GENERAL ELECTIONS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LI, Issue 16871, 28 October 1925, Page 12

GENERAL ELECTIONS.

PRIME MINISTER’S TOUR. GREAT REFORM RALLY. (Por Press Association.) HAYVEE A, last night, Mr Coates addressed a crowded audience at. Jlawcra. early this evening, rereiving an enthusiastic reception, the big gathering singing “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.” The speech, the tenth delivered during the day, followed on the lines of those previously given. Referring to the late Premier; the speaker paid a. tribute to the manner in which lie had guided the country through the difficult pre-war and postwar periods. As a result his work had left the Dominion the most fortunate isles in the British Empire. Continuing, Mr Coates stressed the need for a strong Government able to cope with the disruptive influences working in the country and undermining (lie high ideals and privileges that had been the heritage of Britishers for centuries. He asked for a mandate from the electors to enable the Government to deal with this matter in an effective manner.

Dealing with finance, Mr Coates declared the prospects for the current year good. He. denied that the Government was an extravagant administration. He analysed the statement that the charges increased by fifteen million since pre-war, and said that, excluding the Post and Telegraph and Railways Departments, which paid their own ways, and war costs, also the cost of living, the increase in the cost of administration had worked out at £3 5s 6d per head in 1914-15 and £3 Os 9d last year.

Discussing the public debt, the Prime Minister said that, of the amount raised since 1912, £66,800,000, 90 per cent, was interest earning and no charge on the community. He failed to see lmw the Government could carry on a vigorous development scheme without increasing the public debt, lie emphasised thi‘ need of money for developmental purposes, in railways, elcctricty, public works, and school buildings, and contended that the Government was following the only possible course for a country like New Zealand. He declared there was no power under the statutebook to make a third “cut” in public servants’ salaries.

Sir Coates agreed there had been an increase in the total amount of Customs duty, but declared that there had been no increase in the tariff except on luxuries. The greater proportion of dutiable goods was no reason for the increase in the amount collected. That was due to the greater prosperity. New Zealand had more free goods coming into the country than Canada and Australia.

Referring to land tenure, he said the Government was carrying out a national stocktaking of all land suitable for settlement. It was no use putting the compulsory clauses of the Act into operation till the land could be obtained at prices which would enable settlers to make a success of the sections. He dealt with banking and advances io settlers. He said the Government desired to give practical effect to a system of finance that would be of the greatest use to the fanner. He indicated that the Government proposed to assist the family man from the Consolidated Fund. Concluding, Mr Coates referred to the Locarno Pact, and expressed the hope it would he signed. The peace and stability of Europe would mean a lot lor New Zealand. A vote of thanks to Mr Coates and confidence in his administration and leadership was passed unanimously, the audience according him an ovation. The Ministerial party afterwards left for Stratford, where another meeting was to be addressed.

STRATFORD, last night. The visit of Mr Coates to-night was made the occasion for a big Reform rally. The Town Hall was unable to hold the audience. The stage and available accommodation were filled to overflowing. Mr Walker, the Reform candidate, made his first appearance in Stratford in his campaign of the electorate, and spoke for an hour before the Premier’s arrival. He pledged himself to vote on a no-confidehce motion with Reform and give hearty support generally to Mr Coates’ policy. The Premier, on arrival at the hall, had a rousing reception, and delivered a two hours’ address on the lines of previous addresses throughout the country. He got. an attentive hearing, and there was much enthusiasm at the conclusion.

A resolution conveying a hearty vote of thanks to Mr Coates for his address and that, tho meeting express confidence in him as Prime Minister and in the policy and administration of the present Government, was carried unanimously and with enthusiasm. The meeting closed with cheers for Mr Contes and Mr Walker.

NO EXCESSIVE BORROWING. FINANCE MINISTER REPLIES TO SIR JOSEPH WARD. (Per Press Association.) ASHBURTON, last night. Thu Hon. W. Nosworthy to-day nfude a statement in reply to Sir Joseph Ward’s speech at Invercargill. He said : “In the Press reports of Sir Joseph Ward’s speech the Government is practically charged with excessive borrowing since the end of 1919. which marked the close of the National Ministry. It lias, I think, already .been amply demonstrated that the Government exercised great prudence in the expenditure of loan money, hut T would point out. that since April 1, 1920. up to Maicli 31, 1925. the public debt increased by £26,600,000, an annual average ol little more than £5.000.000. It must not he overlooked that the expenditure on public works was reduced to a minimum during the war period. Further, in making comparison with the pre-war rate of loan expenditure it is necessary to take into consideration the fact- that prices and wages have increased by at least 50 per cent, in the interim. Over the period mentioned the debt under certain heads, mostly war expenses, showed a decrease of £7.500,000. Added to the net increase, tliis meant that approximately £34.000.000 additional moneys had been borrowed for other .accounts. Of this sum £27.000,000 was borrowed fop productive purposes, includin'.'' £16,500,000 for interest-earning public works, notably railways, tele-

