THE POLITICAL OUTLOOK.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10960, 1 May 1907, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE POLITICAL OUTLOOK.

SPEECH BY DR. FINDLAY.

SOME ASPECTS OF SOCIALISM

EXPOSITION OF THE GOVERN

MENT LAND PROPOSALS.

PALMERSTON, April 24 The Hon. Dr. Findlay (Attorney-Geae-rail addressed a crowded meeting m tbe Public Hall this evening. The Mayoi 81r E. H. Clark) occupied the chair , r Findlay was played to the hall from the residence of Dr Hislop, whose guest he has been during his short stay m Palmerston, by the local bapd,undei Conductor Kitchen. Among those occupy irig seats on the platform was Mis Findlay. J)r" "Findlay commenced by striking a personal note. This meeting was to him, he said, a , .unique .one: Twenty-one years ago he came to Palnerston a callow youth, quite unknown and equally unknowing. He came green and fresh from university lectures filled with bookish, talk, juvenile ideals,' and a good appetite. Nor was he weaned from the bottle of the student's notebook. Palmerston was his!. professional cradle for eight years. It was there that he learned his trade, worked for and obtained his Doctor of Laws degree, and married one of the best of women.— (Applause.) His eldest son was born there, and through many yeafß he theve added to his number of friends, amassing a store of happy recollections. He learned from the' press that the. subject of his speech-w as to be the- Land Bill . but he had already spoken on this, and a great many other people had done the same. If there was one thing about which audiences m the colony Were tired it was the Land Bill. What he did propose to do was to deal somewhat generally with the political outlook,' which of course involved a consideration of the Land Bill. 'THREE MINISTERS. "There are," said Dr Findlay, "three different Ministries m office m New* Zealand just now. There is the Ministry _.<■ dt appears to Mr Massey,- that is the Opposition's Ministry; there is^hefM^histry as it appears to its makers, the Liberal party, that is the Liberals' Ministry ; and there is the Ministry ns it appears to the members themselves, that is the Ministry's Ministry. They are all different.; The first is bad, the second is good, and the third beyond nil question excellent. But I am not {going to dwell upon itd excellerices-^-that would take too long,—- and there is another reason, and that is that it is always more interesting to listen to the vices of a public^man than to any catalogue of h's .virtues. The former have a piquancy of savor quite absent from dreary goodr ness, and hence if you want to say anything interesting about a Ministry, , show it ' m, its .true color, , which- as you know is black, as much • black ' _s . your: hearers will stand. This is //"why- the Opposition speeches about the Government are easier to make, and alw.iys more entertaining than a weary narrative of its: good, works. ":-'! THROUGH OPPOSITION SPEC TACLES. It is for this reason that I desire tonight to look^just for -a moment at the Ministry "and its schemes through. Opposition spectacles. '."'-'That is, I wish to show you that from an intelligent farmer's point of view you have at present m power m this country the most danpenous Socialistic. Ministry that ever-ex-isted. Mr Massey says so.- He says so . very often, and he says bo very loudly. Mr Massey. hates Socialism. He told the House on- the second reading of the Land Bill that the only thing he hate.l more- than landlordism was Socialism. Socialism, we all know, is a dreadful thing— at least when properly pronounced it sounds dreadlul, especially m the country.' In the cities, which, we gie told, are the 'hot-bed' of it, -it create* . no alarm, 1 'and some indeed say;that there it has relieved thei oppression 'of sweating, . secured - shorter hours and f better conditions for the workers, while doing no harm to -the employers. But m the country it comes as a blight or a noxious weed worse, than the Mediterranean fly or the Californian thistle— at least so we are told, and if we believe it,' and it is for this purpose that we are told it, then surely -the country should take up arms against the cities, join the tion, and stamp, out this dangerous growth. '" . MR MASSEY'S VIEW OF """'' / SOCIALISM. Aud as the Ministry are all, -it seems, besotted Socialists— Socialists as regards labor and worse than all Socialists as legards land, — it-is. the first duty of every intelligent farther to enlist under Mr Massey and extirpate this Government root and , branch. You will remember that, .j •'■-•..am looking -^at the Ministry thr<.ngh'?Mr* r Ma'Bsey's spectaclesi ■That is; ;he_,tells us, the intelligent : fafm.ers , spectacles ; but what is this, thing; Jthis colonial Socialism of outs'! It is"sometimes an advantage - even to a. politician to know the meaning of a word he is constantly using. It may be shortly defined as State action , either directly for the benefit of the whole people or directly for the benefit of a class, and indirectly for the benefit of the whole community.. Our railways and post offices are examples of the first, our Factory Act an example of the second. But perhaps. Mr Massey, does not know -.this is Socialism. It may be. he. is misled ; by the alarming name into denouncing that, of which he really approves.: Such things sometime happen. If to take all the Socialism yon can get from the Government is to be a Socialist, then. l shall prove to you that it is the farmers, the country people, particularly the small farmers of this country, not our city dwellers, who are really our worst Socialists. Lei me show you how easily this can be proved. "YVe are all Socialists now-ardays," said our present King some years ago, and he meant that m certain things like the Factory Acts, Truck Acts, Employers' Liability Acts, Machinery Protection, and Public Health Acts, we all recognised that State action or regulation was undoubtedly good. This is what , I may call mild, safe Socialism, which nearly every prosperous country, including England herself, has tried. ORTHODOX SOCIALISM. It is orthodox, Socialism. Now, with regard to the. cities, What Socialism ha /c we tried except this orthodox Socialis-.n. We 6ertainly have "not tried there that aggressive active Socialism which. tak?s the form of' State expenditure, or State' services for the benefit of a particular class. _I repeat, then, that as regards the cities, our Socialism has been of an orthodox character, safe and mild, and eeing we find it m most other colonies, somewhat commonplace; but what about Socialism m the country, or what I shall call farmers' .Socialism. In this respct we have led the world, tried novel, if Hot dangerous, experiments, taken land from one man by compulsion and given itHo another at the expense of the State, and devoted the public purse, and the public service to the,help and advancement of a particular class, and assisted to make it the most prosperous section m the community. And who has beeu the white-haired boy of this Socialistic legislation how denounced? Why, th? farmers. When we passed "The Land for Settlements Act, 1894," and took land compulsorily from large owners, dividing.it up among a crowd of .landless Crown tenants, we .perpetrated the most daring Socialism ever attempted m a British colony ; but wo risked it. That is, the colony as a whole; including every city dweller, risked it.- For the snull farmers m the country we added to ..ct.r public debtjto purchase, to survey, road, and settle these large areas. For whose direct benefit! For the class to whom Socialism is now declared to be a blight. We have spent five millions m this way and we are still spending hundreds of thousands, and we have settled thousands of sniall farmers at a cost to the" State on an average of £1200 each. But this is not all. To assist now only these, but aU farmers, the State made another daring Socialistic experiment. THE STATE AS A MONEY-LENDER. It became a great money-lender. Under the Advances to Settlers Act it lent nioney to settlers, not only to those : t had settled on its own Crown lands, but to all other farmers, at lower rates ol interest than they could get the mon<>v for elsewhere. In this way it has lent, mainly to country people no less than £5,000,000. Here, again, the whole colony added to its debt for the sake of a special class, added to it by what was Socialism as pure and simple as State action could be. Is it now to be a menace to those it blessed? But this is not all. What is our Department of Agriculture l It is Socialism' written large. It might fairly be called . the Department of Socialism for the farmers. Look back to the year the Ballahce-McKenzie Administration came into office, only 16 years ago; recall the little division v'f the Department of^ Land "and Survey, which consisted of a secretary, one good friend (Mr J. D. Ritchie, who has done" much magnificeut work for this colony), ■ a chief inspector, and 70 officers,, almost wholly connected with the inspection o'f T. stock and the destruction of rabbits, .',

