MR JAMES ALLEN, M.P., AT MILTON.

Otago Witness, Issue 2849, 21 October 1908, Page 33

MR JAMES ALLEN, M.P., AT MILTON.

(Fbom Oxte Special Eeportee.) MILTON, October 15. Mr James Allen, the sitting member and Opposition candidate for Bruce at the" forthcoming general election, opened hi* campaign at the Coronation Hall to-night, wben there was a very ' large attendance. Mr J. A. Duthie, Mayor of Milton, presided, and briefly introduced the speaker. Mr Allen, who was received with loud applause, said he had como back to the electors of Bruce in better health, he was thankful to say, than he had enjoyed for several yeare. — (Applause.) He recognised that he had to fight a hard fierht. and he wanted- them to help him to fight that contest.— (Applause.) THE ARBITRATION ACT. He a t -the outset to deal witb tap work of last session, and to draw certain conclusions from that as regards the policy of the Government and the policy of the Opposition. Taking, first of ail, the industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, he said it had to be admitted on all hands that that act, as it stood upon the Statue Book was, comparatively speaking, a failure. It had been amended by an attempt to change the old Conciliation Boards, which had really developed into preliminary courts of arbitration, into boards that would be more likely to bring about real conciliation. In that respect, it was true, a considerable step bad been taken in the direction of purs conciliation, but in bis opinion the step was not far enough, and to Xk very largo extent the ills of the old system still remainedThat was to «ay, behind conciliation still remained the compulsory court of arbitration, a sort of second refuge for -the other oarty. if not satisfied with the first. "To my mind, said Mr Allen, "it would have been better to have made a real and earnest endeavour to provide for conciliation, taking away from law all that has hampered it in the past, and was likely to hamper it in the future." — (Applause.) The debate in the Legislative Council, continued the speaker, made it clear that Mr Reeves's ideal— the prevention of 6trikes — was practically unattainable. The Hon. Mr Rigg's speech and the Attorney-general's reply gave abundant proof that to prevent a strike was impossible. Men could be fined, but they could not be imprisoned for striking If they paid their fine they might strike as often as they liked. If they could pay their fine and would not, then it became evident from the debate in the Council that they might be 'imprisoned for contempt of court. He did not like, in such cases as this, imprisonment even as punishment for contempt of court. >* THE .SECOND BALLOT/ He --openly stated that every member of the Opposition consistently opposed the Second Ballot Bill of hist session, and would remove it from the Statute Book tomorrow if they could. It embodied absolute- 1 no principle, and he could only consider it as a poor device on the part of th 4 Government to meet a possibility of this coming election, or, if- not this one, tihen certainly the one three years hence. He felt that the real reason of the measure was the possibility, of a Labour or Socialist candidate standing as the third man. The Prime Minister did not like to face the eventuality in such a case. The Second Ballot Act did not provide fpr representation by majority. Those w£o went to the poll at 'he second ballot would, to a certainty, .be a smaller number than those who vent to tho first poll, and the chances wer« that a man might be elected although ho 6cored a smaller number of votes than the man who- was in tho lead at the first ballot. It did not improve the present method of elections — it made them worse, — and there was great room for improvement. He felt that if the Opposition had the opportunity it would make an earnest endeavour to put the representation of the people on a sounder basis. It was absurd to say that only the majority should be represented. True representation should provide for the people, majority and minority — tie majority, of course, ruling, but the minority well represented. — (Applause.) Some kind of proportional representation must come if we were to get the true voice of the people, and that surely was wiat was wanted. Take, for instance, the position in the last Parliament, where tne members who were elected secured 216,378 votes, but 173,811 voters at that poll had nobody to represent them at all. That could not.be called fair representation.