THIS OPPOSITION CAMPAIGN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14359, 31 October 1908, Page 5

THIS OPPOSITION CAMPAIGN

fclP» MASSEY AT TEMUKA.

On Thursday evening Mr W. J'. Massey, Leader of the Opposition, addressed a crowded meeting at the 'i'emuka Drill Hall, u goodly proportion o£ the audience bein<f ladies. Mr A. Frew, deputy-mayor, presided. The speaker was cordially received by the audience, his remarks being frequently punetualcd by enlhusiaslic marks of approval. Mr Jlu-«sy said Ilia!, .though Ihe Opposition consisted of only 16 members, occasionally assisted by one or two Independents, they had done good work. They bad on many occasions by outspoken criticism prevented extravagance, waste of public money', ami the passing of improper proposals into law; they bad prcvenlcd the passing of the Land Bill of 1906, which proposed to make the freehold impossible on the remaining Crown lands of tho colony. He contended that the Government was weak-kneed, and without- a policy, and a Government without guiding principles was a dangerous one, and wanted watching. .Mr Massey then outlined the manifesto of the Opposition. Kefcrring first to the demand for the restoration of parliamentary control of rhe Dominion's finance, lie touched briefly upon features of the public revenue. Another iniquitous proposal was that to substitute post-audit of public account* for pro-audit. The whole of the accounts should be furnished lo Parliament, and then they would never have the circumstance of a public officer in receipt of £1800 a year drawing 30s per day, seven days a week, for travelling expenses, whether be travelled or not, not coming to the knowledge of Parliament before the expiry of such a period of lime. Mr Massey contended for the establishment of a Public Service Heard lo do away with the appointment of persons to llie civil service through political influence. In England, Canada, and Australia such boards were in existence, and New Zealand was behind 1 lie times by not following their example. lie had not the slightest, doubt but that it would be successful here. Ho wanted to see that the son of the man without political influence and the son of the poorest man would have the same chance of appointment to the public scrviee as the son of the man who happened to bo a friend of llie Minister, or the richest man in the country, provided the necessary examinations were passed.— (Applause.) The third proposal was the establishment of a sound and assured system of local government finance, with a view to llie equitable-distribution and economical expenditure of public money. This, of course, referred lo parliamentary grants for roads and bridges— not lo railway construction. He had known men who were simply given to understand that there was 110 chance of their being re-elected unless they can;c back from Wellington laden wit.li spoils from tho Treasury. Under this system Parliament bad ceased to be a legislative assembly in tho ordinary sense of the word. Tho remedy was an amendment of the local government system, which was behind the linics and inadequate to requirements. The local bodies should be given an improved status, and what the late Premier called an assured finance, cheap money at the lowest possible rates, and a graduated system of subsidies on their rates.—(" Hear, bear. 7 ') Much of the dclail work which was at present done by I'arliuinenc without members-knowing what they ,werc voting for, would he dene by local bodies. It was a remarkable fact, that in,election years additional votes were given for roads and bridges. In 190t, the year before election year, the amount, voted was £369,000; but, in the succeeding year, in which the election was held, the vote was increased to £578 OCO. Ho had no doubt what the eft'eel would be at (bat. juncture. It was also remarkable that of the increased vote £352,188 only' was expended. This year there was an 'additional vote of some £250.000 for rbads and bridges, as compared with the previous year. It would be interesting lo see how inuch of this amount, would be expended when they reached the end of the financial year. The next proposal was the encouragement of tho land settlement, by restoring tho system of tho Crown granting lands under tho optional system, giving the freehold on equitable terms subject, to provision for preventing the creation of Jargo estates. He contended that in the interests of -f.be country the option of the freehold should