OPPOSITION CRITICS

Otago Witness, Issue 2934, 8 June 1910, Page 79

OPPOSITION CRITICS

THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE? DEFENDS HIS ADMINISTRATION. (From Our Special Reporter.) OWAKA, May 27. At Owaka to-night the Hon. Thomas Mackenzie (Minister of Agriculture) took occasion to reply to criticisms recently levelled against the Government Administration and the administration of his own departments particularly. He said that within very recetnt times New Zealand had suffered from malicious attacks of detractors. It was said that the Dominion was plunged to the neck in debt, that people were leaving the country in disgust,' that Government positions were packed'' with Ministers' favourites,, and that wages were low and living high. Personally he- believed that there was ho finer country in the world than ftew Zealand, and the man who declared that. ifc was in the condition described was a traitor to his country. Yet the reports had been assiduously circulated in the English and New York papers. It had been said that business in New Zealand was stimulated and supported by doles from the public expenditure, yet during the first .14 weeks of this year they had sent away £10,000,000 worth of produce and had imported £4,000,000 worth, and had therefore £6,000,000 to-go towards the development of the country. The public debt was continually being dinned into the ears.of the people of this Dominion so as to injure the Government or alarm the people. Although the public debt had increased by 32 millions he - would point out that they were getting more interest than was required to pay, the English money-lender, and were carry ; ; ing on the development of this country. The statement that retrenchment was assumed and not real, waa entirely in- , correct. This statement had been made particularly with reference to his- own department, and was very diecouragmg indeed. The fact that since he, had taken, charge of the Department of Agriculture he had reduced the expenditure from £174,000 to £147,000 in one year was, he thought, a very substantial reply to any, man who said that no economy had bean, effected. He did not want to go through another such year, for, ■in order to retrench and effect economy, it bee me necessary to do many unpleasant things. He mentioned that he had secured, a saving of £7500 in the Tourist DepartmenC and as an instance of some of the opprobrium caused by retrenchment he mentioned the case of a man who had suffered in consequence of the necessary, economies on the State farm, and who wrote to 20 or 30 papers making charges ao-ainst the Administration. When they applied the pruning-knife of. economy and at the same time insisted upon efficiency, they got more abuse than they deserved. He went on to sav what had been done by the Agricultural Department, and how that department had far more than justified its existence and cost. The sum of £86.000 had been spent in improving their system of grading and export, and _ in consequence the output had unprovedby £3,000.000 This year 35,000 calves had been inoculated against disease, and great areas of lands infested with noxious weed; had been cleared. Land had been experimented with, and many men and women had been shown how to make a livelihood by growing fruit. Attention had been given to the export of fruifc and better prices received. Attention had been given to the question of making the lands at present useless highly productive. They were improving the dairy herds and providing methods of checking the disease now frequently carried by°milk and whey. The utility of the Agricultural Department was, he thought they would acknowledge, of the hiahest order indeed.

Regarding the future, he would say to those croakers who alleged that the publia debt was increasing and the cost of administration swelling that it did not much matter what was borrowed so long as the method by which the money was spent was right.—(Applause.) The future was full of hope, and the outlook was encouraging. Tor a time New Zealand had suffered as the result of the great financial crisis. The British markets were depressed, and money was scarce. Then America—the cause of the trouble—was backed up, Britain recovered its-elf, industry was stimulated, and the markets {gradually alnd Steadily wmproved, and the effect of that improvement was apparent in New Zealand to-day. He waq sure there was great prosperity ahead,and lie repeated the cry of a Government supporter: "Only give us a chance." No Government had ever set itself so deter-: minedly to work to. make the public ser* vice efficient, curtail unnecessary expendi--ture,_ and improve the position of the Dominion as this Government had done and was doing. Therefore, he thought the Government should have more credit and less censure.