THE CLUTHA SEAT.

Otago Witness, Issue 3168, 2 December 1914, Page 5

THE CLUTHA SEAT.

MR J. E. JENKINSON AT CLINTON. ORIGINAL VIEWS ON EDUCATION. Mr J. E. Jcnkinson, candidate for the Clutha seat at tho forthcoming elections, in tho Liberal interests, addressed a fairly largo audience in the Town Hall at Clinton oh Tuesday, 24th ult. Mr J. C. Borthvvick presided. Mr Jenkinson, who started his address shortly before 9 o’clock, and continued till after 11 o’clock, was accorded a good hearing, and was frequently applauded. In introducing the speaker the Chairman said that ho had been for 21 years a member of tho Legislative Council, and now sought the suffrages of the electors of Clutha for election to the House of Representatives. Mr Jenkinson, who as greeted with applause, said that many of the newspapers of the country and a largo number of the candidates who wore speaking were brimful of condemnation of the Reform Party. .-t was only necessary to consider the records of the two parties—that of tho Liberals from 1891 to 1911, and that of the Reform Party for its two years in office. The Reform Government had broken every pledge it had made before it came into office. He would not refer at length to the measures for tho benefit of the people passed by the Liberals. Let tho audience consider the Old Age Pensions Act, for instance. He would not deny that tho Liberal Party had made mistakes, and had not a times gone fast enough, and perhaps the slight set-back of tho last two years would do it good. The Liberals had had a reverse, and those who had opposed them in 1911 had given them their lesson, and ,’t was now time that they were put back again, for he Reform Party had not proved progressive enough for even the slowest of the electors. The Government had struggled into office, and had promised to bring about a reduction of borrowing, to reduce the expenditure, and practice economy, to bring about compulsory insurance against sickness and unemployment, to reduce tho taxation, and to revise the tariff. They had been going to promise the freehold, and tho speaker had a copy of a speech by Mr Massey in 1911, in which the* freehold was promised, and also the limitation of areas. But the Government had not limited .the areas,. and had actually gone so far in the Native Land Act as substantially to increase it. A limitation of areas had previously been provided, but the Government got this out by a Bill in 1912, and made no attempt to provide any measure for limitation of area in connection with private lands. The speaker thought that land tenure should be provided under a deferred payment system. The man on the land should be enabled gradually to acquire the freehold, since the man with tho freehold had a tendency to keep the land for himself and_ those coming after him. If ho were given an undisputed title to it,- it created in him a sentimental Tooling of interest in it which would not otherwise exist. But under the system of acquiring the freehold in operation, the interest on the money borrowed was higher than the rent tho tenant was formerly paying for the land. Men who had been getting the land at Sj, per cent, found, on buying it, that it cost them 44-, 5, or 6 per cent, in interest on borrowed money. If we established the deferred payment system wo would do something to bring about a movement whereby those who got the freehold gradually would, when they got it. make on it homes for themselves and their children. He was in favour of the freehold that would give to a man his home without fear of tho mortgage foreclosing. If tho deferred payment system could not be popularised lot provision bo made for a lease for 25 years, with tho right at any time to pay off, the Land Board to be allowed to renew the lease at any period. Tho present limitation should bo lowered, and brought down to 400 acres of first class land, 1000 acres of second class and 3000 acres of third class land. One of the planks of tho Labour Party’s programme was land nationalisation. But what was the use of the land to tho State? It was of no value at all. It was the yrodueo from the land that was of value to the State, and they would strive to got the greatest amount of produce from tho land. Good tenures should be given, and every incentive to tho holder to increase production. Every department of the State should bo used for this purpose, for eventually the State benefited. The Government, he would repeat, had not fulfilled its pledges. Some of them it would have been disastrous to have fulfilled. The Government had promised to reduce borrowing. But in a country like New Zealand, whoso development had to be provided for, and in which there were ample assets and securities, we should go on borrowing, and borrow largely. Everyone must see that borrowed money must be used to develop the country, and it was madness for the Reform Party to say that it would attempt to stop borrowing or taper it off. The expenses of the country and of its Government were heaping up, and tho Reform Party must have known that it had to go on borrowing. There might, indeed, be a worse term than “ignorance” to apply to the reason of their former utterances on this subject. Ho was not in favour of reducing borrowing, but favoured borrowing sanely and judiciously. The trouble in tho past had been, with both Governments, that a great- deal of the money had been wasted through political wires having boon pulled, and votes given to _ districts where they were not necessary, simply because the Government had wanted the assistance of tho member for that .district in some tight hole into which it had got. The public would have to see in tho future that money was spent judiciously and so as to tend to the benefit and prosperity of tho country. It was proposed to spend money on a “ freak ” on the other side of tho Clutha River which was not required—he alluded to the Balclutha-Tuapcka Mouth railway, which was a scandalous suggestion.—(Applause.) It was selfish of the Clutha peopL to ask to have a railway made up tho side of a river like the Clutha, where water freight would serve excellently. The people who advocated it would be sorry if it were carried out. It would be a bad thing for

