The New Zealand Times. FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 1914. ON DELICATE GROUND

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8680, 13 March 1914, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 1914. ON DELICATE GROUND

It would bo difficult to conceive a more bald and unconvincing narrative than tbe political talo related by the Hon. A., L. Herdman to the people of p Wyndham on Wednesday night. If| this was all that Mr Herdman had to I say, we are at a loss to. comprehend! why he troubled to travel all tho way l to Wyndham in search of an audience, i He might have said it equally well! and with quite as much effect at Kaiwarra or Porirua, where the people! are in closer touch with public affairs | and would not have failed in the matter of appreciation. But Mr Herdman doubtless had his own reasons for going to the remote township of Wyndham. It might be possible there toi make tho people believe that “Reform- ’ had kept all its promises, though, as he pleaded, it has only been in office for two year/s; but it would be a difficult matter to convince a Wellington audience that this was true. We, who know better, would be prepared to admit that the option of tho freehold has been conveyed to tvrenty thousand Crown tenants, that tho civil service has been placed under an irresponsible board of throe gentlemen, and that it is proposed to spend half a million licit - year in constructing a Bristol cruiser that is to constitute our tinpot navy. But in conceding oven this, public opinion in this part of the country would neither _ endorse nor accept unchallenged the impudent assertion that the administration of the public service has been successful, and that favouritism has been done away with. Mr Herdman will have an opportunity of repeating this assurance in AVellington later on. Let us test Mr Herdman’s pretsu-, sions in the light of “Reform’s” promises before .it schemed itself into office. Tho cost of. living was to have been reduced. Is there even one Tory in this country prepared to argue that, there has been any lessening in the cost of living during the last two years? We are certain there is not. On tho other hand, there are thousands of working people who are realising to their dismay that the cost of living is increasing rather than diminishing. Is “Reform” prepared to make this promise good either in the coming session or' within the next three years if it is granted a renewal of office? Mr Herdman knows that it is not, because the Hon. Jamesi Allen says it is impossible to reduce| the Customs duties, and the squatters| are determined that the taxation 1 on their great estates .shall not bo increased. Tho taxation of the people was denounced as excessive, and was to be immediately reduced. What has become of this pledge? Instead of a reduction, the taxation in two years has risen by 10s 3d per head on every man, woman, and child in New Zealand, and when the cost of the proposed separate navy is ascertained the people may prepare their shoulders for a further burden. Borrowing was alleged to be excessive and must be lessened. Where is the tapering-off policy that was to be introduced? Not only is the Hon. James Allen’s borrowing the heaviest on record, for the period that “ Reform ” has been in power, but the rate of interest being paid on bis loans is the highest to which we have been committed for a quarter of a century. Has that pledge been kept? The Upper House was to have been reformed. The people know only too well what has happened during the last two sessions. If the Government had been sincere, and earnestly determined to make ‘ the Legislative Council elective, is it likely that Conservatives like Mr John Duthie, who openly advocated the principle of life nomination, would have been appointed? Surely not. It goes without saying that the Government was not sincere. Where are the measures to provide against sickness and unemployment; the better system of electoral representation, and the reform of the economic system ? Echo answers: “ Where?” Mr Herdman knows that none of these promises has been fulfilled. Even the promotion of industrial peace, with which was flamboyantly associated the threatened “square deal/’ is conspicuous by its absence. The retiring head of the Labour Department, writing more in sorrow than in anger, was compelled to report some months ago that the year had been the worst for Labour unrest since tbe arbitration' system was introduced. Mr Herdman cannot even point with gratification to peace in the police force or at tho Cook Islands. Indeed, in view of tho whole record, the less said about “ Reform ” promisee tho better. Speaking at a local function at the Hutt the other day, Mr Herdman ventured the sound and incontestable sentiment that so long as land is cut up into small areas, and so long as the

Government places people on tho land, there can bo no question about the future of New Zealand. This is quite true. But what has his Government dono in the last two years to cut the land tip into small areas? Mr Herdman claimed credit to his Government for having put 3393 people on the land in two years. It is impossible to test these figures, because there are no returns available, but Mr Herd man could and should have said that all the settlers placed in tho first year, and many in the second year, were put on land acquired and prepared for settlement by the Ward and Mackenzie Governments. Docs'Mr Herdman deny this? If he does, wc are prepared "to supply him with convincing details. It is true that Mr Maasey cleared forest for settlement which should net have been touched, and purchased remote land on the Marlborough mountain ranges, one section in which estate was let as an area of 9000 acres. But where is the desirable land for closer settlement? It is not likely to be obtained by relieving the friends of “Reform” of their undesirable landed encumbrances at a heavy price. What is being done, we would ask, to compel closer settlement by means of an effective graduated tax? Nothing at all. While Mr Herdman- is boasting at Wyndham of tho growth of ‘closer settlement, which growth is a figment of the political imagination, the Government has been compelled to produce a long-delayed return which ought to have made ito appearance in Parliament last session, and which shows that in one year since “Reform” came into power the unimproved estates between £20,000 and .£59,000 in value have increased by 113. This is how closer settlement is growing in New Zealand. The Naboth’s vineyards are decreasing in number. They aro being bought up by the gold of our territorial magnates, and added to estates that are already too large to be properly worked, with the result that in twelve months the number of these between £20.000 and £50,000 in value has increased by 113. Even at Wyndham. it was prudent on the part of Mr Herdman not to give this penetrating point to his otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.