be given in 'every om»(continucd applause),—even- in the case of land purchased under the Land for Settle.lncnts Act. Tfey were spending £500,030 per annum 011 tho purchase of lands for Hubdivisicn, and he agreed v.'ith it thoroughly. The difficulty was that the lacds of' the county)' were living nationalised at th-e ni-to of tialf a million pounds a year, lie was not in favour of landlordism, Statb or private, and he thouglit. t.hat. the freebold should be available to the settlers, and the money used for >llic purchase of other land, thus obviating tito necessity of borrowing -for tho purpose. I'he speaker quoted the opinion of a. majority of the members of the Cabinet, and affirmed that their policy mu9t be detrimental to the man on the land, and advorse to the people of the country'as a. whole. He went on_ to say that they would' have beard of Aow Zealand landowners taking up large areas iif Queensland, They wanted io retain all ibis money and all their settlers here. If tho present exodus continued, soc-ner or later the very pick of their young people, the host type of ycting New Zealamlers, would follow that money. They were spending largo sums in immigration, but they wanted settlers of llie right rort. Some of (be people coming cut did not answer lhat description. If they wero going 'to keep the young New Ze-alanders ai home, they must prove to them that tho rewards of their industry otid enterprise were as safe iu New Zealand as tiliey coukl be in the Argeniittc or Queensland.—(Loud applause.) They bad all seen the tendency towards land 'nationalisation, lie said it was the duly of Government, to put confidcneo into the people, who hud lost it. They could not do without, borrowed money for public works; but the position in this respeet was an unfortunate one. They borrowed two ajid a-iialf millions per annum, which was not citual to the amount, they wero required to pay away in interest 011 the existing public debt. The position was that, if they borrowed two and a-half millions in London, they had to leave it there to pay iutere-t. He did not predict disaster; he had tco great faith in the country. They bad a good country, and it would get over its difficulty. The position was 0:10 calling for thoughtful consideration to ensure that every shilling was used properly and applied to tihe purpose for which it was intended.—(Applause.l There was nothing wrong in borrowing, eo long as the public debt did not. increase fas/ior than the population. In that, contingency the burden of the people must lie increased to make up the margin. At the present- moment money was very scarce. Ono of the reasons was that the price for some of their products was not so good as a few years ago. That was. not the only reason. The Govern men I was borrowing loyally in many parts. Over a million had been obtained in this way during tiie last two years. He did not condemn lhat; but he preferred (hat the .Savings Eank should tend direct to •the _ settler. Another method of lx>rrowing was by means of short-dated debentures. Money had lxicn borrowed from ' a private ,-avings bank which us:d lo lend money lo settlers at 5 per cent.; but it had since raised the rate to 6 per rent. The Government was mopping tip money in ail directions, and naturally the rale of interest went up. l'cople being unable to obtain money in any other way, naturally there was a rush to the Advances to Settlers' Department, and it had temporarily broken (kr.vii under tho strain. The sppaker cited instances where seltiers lir.d been granted Hans but were unable to get the trouey, and explained several anomalies of the iiwtgagc tax, which increased the burden of the men on the land. Dealing with the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, Mr Ma-:sey said that, it had been admitted that it. was impossible to administer ibe act as it stood prior to last session. Personally, he would liave been prepared to do away with compulsory arbi. Ira 1 ion, and he believed that in a year or two it would be done away with, and they would rely on c.veiliation, us in _ Canada. Compulsion meant in many cases irritation and bad feeling. The Arbitration Act, as it once steed, bad had the effect of driving employees a.nd employers into hostile camps. Ife vranfod to see tho workers a strainhi-going, self-reliant people, receiving a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. I'he Opposition had been represented a.s Uie enemies of the workers: but that was a

