SIR J.G. WARD.

Otago Witness, Issue 3168, 2 December 1914, Page 74

SIR J.G. WARD.

ADDRESS AT AUCKLANDAUCKLAND, November 27. A very flattering reception was accorded to Sir Joseph Ward (Leader of the Opposition) to-night, when ho delivered a political address in the Town Hall. The building was crowded to its full capacity 3000 within a quarter of an hour of the opening of the doors at 7.15, and the seats on the organ loft were all occupied. Many people had to stand, and hundreds were unable to obtain admission. On the platform were the local Liberal candidates.. Mr J. Trevethicic, of the Liberal and Labour Federation, presided. A storm of prolonged applause greeted Sir Joseph os he stepped on to the platform, a scene of tremendous enthusiasm being witnessed and repeated when ho rose to speak. At the outset Sir Josopn said he was there as Leader of the Liberal Party—(applause),—-which had enacted laws for the good, peace, and happiness of the people of this glorious country. The methods of some opponents of the party, which represented the true majority of the people of New Zealand, were deprecated. For the first time in the country’s history the electoral laws had been altered by the so-called Reform Party—(ironical laughter)—by the repealing of the Second Ballot Act. That party, which only represented a minority, was facing a precarious position, which on the morning of December 11 would result in a lesson which should serve it for the rest of its political life.—(Applause.) The Government had failed to keep its promise to provide a substitute for the second ballot. Many electors were dissatisfied this year by finding their narpes struck off the electoral roll. In Otaki the Reform Party had shown its resentment of the interference of the Government in the electoral rights of the people. He was informed that 220 men at the forts at Devonport were to be removed, and would find themselves out of the electorate without the right of the absentee vote at a time when the guns of the forts ought to be manned. ’ There was to be a shifting of these men on the eve of the election. This was a matter calling for explanation. Another matter to which he wished to refer was that prior to leaving Wellington (where there were two Ministers with adjoining electorates) ho learned that a number of men not in one Minister’s electorate had been provided with absent commercial travellers’ rights to vote. As Leader of the Opposition he felt he was entitled to mention the matter. —(A Voice: “Question.”) The Liberal Party wanted the names of all people entitled to vote put on the rolls. He wished to remove some misconceptions which were due to a continuous sequence of marvellous misrepresentations, which seemed to bo one of the principal assets possessed by his opponents. Sir James Carroll was reported in certain papers to have strongly condemned him (Sir Joseph) in connection with the gift of a Dreadnought to Britain. Ho was further reported to have said that if ho got in he would see that the £2,000,000 was spent on roads and bridges. Ho had wired to Sir James, who was a good chap, and it transpired that he had been “a long way from Tipperary.” He had not been in town, where the speech quoted had been made by Sir James’s opponent.—(Laughter and applause.) .Sir Joseph Ward denied a statement by Mr Lang that he had been responsib'c for the loan spoken of in connection with the ostrich farm matter. The Mayor of Auckland (Mr O. J. Parr) had said that there could be no Ministry which would do !u» tice to the north if the Liberal Party was returned. This idea he ridiculed. There were a number of fine men standing in the north at the present election —(applause),-■ and hg promised that when he had to advise the Governor after December 10 to approve of a new Liberal Ministry half that Ministry should represent the North Island. When the present Government came 'nfo office it stopped the Waihi railway and a number of public works. A Voico: It started the Waiuku railway —(Laughter.) Sir Joseph: Yes; and seven others, four of which were in the districts of Ministers of the Grown. In Sir Joseph’s 19 years oi office he never had a railway started in ;ii r district he represented. In the Auckland “district in 1913-1914 the Massey Government put £149,100 on the Estimates for roads and oridges, and it spent £55,000 during election year. This year the Government, having spent £55,000 of that vote, had put £178,001 on the Estimates for roads and bridges : n the Auckland district. The Liberal Party when in office, spent more in the north than the present Government had done. Never before in the history of New Zealand had so much money been devoted to the making of railways in New Zealand as during the speaker’s term of office. One of the most extraordinary characteristics of the present Government was ite political brazen-faced assumption of superiority over everybody else who had governed New Zealand in the past. He deprecated what he characterised as the unfair methods of his opponents, who, he said, were prolific in the circulation of literature. Sir Joseph asserted that when his Government went out of office it left the Minister of Finance the largest amount in consolidated revenue that had ever been so left —namely, £807,270, —yet at the end of the present Government’s second year the Minister of Finance had gone back till there was only £376,000 to tho credit of the coun try. In other words, the present Government had allowed the ordinary revenue to go back to the extent of nearly £450,000; yet to-day it would bo found that there would be some so enamoured of the opponents of the Liberals that they would not take the trouble to look at the drift that was going on in this country at present. This drift was appalling, and if it was allowed to go on it would mean imposing a very heavy taxation on the people. The country was going backward at a greater ratio than for years past. The Massey Government was trying to maintain an unnatural position in declaring that it had not broken its pledges, and that all was well. Practically all the taxpayers in Now Zealand had been called upon to pay more in taxation since the Government came into power than they had been called upon to pay by the preceding Liberal Governments.—(Applause.) In a speech, which ho had made in July, 1911, Mr Massey bad declared that tho borrowing of his predecessors was too large, and the taxation too high. In the fact of that, said Sir Joseph, taxation now amounted to 13s Id per head, which was £654,000 per year more than it was when Mr Massey said it was too high Mr Massey had said in the same speech that the cost of living was too high, yet his Government had not