Balclutha, because the railway would pass by that town on the other side of the river. Three or four bridges would be required across the Clutha. Water traffic was cheap, and when there were so many other works that required doing this one should not be undertaken. One of the finest suggestions the speaker had ever heard had been made before the Imperial Commission in Now Zealand a couple of years ago by the chairman of the Bank of New Zealand, and applied to some of the works on which Now Zealand was spending money. The suggestion was that, when money was wanted to carry out work in the dominion connected with Imperialism, the Imperial Government be asked to guraatee a loan. The speaker objected to the nonsensical cry of Ministers, who said: “Look how high the credit of New Zealand is! Look how wo can get loans at a cheap rate !” They tried to delude the public into the belief that because a particular Government was in power, or because a strike had been settled, the moneylenders at Home were willing to bring down the price of money. But the moneylenders in London turned over hundreds of millions, and the fact that in Now Zealand there was a Reform, or a Liberal, or any other sort of Government in power, or that any trouble over a strike had been dealt with, did not affect the London money market in the slightest degree. The cry that since the Reform Government had been in power, and the finances had been put on a sound basis the cost of money was cheaper, was too tall a story. It was said that it was necessary to raise a war tax, and that it was difficult to decide how it should be raised. He thought it would have been better if the war tax had boon struck at once, but he did not consider himself an expert in finance at all. During the last few weeks the funds obtained from the contributions invited were not obtained on an equality basis from the people in New Zealand. Many of those who were wealthy did not contribute their quota to the funds.—(Applause.) Therefore, from an equality point of view, a war tax would have boon bettor. There was no doubt that the war tax, when imposed, would bo struck on income and on land, and the point was, on what income would taxation start? He thought that it should start, at a low amount. Judging from the way in which the lowly-paid men had acted during the cast few weeks, he thought that the man with the low incomes were just as willing to give as much as they could as the men with larger incomes. Revision of the tariff had been promised, and it was a dodge that should have been kept, and might, have been kept easily. The duties on the necessaries of life should have been attended to long ago. If the Reform Government had had sympathy with the working people it could have acted in such a way as to reduce the duties on the necessaries of life. But it was of no use attempting to reduce the customs tariff unless we wont further, and dealt, with monopolies, and any Government that in future took the question of taxation into consideration must also consider monopolies that controlled the prices of foodstuffs. For instance, since the war broke out the price of sugar had increased, though the cost of production had not gone up at all, or, at any rate, had gone up only very little. But the Colonial Sugar Company, in Auckland, had control of the sugar trade in the dominion, and had put the price of sugar up considerably. The Price of Food Commission had not dealt with the price of sugar at all. The commission had made the biggest bungle it could possibly have made. If the Government had dealt firmly with the matter there would have been no detriment to the working class at all. The speaker dealt at some length with his views on the subject of education. We were, he said, told that our education system was free, secular, compulsory, and national. It was not free, for it cost 26s a head every year. It was certainly not compulsory, for there was a large number of boys and girls who did not go to school. It was not secular, it was only non-sectarian. It was not national, because in Otago there was a different system from those obtaining further north. Lastly, it was not educational. In the primary schools at present there was a syllabus so crammed with “tomfoolery” that the children had little time to be taught the essentials of education.—(Applause.) The “three R’s” were almost forgotten. If the records of the inspectors were read it would be seen that there were reports to the effect that in many of the schools writing was scarcely taught, reading hardly ever heard, and arithmetic in many cases in a bad state indeed. The time of the teachers was taken up with “jim-jams,” such as Nature-study, drawing flowers, plasticine work, etc. To crown all, a short time ago another subject called physical culture was added to the syllabus. The speaker was as loud in his admiration of well-set-up men and women as anyone else, but he was not sure that some of the scholars attending the country schools were in want of physical culture. —(Laughter.) Some discrimination should be exorcised. Perhaps in the town some sort of physical training was necessary. But it was added as a part of the syllabus, and the time employed in it was taken from that which should applied to the teaching of other subjects. To some extent it took the place of the play timethat the children had, and it interfered generally with the work of the schools. Proficiency certificates now carried children to the secondary schools. But he was afraid that this provision had a different effect from what was expected. For it had the result of coaxing a number of parents into the belief that their children, having passed the Sixth Standard and gained the proficiency certificate, were fit to go in for higher education. The result was that they sent them into the technical and secondary schools, and in many cases two years of a child’s life were wasted. He thought that there was an attempt, not to give too much education to a child, but to over-educato it in many respects. Children were allowed to go to the higher schools and get a smattering of learning—they did not get educated—which unfitted them for the work they wore destined to do after they loft school. Whether it was necessary for boys and girls to go to a secondary school was open to debate. But it would not bo a question for argument if the children had been educated at the primary school, and more time had been given actually to educating them. Ho was afraid that the time of the children at the primary schools was wasted to a largo extent. The education system could be improved. He would make it free from the primary school to the university, and abolish all foes entirely. The i foes paid only about half of the cost of tuition. The fees collected amounted to about £II,OOO or £12,000, and that was a small item compared with the total cost of education. Let them be abolished and the poor man’s child giv<«i an advantage equal

