THE POLITICAL CONTEST.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19617, 22 October 1925, Page 6

THE POLITICAL CONTEST.

ELECTION NOTES. Repenting at Kaikohe on Tuesday morning his belief that there was nothing like hard work to keep people well and happy, Mr Coates added that he did not in any sense favour, slavery. “Can anyone,” he asked, “point to the departments I have controlled and say I have not vastly Improved the conditions? I am not going to ask any man to work under conditions that are not satisfactory and wholesome. That is why I am here—'to try to make things better for the people.” “I stood as a straight out Independent candidate, free to vote on whichever side I pleased, and when it is alleged that I broke any pledges or did anything not honourable in taking the .Speakership, I want you to understand that I was bound to no party, and could act as I thought best in the country’s interest.”—Lion. C. E. Statham, addressing a meeting of electors last night. A startling statement regarding Soviet control on the West Coast was mad© at Mr Tapley’s meeting at Maori Hill last evening. Mr Tapley said that in view of the fact that our Dominion coal output per man had dropped from 648 tons in 1919 to 540 tons in 1924, th© Hon. G. J. Anderson (Minister of Mines) decided to give co-operative contract work a trial. Accordingly a mine was placed at the disposal of a party with the right to work it on a co-operative basis, with the result that each man’s daily wage immediately rose from 17s to 295. Despite this fact the Soviet Party did its utmost to hinder the completion of this contract, even going so far as to have the local stores refuse to supply with goods the wife of one of th© contractors. “Sir Maui Pomare always says he is Scotch,” remarked the Prime Minister at Kaikohe on Tuesday, “and when asked to give his genealogy says it was a process of absorption—one of his ancestors ate a Scotsman.” “The Labour Party is up against Capital, of course,” said Mr T. Forsyth, Reform candidate for Wellington East; “but what is capital? It is merely the unexpended portion of one's earnings, of the return which one gets for his labour, but 1 am afraid that many of the most ardent supporters of the Labour Party will never know capital of their own. for capital must follow thrift.” That 90 per cent, of our Labour men are sane but misled, is the opinion of Mr H. L. Tapley, Reform candidate for Dunedin North. Speaking at Maori Hill last evening, Mr Tapley said that were the Labour Party perfectly sane he would bo the first to support it. However, it was anything but sane, and its leader, Mr Holland, had openly avowed himself a firm disciple ol Sovietism. A man with a grievance caused much amusement during. Mr T. E. T. Seddon s meeting at the Greymouth Town Hall. In addition to the grievance, he had evidently been demonstrating that he was not a Prohibitionist. He occupied a front seat, and rose to declare: “Look here. Mr Tom Seddon, I met you when you was going to the Pyramids with a nurse on a camel, and you wouldn’t recognise me!”—(Loud laughter.) “That is the sort of man I think you are, Mr Seddon!” “All I can say,” replied Mr Seddon, “is that the nurse was a family friend.” This brought the interjector to his feet again, with a decided “No!” Later in the meeting, a reference .by Mr Seddon to dental nurses jogged of the man in the front seat, ana he again raised a gale of laughter by repeating his remark about a carnet ami a ntirse, causing Mr Seddon to remark that if he went on like that he would, give everybody the hump. Finally, he faded out, probably in search of a “spot.”

