he detailed the 'arrangement whereby the price had been regulated in the Dominion, and the difference made up to the producer out of the Consolidated Fund. By this means, he said, some of the hardest-worked people of . the Dominion had bad their interests safeguarded, and the result achieved had been for the good of the whole community. There was a precedent for the action he said, for in Britain £50,000,000 a year was being paid to keep the price of bread down. Powers of the Board of Trade. As regarded wheat, he said there was difficulty ahead in New Zealand. It was not likely to lie manifested for some time on account of the reserve from purcliases made in Australia, but the drought there meant that it would not be possible to depend upon Australia altogether. It would not be possible to obtain wheat from Canada or the Argentine save at prices which would cause the price of bread to soar to heights he did not like to contemplate. It was necessary to make arrangements so that the people of the South Island, where the wheat land was, would grow enough to supply our wants. ' The Board v of Trade had had power during the war to control to a certain extent the prices of imported goods. Unless a merchant could show that an increase in price of any article would yield no more than a fair profit he Mas not allowed to make that increase. Then to deal with the cost of living, unions were given the right to go before the Arbitration Court and apply for increased wages during the currency of an award. A Voice : We did not get, a fair deal from the Court. Mr. Massey : You do not expect me surely, as the head of the Government to criticise the Court. A Voice: You did not go to the Court when you wanted an increase in pay. Mr. Massey : That would have been a good idea. If! hud gone to the Court it would have given ine £20,000 a year (Laughter.) He believed in the Arbitration Court, he continued, and in the three gentleman who constituted it. The Hoard of Trade Bill passed last session had been drafted when he was away, and he must give credit, to tin- lute Mini's' ter who acted as president of Hie hoard during his absence. }{,• believed the drastic powers given by it, would deal with profiteering which had existed, and he feared still existed. Another thing whi-h contributed to the high prices was the ' absence of gold and the preponderance of > | paper money.

A Voice: I don't see much of either. i Mr. Massey i That is your fault. r Go to work and earn it. The issue of paper, he said, had decreased the purchasing power i of money. It was unfortunate, but the, paper issue was inseparable from a war nowadays. . " . ■ / A Voice: Well, we had better have' another war, for we have plenty of paper. (Laughter.) Somebody had said-, something about a State bank, said Mr. Massey, but the real remedy for the whole position ' was in-~ creased production. He was in accord with nationalisation to deal -with monopolies, but where private enterprise was doing fairly for the country nationalisation was not desirable. If money had to be found for wholesale nationalisation roads and railways would have to wait. , A Voice: How are you going to settle } the coal difficulty? Tell us that. j Mr. Massey : You are asking me to put all my cards on the table now, and I am not going to do it. A Voice : You are shuffling them now. Mr. Massey : They will be shuffled and cut, and a trump will be turned up. (Laughter.) A Voice. Do you hold the joker? Mr. Massey : When you think of what happened when I came back and. found that the railways had stopped, .you will agree that I held the joker. (Laughter , and applause.) j The Mining Difficulty. j <The Prime Minister then detailed the ' efforts that had been made to deal with , the difficulty in the mines. Both sides, j ', he said, had proved obstinate. He had ; been blamed for not calling a compulsory I conference, but what was the use of | ! compelling people to confer when there i was no chance of their agreeing He ■ said he was quite convinced the miners i should have good pay and better accommodation, but no one class of the community could have their demands granted at the expense of the rest. Concluding a speech in which he had been given a good hearing, Mr. Massey appealed to the electors present to cast , their votes for the Government candidate, l Mr. Clutha ' Mackenzie —an appeal which ' was received with loud applause and the singing of " He's, a Jolly Good Fellow." Mr. Massey left the hall after Mr. Mackenzie had commenced to speak, and proceeded to Mr. Dickson's meeting at Parnell.. Speech N by Mr. Mackenzie. After Mr. Massey had left, Mr. Mackenzie delivered a brief address on the lines of his previous speeches, touching upon his reasons for supporting the present Government, the need for prosecuting the hydro-electric scheme, and the desirability of systematic town-planning. He was listened to without interruption, most of those who had contributed to the livelier proceedings earlier in the evening having either left the hall or worked off their energies. ©nly two questions were asked when Mr. Mackenzie sat down, and a motion of thanks and confidence was then carried with considerable enthusiasm. - '. 1 A LIVELY MEETING. * ATTEMPTED INTERRUPTION. CANDIDATE'S FIRM STAND.

SPEECH BY ME. DICKSON. The Government candidate for 'Parneli, Mr. J. S. Dickson, addressed a crowded meeting in the Palace Theatre last evening. Mr. J. B. Peterson presided. When the chairman was introducing the speaker some disturbance was created in the gallery by an elderly woman, who, failing to find a seat, attempted to sit on the oack of a man in front of her. After some moments of interruption, Mr. Paterson called for order, and asked the meeting to remember the dignity of the district. When Mr. Dickson commenced his address it became evident that there was a fairly considerable hostile section, references to the Government and. Mr. Massey producing loud opposition. ""We are not going to put up with any nonsense or interruption by a few people who do not belong to this electorate," exclaimed the candidate amid applause. " I give you fair warning that I will ask the police to prosecute anyone who makes an interruption." (Applause and "booing.") "We have too much of this interference," added Mr. Dickson. "We are being followed around from meeting to meeting by a few hoodlums who want to make a disturbance." The elderly woman in the gallery continued to 'be the cause of much mirth in her vicinity, and interjections of a somewhat, fierce character from other women kept the hall in an uproar for some time. The candidate's uncompromising denunciation of Extreme Labour had the effect of adding to the uproar. The elderly woman in the gallery, had again to be asked to resume her seat, but as she was without one she patrolled the gallery until she found a congenial standing piece. When-Air. Dickson criticised the attitude of the Labour Party on the gratuity question there was further noisy disturbance, and one elderly man voiced strong opinions about Mr. Dickson " having gained a reputation by pending his boy of 16 years "to the war." "I'm proud of him," replied the candidate, amid great applause, " and I would send him again." After some further unrestrained opposition and more mirth. in the gallery over tlffe elderly woman already alluded to, the meeting settled down, but interruptions were frequent throughout the speech, some of the interjectors being grouped in a corner beside the stage. Question-time was much more lively than usual. Several men were nothing loath to 'go on to the platform to ask their questionsthe rale fixed by the chairman for verbal questions—and a great deal was heard about "profiteering" to the extent of the sixpence in men s collars, sugar, and the cost of-.things generally, the questions developing into speeches. One questioner, a rather grimy individual, said he was not going to talk about collars because he did not wear one. This questioner made an impassioned sort of speech, in which the price of sugar occurred frequently. After Mr. Dickson had replied that sugar was cheaper in New Zealand than in any other country in the world, the collarless individual insisted in making a reply from the platform, and when it occurred to him I that the bulk of the audience was merely | amused, he ended by expressing a fervent 1 hope that "they would have to pay more yet." With that he retired to his corner. MARSDEN. ' [bi telegraph—own correspondent.! WHANGAKEI, Monday. At a meeting of_ tho newly-formed Marsden Labour Representation Committee, v held at Hikurangi yesterday, with delegates present from the Onerahi, Kiripaka, Whangarei. and Hikurangi branches of the Marsden Labour Party, it was unanimously decided that as" the Labour Party in Marsden was not running any official candidate for the present election, all members of the party should be free to exercise their individual choice in deciding which candidate they desired to support.