— (Applause-.) EDUCATION. In the matter of education, he believed 'that the desire of both sides of the House was to put the 6ystem on as sound a basis as possible. He could say for Mr Massey, himself, and the other members of the Opposition that they realised to the fullest extent the vaiue of education, and they recognised that a democracy, unless it was educated, and well educated, was a danger to itself, and therefore they had helped to put the . bill of last session through. Indeed, they attempted to improve tho bill, but were tied by the Standing Orders, which prevented the House increasing ttie appropriations, from making thlng6 even better for the teachers, to whom we all owed so much and upon whom such great responsibility was cast. — (Applause.) THE PUBLIC WORKS LOAN. It came as a surprise to many, eaid Mr Allen, that an extra quarter of a million, making a million and a-quarter, should be asked for public works this year. In view of the fact that the North Island Main Trunk line was finished,- they might have anticipated a decrease in public works expenditure rather than an increase. " But Ministers are playing to the gallery, and if they do realise tho responsibility tihey owe to the country now and in the future, they have not taken upon themselves that responsibility. They are continuing to launch us into further dependence upon borrowed money. I, for my part, would have been glad to have seen the publio works expenditure, especially in view of the extravagance that is going on, Bftduced rather than increased. Any man who realises how the debt is increasing and how th« amount realised by taxation is also increasing must view with alarm the continued growth of borrowed money." — (Applause.) Superannuation. In discussing the superannuation schemes he left out of consideration the local bodies' superannuation scheme, as it was permissive, and ho would deal with the act which placed teachers and civil servants practically on the same footing. He was entirely in favour of superannuation schemes,

provided that those who were to receive the benefits were contributors, and that the State made up the amount required to put the schemes in a sound position from tho start. Three years ago the Government Actuary informed the House that the teachers' superannuation scheme weald require £17,000 a year from the State to make it actuarially sound. This year he suggested that only £7000 a year was required, and this alteration on the part of the actuary called for careful attention, for it made the scheme unsafe. They were launching jnto pretty large schemes, and before many years were over there would be a huge scheme to replace the present ones. The act put through this year did not provide for actuarial soundness on the plan reported by the actuary three years ago as necessary for teachers' superannua- . tion. He had termed it a half-and-half ; scheme, and so it was. It was not sound from an actuarial point of view. The eckeme provided /or ajnntiities for -those who had spent a great part .of their lives in the civil service, and who had joined the fund in their old age, but as if they had been contributing to it for many years, and he had not a word to say against that. The State paid for them and made that part of the scheme sound. What he did say was that the State was not doing enough. Every entrant who came on to the fund in tho future did not pay sufficient into it to entitle him to an annuity. It was supposed that the State would also make that part of the scheme 6ound, and every three years would make the delinquencies good. • If a man were to commence to pay for an annuity of £90 30 years hence he would pay as if ho were going io get £50. The State at the end of 27 years would make provision for that other £40. Bm tratil that time not a half-penny was paid. Therein lay the danger, and whilst the State did this, it made no provision for new entrants to the scheme until such time as the latter wero practically going on to tho fund. Such a system was extremely dangerous. It was an easy thing to formulate a scheme and to cast all the responsibilities on the future. The scheme of national annuities, judging by the bill to 6e introduced, was on the some basis, and no one could say where it was going to end. In the interest of sound finance it was desirable that the scheme should be 6ound from the very start. It was on that he insisted, although he, of course, did not object to a superannuation scheme. LOCAL BODIES' LOANS. The Local Bodies' Loans Bill^ was a bill with which ho agreed to a very large extent^ but it had not cone far enough. He and his associates had always held that the local bodies should be assisted in | every possible way. There was an unj dignified scramble every year for roads i and bridges. It would be far sounder to have this money expended each year in loans to local bodies at a satisfactory rate of interest, which, besides -assisting the local bodies, would do away with the undignified scramble he referred to. NAVAL SUBSIDY AND FINANCE. The Government this year increased the naval subsidy vote from £40,000 to £100,000, but in this direction