"A POLICY OF HUMBUG."

Otago Witness, Issue 2934, 8 June 1910, Page 37

"A POLICY OF HUMBUG."

MR MASSEY INTERVIEWED. (Fjiom Oub Own Cobbespondent.) AUCKLAND, June 3. In the course of an interview with a Herald representative to-day, Mr W. F. Massey, M.P., Leader of the Opposition, offered a strong criticism of certain portions of the speech delivered by the lion. Geo. Fowlds on Thursday night. " I see," said the Leader of the Opposition, " that Mr Fowlds lias been devoting the usaal amount of attention to me in his speech,- and I suppose I ought to feel complimented, but I am sorry to notice that Ministerial responsibility has not cured Mr Fowlds of his habit of misrepresentation. For instance, in the course of his address he says that the Liberal party stood for the rights of the people, and the Opposition for the rights of property. Just so. I have heard or read of similar twaddle on previous occasions, but if Mr Fowlds is a member of the Liberal party, I know of certain members of that party who are just as keen to acquire property in land or any other form as any one is, and who are particularly anxious to stick -to it. If there is any variety of individual for whom I have contempt it is the one who thinks it is right on his part to own property but wrong on the part of others. And by the way," continued Mr Massey, " part of my time in Parliament has been occupied in defending individuals against the undemocratic methods of the Government, as, for instance, in connection with the Crown Suits Act, under which individuals sustaining wrong or injury—and there are many of them—at the hands of the State are not able to sue the Government or the head of any department of State without the consent of the Attorneygeneral. We have had petition after petition on this subject before Parliament, but Mr Fowlds has always been on the side of privilege and against the individual. I notice that Mr Fowlds says he is in favour of the freehold with taxation. Well," the Leader of the Opposition went on, " it is an extraordinary thing that since he has been in Parliament so far as I can remember Mr Fowlds has never given a single vote in favour of freehold. I like a man in Parliament to act up to the views he expresses on the platform, and if he does not I think very little of him. Mr Fowlds, continued Mr Massey, '' ridicules the idea of the workers supporting Opposition candidates, but from what I have seen and heard the workers are sick and . tired of the Government. Heaven help the workers if the markets of this country were free to the products of the cheap labour of China and Japan, and that is the single tax in which Mr Fowlds believes, if he believes in anything. Heaven help the farmers if the whole of the revenue required for the Government of this country were collected from the people on the land, and that is single tax in which Mr Fowlds believes. Mr Fowlds professes to think that the country wants less Masseyiism rather than more Masseyism. That is really very good of him. But, whatever the Dominion may think of Massey I am quite certain it thinks little of Fowlds. . The journalistic mouthpiece of the Government in Wellington says, referring to the City East election," continued Mr Massey; "that I should have caught my man first and prepared the trimming afterwards. Perhaps so. . I have caught my hares and held, them in the Government paddocks of New Plymouth, Stratford, Patea, Egmont, Mataura, Tuapeka, and many other places, and Mr Fowlds and his friends need not be surprised x f l catch one and hold it in Grey-Lynn at the next election." Asked what he thought of the Knyvett matter now, Mr Massey replied : Just what I thought before I told the Knyvett Committee months ago, that, if they only held on, a weak, spineless Administration like the present Government would be sure to back down, and my words have come true. They have no principles and they have no policy except that of backdown. In consequence they are the laughing-stock of the whole community. They are quite prepai-ed to back down on anything so long as they are allowed to retain their positions. I staked my political reputation on having justice done to Captain Knyvett, and the present attitude of the Government shows that I was right." *■*■•-■• Reverting to general questions, Mr

Massey said : "Mr Fowlds says the country should get a move on in taxing what he calls unearned increment. That is his opinion, but as a matter of fact Mr Fowlds and his colleagues have, on account of their extravagance, found it necessary to increase taxation and the burdens of the people to such an extent that they are scarcely able to bear it. But my experience is that there is more unearned increment in one business in any of the large cities than in 100 backblock farms, and if we are to have any further increase in taxation it should not fall upon the country settlers, who, in most cases, are paying far more than their share. As to Native lands, Mr Fowlds, like all of his class, who talk much and do little, is in favour of, as he says, " applying the same principle to European lands' as to Native lands." It should be the other way about—apply the same principle to Native lands as to European lands, and the difficulty will soon come to an end. But that is the very last thing that Mr Fowlds and his colleagues would like to see eventuate. They have humbugged the people so long that they think they can keep on doing ;,i, but I predict the next general election will show they have come to the end of their tether. Our policy is a policy of honesty; the policy of the Government is a. policy of humbug, and the people are beginning to know it."