and contrast the state of things to-day, when Agriculture, as a great separate department, employing 300 officers, c< elusive of numerous farm and othci laborers, on our experimental farms. WATCHING THE FARMING INTERESTS. Recall how, throughout the BallanccM'Kenzie, Seddon, and Ward Gov.rnments, the paternal hand and the pater j nal pocket of the State have been ex J tended to the farmers. May I illustrate I this. In the dairy division to-day, at! , the growth of the last 16 years, we have a dairy commissioner m London to watch and secure markets, half.a dozen dairy instructors for farmers and other producers, an instructress who goes rouni teaching scientific dairy 'methods free to farmers' wives and daughters, and 16 dairy produce /graders and clerks, a'l paid by the Statej all devoting their energies to assist the dairy produce j and with such good success that our dairy farmers hold to.day a ,; foremost place m the markets of the world. Need I-recall" what an expense. the State has thus gone to to achieve this? On cold storage alone for farmers' dairy produce the Government spent, from 1895 to August, .1905, no less -I a sum .than £86,000. You -may know, but few people not engaged m the industry have any conception of the countless services to-day being performed at the State's expense for our farmers. To 10,000 people m our rural districts there is regularly mailed from Wellington by a staff of clerks all the books, periodicals, and leaflets issued by the Agricultural Department, containing information and: scientific instruction oh all branches of rural produce,.. l wanted to get these for the last few years 'from Mr Ritchie, and he told We it would require a mule to scarry them, and the.i asked if .'..1. would 7 take them with me; —and it's all Socialism, and Mr Massey objects to Socialism; but it's farmers' Socialism; not city Socialism; It is orthodox, not heterodox, Socialism. ''What is the difference between heterodoxy and orthodoxy ?" a celebrated bishop was asked. "Why, orthodoxy," he said, "*s my doxy; heterodoxy is the other man's doxy.". >I? leave you to see the point, if .there is one. It has been on the same mischievous principle, for the same class, that we have procured and subsidised shipping lines', and during the four years ending March, 1907. the Gbvernv ment 'spent no v !ess a sum than £101,-.00 subsidising shipping: lines and promoting markets for our produce m South Africa, Canada, the Far East, and Australia — over £25,000 a. year,, and mainly '.for whose benefit? •• In . the, same spirit wo have established as a further branch of , the Agricultural Department a veterinf ary department; " to "detect*,^ .".'treat; 'and prevent the spread of contagious and other diseases _ amongst the farmers' stock, and not only do we detect for him disease m his stock, but we pay him a sbare,. of his loss, where, owinjgy.to.-i : such disease, stock have to be destroyed.' I To-day m this colony we pay (mainly for the benefit of the farmers of aU kinds) the.salaries of a chief veterinarian ' and pathologist, an assistant chief -veterr marian, and 22 ordinary qualifieu'veterr marians, 14 meat inspectors, 24 assistant meat inspectors, T laboratory assistant, 1 laboratoryf attendant; : 4 clerks, and .1 caretaker, and the whole of this is due to legisla.tion passed" under the'(government of which the; present Ministry is a. continuation, and yet this is Social-ism—-the work oi: the seven or.feight do? yils, as the case may bOj above f referred to; • I pass by^the enormous sums we" htLv'e" spent under the Rabbit Nuisance Act, Noxious Weeds Act, and Stock Acts; 'but do you know that the State is now paying 56 ;.inspectpi. l s pi stock who are also inspectors of,' dairies and noxious weeds and rabbit pest. In addition to these there are ten others, .who are also inspectors of dairies, 17 as inspectors -of i noxious weeds, 39 rabbit agents, 6 overi seers of experimental farms, 13 nursery- ; men, 33 clerks, and other officers, not to : mention rabbiters, farm Hands andf other laborers.- The sheep i tax; which was im'' posed to defray the expenses of sheep inspection and the eradication of scab', produces only £20,000 a' year. It bears so lightly that a man with' lo,ooo Bheep pays only £10 a year, a sum equal to the wool off 30 sheep at present prices," while the Department of Agriculture cost us for the year ending March, 1906, over £124,000, and is steadily costing more' as : operations extend; Pause and ask where your respective farming industries would : be without these and other services; and recall what still socialistically the. State is doing for farmers. SOCIALISM GROWING; - ;. This farmers' Socialism is still flourishing. In 16 years it has grown and flourished like the Wicked and tne green bay tree. It is still- growing. We are about to establish experimental dairying schools, where tuition, will; be given, free, and an officer risnow oh^ his. wayto.Can,ada to obtain information concerning the 'Conduct of schools m that country. These will