MR A. S. MALCOLM AT BALCLUTHA.

Otago Witness, Issue 3430, 9 December 1919, Page 8

MR A. S. MALCOLM AT BALCLUTHA.

Mr A S. Malcolm, who i s again" contesting the Olutha seat in the interests of the Reform Party, addressed a meeting of electors at Bolclutha on the 2nd mst. Mr E J. Boyd (the deputy-Mayor) presided over a large attendance, including a number of ladies, and the candidate was accorded a quiet and attentive hearing, followed by a vote of thartks and confidence. The chairman briefly introduced the BP M r er Malcolm, h o, on rising to speak, was warmly applauded, said, the coming election promised to- be especially interesting, partly because in Clutha there were so many candidates' to choose from,-but more particularly because on the new Parliament would devolve the responsibility of dealing with the very serious problems arising out of the war. SALE OP OUR PRODUCTS. Pea-haps of greatest interest to New Zealand was the disposal of our products During the war Mr Moesey had, on behalt ot the farmers of New Zealand, arranged for the sale of our meat, wool, cheese, and butter at prices which, though moderate, were yet in advance of pre-war prices, and had seoured the- farmer good returns.—(Applause. J The pleasing feature about this bargain was that the Imperial Government had - paid. CR3h down for the supplies on delivery at stores and in this way the New Zealand producers had received no less than £110,000,000 for their products during the war. It was this enormous sum which had enabled New Zealand to keep going. The unfortunate part of the bargain, however, was that, although the Imperial Government had paid for the supplies, and had al3o paid storage and insurance charges,, it had been unable to take delivery of immense quantities of supplies whioh had been paid for. Some 4,000,000 carcases were still in store, and large quantities of the 1917 and 1918 wool clips were still in New Zealand, so that the Imperial Government had to this extent been a very serious loser. If the British Government, with its command of all British shipping, had been unable to take delivery of goods for which it had and which it desperately needed, it stood to reason that private growers could never have got their stuff away to market on their own account. This question was the moat serious problem of the near future. On the succesful sale of our products deponded the whole prosperity of New Zealand, and, naturally, the njore they could be sold for, the greater would be the prosperity of New Zealand. The world's markets were high, and New Zealand would like to take advantage of the prices, but the acute shortage of bhipping throughout the world was the difficulty. The arrangement with the Imperial Government ran out on June 30 next, and he *would like to see the Imperial Government make an offer to purchase another year's supplies. It would then be for tho producers to determine whether thov would accept this offer or take the risk of trying to snip the products themselves. It could hardly be expeoted that tho Imperial Government, with •o much of its purchases still lying in New Zealand, would make another offer, but he ■would like to see the New Zealand producers have the option or accept-

ing or refusing such an ' offer, and he was glad to note that Mr Mas*ey was doing his best to secure such an offer. If New Zealand could neither sell nor ship her products, the position would be very serious. COST OF LIVING. Perhaps nothing had so much frritated, and even enraged, the people of New Zealand as the increased cost of living. - The farmer had sold his wool at a very reasonable price, but the price of the manufactured article had gone up enormously. The National Government had made an effort to keep the cost of living \down, but that effort oould not be said to have been very successful. It had succeeded in limiting the E rices of many necessary articles, and it ad to be remembered that the cost of living in New Zealand, high though it was, was lower than in any other country in the world. In part, this high cost could not possibly havo been avoided. It was due to two things, the extreme" shortage of supplies and the extreme demand, both oaused by the war. Half the world's labour had been employed not in production but in destruction, and the result had been a shortage all round. But the people believed, and he thought rightly, that in addition to these unavoidable causes there had been gross profiteering. Many remedies had been suggested and many tried, and in many cases these would-be remedies had had absolutely no effect. The fixing of prices had been tried, and it had proved to be a most dismal failure. The price of wheat and flour and bread had been fixed, and the result had been largely to drive the New Zealand wheat grower out of businesss, and in this coming year we were threatened with a wheat famine. The price of hides had been fixed, and the result was that many hides had been deliberately spoiled. He had made repeated representations regarding this matter, and was glad to say that some time ago Mr Massey had advised him that he was considering the remodelling of the regulations, or,- alternatively, the' lifting of the embargo. He (Mr Malcolm) hoped the latter would be done. History showed that the fixing of prices was futile. The greatest brains of the world were at work on. the problem, and yet they had failed in war time to keep the cost of living down to a reasonable, figure. Dui-ing last session the New Zealand Government had placed a very drastic law on the Statute Book. It gave power to inspect the books of any concern at any time, prohibited the sale of even single articles at unreasonable prices, and provided for fines of £2OO and for imprisonment for profiteering. If any law could stop profiteering this should do so. But though he was glad to see it tried, he felt that It was only by the employment of natural forces, which would, work almost automatically, that they could hope to keep prices at a reasonable level. —(Applause.) The one great force which would do that was competition. But this was an age of trusts, pools, combines, and understandings, and competition in the bigger businesses was almost killed. The only way to revive it was for the Government itself to enter into competition wherever it found that unreasonable profits were being made. In the case of shipping companies, their own balance sheets, even before the war, showed that enormous profits were being made. The Government should build or buy a freight steamer to run between Britain and New Zealand. If the Government ship could carry freights at