to that of the rich man’s. Lot some consideration be given to the reduction of the enormous cost of technical education. Dozens of technical schools had been established in the dominion, and after having been through many of these schools, the speaker’s opinion was that there was a great deal of waste of time and money. There were two systems of technical education —one aiming at turning out the designer, and the other aiming at turning out the skilled workman. But in his opinion we were trying to turn out the designer and the skilled workman from the same establishment, and not getting the results. He believed that money could be saved that would counterbalance the loss from the abolition of the fees. As for country schools, there had been too much laxity regarding the teachers of these. Many of these schools were in the hands of young men or women, almost totally inexperienced, without very high credentials, and, in fact, almost apprentices, and the children were handicapped, and had to rely on almost any education they could get. A teacher in the country should be a man of very high attainments, and should bo qualified to give as high a grade of teaching as was given to children in the town. Some central body should be appointed to deal with teachers’ appointments, to fix the syllabus, and to fix uniform text-books for the whole dominion. This central body should take in hand the framing of the Estimates. He did not know what steps had been taken recently in Wellington, as he was speaking of the conditions as they existed a few months ago, and a central body such as he suggested might have been appointed. Speaking of superannuation. Mr Jenkinson said that four years ago the consolidated revenue had subscribed ±145,000 to the fund. Three years ago it contributed £90,000, two years ago also £90,000, and last year £115,000. He was not complaining, for otherwise a great part of this money might have had to be expended in charitable aid or compassionate grants, so it was not an entire loss. But as to the £115,000, there were men who were more entitled to it than the public servants. Those in outside employment, subject to broken time and unemployment, were not participating in any form of superannuation, and if the dominion could subscribe this sum to bolster up the fund for public servants it would have to no as much, if not more, for those outside tins service who, from their conditions ot employment, were mere entitled to it. This could be done at very little cost to the State through the National Provident Fund, and money would be saved in charitable aid. Years ago the speaker had tried to have the amount of a man's superannuation on retirement from the public service limited to £3OO a year. This had now been done, but it did not apply to those who retired before the limitation was fixed. Certain of these drew from £SOO to £750 a year, and the taxpayers were finding some of this money This matter should be dealt with. The contribution should be put on a proper basis. The lowly-paid men should not pay much into the fund, and the highly-paid men should pay very much more than them. Also there were men in the Government employ receiving small wages, and if they could borrow money at a fair rate of interest just at the time they wanted it it might do much good. Tie therefore proposed that participants in the Superannuation Fund should be allowed to borrow from it on the security of their positions, and repay their loans in instalments. Mr Jenkinson dealt with the policies of the Libe-al and of the Reform Party on the question of defence. Sir Joseph Ward, he said, was against a local navy. But it was difficult to imagine wiiat Mr Massey's policy was. It was extremely indefinite, ic seemed to advocate that some increase should be made to the Imperial Navy. Tne speaker was against a local navy, for the cosr was above what the dominion could consider. It was difficult to see what the Government did suggest. Lot the audience consider the cost of the Australian Navy, and the tremendous seaboard New Zealand had. It was certain that a largo number of ships would have to bo procured, and to talk of going into such a scheme with only a million people in the country was to talk 25 years before our time. We must rely on the Imperial Navy, increase the subsidy, and make arrangements for the shores of New Zealand to be adequately protected. If ever he got a chance he would vote for the reduction of the Territorial age from 25 to 21, or even 18.—(Applause.) The present period—up to 25 years—was too long. After men had reached the age at which service terminated they could be given full encouragement to join volunteer corps and stay in them. A Voice: Would you increase the baby bonus?—(Laughter.) In conclusion, Mr Jenkinson said that he had heard of no agreement between the Liberal and Labour Parties. Personally, he was appearing as a Liberal candidate for the ideals of the Liberals were more to his liking than those of the Reform Party. There was little of the present Government’s legislation that he had not been able to support though.Jie certainly thought that the civil service should have been kept within parliamentary, though without political, control. He condemned the present Government’s administration entirely, and considered that it had shown itself utterly incapable in many departments. He would support the Liberal Party, but it would be a matter of measures, not men. At the conclusion a vote of thanks ana confidence was carried.