THE OPPOSITION POLICY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14355, 27 October 1908, Page 5

THE OPPOSITION POLICY

SPEECH BY MR MASSEY. REPLY TO THE PRIME MINISTER. (Per Uhitbd Press Association-.) PEILDING, October 26. There was an overflowing audience at the Drill Hall this evening, when Mr Ma«ey replied tii the recent speech delivered by W r J. G. Ward. The Mayor occupied tlio chair, and Mr Massey received a cordial rewption. After alluding in graceful terms to ilir. retirement of Mv Lethbridge, Mr Masscy explained that til.; OPPOSITION POLICY comprised the restoration* of Parliamentary control of the public finances by improving ihe system of public audit, and by restricting the power now possessed l>v the Ministry of the day of expending upon one object moneys voted by Parliament for another; the establishment of a Civil Service Board, with, the object of excluding political influence in nuking pubiic appointments; the establishment of a sound and assured system of local government., finance, with a view to the equitable distribution and economic expenditure of public money in place, of the present systom or arbitrarily varied Ministerial grants and doles; the encouragement of land settlement by restoring the system of granting Crown lands npoi' the optional plan, with power to all existing and future, tenants to acquire the freehold upon equitable..terms, but subject to provisions for preventing the creation of large holdings; the settlement of the native land question by the rapid indivichtalisatiou of all native titles and by affording to the native race the common privilege of disposing of their lands to the best advantage in the open market, but subject (1) to a sufficient area, of good and accessible land being reserved inalienably for the support of cacli Native and his descendants, (2) to the same restrictions as to area to ho acquired by any one selector as pertaining to Crown lands, with the object of preventing the aggregation of large estates; the maintenance and improvement of our national scheme of education, anil in particular by increasing the minimum, remuneration and raising the status of country teachers; the reduction of duties on the necessaries, of life; the reform of the scheme of carrying on public works, with a view to securing efficiency ami economy; amendment of the Arbitration Act, such a.s would provide a sufficiently powerful deterrent against strikes, or, failing that, to secure simple means of conciliation; the reduction of duties on the necessaries of life and appliances required in the Dominion industries; the encouragement of the immigration of the right stamp of British settlers; the improvement of the defence forces of .he Dominion by encouraging every citizen to take a personal share in the defence of his country and his home; the encouragement of private enterprise and individual effort, and the opposing by every legitimate means of that tondency to Socialism and dependence on the Government which was sapping the virility and the independent character of the people; the promotion and encouragement by every proper means of the candidature for ; Parliament of honest and capable men, so as to insure purity of polities and honesty of administration. GOVERNMENT POLICY CRITICISED. Referring to the statement of the Minister of Education that no teacher would receive a. higher increment than £5 a year under' the amending act, Mr Massey said Parliament never intended the act to be read that way. He compared the advantages of the optional system of land tenure with the present provisions, particularly the leasc-in-perpotuity for - land for settlements land to the present 33 years' lease, with a revaluation in caso of ordinary Crown land.). The Icase-iu-psr-petuity had been abolished in favour of a 66 years' lease. He ridiculed the getting apart of. 9,000,000 acres as a national endowments as a blind to please a section of the immunity and the members of Parliament who believed in land nationalisation. Replying to Sir .1. G. Ward's statement that the Government had made no increase of taxation, be pointed out, that those who bad experience of increased valuations, . and | especially in the so-called values, would bear testimony to the contrary. It was also well-known that arbitrary values were ■placed on land to extract large euiris, and. glands were valued unfairly for stamp duty, (■•to which there was no appeal. One of the. first duties which lie intended to take in hand in Parliament was to endeavour to get provision for an appeal in such cases, He admitted that concessions had been made upon a number of items, particularly in regard to the duty on agricultural machinery and implements, l>y altering the wording of the law to make " not otherwise enumerated" take the place of specific exemptions. In 1898 the taxation per head war, £3 10s sd, and ibis year it was £5 Os Ud. It. should be the object of those governing- the colony to keep the taxation down—a policy which the Opposition had consistently advocated., PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS. In regard to the destruction of Parliament Buildings, the Government should have, gone oi.i; with the re-erection of the buildings instead of cancelling a contract foy some £25,000 for erecting a new wing at a cost of several thousand pounds. The most valuable ixirt of the old buildings, erected at a cost of £40,000, still remained. Under the. Government scheme £100,000 would be spent on Parliament and Government Buildings, and at least £50,000 on the Governor's residence. Another £50,000 would be spent on furnishings—one of the wildest schemes ever submitted to Parliament, especially in the present circumstances of the colony. He was willing to support any reasonable scheme for the replacement of the parliamentary |bnildings, but not such extravagant proposals as those outlined by the Government. NATIVE LANDS. In regard lo Native lands, not a- single acre of land had been settled as a result of _ the operations of the Native Land Commission; indeed, bo believed that barm had been done, and he felt sure that the only euro would be to allow the Natives to manage their own land affairs. It was not a parly question, but the Opposition never allowed tin opportunity of assisting the Government in the matter of Native legislation to slip. The proposals were generally brought down right at the end of the session, when members were thoroughly sick of bills, and -not, likely to give any proposal mature consideration. THE SECOND BALLOT. The Second Ballot Bill was never asked for by anyone, and was sprung on Parliament as a surprise. It was not known in any British community, but was in force in Germany, where conditions were different. It was rushed through Parliament with the object of preventing Labour representation. He advocated proportional representation as a democratic right, and progressive. The gaj; clause was condemned as unworthy of a free country, and was really abandoned because of the pressure of publio opinion. As to its injustice, he believed the act would be a ghastly failure, and after the experience of one election it would be wiped oft - the Statute Book. DEFENCE. The report of the Defence Commission was sorry reading, because it proved that volunteering bad never been at such a low ebb as at the present time. He did not believe in conscription, but the Volunteers were not being encouraged, and in many eases were .snubbed. It was the duty of Parliament to take the matler up. He would encourage cadet corps, and require youths under 21 years of age to learn drill and the use of the rille, so producing hardy men sufficiently capable to defend the Dominion when required. No one knew how soon that time would come. What the Dominion had to fear wa« not a raid, but an invasion, anil they should be prepared to defend their wives and families and homos. He agreed with the increase of the naval sttlisidy, as a strong navy was necessary to protect commence. THE LAND QUESTION. Referring again to the land question, he quoted from the speeches of .Messrs Millar, I'owlds, Fintllay, 'Hall-Jones, and M'Gowau against the freehold and in favour of Socialism. DAIRY REGULATIONS. The dairy regulations proposed by the Government were under the act of 1898, but sonic members of the House asked that the regulations should go before the Stock Committee, which considered them exhaustively and struck out about onethird of the clauses. When the report of the committee was completed the Minister of Lands had the regulations brought down about 5 o'clock to prevent discussion, and Mr Lang moved that they should not come into force for 12 months, but this was talked out, and now the Prime Minister announced that instead of the regulations coming into force at once they would be postponed for 12' months—another Ministerial backdown. He believed that a great deal of harm had been done to the dairying industry by the Government proposing such regulations, thus debarring men from ' '."vesting their capital in the industry,

