CHALMERS ELECTORATE

Otago Witness, Issue 3430, 9 December 1919, Page 59

CHALMERS ELECTORATE

ADDRESS BY MR J. M. DICKSON. Mr J. M. Dickson, who is contesting -the Chalmers seat in the interests of the Reform Party, addressed a meeting of electors at fair attendance, and Mr Dickson was accorded an attentive and sympathetic hearing. Mr John Watson, who was unanimously voted to the chair, briefly introduced the candidate. -

Mr Dickson, who was well received, said it was five years since he had appeared on the platform to lay his political views before the electors. .After a few preliminary remarks, he referred to the formation of the National Government? Under the circumstances, he strongly supported the setting up of that Government, for the reason that it was most important that they should have, as nearly as possible, a united House to carry on the work and .properly fulfil our part in the great wqr. He did not condemn the National Government for it» work, but supported, at any rate, much of v.'hat it did. In some respects, no doubt, it fell short. This was partly accounted for by the> fast that at the time the National Government was set up there was an agreement made between the two leaders that no controversial legislation should be introduced during the life of the National Government, and as a consequence everything in the way of domestic legislation stood in abeyance. This was an unfortunate arrangement, of which he did not approve. With a united House many controversial or difficult matters might have been agreed to and placed on the Statute Book. It waa generally recognised, he thought, that in regard to war matters the National Government did very well. Indeed, the country owed the Minister of Defence (Sir James Allen) a debt of gratitude, for he never spared himself in the heavy work that fell., to his lot to perform. Minor blunders were made, certainly, for some of which the Minister's advising officers were responsible. Tho fact remained, however, that our men were sent away well fitted out and in such form that an American writer had said that the New Zealand troops at tho front were the best equipped of any in Fraaice.—(Hear. hrJar.) A matter that had caused much feeling in the country during the war time was the rise in the cost of living. Ho was not prepared to say that the National Government had done all it could have done to prevent the increase. The Board o,f Trade was not armed with power to enforce its proposals, though it could make inquiries. It was required to report to the National Government, and there in the majority of cases the matter ended.

During the regime of the National Government the cost of living had increased, but he would quote some figures to show them that extra taxation had little, if anything, to do with it. In 1914 tho Customs and excise dutv amounted to £3.553,785, and by 1919 it had risen to £4,104,016. Tho land tax in 1914 produced the sum of £767,451, and in 1919 it returned to the Treasury air amount cf £1,512,693. In the same period the income tax ' had increased by over £5.500,000. These figures showed that very little taxation had been added to the necessaries of life, and if they were analysed they revealed the further fact that the revenue of the country was derived from the people who were best able to bear the extra expense imposed upon them. He also wanted them to remember that between 1914 and 1919 our National Debt rose from £96*,000,000 to £179,0C0,C00 and by the time all the soldiers were repatriated the indebtedness of the country would undoubtedly amount to over £200,000,000.

Notwithstanding those facts Sir Joseph Ward, in his manifesto, proposed to spend £3,0C0,0C0 on school buildings; an annual amount of £1.000.000 to a-ssist civilians on the land; £4.000.000 on railways; £4.000.000 on roads : £6,000,000 on electric works," and £4.000.000 on workers' homes:—a total of £22.010,000. -Ho also proposed large!v to extend., the functions of the State in a variety of ways., thus adding greatly to the number of public servants in the country. He also proposed to take control of the fi-eezing works, and in order to do that he would have to soend a considerable amount of money on their purchase. The speaker said he would just like to tell them that the perishable export trade of

the dominion had been built up by private enterprise, and he was almost afraid that under State influence this trade was more likely to languish than otherwise. Therefore, unless it could be shown that such a course was necessary to fight the American Meat Trust he did not think it was advisable for the State to interfere in that direction.