the State was not doing sufficient. It had already been made abundantly clear by tho authorities in Britain that they could not look for assistance from the Royal navy in defending their shores if the navy were TBquixed elsewhere. What was the Government doing to help itself in this respect and defend. its coast lines? Every honour was due to the Volunteers, who gave their time tmd their services to tho country, but that- force was not sufficient. It would be a right thine to ineisl upon tt scheme of national training. He did not believe in. and had never desired, conscription, but he saw no reason why every boy between the ago of 14 and 21 6hould not be called upon to equip himself to defend his country and his womenkind. — (Applause.) He wished to emphasise a few_ points in connection with the Loan Bill and finance. There were less than 1.000,000 people in New Zealand, and there was a public debt of £65 000.000. It was a heavy burden, and thoueh he was not unduly pessimistic, he could not but wonder what it would be in a few years 'if it kept on increaFrnsr at this_ rate. It was an easy thing for Parliament to favour increased borrowing but it was not • such an easy thinsr for it to pay year by year an ever-increasing amount of taxation. There wae no doubt that it was 1 increasing. In 1891 the public works appropriations were a little over £750.000, but year by - year this had increased, and this year it was £2.128.000. That huge increase had taken nlace within the last few YeaTS, and indicated that the taxpayers of the colony would coon have a ' very heavy burden to bear. There had f been aleo a jrreat increase in the ConI solidated Fand appropriation, which was 1 now nearly £2.000.000 Taking these two things together, it must be asked. Was it ' not time that ©omebodv was in control strong enouorli to put the brake on these ! terrific increases? He wanted progress, 1 hut on heathy lines, and it was not healthy to be relying to such a huge extent on borrowed money. The day would come when such expenditure must be cut down, and with that day would romo disaster. The Government should be self-reliant, as it was in 1891.—(Applause.) The finances of the colony were in a unique position. The amount 'authorised for public work? expenditure was £2.597 000. and to meet thi« Parliament had only £2 594 000. or £3000 lees tha,n what was required. In addition to that thero wero liabilities in respect to the Midland i-ailwa.v and authorisations in regard to roads ami bridge*, not iiicludod in tho vot.-s in tho Estimate. This all indicated the position of the Government, and | if they valued *olf-r«l'ance individuality, i and roliabilitv they -should sn\ wlietner 6r I not they wanted this sort of thing +o £?o ion or not. The position was that if they i wished to avoid liabilities they mu*t have |n. surplus of £7000 or £8000 What would I lie tho position of any business man who I incurred any liabilities that hi wuh^ not ! meet' Was it not n"C°s-arv that There I should be sent to Parliament men | enough to put a check upon that kind of thm *' ? NOT A PESSIMIST. "Ho had no desire to bo pessimistic. He himply put before them the plain freta, and in order that they might real"^ that. he only would say what he believed to be in the 'interest* of his eountrv. and he produced as evidence of his desire to say nothing haa-mful a comment of the Lvrtelton Times, which had invariably attacked ' him for his remarks upon finance. That ; naper, dealing with some of hie remarks j in the course of an interview in Wellington, said that happily tb» member fox Bruoe

had too nice- an appreciation of his responsibility as the financial expert of the Opposition to lend himself to the tactics of leaving the publics with the impression that the Opposition's gloomy predictions with regard to the money market had been realised. — (Applause.) He would not do anything of the sort, because he would not do anything 1 to injure his «v>untrv. He desired to do nothing to cause a panic, but he affirmed that never in the history of the Dominion was there greater necessity for prudence and patience than at the present moment. Some* of them might want to make a change in the repreesntation of Bruce, but ho was there to say that he did not think it was the right time to make a change in the representation of the constituency. — (Loud applause.) During the long time he had been in Parliament he had done his honest best to keep the country on sound financial lines, and to a certain extent he had not failed. Much ikj&S. been done owing: to the criticism from the Opposition benches to put things right that were wrong, and those who had assisted in that matter had the right to take credit for it, and he asked his hearers to give the Opposition credit for again bringing the country back to prudence