SUBURBS SEAT

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8683, 17 March 1914, Page 3

SUBURBS SEAT

MR AISLABIE'S CANDIDATURE MEETING AT JOHNSONVILLE. Mr A. Aislabie, who has announced himself as a candidate for the 'Wellington Suburbs constituency in the Liberal interest at the coming general elections, addressed a well-attended meeting at Johnsonville last evening. Mr F. T. Moore presided. Ail i' Aisle hie (who was warmly received) said the Tory party had no excuse ror not giving the country some form of majority representation. It was plain why they would not do so. Tliey recognised that they did not have the majority of the country behind them, and so at the first opportunity they got rid of majority representation. There was no doubt that the Government was a Conservative party. They could oal! themselves what they liked, but the fact remained, that they represented the few wealthy squatters of the country.

In his speech at Winton Mr Herdman told the electors what the Government had done for the country. Ho stated that the finances had been pub on a sound basis. Prior to coming into power, the speaker said, the present Government had raised a cry about borrowing, yet under their regime the borrowing had enormously increased. For the increase in expenditure of £IOO,OOO for the last quarter they showed an increase in revenue of only £3OOO. The other two quarters were just about as bad. During the Massey regime the taxation per head had increased by 10s 3d. Hot Mr Massey had pledged himself to reduce taxation. Mr Allen’s famous loan was the dearest loan that had been raised in this country during the last quarter of a century. Last year the unauthorised expenditure was £161,403, absolutely the highest in the record of the country. Mr Herdman also spoke of the Civil Service Improvements, having apparently in view the Civil Service Cpmmissioners, whose salaries and office expenses would raise the Civil Service expenditure by about £IO,OOO per annum, yet at the present time there was more discontent in the Civil .Service than ever there was before. Mi* Herdman also boasted that the party had given the freehold. Well, that was what they were there for. They were there to create all over the country such a state of affairs as existed in Hawke’s Bay to-day. That was what the freehold meant in their policy. The tampering of the Government with the graduated land tax was utterly useless and a waste of time. There was only one way of dealing with . the. land tax, and that was by putting a tax on the large land-holders that would make them disgorge some of the huge tracts they held.

In regard to the native reserves on the ‘West Coast, the Government did not intend to buy them for the people or to add to the public estate, hut to hand them over to the lessees and so attempt to buy votes on the AVest Coast. Mr Herdman said they had put naval defence on a sound footing. How ? By severing New Zealand’s connection with the Imperial authorities. The Massey party was not content with subsidising the Imperial Navy—it .must have a navy of its own. The Government proposed to ask Parliament to sanction the building of a ship of the Bristol type, costing about half a million. What use would such a shipper half a dozen jsuch ships, be? They would be entirely useless as a combative force against the heavier armaments of other nations. Mr Aislabie strongly criticised the running of the suburban trains. There was, he said, room for vast improvement. In their first year of office the Tory party had increased the railway expenditure, by £365,428, yet the ‘people living in the suburban areas were not given a reasonably good service. Before they got into office the Tory party promised that if they got access to the pigeon-holes they would make some astounding revelations. Yet, having gained access to the pigeon-holes,, they were as quiet as mice. The Tory party had posed as far too pious to indulge in political patronage. How had they adhered to that ? Mr Herdman had said some time ago that the Government would not grant the police increases in salary, but just recently, with an election coming due, Mr Herdman had stated that, with a view to making the force more attractive, the Government had decided to allow increases. The administration of affairs in the Cook Islands was engendering the greatest discontent, and chaos reigned. Two Ministers aiid the Governor proposed to make a trip there (ostensibly an ordinary official visit), and it was proposed to take with them ’wo warships, for no other purpose than that of intimidating the islanders, who were restive under the gross mismanagement that existed. The men appointed to administer affairs in'the Cook Islands were both good. friends of Mr Massey. ( The Tories had managed by hoodwinking the people to gain a few seats, and had induced certain Liberals to turn round on their election pledges and vote the Massey party on to the Treasury benches. Yet he ventured to predict that before this time next year there would be a. change of Government. All the beneficial social reforms of the Liberal party had been opposed by the people who now held the reins of office. Mr Aislabie dealt at length with the work done by the Liberal party during their twenty odd years of office. The policy outlined by Mr Massey at Te Aroha, he said, was, in essence, an extension of the freehold and the continuance of the policy of the toy navy. A vote of thanks was carried unanimously, amid applause.