be maintained at State expense,- for the benfit of dairyfarmers. The Government has established m connection with the Agricultural Department, a biological division, which deals with biological and horticultural matters. •' The staff consists of, among others, a canning expert (who is a skilled lecturer), bee experts, entomologists; Nomologists, crchard inspectors, inspectors of imported fruits, a^id clerks. Time will not permit totejl you all the Government is doing for the fruit industry at Waeranga, >Rbakuna> Momohakij ;, Weraroa, and elsewhere.. , Go vernment ' inspecto ;s now visit the various parts of the colony, giving .instruction and demonstrations to fruit farmers; and m every way assisting them to the best results and to keep down and eradicate, disease m fruit and fruit . trees. ." In (keeping: with this Socialistic policy, bee experts have recently been appointed to instruct beekeepers and to assist them to overcome difficulties and make the bee " industry profitable and successful ; 'and to the same end a State apiary was' established a little over a year ago at Kiiakiua, which has been greatly beneficial as an object lesson to bee-farmers. GOVERNMENT POULTRY FARMS. Nor have poultry farms been forgotten. The Government has established stations at Ruakura, Momahaki, Burnham, and Milton, which are now so well equipped aa to meet the demand of poultry farmers for poultry and eggs of the best kind for breeding purposes, and tp fur-; - ther assist the industry the Government has established depots at Auckland, Wellington,, Christchurch, and Dunedin, • where poultry is received, graded, killed, plucked, prepared, packed, and frozen at uniform charges of = bare cost. What has-, been the effect, for instance, of this Socialism for the poultry farmer? A few years ago there was not one, poul-try-raising establishment m this colony conducted on anything like a large scale. Now there are many, all up to date, and all conducted on profitable and commercial lines. The Government has recently received a letter from a large poultryfarmer m the north guaranteeing to ship not less than 17,000 head of poultry to the London markets next season, provided we niake provision at the Auckland depot to hiandle the number. Then, again, instruction is freely - given by State-paid poultry . experts by frequent demonstrations of poultry plucking, etc., at various shows, the table qualities of various breeds, and the requirements of export and local markets. FLAX-GROWERS AND MILLERS. If uny of you are flax-growei-B and mil- ' lers you know what the Government has done since 1901 by grading and Government inspection at the mills as to the E roper method of preparing fibre. Nor aye the State aids been confined to any class of farmers. All classes have benefited. For example, we hear now and again of railway concessions, but is it at all generally known that tho farming: and pastoral community has directly benefited by special railway concessions to the amount of nearly £500--0-000 since 1895 by reductions m rates lor frozen meat, live ; stock, butter, cheese, and other products. I have no time to even mention the .many other directions m which the State has sought at the expense of the colony to help. w*th land, money, communication, free storage, and free instruction:^the farmers of New Zealand. No one can deny that "it was Socialism, but the farmers have always shown a great relish for what, if called by its proper name, Mr Massoy says they now condemn. The fact is that for the last 16 years, ever sin.c Messrs Ballance and McKenzie Mok office, farmers' Socialism has been so constant and increasing that its true and essential nature is not appreciated, for so long as it is farmers' Socialism, and not city Socialism, it seems as orthodox a policy as one-man-one-vote. COUNTY v. CITY SOCIALISM, .but let us transplant some of this country Socialism to the cities, and you will see how different, how revolutionary and absurd it is m its new soil. Suppose we pass a city Lands for Settlement Act under tho title of "The Shops for Tradesmen Act." Undcivthc former uct a. man says to the Government: "I am "a farmer, but I have no : land and no capital to buy land, not' enough even to buy stock," and the Government generously takes land from somebody else and says, "Here, my good man, is land for