Mr P. H. Hickey, at Sylvan Bank: ‘Nobody who knows anything about economics believes that the Reform Party is seriously going to attack the trusts, because they would be attacking themselves and cutting their own throats. The real power at the back of the Government is not only the squatter, but the entrenched financial gangs that are operating in this country. ... The Government has increased the Customs by £6,000,000, plundered the civil servants of £1,000,000, and reduced taxation on wealthy concerns by £7,000,000. They did this because the people who have them by the scruff of the neck told them the'- had to do it, and they will go on doing it if they are permitted to go back for a further term.”—Mr P. H. Hickey (Labour candi-, date for Invercargill), speaking at Sylvan Bank. ■ “I have no wish to deal in personalities —Mr Munro is a good friend of mine—but I wish to state that he is an adherent of a party whose views are Bolshevistic, Socialistic, and Communistic, and which if it gets into power, wall surely be the cause of disintegrating forces creeping not only into our Dominion, but into our home life.” —Mr Taploy, Reform candidate for Dunedin North, speaking at Maori Hill last night. “During the coming campaign you will hear a lot about the Labour candidate. I will be a Sinn Fciner, a Bolshevist, a Communist, a Revolutionary, before it is over. 1 will be a Roman Catholic, and I will be a Protestant; I will be supported by the P.P.A.. and I will lie anathema to them, rtiit iif you want to know what I really am, ask me. That is all I ask,” said Mr R. MTvecn in a speech at Newtown. The Hon. C. E. Staiham. at his meeting last night had as chairman the President of the National Party of Otai-o (Mr J. H. F. Hamel) who took the chair as a compliment to the speakers non-party attitude. Those who saw Mr Allen Bell. Government candidate for the Bay of Islands, on Saturday evening, say he is the coolest man in the winterkss north and the most irrepressible. He was proceeding to Mangamuka, at the upper part of Hokianga Harbour, on a launch piloted by Mr James Tulloch, and accompanied by Mr William Grayson. Arriving at the landing in inky darkness, Mr Bell tripped backwards over the tiller, and. clad in an oilcoat, breeches, and leggings, soon found the bottom of the river, which is very deep. Rising to the surface, Mr Bell, who is a heavy man, was grabbed by Mr Grayson, and with the assistance of Mr Tulloch. was got on to the launch. He immediately proceeded to Mangamuka by motor, and, without changing his clothes, delivered his address as if nothing had happened. At the conclusion he received rounds of applause, the audience evidently appreciating his coolness and courage. What is going to be the Government’s altitude regarding its own employees and the Arbitration Court’s recent pronouncement regarding the penny an hour increase? asked ono of a big gathering of railway and Public Works men who were addressed by the Prime Minister at Waiotira yesterday morning, “We have asked the employers wherever they can to pay the extra penny per hour,” replied Mr Coates. “ However, there are several industries in such a condition that it is just a question whether t) ev will continue or go under. The railwayman asked me this question, and I told them there was an election and I was making no promise at all. Get the elections out of the way, and if the Government is still in office it will reconsider the whole question of the Arbitration Court’s pronouncement on State employees. It is no good going into it now. They will have to trust us. I am not going to buy votes. Besides, if they want mo they will vote for me. The question just raised will receive the consideration of the Government immediately after the election. “It really docs not matter who tops the poll—jf, is only for a brief time. The Liberal Party is dead, and the Reform Party will soon pass into oblivion. Then New Zealand will bo governed by men with a greater ideal, a nobler ideal that will emanate from the working people.”—Mr R. Harrison. Labour candidate for Dunedin West “I am not suggesting that persons should not get a return from tbeir capital so long as the standard of interest is a legitimate ono—say, 5 per cent. —but certainly it should not he the 16 per cent, which was the dividend paid by the Bank of New Zealand.” —Mr Nash. Labour candidate for Hlltt. “If you hear any rumours of proposals to reduce the widows’ pension,” said Mr Statham, addressing a meeting of electors l-;st night, “I hope you will treat them as absolute nonsense. There is not a Government of any kind that will dare to reduce the pensions because they know very well that liie moment they do fo they will leave the Treasury benches.” It is generally known among those in dose touch with politics that the Hon. J.

G. Coates has made a "rent success of his administration of the Native Affairs Department, and that among his greatest admirers are the Maoris.- When Mr Coates was made Prime Minister he was approached by some of the Natives, who said that if it were necessary to give up the portfolio of Native Affairs because of his elevation they would prefer that he should resign the Prime Ministership. An open-air meeting Was addressed at the Civic square. Auckland, last week by Mr J. A. Lee, M.P., and Mr \V. E. Parry, M.P., several hundreds of people 'being present. After referring to what he termed the “hysterical ravings’’ of his “Siamese twins’’ opponents, Mr Lee provided verbal refreshment to some interjectors, whose “grey matter” he questioned, making reference to asses and their appetite for thistles. He then likened the Government to Mioawber, issuing a fresh 1.0. U. when a debt had to be discharged, and saying, “Thank (tod that’s paid!”. Further to borrowing largely, the Government, he said, had robbed, filched, and plundered the working man. ihe Arbitration Court he condemned as a tool of the Government. Mr Lee was voiferottsly applauded by a crowd, th© bulk of which very plainly displayed its political colour, and an excellent hearing and much applause was also accorded Mr Parry. Justifying the expenditure and the proposed expenditure on railway workshops, respecting which expenditure his opponents had criticised him, the Prime Minister put the position plainly before a meeting at Waiotira yesterday morning. “The position,” he said, “is that 60 per cent, of the machinery in these shops is of no use. Thirty per cent, is from 10 to 25 years old, and the remaining 10 per cent, might be of some value. That is the position of; the railway shops. No men can give satisfaction with such tools. If everything is brought up to date you can. ask men to give you results, but not otherwise.” “During the whole three years since last election,” said th© Hon. C. E. Statham, addressing a meeting of electors last night, “there has never been one scene in the House, and no one has been suspended or censured in any way. That is a record.” Mr Dunbar Sloane, a local apothecary, who is fighting the Reform battle in Labour’s chief stronghold (Wellington Central), stated at his meeting on Tuesday night; “If it. had not been for outside influence there would have been no shipping strike. The result has been poverty and distress, and always will be for those who listen to these evil influences. Where was the Socialist Labour Party of New Zealand while the strike was on?” he asked. That party had been very silent throughout. The public wanted to know what action had 'been taken by those who guided the destinies of Labour in this country. Speaking in favour of a strike did , not fill men’s stomachs. He would like to hear from the -leader of the Labour Party his attitude regarding the strike. In reply to a question as to the cause of strikes, the candidate said that they were due to the influence of people who roamed around the world using the workmen for their own end —th© Labour agitators.— (Cheers and applause.)

(Published by'Two Christian Social Workers.]