Sir Joseph Ward also proposed to nationalise the flour mills. There was no evidence, however, that the people wer". being exploited by thi3 flour-millers. If they were, there wis power in v,:k- nanus of the Government, under the Act of last session, which contained very "drastic provisions, to meet the situation. xne board to be set rip- could fully investigate any matter, and n it could be shown tnat flourmillers or anyone else were exploiting the public they could be severely dealt with. la was alsV> proposed by Sir Joseph Ward to nationalise some oi the coal mines. Further, he promised to increase the miners' wage* and to nrovicYs chemer coal to the consumers, and ho would be able, he claimed, to show a profit cf £2bO,UA) to the Sate. But, to achieve this result, Sir Joseph would have to earn a profit of 20 per cent, on the capital invested. In other words, he would require, in order to find this return and to pay interest on the outlay, a profit of £312,500, or twenty; times what the present coal miners found it possible to do. He did not think that many of the public would admit that the State could work the mines as cheaply as the mine owners, and certainly not even ten times as cheap. Owing to the way the miners were working—and the go-slow'policy was not denied by the representatives of the coal miners in the House—most of the people of the dominion were affected by the shortage of coal, and it was possible that something would have to be done by the State to bring about an improvement in that respect. Any proposal of the kind would require very careful consideration. There was a suggestion and it might be a solution of the problem —to work the mines on a co-operative basis, and so give the men an interest in a larger output. If it could be shown that the mines ought to b© taken over by the State, it should he clearly understood, at the same time, that no profit need be looked for from them. At present the State owned mines, and year by year the deficiency in connection with thenworking required to be met out of the consolidated revenue. It was unfortunate also that if there was any trouble among the miners it generally started at the coal mines. There was also a proposal by the Liberal leader to establish a State Bank on the lines of the commonwealth institution. It was well, however, to remember these facts: At present the Bank of New Zealand paid a note tax of £92,000 and land and income tax amounting to £267j000, -or a total of £359,000. The other banks paid slightly less than that amount. They also paid for printing and issuing notes £40,000, making a total of £740,000. The profits _of the State Bank in the commonwealth, which had five times the- population of this\ dominion, were £776,000 last year, or £36,000 more than was paid to the Sltate by the banks carrying on business in New Zealand. The State Bank in the commonwealth had a huge responsibility. There were 30 millions of notes issued by it. It also had the control of 17 millions of money deposited in th& Savings Bank funds; these were used for the benefit of the bank. In New Zealand the 10 millions in the Savings Bank were used, for the benefit of the State Taking all the circumstances into consideration, he had concluded that it would not be wise to fun the risk of establishing a State Bank in this land. Of course, any proposal of the kind should be inquired into very carefully by the ablest financiers, but in. the meantime, in his opinion, it would be inadvisable to enter on the project. Taxation would require to be investigated by the new Parliament. There were many anomalies in regard to the land ard income tax which would require attention. Some of- the Customs ditties should be removed from the necessaries of life, r.rd higher taxes placed on luxuries. Population was an. important factor, and proposals had been made for immigration. The best class of people we could get V ere those who had been reared c.n the soil, and every encouragement should be given to people who were bringing up families in our own country. This could lc eione to some extent by giving the people with limited incomes the benefits of the maternity homes and the assistance, m case* of sickness, of capable nurses. Also, people with-families should be allowed corcessiens on the railways. The housing problem occupied much of the attention of the House last session, and the Government had been empowered to expend a large sum in erection of dwellings" with a view to relieving the present serious shortage of homes. The con-"*' ditions under which a man with an income up to £3OO a year could obtain assistance were very favourable, and deserved the consideration of all who desireel to take advantage of the Government's provisions. Continuing, Mr Dickson made reference to the present disabilities under which local bodies at present laboured in the matter of raising taxation, and he showed how, under the. existing system, there was no •encouragement for the people to tax themselves over a certain amount because they only received a limited subsidy. Each year .there was' a scramble amongst members of Parliament to secure as much as possible out cf the amount given to the Minister of Public Works for distribution, and this, he -contended, could be avoided by the payment of a fixed subsidy td the local bodies so that they could at once decide upon the amount of taxation which they were going to raise. They would then know exaetlv what their income was going to be. and in every way their finances would be placed on a-sounder basis. Another matter around which a great deal of interest was centring at the present time was that of the main arterial roads. This was <i nrohlcm to which'the Government would have to devote a good deal of attention in the near future, because under present conditions the local bodies wero not in « i-v-k'•''''"-< +r> ' nrv'n'riiri the von<Jc in ke-eping with the requirements of modern traffic conditions. In the Chalmers electorate there was an enormous leneth of Main road to be maintained by a few local bodies, j>ud it wai rskinjr ton much altogether to impose that duty on them. A tyre tax on moter cars h'>d hop" siurgc-sted several quarters, and something on that line would have to bo done to keep these roads in repair.

Mr Dickson said th«t in his opinion t.hp Arb'tration and Conciliation Act should be amended in the direction of having two experts associated with the judg? of th«. court instead of two men representing each

body of disputants, as at the present time. Such a method as h-3 advocated would, he felt sure, produce- results of more permanent benefit than under the existing procedure.

N'o one, continued the speaker, could fr'l what the result of the forthcoming election was go:ng to be, and it was believed by soma that no one party would bfj reiurncjrl with an absolute majority. If that was so a handful of extremists were going- to hold tbo balance of "power, and that was going to bo a most unfortunate thing for tho country. Mr Massey had saiu that ho would not hold office if he was dependent on tho assistance of the extreme Labour section. Ho did not know whether Sir Joseph Ward had said that, but ho had declared that ho was hot acting in conjunction with the Labour Party, or running in double harness with it. Well, if that were so, he would like Sir Joseph Ward or some other member of .the Liberal Party to explain what was occurring in Dunedin West. A man who was supporting one of tho speaker's opponents in that district had said at a publio meeting that he was authorised by the party to ask the Liberals in Dunedin West to vote for' ths Labour candidate a g against Mr Downie Stewart? Now, that statement required explanation. The extreme Labour Pai'ty and the Liberals both disclaimed any sympathy with each other, and yet the statement which he had just quoted showed that" they were apparently prepared to adopt the principle that any stiok was good enough to beat a dog. He hoped and trusted that the Liberal Party would not submit to the domination of this Labour faction, and if that sort of thing was going to take- place, there would have to he a fusion of the best elements and the best men in the two great parties in the House. He was inclined to think that this would be brought about. Politics at the present time were in n state of flux,, and for that reason, he claimed, while standing as a Reform candidate, a good deal of independence. On. a no-confidence motion he would vote against Sir Joseph Ward, but he .would vote against any Government which owed its existence to the supporters of extreme Labour in the House.—(Applause.) At the present time of reconstruction a strong, sane, and progressive Government was required, and it should be elected on a more democratic principle than that at present adonted, thus ensuring the inclusion in tbo Cabinet the best brains in the House.—(Applause.) At the conclusion of the meeting the candidate was accorded a unanimous vote of thanks.