REPLY TO PREMIER

Southland Times, Issue 18745, 3 December 1919, Page 6

REPLY TO PREMIER

SIH JOSEPH WARD AT RIVERTON. LIBERALS AND LABOUR. Sir Joseph Ward addressed a meeting at Riverton last night that jmore than occupied the seating accommodation of More’s Hall. Sir Joseph spoke for nearly two hours on a number of questions after referring to certain remarks made by the Hon. W. I. Massey (Prime Minister) in his speech at Riverton on Saturday night. Sir Joseph was granted an attentive hearing and applause was frequent. The Mayor of Riverton (Dr Trotter) presided, and briefly introduced the speaker as a famous statesman. On the platform were Lady Ward, Mrs Doctor Gordon, Hon. J. Topi Patuki, M.L.C., and Mr J. C. Thomson, M.P. for Wallace. Sir Joseph, who was greeted with applause, stated that he could assure them that it gave him pleasure to have the opportunity of addressing a Riverton audience. It was not the first time that he had had that honour and he really came back to old friends of whom many had gone since his last visit. He regarded it as the duty of leaders of political parties to discuss the important political questions of the dominion, and in following the Prime Minister at Riverton he was only following out the right and privilege which was accorded to leaders of the Opposition parties in all parts of the world. He could assure them that lie was not going to call anyone names, and while he did not expect that they would all agree with what he said, it was right that he should place before them the reforms which he considered were necessary in order to place the country. on an even keel and in a sound state of prosperity. Before placing his policy before them there were one or two matters arising out of the Prime Minister’s speech to which he wished to refer. He did not want them to be left with any wrong impression which might have been conveyed to them by Mr Massey in regard to his attitude towards the Parliamentary Labour Party. In .order to do this and to show that his position had been misrepresented he would refer them first of all to Mr Massey’s statement. Mr Massey was reported to have said; “The Liberals in conjunction with the Labour Party, considered the matter and also considered what chance there would be of getting the reins of Government. They saw there wbuld be some difficulty in doing this, because, including Labour, the Liberals would only have 39 members out of a total of 80 and Mr Massey would be left with 41. Sir Joseph Ward recognised he could not obtain power and consequently entertained Mr Massey’s overtures. Those were the remarks of Mr Walker, who was, one of the Labour Party. He (Mr Massey) had never read anything that threw so much light on what took place in the setting up of the Massey Government and he left the matter for the audience to think out. Those two J parties were, apparently, willing to join, to seize the reins of Government in the most critical time in our history. Thank God they had not the strength.” That statement, said Sir Joseph, was absolutely contrary to fact in every particular and he would deny that" any proposal had been made by the Liberal Party to the Labour Party for the purpose of putting the Reform Party out of power. What was the position at that time? Of 80 members in the House the Reform Party had a majority of two. One of these was the Speaker of the House and that left them with a majority of one. At that juncture of the war if the Liberal Party had elected to stand out, the Massey Government could not have carried on. He had not made any proposal to Mr Massey. The proposal dime from a third party and when the matter was discussed by the Liberal Party he held that it was his duty to oppose the election of a new Government until after the war was over. He had never moved any motion or in any way tried to oust the Massey Government. First of all it might be supposed that he had made some overtures to Mr Holland, but he wished to dispel that idea-. Neither Mr Holland nor Mr Semple, nor for the matter of that Mr Fraser, was a member of the House at that time. They entered the House as the result of subsequent by-elections. He had stated in the House of Representatives that if after the elections he had to depend for a majority on the support of the representatives of the extreme section of Labour, he would not remain in office. He had also issued a manifesto in which he made it quite clear that he was opposed to direct action. He took strong exception to Mr Massey and the extreme Reform papers in the north accusing him of pandering to the Parliamentary Labour Party and it was not fair that they should endeavour to enlist the sympathies of the electors against him by, making statements which were altogether contrary to fact. (Applause). THE QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT.

Then there was another statement that would lead, perhaps, to misconception. He had never been a supporter of some of the planks in the policy of the Queensland Government, and yet, by quoting from the experiences of that Government in connection with State commercial enterprises, an effort was being made to picture him as irrational and not responsible enough to meet the obligations that were devolving on him at this time. He was not going to allow such an inference. He had never adopted this method against his opponents, and they had no right to play the trick on him. (Applause). The reference of which he spoke was to nationalisation, Mr Massey having quoted the losses incurred by the Queensland Government in this direction. There were only two allusions that he had to make to this remark, and they were the strongest and most direct he knew. “When the Ryan Government was losing'money I, as Minister of Finance in the National Government, was straightening and strengthening the financial position of this country, and when I went out of office I left over £15,000,000 to meet the requirements of New Zealand," (Applause). “It is unfair,” continued Sir Joseph, “to infer that the Liberal Party is going out for wild or ill-considered methods, for that is quite contrary to what it is doing.” LIBERAL LEGISLATION. Sir Joseph went on to refer to the dissolution of the National Government. Speaking of his resignation, he said that some of the Conservative press in the north at times stated that he should be still in the National Government, yet in the next breath they wrote him down and said that he was not capable of conducting the affairs of the country. He wanted to know how these papers could reconcile the former statement with even the one that he was prepared to enter into a fusion with an extreme section which suggestion he had shown to be absolutely false. He was sure that the people, however, .would recognise the present methods of the Liberal Party as worthy of its great record —for it had a great record, extending over a long period of years. (Applause). The beneficial legislation of the Liberals had been introduced in the teeth of fierce opposition, yet, when the Reformers attained power, they had repealed only one law—the Second Ballot Act. And they had promised something better in its place. But what did they have? “The First Past the Post” system, by which it was possible to have a minority with majority representation in Parliament. The Liberals had given the State power to acquire compulsorily large estates, they had given cheap money to the settlers (£21,000,000 had been lent at four and a half per cent). The Old Age Pensions Act was also the result of the Liberal Government, although the Reformers had fought the bill. Undoubtedly then, the Liberal Government had introduced many measures of great value —powerful and humanitarian measures which some others were now hugging to their breasts as fond parents although they had done their best to strangle the same measures at their birth. RECONSTRUCTION NECESSARY. But he was not going to review the past to any length, it was with the future that his duty lay, and he hud referred to the matters previously mentioned simply to remove any false impressions that might have