political t-rirl: or decide. With the exception of tli; Minister of Labour, ho received | mora letters f rom workers ami workers' || organ, sat ions throughout tho country than any other member of Parliament, thanking him for what ho had done to assist them. He claimed the credit of initiating the advances to workers legislation, though his claim would be contradicted next night.— (Laughter.) Mr Jlassey explained that in 1886 he moved a clause'in the Advances to '-.oltjcrs Bill to pioiid® that if_ a worker

had a section and wanted to build a house ho could borrow up to £400 from tlm Advances to Settlors Department, r,t HI, per ceut., an<l repay it in a time varying from five years lo 36 years. That was a popular proposal, but tlio Government <li(l not tike lo eec a popular proposal coming from the other side of the House, and the rosuk was lli.it the motion was defeated on ] he Government promising to intraluce a bM giving effect io his proposal. J he Opposition party were frequently referred _to as Conwatives and Tories, lie claimed Ih;d (lie most Librr.il legislation on (lie Statute Hook had tome from I'lifl Opposition benches. The Liberalism of the men now at, tho head of affairs did not ring Iruo: ii was no! Ihe genuine article. The Opposition were frequently asked what nets l.hey would repeal, and 1 bo claimed to have mentioned some of I hem. He would repeat the Second Ballot Art, lhc Public Revenues Aci, and amend the Aniioual Endowment, and Lnad for Settlements ~^c t 1,, order to sive the freehold, lie severely criticised tSic Gamin;; Art, especially the compulsory licensing of bookmakers. 'l'lic Government: clamed I hat Iho act had reduced garnlilng; hut, as a matter of fact, they liad done everything they iicssihly could to encourage it. Dealing wi'Ji tho Upper House, Mr Alasscv said that 011 this question Kew Zealand m i' 5 t? - v?3r s behind some other countrkfj. .tho Upper House, as at. present lonelituced, was useful for political and jiaWy purposes, flnd lie hud contested five cloctions, and eve.ry one of his opponents had boon provided for.—(Laughter and applause.) Two of them found their way into tho Upper 1 '" ,0 nv crnment said no man should get into Parliament, unless he linil a majority of votes, hut Dr Findlay. a member of the. Executive, was unable to get into the House in the ordinary way. lie Ji -''jssey) bad supported a hill providing hat the Lower should elect tho J'pncr Jloree, not because he was "-really in favour 0 f tliat melhcd, hut because it was heller Da„ the existing system. The electors ought (0 hav,-, ;l , Rilv j„ ,| lej , . \hi" IT'm? 1 !l f that wndi- ' r;• ,0 brin " r »boufc a iw!"i "• I ' l ® I'PPor House. If should be 0.-Mil, just the same as tiio Lower House, «■ tl if U could not L-o made dirocily rrprckh, V n, a' 3 |)^ pl 0; il fillC!llrl ilc abolaltogct hor.—(Applnu.-o). A large number of (jnostions ware ancnG^Lw( r , vol: ; ° r -„ fi d^c n o on a show, of hands was declared carried.

PRESS COMMENTS. (i'.ieu Oub Oy,:.- CoßKrsroscjKr.) 1. • f-fllilS UIH RCll, Oetobcr 30. It is alhrmrd by the Chnstchiu'ch Ministerial 01 gan that the motion of thanks and nil'ht w'r i° Maswy afc Te,mll(a la;t nn , , l,cl ' «»"'"'<l without dissent on a show of handi, was secured bv tho chairman neglecting to give those against the proposition the opportunity of voting. J his is a direct penersion of the facts. ?■ cll:l ."' m: >» (Mr A. Frew) put the motion ill the proper manner, and declared It, carried utter giving dissentients a full opportunity of voting. This i/iornin.' when interrogated upon the point Mr Frew Stated most, emphatically that, after the Motion of thanks and confidence -was proposed he invited an amendment. None was forthcoming, and lie then proceeded to put the motion before the meeting, calling _ for _ 11. show of hands bath for and against- it. Nobody voted against the proposition. and it was carried, the chairmans motion being cordially received by the very large audience, '.ibis statementof the facts is fuHy borne out bv those in a position to see what actually tiok place, and 111 .1 emuka to-day warm expressions of disapproval of the. tactics employed to belittle Mr Massey's signal success wero made by residents who were present at the meeting. The _ Pre«s, commenting upon Mr Massey s speech at Teiuuka lust niejit. »ays:■_ -' It was a plain, .straightforward exposition of sound principles. We do not believe that the community as a whole wants to see the establishment of a. Socialistic regime Itere, but neither do we believe that- it is at all generally realised how far we have already drifted towards Socialism. Sir Joseph Ward himself has raid that his is a. Socialistic Government, and two of his colleagues have voted strak'ht out for a motion favouring State nationalisation of certain industries. That the Government has not gone further along the road to Socialism is merely duo to the Prime Minister's fear of frightening the mass of the people. Ho is more clover than the Socialist leaders, for he recogniscs that it is bettor to reach a given point by easy stages than to leap for it and miss it altogether. \cl llie'.Goverpmrnt's progress in the direction of Socialism is steady. -As Mr Massey showed, the nationalisation 0! the bind is going on at the rate of half «. million pounds' worth a yea,'.'. Mr Massey decs not. of course, object io the settlement of tlio land. lie recognises, as everyone does, that tho leasehold affords an opportunity for many a man to get on to the land who would not oth-erwise be üblo to do so, but tho dilfercnce between the Government and the Opposition is that the former wants to keep tho settler a tenant of the State, so that in time tho State shall be the universal landlord, whereas the. Opposition wants to let the settler become the owner of his land, so lhat in time New Zealand may become a nation of freeholders. We believe. - ' concludes tho. Press. " that tho ensuing elections will result in a large accession of strength to the Opposition. That will certainly be the case if the electors who are. beyond bribery remember that every vote east for an Opposition candidate is a vote cast against Socialism and in favour of liberty and reform."

MR MASSEY AT TIMARU. (Pin United Phess Association.) TIMARU, October 30. Mr Mawey addressed a crowded meeting in tho Theatre Royal' to-night, and found his audience ni'lciirtiivo and sympathetic. No new ground was broken. A large number of questions were answerd.