THE HON. T. MACKENZIE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14818, 27 April 1910, Page 5

THE HON. T. MACKENZIE

SPEECH AT DARGAVILLE. FAVOURABLE COMMERCIAL OUTLOOK. . (Pee Pnited Pnxss Association.) DARGAVILLE, April 26. The.Hon. T. Mackenzie (Minister of Commerce and Industries), who is visiting'Nortlh Auckland in connection with the kauri gum industry, delivered an important speech hero last night. In the course of his remarks the Minister said he had been told in the south that the lands of the north were poor lands, and would be of very little use once the timber and kauri gum were removed. That day he had seen the upper land of the Eai'hu Valley, and he \va3 satisfied that a great fnturo lay before that country.—(" Hear, hear.") 'if some of the settlers on the wind-swept and sterile plains of Central Otago could come up here they would 'think they were in Paradise. Referring to the kauri gum industry, he said that opinion appeared to be unanimously in favour of tho grading of kauri gums, but beyond that the position was still indefinite. He could not see why grading should not be adopted. The diggers wanted tho Government to take-up the grading of*gum. nationalise the industry, and make advances against consignments. Ho was persuaded that the diggers were not getting a full return for their output, but ho must .point out that it was- an immensely difficult thing to bring the producer and the consumer into direct contact. Was there a ring in London with methods enabling them to dominate the kauri gum market? He could not say at present, but if there was, it would require one of the very ablest men to combat such an evil.

Referring to the dairying industry, the Minister said it was now third in importance amongst the industries of the Dominion, and it promised to assume a still more prominent position, The importance of the industry from the point of view of national prosperity was shown by the great strides made : by Denmark. In connection with his duties as Minister of Agriculture he intended to specialise in the estalishing of reliable dairy herds of recognised milking strains.—{"" Hear, hear.")

With regard to fruit, millions of acres of poor land were capable of producing an amazing quality of. fruit with no manure and no fertiliser. He would endeavour to'have fruit'farms prepared for people to take up.—(Applause.) Twenty-five acres in fruit would support a family in affluence. Tho difficulty at present was that people had not the capital to wait for a fruit farm to become productive, and if the Government could prepare'farms ,for selectors to take up it would be conferring a greater benefit upon the people and upon the Dominion itself. The fruit industry of Canada was developing. Our summer corresponded with their winter, and we should be able to follow them in the market.

What was required for the development of this country was men and money. We had a vast area here, and if the Government could borrow at a reasonable rate of interest and induce the right class of peoplo to come hero it would be doiw a great work. People were going from the Old Land -to other,countries, and we should bring them here. Very often it was supposed that this .country was borrowing recklessly, and statements to that' effect had found their way into tho financial papers, which declared that we were on the verge of ruin and that in New Zealand living was high'and wages were poor. Those reports had been circulated to a pernicious estent, and had had the effect of keeping peoplo away from the Dominion and raising the rate of interest The men who circulated such rumours were great enemies of the Dominion. So far' as borrowing was concerned, between 1891 and, 1908 the total increase of our public debt was £32.000,000, but the interest-earning money invested durin" the same period was £36,7,91,000—in other words, we were getting more interest than we paid. Of that sum, £13,750.000 had been spent on railways, and £23,000,000 upon the repurchase of estates, advances to settlers, advances to local bodies, and so on. In this why we had been able to develop the country to a great extent, and he said that, looking cjver the past 17 or 18 years, we were now earning more interestthan .we paid. Last year it had been said'that we had incurred a debt of £4,000,000,- but out of that £1,000,000 had been paid for the purchase of the Manawatu railway, which was the main route to the north", Borrowing was justified, for in the total it brought "more than we paid for it, and it enabled us to carry out improvements and developments.

Referring to the occupation of the land, the Minister said that if we wished to do justice to ourselves we must go in for closer settlement. He did not wish to say a word against the early pioneers, but we had reached a stage now when the aggregation off , estates must be. resisted. Great events', were taking place in the Dominion, and we must'be prepared to defend our soil against the Asiatic peril, Chinese history reminded us how "the Mongol hordes had conquered China and Russia', and had massacred 18£ million souls. How, did we stand in that respect? He was glad to read that one of the planks of the Commonwealth Labour party was a. citizen army,. Even now swarms of Asiatics were landing and settling in the Northern Territory of Australia, We must have population. Lord Kitchener had (given us the minimum necessary for our defence. His advice could be accepted or rejected, but it must not be tinkered 'with. Wo should welcome settlers of all nations on the same plane'of civilisation as our own.

Referring to the marvellous expansion of this country. tho Minister said that when, he. entered Parliament the annual exports totalled £6,000,000, while in the first three' months and a-half of the present year thev totalled £9.800,000. The future was full of hope. There had been a slump, but that had passed some timo ago. Papers like the Statist and the Economist had declared that the bottom had fallen out of the wool market. He had not lield that-view, 'because in the last few years the world's flocks had decreased by 14,000.000, whilst users of wool had 'increased by 88,000,000. It was easv, therefore, to foresee a rally, and be believed the position of wool was established beyond question. Then'there was 'the' frozen meat depression, which had been attributed to over-supply, although, a-> a-matter of fact, the supply was less per head than it was 10. years ago. The real rea-son- of the depression was the financial crisis in 1907, but the inordinate production of gold had reestablished the balance. The production of gold la-st year was £90,000,000, whilst that for the previous 30 years totalled £1,381,000,000 or more than'for the whole period between the discovery of America by Columbus, in 1492, and the year 1880.

Twelve months ago many were unemployed, but note thi people who used meat, wool, butter, and cheese, were employed, and were able to pay us for them. It whs the earnest desire of the Government to develop the industries and the country generally in the interests of the people. For a time they had been obliged to hold their hands, but with the revival in the value of exports and in the Customs duties the coffers of the State were in a position to enable the Government to go.on with its policy of'development. It intended to do that to the utmost. We were at. a critical time. Difficult problems confronted the AngloSaxon race, and confronted us. Powers which used to belong to one class had passed into the hands of another, and it was the duty of statesmen to guide a healthy public opinion,, realising what was at stake, and safeguarding the. interests of all. If Ministers did that faithfully they need have no fear for the future.— (Loud applause.)