SIR ALFRED RANSOM.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13105, 13 November 1935, Page 5

SIR ALFRED RANSOM.

ADDRESS AT KOHINUI. A VERY LARGE MEETING. VOTE OF CONFIDENCE. CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY! Following upon a record meeting at Darmevirke the night previous, the memner for the district, Sir Alfred- Ransom, Minis- ' ter of Lands, came to Kohinui last evening to launch his campaign at tho Pahiatua end of his electorate and no doubt his expectations of anything but the small country meeting were not great. Imagine, then, his surprise and evident gratification to be greeted by an attentive and sympathetic audience numbering over fifty, farmers, their wives fnd daughters making up an audience thoroughly representalime of the district. It was a splendid tribute to the keen interest shown in the Nationalist candidate who spoke with al! his old-time vigour and directness. On the motion of Mr R. C. Ellinghani, seconded by Mr J. G. Brechin. Mr Felix Bolton was voted to the chair. Mr Bolton said it gave him great pleasure- to introduc-e Sir Alfred who was well known in the district as their member. He had ably represented the electorate for a long time. The chairman took the opportunity of congratulating Sir Alfred npo-Ii receiving a Knighthood. It was ail honour given to very few and was equally an hoii'our for the district. (Applause.) Sir Alfred expressed liis appreciation a.t seeing so- many present and he thanked the chairman for his kindly introduction. He had now been tlieir member for thirteen years. It might be considered an unlucky number but lie did not regard it as such. For the last seven of those thirteen years he had been a Cabinet Minister. Recently he had had conferred upon him the Order of K.C.M.G and this came as quite a surprise to him. In fact it canto so unexpectedly that, he felt somewhat nonplussed. So far as accepting the honour was concerned, he had felt it a great responsibility because he felt that it was not merely a question of whether for his own sake and that of his family he should accept. the knighthood but because it was an honour for his electorate. He had sinc-e been pleased to find that right throughout the district the electors did regard his Knighthood as an honour conferred upon the electorate. He also hoped that he might live up to the rank as he regarded it as big a responsibility as he did being member for this dis-

trict. Owing to the portfolios he had held in turn, that of Minister of ' Public- Works and now Minister of Lands his time had been very fully occupied. Then again, at the last election the district did him the honour of returning him unopposed u.ncl he may have suffered a handicap in that respect as it deprived him of the opportunity of coming more closely in touch with the people. But. as against this it must be to the advantage of the electorate to be represented by a Minister of the Crown. file sjteaker said he was sorry he had to disappoint the people of*Kohinui on the occasion of the 21st anniversary of the North Tiraiiniea Cooperative Dairy Company. But on the day of that function the Prime Minister returned to New Zealand and Sir Alfred as Acting-Prime Minister. had to meet him and hand over the reins of office. As a. consequence he not only had to disappoint, the residents here but also himself. The candidate proceeded to traverse the various enactments of the present Government and give the reasons for their introduction. He also dealt vigorously with some -jf the statements of the Opposition and briefly referred to the. policy of the Democrats. Most of these phases, he conceded, would be familiar to his listeners but they nevertheless washed to hear them reiterated by their own member from whom they could ask questions or offer interjections (which, by the way, he freelv ed)THE DEMOCRATS. I owarcls the c-lose of a convincing address Sir Alfred made reference to the local Democrat candidate. The latter, he remarked, had complained in Dannovirke that the Minister ignored him. Sir Alfred confessed that he had done so, because be believed that the only party likely to give serious opposition was the Labour Party. However, he .l-as sorry for having been guilty of ignoring a visitor, especially a visitor who would be here for cnly a very short time. He would not offend again. But the fact that no opponent for the Nationalist candidate could be found locally w-as surely a compliment to the speaker. The opposing parties had hail to bring a man from Motueka ami another 1 rom Ohingaiti to contest the Pahiatua seat. What was wrong with . Motueka and Ohingaiti that these men could not contest -the scats in their own district? Why transfer them to Pahiatua f> Similarly with tlie loader of the Democrats. Mr Hislop had boasted, when returned as Mayor of Wellington, that his was tlie greatest majority of any Mayor of the city of Wellington. Why did he have to run away to the Wnirarapa then to contest a seat instead of standing 'or one of the Wellington constituencies? It was rather significant. In conclusion the candidate thanked the meeting sincerely for the patient herring given him and invited questions. (Loud applause). QUESTIONS. One written question stated : “As oranges are very necessary for the health of children do we have to pay dpty on them coming from Australia ?' ’ The Minister said he was not certain as to the exact amount of

duty. The Minister of Customs was endeavouring to reach a satisfactory arrangement with Australia in this respect. But when oranges were mentioned potatoes cropped up too. If New Zealand allowed Australian oranges in free of duty the Dominion its potatoes to go in to Australia equally free. At x )re_ sent the balance of trade was in favour of Australia and pressure would have to be brought to bear to level things up. Ho agreed that a full supply of oranges should be available to the people at the lowest possible price. As no further questions were forthcoming Mr R. C. Ellingham said he had very much pleasure in proposing a hearty vote of thanks to Sir Alfred, confidence in him as their member and continued support for tlie National Government. This was seconded by Mr W. Olsen and carried unanimously amidst applause. S r Alfred said the vote was very gratifying to him and the members ‘>l the Government. Ho appreciated the great interest shown in his meeting that evening and sincerely thanked them for their thanks and confidence. The customary tribute was raid t«> the chair.