graphs, and electric supply, ami £7,000,* 000 for State advances. A further £3,700,000 was mostly expended on immigration and roads, much regarded as indirectly productive, while t in* remaining £33,CJb.OCO was spent for the most part on public, buildings; including schools, It, might he hero mentioned that though the debt has been increased by £26.000. CCO. interest and sinking fund charges met out of taxation show no increase during this period. "Iti regard to 1 lie important question of taxation,” continued the Minister. "Sir Joseph Ward is reported to have said : 'Next to Great Britain, New /.calami it- the most heavily taxed country in the world per head of population.’ Without going any further afield than Australia, the latest available statistics show that the amount per head for the Common wealth works out at £l2 6s 7d for the year ending June, 1924, compared with our rate of £l2 3s 5d for the last financial year. L would like to analyse the £l2 3s 6d per head for this Dominion, and see where it all goes to. Fiistly, 5s 6d represents tyre tax a.nd motor registration fees, whit It go to Hie maintenance of the main highways and is not available for general purposes; secondly, war debt and war pensions absorb £4 4.s 3d, leaving £7 13t, 8d for other purposes, .compared with £5 2s 9d in 1914. If deduction is made to counteract the fall in the value of money over the war period, it will be found that the direct burden on the taxpayer, apart from war costs, lias not relatively increased.

"The speech under review made particular reference to Customs revenue, and to the big increases under that heading since 1920. The increased revenue, however, is almost solely due to increased imports. Broadly speaking, Customs duties for revenue purposes are levied on luxuries only, and half the revenue for 1924 was derived from the importation of jewellery and fancy goods, spirits and alcoholic liquors, tobacco, motor which 3 and tyres. Apart from luxuries, Cus toms duties are levied almost solely for the protection of. our own industries, and here it might be added that the suggestions made by Sir Joseph Ward for adjusting the rates are more or less truisms in that lie has practically enumerated the guiding principles underlying the present tarilf. Sir Joseph refers to the increase of £B.CCO.OCd in expenditure after war charges have been deducted. About £1,000,000 of this will be found under the heading of special Acts, and is due to tin; increase in pensions apart from war pensions amounting to about £600,000 and to increases in hospital subsidies and such like charges. This leaves £7.000,000 increase in the annual appropriations. but this in no way represents tho relative increase in the burden of the taxpayers. The annual appropriations include the working expenses of railways and post and telegraphs, whose increased expenses are covered by increased receipts, and impose nothing on the taxpayer as such. The sum of £520,000 of the increase is purely nominal, being due to the change in the accounting -system. ■ “Finally, it is necessary to,make allowances for the world-wide fall in the value of money. When these allowances have been made, it will be found that the comiMirative result obtained works out. per head of mean population as follows: 1914-15. £3 5g 6d; 1924-25, £3 Os 9d. These figures afford further proof that there lias been no administrative extravagance in the expenditure during the last, decade.”

SPEECH BY MR. FORBES. (Per Press Association.! GORE, last night. Mr. G. W. Forbes, leader of the Nationalist party, addressed a moderate attendance at the Theatre Royal this evening. The Mayor of Gore (Mr D. L. Poppelltvell) presided. The address was mainly on the lines of the Riccarton speech. Mr. Forbes presented the policy of his party. He said lie would have liked to have made a more extended tour, but, owing to the unprecedentedly sliprt time till election day, lie would have to confine his attentions to the South Island. Men were required for Parliament; whose advice and service would he of use to the Dominion, and in this respect Ik> eulogised the services of the. local Xat i o nalisf can d i dat e.

In connection with fusion, lie detailed the events leading up to tho abortive Conference. The Liberals, he said, wanted an entirely new party with a new policy to go to tho country. Through the Reform leader’s promises to his supporters in the electorates and Mr. Coates’ desire to fulfil Mr. Massey’s programme, tho fusion issue fell through. He challenged the Reformers’ sincerity in the mat ter, which, was only skin deep, as was evident by Mr. Coates making party capital at the expense of the Liberals at Palmerston North immediately after the conference. During the negotiations .the Liberal party suspended all political activity w'hile the Reformers were particularly active. He would sooner go out of politics than join the Reform party. (Applause). Ho was very disappointed in Mr. Coates through the negotiations, and after the fusion failure the Liberals decided 1o test the matter at the election and go to the country as a National party and made a wider appeal than that of Iho older Liberal party. They did not, however, give up the principles of old Liberalism, which they had always stood for.