much less than private companies the private companies would be compelled to reduce their charges to those of the Government. This was proved by the fact that when the Government Fire Insurance Department started and reduced premiums by 33 1-3 per cent, all the private companies had to do the same. While supporting Government competition, he_ was stronriy opposed to Government nationalisation or State "Socialism. He was satisfied that no Government department could be run as well as a privately managed one, and Government interference in trade and industry was only tolerable so long as it was limited to maintaining competition. In order to keep the Government departments more in "touch with the public he thought departmental boards should be set up in each province. For instance, in Otago there should be a. Railway Board, consisting of a member nomwated by the farmers, one by business men, and one each, perhaps by the railway men and by Labour. Such a board would, understand the public, as well as the departmental view, and if it was given the widest possible executive powers it should be able to do exceedingly good work. FINANCIAL MATTERS. , Owing to the enormous expenditure caused by the war, the financial position of the country was one of much interest. Britain had succeeded in paying- a' large portion of her war expenditure out of revenue, but New Zealand had met almost the whole of hers by way of loan. These loans, too, had, beei raised free of income tax.' This was. he thought, a false principle, and he had conveyed his opinion repeatedly to the then Minister of Finance, Sir Joseph Ward. Fortunately the present Minister, Sir James Allen, had advised the Reform Flarty and Parliament that - he hoped to issue no more loans free of income tax. —(Applause.) Proceeding, Mr Malcolm pointed out that the National Debt had risen from less than £90,000,000 before the war to £170,000.000 at the present time. Those figures were perhaps too great to convey very much, but they meant that before the country could spend a penny upon itself it had to find £13,000,000 by way of interest charges and sinking fund. That meant more than £1,000,000 a month, actually £250,000 each week. That was a very heavy load to carry. Happily, however, some seventy millions (he thought) out of the total was invested in such enterprises as our railways, and was earning its own interest. But that still left us with a very charge which could only be met by taxation. Taxation, during the war period had been very greatly increased, and it was very desirable to brine: about a reduction as soon as possible, especially in the case of those taxes which affected the smaller man. That was all the more_ necessary because in the event of a period of depression, such as had followed many of the great wars of the past, this taxation might prove very oppressive. The whole country, pursued the speaker, was agreed that there were only two remedies—namely, that the people as a whole should 6ave and economise, and . that they should produce more. The trouble was to devise effective means of saving and methods of bringing about increased production. He was satisfied that to begin with we could with advantage save half a million pounds a year by the abolition of the Territorial ey stem.—(Applause.) In

1908 he had been an earnest advocate of the system, but that was because he then felt sure that Germany intended to make war upon us. -So convinced had he been on that point that in 1911 he had erone through the country at his own expense giving addresses, the text and purport of which was that Germany meant to make war and New Zealand should be prepared. But if the seemingly impossible now happened and we should become involved in another great war, we had in New Zealand a large body of men who had learned all there was .to know of war and who could rapidly convert the growing manhood of the dominion into an organised army, which would be much more efficient than the product of any territorial system. By the abolition of .the territorial system the dominion would not only be enabled to save the half million a year which it was costing, but the country would save the loss of labour caused by so many men being required to attend drills and camps. At the same time, however, New Zealand should continue to support our first and best line of defence, the British Navy.— (Applause.) INCREASED PRODUCTION.