and some kind of self-reliance. LAND LEGISLATION. That the work of the Opposition had not been in vain was manifest to those who recollected what the Land Bill of two years ago would have imposed upon them. Had it not been for the strenuous efforts of Mr Massey and "those who were following him the option of the freehold might 10 longer have been available to the people of New Zealand. As a matter of fact, the settlers only had it now to a limited extent, and there was evidence that the Cabinet was not unanimous on the subject. This session a Land Settlement Finance Bill had been promised, and under it a number of intending settlers could have selected a portion of land which the Government was to purchase and set apart for them, and the party or association of settlers could divide amongst themselves, with the right to acquire the freehold. The bill to give effect to this was brought down and circulated, and it reooived the support of the Opposition. No effort, however, was made by the Government to proceed with that bill, and the reason why was perhaps not far to seek. The Hon. Mr Millar in 1905, when a privato member, said h» did not intend, so long as he retained a seat in the House, to allow one acre of land to be sold. That hon. gentleman at that time also advocated that even a 999, years' lease should bo revalued on the death of the lessee, and when challenged with the fact that he was breaking faith with the widow, replied that no contract had been made with the widow. The Hon. Mr Fowlds had also expressed the opinion that the land tax should bo increased by Id in the pound, and that exemptions ought to be dono away with. Other Ministers had expressed somewhat similar views hostile to the freehold, and Mr Allen ventured the opinion that these views had a considerable influence in retarding the promotion, of the Land Settlement Finance Bill. He had not a word to say against the leasehold. He believed it was a good system for thoso going on to the land to heeriji with, but he did advocate that aL should have tile option of the freehold. Not only was the freehold the best for the individual, but it was also the best for the State in that it offered an inducement to the greatest industry, and therefore* to the productiveness of the Dominion. In "this connection he desired to answer an argument put forward by one of hi 3 opponents, who was a Socialist. That gentleman had said, " Supposing all the land is divided up amongst freeholdere they would have a monopoly of the land, and how could anybody eke get on to it?" Assuming that these freeholders were holding in limited areas, which he (Mr Allen) desired, how would they monopolise the land any more than if they were leaseholders? There was only room for a certain number en the land, and if the leaseholder was in possession, occupying only suitable areas, then there was no room for anybody else. Just the same as if the land was held in similar holdings under freehold.— (Laughter and applause.) The only difference between the land being held' under freehold and leasehold was that tho former induced to better productivity than the latter. — (Applause.) After having briefly referred to tho Government having acceded to the Opposition in regard to its monopoly of the water power of the Dominion, and to tho dropping of the bill which aimed at the taking a-way of the power to sell chaff or oats from districts where the Californian thistle existed, Mr Allen proceeded to refer to the DAIRY REGULATIONS. He said that those who were interested in that industry, and had it at heart, wer o willing that everything should be dono to make it as far ac Government control was concerned as efficient as possible. Cleanlinees and all things of that kind were essential, and it was right that the Government should do everything in that respect that wa6 reasonable, but when they pot beyond reason it was time for the people, through their representatives, to have some say. If the dairy regulations, as brought down this session by ihe Minister of Acriieulturp, had been gazetted there uculd have been an uproar from every dairy dis-t<-'-"t in the Dominion. They were impossible of being carried out, and would have imposed hardships that were absolutely unnece c 6ary. They were, however, sent to a committee, which amended them out of all chape. One clause had been loft in, however, which wa3 not right. A few years ago they had succeeded in hating the sheep tg.x abolished, and it i\j^ not right that they should now have introduced a cow tax. — (Apo'au&e.) He was c orry that it ha.l b^en clone, and lie was aleo sorry that Minivers did not take the precaution to thoroughly think out their logiskuon before they brought it down to the House. — (Applause.) THINGS UNDONE. After t.aiinjr briefly rofcired in eondemn.itcry terms to the harawng conditions of ihc proposed ftheaieis' Accommodation Iljll, the t.pr-akrr went on to say that Parliament had not boon given the opportunity of considering the promised nr.iendliier.t in the Ko-piUl and Charitable Aid Act. They should have reform in the Legislative Council, which was not satisfactorily constituted, and they fchould have reform in the civil service, which was now too huge a machine to be proporlv controlled ny a Government that had other responsibilities and other interests to serve. They required action regarding Native lands, of which there were thousands of acres lying idle, for it did not seem to him

