LIBERAL CAMPAIGN

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8683, 17 March 1914, Page 5

LIBERAL CAMPAIGN

MR RUSSELL AT GORE

STIRRING REPLY TO THE HON. A. L. HERDMAN. ■'•'REFORM” FAILINGS LAID BARE. Special to the “Times.” GORE, March 16. Mr G. W. Russell, M.P. for Avon, addressed a crowded meeting in the Princess Theatre, Gore, tho centre oi the Mataura electorate, to-night, at the invitation of the Gore branch oi tho Liberal party. The Mayor, Mr D. MacDougall, presided, and tho address was listened to with sustained interest throughout and punctuated with frequent vociferous applause. 'The. speaker was in excellent form, and bio address created a remarkable impression. ' Hiw vindication of the Liberals, his biting sarcasm when dealing with the ‘‘Reformers'” pretences of sincerity, and his outspoken disclosures of the Massey party’s real aims, objects, and aspirations wont homo straight and hard, while his sallies at the expense of the Government provoked roars of laughter.

Mr Russell opened, by, . expressing ■ thanks for the hearty reception accorded him. Ho said it pleased him to move amongst the people to discuss public matters. He had not followed the lead of Mr Herdnuui mul gone to Wyndham, but preferred to speak in a centre of a constituency where he would meet the mass of the people.! He was happy to he on historio ground. The Mataura constituency was identified with the late Hon. G.r F. Richardson, a former .Minister for Lands; also with .Mr R. McN'ab, whoso standing in the Liberal party was fully recognised, and whose sclf-imppsed literary work in writing a,history or the early days of the Dominion at, the expense of time, money, and .labour to himself had now been pupped with the splendid bequest of his library to the Otago University. (Applause.) Mr Russell then dealt with the' period between 1891 and 1912, when. , the Liberal Government jvqre ill office.- Ha stated that during that time there had been unexampled national development, progress, find prosperity,., while tho whole economic, fiscal, and labour system of the country hud been recast. Ho referred to the establishment of State utilities, 1 and, other changes for the betterment of tile mass of the people that had taken place. Ho said the Massey Government -re-, presented a minority of tho people, that tho senior members of the present Cabinet had been members of the old Conservative 'Tory party. Mr RUssell dealt with tho three “stonewalls,” which he justified, nTid' said good had come from them.' Ho referred to tho Government’s broken pledges, stating that their promises were only kept in Small matters. A comparison of the financial methods of the present and the previous Government showed to tho latter’s advantage, One of the promises (or threats) made by the Massey party before, they took office was that they would thoroughly examine the pigeon-holes; they also promised alarming revelations, once they got possession of the Treasury benches, i What hud they found ? nothing! Not one case of even suspicious impropriety against the Liberal patty during twenty-one years of office. Not only so, hut when confronted by Sir Joseph Ward in tho House of Representatives Mr Allen had to admit that he had had To pay e'vory -charge for loan flotation, brokerage, etc,, that had been paid by Sir Joseph' Ward. Therefore once and for ever

those insinnVtirms and calumnies had r £one hy tho board. TAXATION. ' A Mother promise was that there would bo a reduction of taxation. During fciir Joseph Ward's last year of office the taxation was tin Ms ICkl per head, and it rose to £5 7s ‘2d during Mr Massey’s lirst year in power. Them had been no reduction of Customs duties, as promised by the .Massey party, yet remissions of taxation made by tho Liberal Government amounted to upwards of one million per year on tho necessaries of file —tea, sugar, etc. It had been alleged hy tho Massey Gov. b't'iiment that direct taxation under tho graduated tax had increased by £BI,OOO, bub this .statement had been wmplotely exploded by a return laid an tho table of tho House to the order of Mr Myers, which showed that the increase in the graduated tax was £•16,000, of which £13,000 was on city land, and only £33,000 on rural land, While a largo portion of the increase was undoubtedly duo to legislation of the Ward Government, which rnatonallv increased tile graduated tax shortly' before it left office. Tim total graduated tax paid was £251,000, of which pities paid £71,000, and rural land only £IBO,OOO. _ Mr Massey had made no reduction in taxation. lie had spoken of a now tax on motorcars, but dropped it like a hot potato when it dawned upon him that tho whole of tlie motor-curs in tho country were owned hy his own party, Friends were very useful at election time. LAND SETIT/EM KNT.