.As to increased production, the dominion, in common with other countries had overlooked the chief sourse of wealth. Seventy or 80 years ago Germany was one of the poorest countries in Europe. Then, a British scientist discovered a cheap and effective means of- extracting from the immense deposits of iron ore in Western Germany the percentage of phosphorus which had hitherto rendered these ores valueless. The German nation at once commenced to develop these iron fields until just before the war her huge iron industry rivalled that of Britain herself. Another British scientist had discovered the art of making aniline dyes, and the Germans, took Up his idea, with the result that before the war she was making hundreds of millions a year out of the sale of these dyes. These two things had taught Germany the -value of science and scientific research, and just prior to the war she was fast becoming the industrial and commercial mistress of the world. If New Zealand adopted this system he conterded that she could double the value of her products in a very short time. The speaker also went on in this connection to advocate- a%>olicy of increased immigration. He expressed approval of the steps which had been taken by the Government to encourage and assist any industries which promised success; to establish hydro-electrio schemes; and to open up the country by road and rail extensions. THE LAND QUESTION. Devoting some attention to the land question, Mr Maloolm said the battle for the freehold had been fought and won. All parties were united in fleshing still more settlement, and a great deal had been done in that direction. So far as the soldiers alone were concerned, no less an area than 1,300,000 acres had been settled and another 600,000 acres were now ready for occupation, making a total of 2,000,000 acres. At the same time the Government had increased civilian settlement,, but in addition to settleineat New Zealand, as a whole, needed development. As soon as circumstances permitted the Government should adopt a scheme which he had often urged, and provide rabbit-netting at wholesale net cost.—<" Hear, hear," and applause) The Government could afford to sell it at 'less than that if it abandoned tne present costly system of inspection which had proved quite useless in keeping down the rabbit pest. Then a further saving of time and labour, involving increased production .could be effected by the provision of cheap telephone facilities in every farm house and that could only be done if the charges were made much more reasonable than at present. These concessions would all result in increased revenue to the Goverrment. Railway fares should also be reduced in the interests of men with large families, and better arrangements would have to be made for the education of the children of country settlers —(Applause ) CLUTHA. VALLEY RAILWAY. As to the Clutha Valle* railway, he had always urged that the selection of a route shou'd be left to the Government. The Government having decided on a route and voted a sum of money for the BalcluthaTuapeka Mouth route, he had strongly advised that* that decision should be accepted. Unfortunately, as he thought, his advice had not been followed, and the Minister had been urged to make other surveys, which were now being made. The Minister had i-efu'sed to go on with the authorised line till the surveys were completed. Those urging the surveys were now themselves anxious that finality should be reached, and they urged that the surveys should be completed as rapidly a 3 possible and a final decision come to by a commission to be ap: pointed for the purpose. These wishes he had conveyed! to the Minister. Personally, ho still thought the whole district would

have been wise to put all its strength behind the authorised line. He hoped an agreement would soon be- arrived at, and that at an early date this fertile and productive district wou!d have the great advantage of a railway.—(Applause.) A HOSPITAL DISTRICT.

Referring to the proposal to establish a hospital districc in South Otago, Mr Malcolm said he would very much like to see hospitals established at" Balclutha, Milton, and Owaka. On the present valuation Dunedin was not paying it 9 fair share of hospital upkeep, but should be paying an additional £9BBB each year, and yet the Otago Hospital and Charitable Aid Board grudged the loss of the £booo paid by the South Otago local bodies. A SANE, RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT. In conclusion, the speaker emphasised the need for supporting a sound, sane Government, so as to secure the restriction of the extreme views held by some of the Labour members. He had no time for the Bolshevist element, but he saw no reason why a party should not be formed which would include some of the men who held moderate Labour views, such as'Mr Veiteh. He (the speaker) was a member of the Reform Party and he thought it would be returned with a majority, but his interests were those of the people as a whole, and not of the "big man or of any one section in particular.— (Loud applause.) QUESTIONS. In reply to several questions. Mr Malcolm said he was strongly opposed to the introduction of coloured labour into New Zealand, and even in regard to Samoa he would like to see it avoided if possible. He thought Mr M'Villy's services might--have been retained as General Manager of Railways at a lower salary than £3ooo—(applause)—but he believed in a policy ot paying for- ability. He was in favour of the Government taking over the Kaitangata and Taratu private railways and making a looplino there. He also thought that greater encouragement should be held out to people to rear large families. —(Applause.) VOTE OF THANKS AND CONFIDENCE. Mr H. Simson moved: "That Mr Malcolm be accorded a hearty vote of thanks for his address, and that this meeting expresses confidence hi him as a 'fit and proper person to represent the electorate." Mr R Mpffat, in seconding the motion, said Mr Malcolm was an honest, faithful, and level-headed man, and he had represented them well in the House. The motion was carried by acclamation.