only failed to reduce it, but had increased it enormously. Sir Joseph proceeded to quote from figures issued in Reform pamphlets in regard to advances to settlors. He claimed that on its own showing the present Government had advanced to settlors in two years £1,823,000, which was, however, £1,600,000 less than the Ward Government advanced in the two preceding years. To local public bodies the present Government had advanced £250,430, whereas in a similarperiod the Liberal Government had advanced £1,276,000, mostly at 4 per cent, and some at 3i per cent. The borrowings of the Massey Government came to £16,067,880 in two years and two months. The Dreadnought loan, however, it had the amazing impertinence to include in his term of office, but failed to point out that that money had riot been borrowed for internal works. Why was it necessary for any party to attempt so to delude the public? Sir Joseph Ward asserted that outside its legislation in connection with the freehold every bit of legislation of the present Government had been taken from the Liberals. —(Applause.) The Government’s land policy had been no good to men and women of slender means. The Government had passed two Acts, but not a soul had gone on the land, and not an estate had been Settled under the first, and not a single settler had been placed on the land under the second. Here' was the sequel to all the Reform Party’s boasting; every settler placed on the land during its term had boon placed there under Acts of the Liberal Government.—(Applause.) Sir Joseph denied that the Government had improved land settlement conditions. In the last two years of the Ward Government 875.000 acres had been opened, and 2997 settlors had been placed on the land, and in the Massey Government’s two years 689.000 acres had been opened, and 2750 settlers placed on the land. Poor lands were being acquired, and the land of wealthy squatters was being left alone. The Government had opened up 140,000 acres of Native land less than his Government bad done in the last two years of office.— (Applause.) Referring to the “Red Fed.” Sir Joseph reiterated his previous denial that there was an alliance between them and the Liberals. It was a bogey which his opponents were holding up to the public. There were more “Red Feds.” standing against the Liberals in the present contest in the south than there were at the last election. Referring to the Huntly disaster. Sir J. G. Ward said that every Government must recognise its responsibilities, and there was no use in members of the present Government taking exception to criticism in regard to the regrettable calamity which had resulted in the death of 43 unfortunate men. If the legislation recommended by a commission set up by the Ward Government had gone on the Statute Book it would have provided for the use of protected lights in coal mines, and the report of the recent commission attributed the disaster to the use of unprotected lights. After the general election a lot more would be heard of the disaster. An enunciation of the Opposition’s policy followed. The planks were: —Extended facilities for the teaching of scientific agriculture, up-to-date Afforestation Department, the encouragement of mining, including adequate assistance to prospectors and relief to raining companies in the shape of reduced taxation, and extension of the primary education system, the proper grading of teachers, and the abolition of the average system, a £5 baby bonus, to be paid into the (Savings Bank at birth, and to earn compound interest for 14 years, an extension of the national system of the utilisation of the water-power of the dominion, internal defence on the lines laid down by Earl Kitchener, the establishment and extension of preferential trade with the Motherland, which would bo wanted more than ever when the war was over. Furtherplanks in hia party’s policy were free nurses in baok-blocks, free travelling on the railways for chi'drcn up to five years, and half fares up to 14 years, assistance to cripples and invalids under an invalidity system, a reduction of the duties on necessities, the removal from the Statute Book of legislation which would enable the existence of a system of bogus trades unions, a reduction of the hours of women working in factories, a further extension of the State functions in combating food monopolies, the establishment of commercial banks to assist settlers, workers, and local bodies, proportional representation for the House of Representatives, a special graduated land tax to ensure closer cultivation and settlement, prevention of aggregation of large estates, a small acreage of land for men of small capital, workers’ homes near the cities, the completion of all the main trunk railways within four years, all of which could be carried out for £8.000,000, an expenditure of £500.000 annually in connection with open lines. In connection with naval defence Sir Joseph Ward said Now Zealand should stand by the British Navy. At the end of this war the British Navy would have conquered or acquired the German Navy. What would the Imperial do with the surplus of ships? In his opinion, they would send a number of fully-equipped warships to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the Pacific which they no longer required to watch the Germans in the North Sea. The present Government had never divulged why tho agreement made by him (Sir Joseph) with the Admiralty for two Bristol cruisers had not been carried out. This should not be a secret. All that Mr Allen had done was to arrange for the coming out of the Philomel the withdrawal of the subsidy to the British Navy. A local navy would xnean an amount of taxation which be did not think this young country should be called upon to pay, nor was it necessary.^ In conclusion Sir Joseph said that, if he was returned to power, his party’s policy would bo on the lines of practical progress. He was proud that in Auckland he was well received and courteously listened to. The speech occupied two hours and a-quarter, and Sir Joseph was warmly applauded on resuming his seat. A vote of thanks and confidence, including a pledge to endeavour to oust the present Government, was moved by Mr T. Long, and seconded by Mr E. H. Potter. This was carried by a substantial majority, only a few dissentient voices being raised. Prior to dispersing the audience gave (Sir Joseph three cheers. SPEECH AT ASHBURTON. 4SHBURTON, November 24. Sir Joseph Ward addressed an overflowing audience (exceeding 1009), at the Theatre Royal last night, and had a most enthusiastic reception, his speech being

punctuated with cheers and applause throughout. Ris address was largely on the linos of that delivered by him at Rangiora, and at its conclusion a motion of thanks and confidence was carried on the votes, with a great display of enthusiasm and with very tew dissenters. The meeting broke up with cheers for Sir Joseph Ward and the singing of ‘"He’s a Jolly Good Follow.” Sir Joseph Ward returned to Christchurch after the meeting, and will proceed to Wellington to-night.