When the present Government ‘assumed power its cry was: “Settlement! More settlement! Still 'more settlement!” And. what was it.s record? Under the Liberal Government £7,000,000 had been spent on land for settlement. Two ' million six hundred and forty thousand acres had been ■settled by 813-1 settlers in five years. While £90,000 revenue was coining in from national endowments, a, profit of £60,000 a year was being made from land for sot blomcn Inlands, and over a million acres native' land had been settled by the Ward Government during its last two years of office. Now let them see what had been done under Mr Massey. During their last year the Ward Government had put on the market 965,000 acres, against 937,000 acres hy Mr Massey., and it was largely accounted for hy 480,000 Bores of pastoral runs tho Ward Government had disposer! of, but every comparison—with the exception of one —-w;is in favour of the Ward Government. Under tho optional system Sir Joseph Ward had disposed of 143,000 acres, and Mr Massey 114.000 acres, and the figures under other heads were as follows .. ... Ward. Massey. Acres. Acres. ■i cnewa bio -Teases, ordinary Crown lands 22,000 1,000 National endowments (renewable lenses).. 74,000 230,000 Small grazing runs.. 15,000 12,000 Small grazing runs (national endowments) 127,000 310,000 There was a total of 380,000 acres for the Ward Government’s last year of office, and 192,000 acres for Mr Massey. There was a difference in connection with lands for settlement. The Massey Government settled 130,000 acres in their first year, as compared with 86,000 for tho Ward Government, but the Massey total included three or four large estates bought by the Mackenzie Government during their four months’ term of office. The Lands report of 1912 stated “The lands taken up on settlement conditions during the vear amounted to 472,000 acres by 1503 settlers.” Such information as this was given in the Massey Government’s first land report because they themselves had no satisfactory record. In the year tho Ward Government went out of office there were 28,466 selectors on the books of the Land Department, and during last year the Massey Government increased that number hy only 10,060. But during that year they purchased 128,000 acres for £428,000, and divided the land amongst 240 people. FOR THE SMALL ‘MEN. The Liberal party had always supported those people with small capital, aud had done their best to place them on the land. One of its latest achievements was the village, settlements, which were dotted all over New Zealand. When Sir Joseph Ward went out there were practically 42,000 acres hold under village settlements by 2143 selectors, aud improvements being made to the value of £293,000. As indicating the satisfactory nature of that tenure, tho total arrears of rent last March was only £27. What was Mr Massey’s record under that convincing scheme. “During last year he set aside 103 acres 3 roods 19 perches which were taken up by twenty people. This in his opinion was the form of settlement generally wanted in New Zealand. They had heard a great cry about tho freehold being granted, but how many were there in that room with tho freehold? The cry of tho people was for laud, and 93 per cent, of the population, were landless. The object of the Liberal party was a» rapidly as 'possible to spread the population on tho land, on small holdings, and ho was sure that when again they took possession of the Treasury benches one of their main planks would bo to go in for a system of small holdings throughout the whole of New Zealand, for the benefit of the workers in the town and of agricultural labourers—people who ■ had not enough money to take up largo sections under tho Lands for Settlement Act but under the village settlement conditions would bo able to go on the land and make hqmes for themselves on dairy farms, fruit, and poultry farms, aud in other occupations.

During tho session two important lulls were brought clown, tho main object of which was to take tho freehold from the Maoris —their heritage—by giving them an inducement -to soil their land to the Pakeha land sharks, who were over on tho alert. It was laid down in these bills that the Maori basis of value was to ho 4 per cent., and ho had asked tho Government if that was fair. He had gone further with the Government, and asked them if they wore prepared to bring down a bill that no European landlord was to draw a higher rent than 4 per cent. It. was not necessary to answer his question, because they all knew that if Mr Massey were to attempt to do what had boon suggested by him (Mr Russell) he would bo hurled from power by tho party that put him there. CHEAP MONEY. One of tho greatest achievements of tho Liberal party under Sir Joseph Ward was the cheap money scheme, which had been such a benefit to settlers. Down to the date he left office £12,722,000 hud been advanced to settlers, but tho record of Mr Massey was a shameful one. During his last year of office Sir Joseph Ward lent out *£2,174.000, and in the tirst year of tho Massey Government tho amount