been left by Mr Massey’s speech. The country, he went on, required a strong and sympathetic Government, for, although there was no visible sign that New Zealand had just passed through the greatest war in history, there were the effects of the war to be reckoned with. So a strong reconstruction policy was needed on methods many of which had never before been contemplated. New Zealand was the youngest British dominion, she was the furthest from the heart of the Empire, she had the smallest population and yet, in proportion to that population, she had sent more men to fight than any other portion of the nation. But there was a debt to pay as a result. Did his hearers realise that, although before the war the required interest and sinking fund on the loans was £3,000,000 per annum, they were to-day £12,500,000 (including pensions), and probably' it would attain £13,000,000? Did they realise that, before all the country’s obligations were met, the national debt would be £200,000,000? These great obligations would have to be met by a reconstruction method, otherwise they would fall on the taxpayer. Instead of the latter alternative, there should be a reversion to peace time taxation. Sir Joseph ’ dealt with the question of nationalisation on lines similar to those followed by him in his previous addresses. He advocated State coalmine®, Slate shipping and a State ferry service between the two islands. In referring to the inestimable benefits derived from the various departments at present-owner! by the State, he asked if there was one of them which they would want to close and claimed that two-thirds of the legislation placing these Departments under State control had been introduced by the Liberal Party.—(Applause). In referring to the hydro-electric scheme Sir Joseph stated that he had advocated it in the House nine years ago. He had wanted to spend £500,000 on hydro-elec-tricity at that time, but had to be content with the establishment of the scheme in Canterbury. He was as strong in his views then that it was a valuable adjunct as anjf of the men who uphold it now. A prophet had not much honour in his own country but he was quite wiling to be judged on his prophecy that within from 15 to 20 years every railway line in the dominion would be worked by electricity. “The Liberal Government has made thousands of farmers, although there are those who say that it has done nothing for them," declared Sir Joseph. And hy-dro-electric development w’as going to mean a great deal to the fanning community in the next 10 or 12 years. Electricity was the only power by which nitrates could be produced from nitrogen and that would be more valuable than even the famous Naum (Laughter). It was a well known fact that the Germans before the war were producing nitrates from nitrogen by the agency of electricity.

AGGREGATION. Speaking of returned soldiers and land settlement, Sir Joseph declared that there was no good in placing men on land on which they might not last any time. — (Loud applause). They should be put on land at a value that would enable them to make a living in three years from now.— (Hear, hear). In this connection aggregation had a great bearing, and aggregation in the dominion during the past few years had been enormous. A voice: Mr Massey did not say anything about that. Parliament had not done anything to prevent this aggregation, continued Sir Joseph, and, laying himself open to a charge of being egotistical, he was prepared to say that the proposal he submitted to the House was the only one that would have any effect. He had proposed that separate tribunals- should be set up that would have submitted to them all particulars before any transfer of land was permitted, and they would have the right to refuse a permit if they thought that it was the intention of a large owner to add to his possessions.—(Applause). Speaking of the cost of living problem, he urged the need of more production as the best cure, and the elimination of exorbitant profits. In connection with production, he '.offered the opinion that men could do much on the lines of cottage gardens. ; Sir Joseph went on to criticise the Public Works) Estimates of the Government and its defence proposals on the lines of his recent speeches. Referring t<p the benefits of Liberal administration, he stated that he bad placed 9,000,000 acnSp of Crown lands at the disposal of education and old-age pension funds —somethiing that had been done in no other place) in the world.— (Applause). Every piece of Liberal administration had been in the interests of the people as a whole and not) of any one section. — (Applause). ( TRIBUTE TOf WALLACE MEMBER. “I am here,” concluded Sir Joseph, “to champion my old [friend and supporter, Mr J. C. Thomson, who throughout his long Parliamentary carteer has won the respect of everyone in tljie House.— (Applause). I have never knovVn in my'time a member representing a grdat country district such as Wallace who hhs been more active and assiduous in representing the widely varied interests of his electorate. At (times men are criticised, but .Mr Thomson, I assure you, is an excellent' representative. Both Mr Thomson and myself are appealing to our respective constituents at this time, and we rest assured that the electors, by returning us, will en.able us to cany the grand old flag of fneedom—-which is the old liberal banner—to greater victories. If we f are returned we -shall help each other to support the of our district and (he country so that itj will,be worthy of tjic glories and traditions of the great British Empire.”— (F-relongcd Applause). On the motion of tyir C. E. Johnston, seconded by Mr C. Iloikham, the following motion was carried unanimously: “This meeting thanks Sir Jolseph Ward for his able and informative andress, expresses its appreciation of the greVit sendee he has rendered to New Zealand and the Empire, and wishes him and the (Liberal Party success at the general election.” On three cheers being called for Sir Joseph and Lady Ward hhe audience responded enthusiastically, ohree cheers were also accorded to Mr J. C. (Thomson, and an invitation to give cheers for Mr Massey met with an equally fervent reception. ’>