ELECTION CAMPAIGN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20084, 23 October 1928, Page 11

ELECTION CAMPAIGN.

POLICY DEFENDED.

UNITED PARTY PERSONNEL.

" CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY."

THE BORROWING PROPOSAL

A defence of tho United Party's policy, particularly in regard to borrowing, combined with an attack on the Government, formed tho main feature of the initial address by Mr. A. «J. Stallworthy, tho official United candidate for Eden, who spoko last evening in the Epsom Library Ihdl. The' chairman was Mr. G. 11. White, who presided over a fair attendance which comfortably fdled tho hall. At the conclusion the candidate was accorded a unanimous vote of thanks and confidence.

In opening. Mr. Stallworthy said tho history of the country was full of suggestions for facing the crisis in which the Dominion now found itself. In 1880, under the Reform Government, New Zealand was in a similar position, with thousands of unemployed and soup kitchens open. Then the Reform Government said, and it said to day, that conditions could not be righted. Seddon had brought about an emancipation that the old Conservatives could not understand, and bad liberated the countrv. Sir

Joseph Ward had said it could be done again, and ho was the man the people were looking to to-day. Under the present Reform administration the country had once again fallen on evil day a. Sir Joseph's War Surpluses. "You were told a few months ago that this mysterious party has no policy and no leader, and could not, find a leader," the candidate said. "These prophecies have been falsified. We havo a leader who in the words of the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. K. 8. Williams, has proved a bombshell." Was the party barren of leadership when it possessed Sir Joseph Ward, who had founded the e State -Advances Department, and had inaugurated a system which was known nowhere else it: tlie world, and of which even to this day New Zealand, could boast. As Minister of Finance in the Coalition Ministry between 1915 and 1919 Sir Joseph h;'! left £17.000,000 in the Treasury as accumulated surpluses, which had enabled the country to face post-war problems. Referring to a criticism that the United Party was only the third party, and that to vote for the I'niteds was to throw away a vote, Mr. Stallworlhy said such statements were propaganda by Reform and Labour candidates to blind the eyes of electors. The United Party was such a serious force in the life of the country that it would give the Reform Government its first serious challenge in (he jlast 16 years. If it did not go to the Treasury benches, it would certainly become tiie official Opposition. (Applause.) 'llie personnel of the United Parly compared more than favourably with that of other parties, compiising men high in the business'• and professional life of the country, and captains of industry who,] nftcr successfully conducting their own businesses, were able to devote their lives to public affairs. Cost of Unemployed Relief. Referring to the unemployment position, Mr. Stallworlhy said thousands of men and women were unable to find honest work, and hundreds of boys and girls, many of whom had been educated at secondary schools, could find no avenue and were tramping the streets. Last year the Auckland Hospital Eoard had paid out £34,000 in unemployment relief work, while tho chairman had stated tho figures this year would exceed £'lo,ooo. The Government last year had expended £510,000 ii: relief works, or the equivalent of the interest at 5 per cent, tin over £10,000,000. The supreme test of statesmanship was to keep the people usefully and happily employed and the Government, had failed in its most

signal responsibility. Tho first great cause of unemployment was connected with soldier settlement after the war. The £17,000.000 surplus which Sir .Joseph Ward had showed iri fho Coalition Government had been spent in a mistaken policy bv Reform. The New Zealand Herald had warned the Government that buying land at fictitious and inflated war values would bring disaster, while Sir Joseph Ward had predicted that if the Government settled soldiers on land at impossible prices depression must follow. Thousands of men had walked off tho land and the Government had been compelled to write down tho value of soldiers' farms by £5,000,00f) and to givo rebates in interest amounting to £1,000.000. That had been the beginning ol" hard times hi New Zealand. Training Boys as Farmers. After dealing with the effects of compulsory control of dairy produce, immigration and over-taxation, Mr. Stallworthy turned to the United .Party's manifesto. The party proposed a progressive land settlement policy as a remedy for unemployment, while road and railway construction would lie pushed on. Settlement would be carried out in groups, which would bo cooperative and would be provided with all social amenities. Separate branches of the State Advances Department would be formed to supply each group, and each settlement, would be provided with agricultural instruction, while the costs of roading and transport would bo cheapened. Groups of employers in the Dominion were willing to co-operate to give work to boys and girls leaving school. Instead of boys following blind-alley occupations they would bo taught a trade by tho various trade associations and would bv drafted out later as competent workmen 'I here was a vast, field to be explored in tho way of teaching agriculture in the schools, The Finance Scheme. 'I he question of finance had been emphaMsed l>y Sir Joseph Ward ill Auckland in the Town Hall. He had said there was a dearth of money in New Zealand, and had proposed to borrow £70,000.000 in eight or ten years, of which £60,000,000 was to lie used for <i national land policy and £10,000,000 for a definite railway policy, which had as its object the completion of lines which must bo rogarded as Main Trunk lines, making them revenue-producing and interest-bearing at no cost to the taxpayer. Mr. Coatcs had described it as a policy of "borrow, boom and burst," but the Reform Government in eight years had increased the national debt by £50,000,000. In addition, during tho same period, it had spent the £17,000,000 left by Sir Joseph Ward in the Treasury at the end of the Coalition Government, and had written off £6,000,000 in soldier settlers' finance, while the cost to the country of unemployment had been estimated at £2,000,000. These amounts totalled £75,000,000 spent or mis-spent by the Reform Government in t'lie ilast eight years.