ivus reduced to £927,000. n shrinkage of £1,247,000, while at this time there wa.s a money stringency throughout tho country and settlers . wore crying oiio for cheap money. What did the Government do? A return laid on the table of the House on the motion-.oi Mr Wilford on July 25th of fast year mowed that instead of lending money jut to settlers thev virtually borrowed £200,600 from the State Guaranteed Office and locked it up until December 31st, 0913, borrowing it upon Treasury bills for ordinary purposes of Government. Not only did they do that, mu they borrowed £50,000 Irom tho Now Zealand Loan and Mercantile Company, which in tho ordinary course they would have lent out to the settlers of tho country. There could bo no possible defence for the Government limiting tho lending capacity'' of tho State Guaranteed Office by taking from the funds of-that department the £200,000 to which he had referred, which, if lent out, would have been of immense assistance to at least 200 farmers who had asked for financial heir' from.: tho Government. The. policy of tho Government was calculated to raiso tho price of money, as hy granting the freehold they had thrown settlers who had previously held leases from tho State on to the market as borrowers. Secondly, by restricting tho money lent to local authorities hy tho department they had. forced them -on to tho market, and, surely, by limiting the State advances to settlers they were helping to raise the price of money. He believed money would bo dear in this oountry % until the present party wore hurled ‘from office- While on this point ho would refer to Mr Herdniian’s statement that there were commitments to local authorities amounting to £760,000 and only £20.000 in hand when his Government took office, while the correct figures were £711,000 and £96,000 respectively. The responsibility for this condition of things did not rest with the Government at oil. Those funds were administered by a board, and it was absolutely proved that Sir Joseph Ward throughout the whole time he controlled the Government attended the board on only one occasion, viz., at its first sitting. Though there were commitments as stated, neither the bodies that had obtained them nor the board was under any obligation as to the date of payment. A local body might borrow £50,000, and have no desire that tho whole amount be paid over, and that it should be compelled to pay interest until it could make use of the money. Tho fact was that those commitments were loans that had been promised, and were payable strictly in law at the convenience of the board. CALUMNY AND MISREPRESENTATION. When the Massey party appealed to the country in 1911 its ammunition, consisted of a very large stock of calumny and misrepresentation, urged against one man—Sir Joseph Ward. They would remember the Black pamphlet. The Massey party indignantly denied having anything to do with that production, and he accepted their statement. Exactly the same line of tactics was now being pursued, because the election was approaching, and no doubt Mr Hardman, came from Wellington to Wyndham for one purpose—to endeavour to create a, wrong impression regarding Sir Joseph Ward and his position in connection with the strike. He had admitted that Sir Joseph was not the head and front of the strike, for this was an absolutely ridiculous charge, but throughout his speech there was an attempt to implicate Sir Joseph and the .Opposition as a result of the speech Sir- Joseph AVard delivered in the House regarding the incident in tho Post Office square. There was ino doubt it occurred, and tho Government’s failure was not overdrawn. The Opposition as a party was absolutely opposed, to tho strike. They had established tho Arbitration Act twenty years ago, under which —a few instances to the contrary—there had been an absence of industrial trouble. It was the height of absurdity t° attempt to attach any odium for the strike to the Liberal party. Mr Herdman admitted there were 160 police in Wellington, and he (Mr Russell) said, after the closest observation, that that number of men should have controlled the populace of AVellington. There was no need of Mr Massey’s 1000 mounted men during tho disturbance. 'lt was a wellauthenticated fact that several permanent police were made to stand aside and look on; the preserving of law and order was handed over to the special constables. On such an occasion those of low intelligence sought every Po6"_ sible opportunity of giving- rein to criminal tendencies, and another phase of an outbreak of that nature was that innocent people gathered at every point to see what was going on. Mr Herdman h*d declared that 1500 men had required attention, but this was not correct, as at least 1-60 of the men engaged on the Wellington wharves were honourable, lawabiding, and industrious, there might have been 300 revolutionaries. As to tho incident when women and children were ridden, through by a troop of mounted men, some men might have thrown atones as the constables u ent past, but there was no gainsaying the fact that people had to flee for their lives. Mr Herdman spoke of the attitude of the Opposition, but it was not the business of his party to ho constantly blaming the Government. They had laid it down that they would say nothing to embarrass the Government, and had left criticism until after the strike was over. Then Sir Joseph AVard, he himself, and others had expressed their opinions very freely. Mr Russell referred to the abortive attempt made by Mr Massey to settle the strike, and to Sir Joseph Ward’s proposal that Sir Joshua AVilliams should, be called in, but the Government had refused to take any action. At a conference held in connection with the strike everything said by Mr Massey was in favour of the employers, and did not consider the large number of people who would suffer. He (Mr Russell) was totally opposed to the methods of tho Federation of Labour, and to its policy. Mr Russell next mentioned a Labour Disputes Bill introduced by Mr Massey, and said that Sir Joseph AVard had also suggested similar legislation to prevent strikes. At tho conclusion of the speech, which lasted three hours, there was a great outburst of applause, and a motion of thanks, great thanks, and confidence in the Liberal party was carried almost unanimously, the meeting terminating with cheers for Mr Russell, Sir Joseph Word, and the Liberal party.