you. It has cost us £1200. Take a lease of it for 999 years and farm it You haven't enough money to work it, but as you improve it we will lend you money on your improvements ; we'll teach you how to farm, provide cool storage for you, etc., help you to market, give you concessions on the railway, and generally assist you by all the means m our power." That is unaa* the Land for Settlement and similar acts. Now, we transplant this to the city, and under the Shops for Trades men Act a tradesman comes along and says to the Government, "I am a good ' tailor, or bootmaker, but I have no shoo or small factory, and I have ho money to buy one; scarcely money to, buy plant and . stock./ You have helped ' the farmer. I want you to help me." Then the State, at the expense of the whole colony, takes him by the hand generously, buys a shop or small factory somewhere at an outlay of £1200, gives him a lease of it for 999 years, and starts him as a tailor or bootmaker ' to make clothes or boots, and "shortly lends him money at a minimum rate of interest to carry on his business. Not only that, but the State seeks markets for himj pays a small army of instructors to teach the best cuts and the best fits, the best methods and the latest fashions, gives him railway carriage arid a cheap or free store for his manufactured goods, furnishes him with expert information., and, as it were, enters into partnership with him as a working but gratuitous partner of course. This is an absurd case, but extreme cases often point a moral." : THE LAND BILL SOCIALISM. Proceeding to consider the Socialism they were told lay m the Land Bill, Dr Findlay said if he were asked to say what were the main, the paramount purposes of the Land Bill he -. would reply that the most important of it . all was the limitation of estates, both present and future, and next m importance the reservation of our unalienated Crown lands as an endowment for old-age pensioners, charitable aid, and education. These were the two great features of the Bill. If they -agreed that endowments should be established for the purposes mentioned, then. clearly they couJd not sell -the -lands, comprising these 'endowments. They "could not -have ?the.r cake .a_d eat 'fit too. It mrist be^carefully borne m mind that if, the ;t&e hid arrived fbr^the creation of isuch. endowments, the question of freehold or lOasehold as regarded the Crown lands could not arise. Hence their opponents must not only say they should not go on selling Crown lands, but also that endowments were not desirable or needed; Th ds* it wias clear; that the first and most important question was: Should such endowments be created ? To decide this let them first remember that it was the duty of every just Government to run ' the country and its assets not m the interests pf any class, however large or powerful, but m the interests of the people asa whole. . Secondly, it was itSr duty* to legislate not for to-day alone, but for the -future, for that policy. was best which was best m the long run. THEi INTERESTS OF THE FUTURE. The interests of the years. to;come,.:the needs of- rising pi commg 'generations, must be set against any selfish or. press ing interests of the hour. Now, what did the future "promise us? It told us that we should become a populous people; that if we advanced as we hoped to do the child born to-day might see m these islands before.ihe died a population- of three or four times our present numbers. This meant that the population' growing thus would increasingly press upon the sources of subsistence; that accompanying our '. advance m settlement and num« biers must. go* more rrpads,; more railways, and increased public services generally. The story of every progressive older country must, repeat itself ".here. Improved land values must rise, and the landed people of this colony, would; . apart from any. efforts of their ;own, become richer as the" years passed, and population grew, while the landless, if we took the lessons :of older lands, would, unless tHey increased their efforts, grow poorer. The process was '. too plain for any candid mind to d en yIn years to come pur aged -poor, largely those who had passed their lives as workers m our cities, woidd increase m number with our popidatibn.'.T^ must be so even if , the present proportion of" old pensioners remained the' same. An increase would arise; in_ claims for charitable ."aid, : ' for Hospital treatment^ f Or ed ucation. The Land Bill contained the socialism which would think of this and make some provision lor these future needs. We could not all be farmers. The number of rural freeholders holding five acres or more was under 50,000. The number of Crown tenants of ail kinds was 16,500, while, the number of voters brif the . rolls at last electiph i wa«i 476,473. He mentioned . these figures merely to give. a faint idea of the relative interests of freehold farmers, Crown tenants, and the rest of our adult population. THE ILLUSTRIOUS PAST. ; Dr Findlay quoted the opinions of some of the colony's leading statesmen m the past. Mr