No practical man could read the regulations laid before Parliament without knowing how utterly impossible it. would lie to comply with I hem. ARBITRATION ACT. He referred to the amendments made in .the Arbitral ion. Act as a considerable improvement on the old law, although they did not go as far as ho would have liked in' the direetior of. the Canadian system. The Opposition .was ,as anxious as anv. one to seo tho. worker get a fair day's wajje for a fair day's work, and to see every young person . given an apportunity o'f attaining a good position, A COMPARISON. Mr Massey compared at some length the work of the great Liberals of the past from Mr Boweti to Sir 11. Atkinson with many of the proposals of the present Government -party, and emphasised his belief that the latter seldom rang true, lie claimed credit for first proposing in Parliament the system of advances to workers, which would have been agreed to only for tlm Premier telling members that if they rejected the clause he would bring down a bill providing for a system. 1 he speaker went into detail to prove that the Government had not only adopted his proposal, but. had at first followed an error into which lie had fallen of limiting the operations of tho law to " urban" and suburban land." FINANCE. The demands of the Government on the lending institutions of the Dominion, like pavings banks, insurance companies, etc. was' condemned as leadinK to (he increasing _ rates of interest charged by those institutions. Men who wanted money now found the greatest difficulty in getting it on any terms, while the" Advances to Settlers Department was in no better case, and it had temporarily broken doivn—useful institution" as it had proved- to be. All this was caused by the demands of th 6 Government, for its necessities. He did not believe in the Government borrowing in the Dominion or Australia but said it should go to the Home market and borrow at current rates' of interest. SOCIALISM. Going back to Socialism, Mr Massey pointed out that'tho Opposition'did not object to i the Government assisting individual to' develop the resources of the country and to encourage industry, but held that it should not compete with the individual and discourage private effort. LOCAL GOVERNMENT. The system of local government should be amended so as to enable them to do a great deal of "wor* which was at present performed by Parliament, giving them assured finance and keeping improper influences at a distance, and thus abolishing the system of corruption engendered through the nso of the Public Works Estimates. / CONCLUSION. Mr Massey concluded as follows:—"Support the Government's candidates if you believe in the ■ leasehold and Maori landlordism ami if you believe in single tax (putting all (lis taxation on tho land). Remember that single tax is represented ill the Cabinet. If you believe in taxing the dairy farmers' cows, remember tho proposed dairy regulations. If you want the drift towards the worst form of Socialism to continue, remember the statements of Sir J. G. Ward and Dr Findlay, If you believe in waste and the extravagant expenditure of public money, think of the scheme for rebuilding Parliamentary Buildings and other similar schemes. If you believe in taxing appliances for agricultural and mining purposo, if you believe in the Second Ballot Bill, with its " gag" clause and its underlying principlo of allowing majorities ' to tyrannise over minorities, preventing minorities from having any representation in the Parliament of the country, voto for the Government candidate. On the other hand, if you want satisfactory legislation, and clean and economical administration, if you want Parliament as a whole to he made directly representative of the people, if you want, the "Native lands settled with satisfaction to both races, -if you want to have private enterprise and individual effort encouraged, if you want a better system of local government, if you want to see Volunteering encouraged and tho defences of the colony placed on a. satisfactory footing,' if : you want to see the country prosperous • and-- every man given a chance of improving his position in life, vote for the Opposition candidates. •Mr Massoy concluded a two-hours' speech ill a perfect furore of applause, which marked the address .throughout. After several questions "had been satisfactorily answered a. cordial vote of thanks for the honour done to tho town- by Mr Massey's visit and confidence in the Opposition was carried by a large majority.