Dealing with the financial position, the speaker held that the mortgage on the country in .1914 totalled 90 millions and to-day it was 234 millions, lie admitted that the great bulk of the money, apart from the war expenditure,'was being used for useful reproductive works. But it was necessary to-day to increase production to pay interest, which was nine millions to-day compared with £3,000,000 in 1914.*

Dealing with Mr. Coates as Public. Works Minister, the speaker said that, in .1920 it was considered unwise to go to over two millions in expenditure. Mr. Contes, in his first year, lifted the expenditure to over three millions. Tho increase was not due to higher wages and cost of material, but was duo simply to the increase in tlie amounts spent, which had risen to

£(5,000,000 for 1023. "Give any man those millions, ” lie said, “and he will get work done as advertised by Mr. Coates.”

The speaker predicted that no Public Works Minister in the future would get Ihe title of “the man who gets things done,” as there would be no money to get things done with.

lie dealt with the soldier 'settlement, quoting from reports of the Land Boards, which said the money had not been well spent. The* land was extremely uninviting, and of poor quality. The Government had the power to take lands compulsorily and could have prevented the boom occurring by putting into action the compulsory clauses of the land for settlement legislation. As far as land settlement was concerned, they could not expect it from the present Government. In .101!), Mr. McLeod (now Minister for Lands), referred to the misuse of land and need for alteration in the sphere under which large areas of lands were in a few hands for settlement. When Mr. McLeod got into oJlice he found another parly in power —the large land owner. The present Government had failed in regard to reform of the Legislative Council, which wits still a refuge for political rejects. Mr. Forbes referred briefly to the planks in the policy of the Nationalists, the need for cheaper phosphates from Nauru, the alteration of the electoral system as advocated by the Nationalists, the need to protect the public from the exploitation of trusts. The propaganda “that if an elector voted for the Nationalists he voted for the Beds,” was characterised as a slander by Mr. Forbes. Whether the Nationalists were in a majority or not after the election they would take into consideration the tormntion of: a national pally and a National Government which the Reformers were lighting tooth and nail. A good many vested interests were sheltering behind Reform. The Nationalists stood for the whole of the people, not for a section. (Applause). A vote of thanks and confidence was carried dry acclamation.

MR, COLEMAN AT TE HAPAR-A. The policy of the Labor party was expounded hv Mr D. W. Coleman at le iiapara last evening. Despite the extremely unfavorable weather there was a. fair attendance of electors, who listened with interest to the views of the candidate). Mr. H. Be air presided. Mr Coleman explained the policy of the Labor parly in connection with the land question. The party’s land policy was termed the “usehold” policy, and they were prepared to accept that name, because in their opinion the land was intended for use. The Reform party said they adopted the “freehold” policy, and the candidate for that party had stated that the freehold policy would give a," greater sense of security. By this means, therefore, a greater number of people should take up land, hut this had proved contrary to fact, since in January of the present year there were several thousands fewer people on the land than had been the case before the Reform party came into power The speaker continued to outline the land policy on the lines of his previous addresses.

Running with the usehold policy, said the speaker, his party would have the State bank, Which they would establish immediately. It could be operated, and operated very successfully. In Australia these banks had been of great assistance to the farmers, and. had proved themselves very successful institutions. At present, however, the Commonwealth bank of Australia was not functioning as it was intended, but this was due to the fact that those who conducted the institution were not in sympathy with it. fSo far as being anything like a Government institution, the Bank of New Zealand was operated by the private shareholders. Mr Smith was in favor with the establishing of agricultural banks before the Stato banks, giving as his reason that “they must crawl before they could walk.” From that the. speaker gathered that Mr Smith was speaking on a subject in which he was not thoroughly conversant. A State hank would be of just as great assistance to the fanner, and in fact tliei whole of the community, as the agricultural hanks. The huge profits made by the private hanks were made out of tlie needs of the people, and the State bank would finance the community without making such great profits. The question of taxation was dealt with fully by the candidate. The Government. lie, pointed out. had taken the burden of taxation from the shoulders of those most able to bear it, and placed it on the shoulders, in an indirect manner, of the bulk of the people. They were placing the taxes upon the people by means of Customs duty and sucli like, without the latter knowing that it was being done. Mr Colepian also dealt exhaustively with the subjects of pensions, immigration, and workers’ wages. At the conclusion of his address the candidate was accorded a hearty vote of thanks and confidence.

YOUTH MUST BE SERVED. “I make no apology for supporting Mr. Coates. The erv to-day is for the young man. Mr. Coates is a young man—-a. vouinr New Zealander—who has proved his ability on thp field, in tho House, and in the industries and commerce of this Dominion.”—Mr T. Forsyth, Reform candidate for Wellington East, at Newtown. A BARGE FAMILY.

“Thirty-five thousand Crown tenants —or one-third of the total occuoiers of 'and in (lie Dominion—-that is the family I have to look after,’’—The Minister of tennis.