Rolleston m 1882, Mr John Ballance m 1890, Sir John M'Kenzie and Mr Seddon, that it was, m the best interests of the colony that no more Crown lands should be sold. The late Mr Seddon had , had "bis back to the door" on this point, and these men and every main -wno, as a statesman, had adorned our Parliament, had swd the sale ; must stop. This marked the" Way m Which the tide was flowing. ,-His Government hoped to. try and do what Mr Ballance VGfpverninent ; tried hard to do "and failed. They would try to reserve for the purpose of .the people's estate the remnant of the land that was left unsold for closer settlement. This was the main underlying principle -of their Land Bill. ! HAWKE'S BAT. Those who had not been- in: Hawke's Bay knew, really nothing of the evils of large holdings. He would give them a few figures which would set any responsible man thinking; The return was dated 1903, the last reliable return he could get, though he was having one compiled up to date. The list of proprietors who owned more than 10,000 acres was nearly 200. They owned five million acres— that was to say, about 7800 square miles of good country m Hawke's Bay. Sixty persons held 1,200,250 acre,s--att; - average of 20,500 acres each— sill, or nearly all, open to railway and well rbaded. This land properly sub-divided "would settle 4200 settlers. The enemy of the small settler to-day was the man who held his 50,000 and iOo',ooo acres with an iron hand for the purpose of sheep runs, who; if they had any philanthrophy' and . patriotism^ would nave opened up their land, which would soon be cover-r ed with smiling, prosperous homes. In Taranaki the population averaged .13 persons per square mile, whereas m Hawke's Bay, with much better land, the average was only nine persons. The Government should push on w^h. the work of breaking up these large estates, so thaisheep would give way to. men, womori and children. — -(Applause.) THE STATE AS BUYER. He asesrted that many ' of the big blocks of freehold held privately had been obstacles to progress, and he i. lustra ted this by pointing to the fact that when the State acquired land it hud to pay six times as much as tho seller had paid for it. Of £5,000,000 spent m the purchase of private estates, fully £3,000,000 was for unearned increment. They had to pay the landowners £3,000,---000 for what they had never earned. The State had parted with 16 million acres of land. How much had they 1.-st of that, if £3,000,000 were lost on a million acres ? Besides that 16 millions, nearly another two million acres had passed away for ever practically m G99 years' leases. -How much was left for settlement? They had parted with mjre than half the lands m the colony, or judged on the test of productivity, probv ably three-quarters or even five-sixths of it. The population of the colony to-day was under a million, and, as they were proudly looking forward to the day when New Zealand would have her four or five millions of people, it behoved them to see that some lands were reserved for future settlement. THE FREEHOLD; ; He -ventured to say, passing from the Land Bill itself, that there would be for the smallsettlers of ""is colony more freehold during the- next. year or two than there had been during the last 20 years. Firstly, if they had their way, they would be an effective and prompt subdivision of. tbe great estates m such a manner that it would nottake the form of reaggregation. This would open up land for settlement m many parts of the colony. The whole of the unsold Crown lands of the North Island was mainly poor and of second class. Did they know that within the next two or three years there avouUl be two million' and a-half of good Native land rendered available for European settlement? He had been told by his Honor the Chief Justice that already 120,000 acres had < been made available for European settlement. While he said that the large ! landowners of Hawke's Bay and e.sewhere had driven the small settlers back, <

the way m which the Native lan-o were held for the last 50 years, particularly during the last 20 years, had had the effect of driving settlers back too. Why should this land have been held m idle hands? Why should the Maori be allowed his leisure, and waste the productiveness of rich areas, whilst the wliite man had got to take himself to their bush land? They must do justice to the Native, of course, and they could rely on this being meted out to them by Sir Robert Stout.— (ApplauseJ On the motion of Mr H. O'Neill, seconded by Mr W. Robertson, a vote of thanks was passed to the Minister for his address, and the resolution further expressed confidence m the present Administration. — Otago Daily Times.