that the royal commission would be of great benefit. RECKLESS EXPENDITURE. Upon the question of reckless expenditure a great deal could be said, but it would take too long to -make the whole case plain. In regard to many of the laws they were not administered as was intended by Parliament, and this was particularly so as far as labour was concerned. In regard to the expenditure of money, he frankly stated that the adimistration was faulty Hundreds of thousands of pounds were given to public works, and many things had more money spent on them than was actually voted by Parliament. Ninety-seven per cent, of the money voted for railways was spent, while on roads and bridges there were only 64 per cent, spent. On publio buildings there had been 83 per cent., and in view of the roads and bridges expenditure, he certainly did not favour that wKich included £200.000 for post offices, ai Auckland and Wellington. It was more than the country could afford.— (Applause.) The tourist and health resorts within the past two years got 110 per cent, more money than was voted for them, and he had no hesitation in saying that the expenditure on these departments had got out of hand, for it .had in a year or two risen from £11.000 to £45,000. The development of the goldfields had cost only 27 per cent, of what was voted, and he would have something to say on that point later on. On telegraph extension there had been 120 per cent., and on lands improvement 39 per cent. The Minister bad explained regarding the roads and bridges vote that he could not get labour to carry out the work, yet this year he had been granted £117,000 more than last, and where did he expect to get the necessary labour? The proposals on the Publio Works Estimates this year were tho proposals prior to the general election. They could draw their own conclusion from that. Probably a. year hence he could point/ out that an even smaller amount per cent, on the amounts voted had bean 6pent on the different departments. IN CONCLUSION, he was again before them asking for their support as a candidate for Parliament, and in thanking them for the loyal support that had been accorded him in the past, he assured them that he had always done what he considered best in the interests of his constituency and the Dominion. — (Applause.) New Zealand was a country with wondrous possibilities, but it wanted a Government with a policy. The- present Government's policy was either to point to the- past or to its future scheme of national annuities. The Opposition, on the other hand, 'had always a definite policy. It advocated the optional tenure for limited freeholds, provision for people to go on to the land, adequate control of finance, better arrangement of the civil service ,a proper solution of the Native - lands difficulty, a national system of education, particularly in regard to tho technical branch, a reduction in the cost, of the necessaries of life and imported Taw material, the encouragement of the right kind of immigration, a better system of national training, and the encouragement of priva-te enterprise as opposed to the Socialistic tendencies of tne times. — (Applause.) QUESTIONS. Questioners were given every opportunity to test the candidate, but the occasion was only sparingly availed of. Mr Wallace M'Clure said he desired to lenow if Mr Allen was in favonr of preference to unionists, to which the reply was vouchsafed, " Yes, if the court awards it." The same elector then asked if the candidate was prepared to debate the subject of Socialism. Mr Allen's reply was ehort, and with characteristic force, in these words: — " Yes, after the election is over. I shall be too busy whilst that is on." THANKS AND CONFIDENCE. ' Mr James Newbigging moved — "That this meeting accord a hearty vote of i thanks to Mr Allen for his address, express confidence in him as the repreeantative for Bruce, a representative of whom any constituency might feel proud, and further express the hope that Bruce will again rice to the occasion and place him at the top of the polJ." Mr J. B. Notrie seconded tho motion, which was carried on a show of hands, with but one dissentient, amidst loud ap- , plause.