ON THE HUSTINGS

Southland Times, Issue 20615, 13 October 1928, Page 8

ON THE HUSTINGS

WALLACE SEAT MR W. E. TAYLOR’S OPENING ADDRESS UNITED PARTY CANDIDATE Opening his campaign for the approaching general election, Mr W. E. Taylor, United Party candidate for the Wallace Electorate, addressed electors at Tihaka last evening dealing with the various controversial matters of the day and outlining his position in regard to these and other important points. Mr J. Laurie was elected chairman. At the outset, Mr Taylor said he had been an adherent of and a staunch worker for the Liberal Party for the past 25 years and had remained loyal to the party both in its palmy days and in its adversities. He had previously been asked to contest the Wallace seat, but the constituency had been honoured in its representation by Mr J. C. Thomson and it was only because Mr Thomson was not again contesting the seat that he had decided to go to the poll for Wallace. He intended to fight the election cleanly and had no desire to win by unfair methods. It was to be regretted that the time allowed for the campaign was so short, there only remaining 28 speaking days before the election although there were 81 polling booths in the electorate. The candidate said he favoured an elective executive of the very best members of Parliament irrespective of party. At the same time he wished it to be clearly understood that he would loyally support his party and provided it was carrying on the work and preparing legislation that met with his approve! would use his vote for the party. Dealing with the Bible in Schools question, Mr Taylor said he was distinctly in favour of lhe present system of free, secular and compulsory education. The teachers were strongly opposed to Bible in Schools and he took their view to be the soundest. He was in favour of the Nelson system which provided that the clergy could visit the schools and give religious instruction but he was opposed to any interference with the educational system. Licensing. Mr Taylor referred at length to the licensing question which he said was one that should not be brought into the sphere of politics, but which should be left entirely in the hands of the electors to decide. He was in favour of a three-issue ballot paper and gave as his reason the fact that at the last election 58,000 electors had voted for State Control. There were people who did not favour the trade as at present carried on, but did not think that Prohibition would be the solution. Were a two-issue ballot paper decided on he would favour a reasonable majority being allowed as the carrying by a narrow margin of Prohibition would prove unsatisfactory at the following poll as only a very small number of electors would be required to change their views to bring about a return to license. A matter that he had not heard taken up previously was the question of hotel licensing fees which in boroughs and cities were fixed at £4O a year and in county and rural areas at £l5 and £25. In the cities large hotels with an enormous turnover were only required to pay the same fee as a hotel in, say Riverton, which was unfair. If a proportionate fee were imposed it would be the means of producing considerable revenue. He would support any measure to this effect introduced into Parliament. Mr Taylor considered that after hour and Sunday trading and tampering with liquor should be met with a heavy fine, but he was prepared to admit that hotelkeepers were carrying on their business in a better manner than they had 15 or 20 years ago. (A voice: That’s not right.) Concerning the term between licensing polls, the candidate said he was absolutely in favour of leaving the matter for the electors to decide. Manufacture of Spirits. Mr Taylor made an entirely new departure by suggesting that New Zealand might profitably consider the local manufacture of spirits. He said that at present spirits to the value of between £3,000,000 and £4,000,000 were imported into New Zealand annually. He believed these spirits could be manufactured within the Dominion quite as well and would provide employment for a considerable number of men and eliminate the sending out of the country’ of such huge sums of money. He could not understand why this had not been seriously considered before as it seemed to him that such local manufacture would bring prosperity to the country. Concluding his remarks in reference to licensing, he said he would like to see the question permanently settled for a considerable term of years and suggested that representatives of both parties should meet in conference and endeavour to effect a compromise. Land Settlement. Land settlement, said Mr Taylor, was one of the most important problems confronting the Dominion, for as all the wealth of the country was derived from the primary products, land settlement was the very basis of prosperity. At the previous election the Government had made this question its main plank, but he would say that it had proved the very worst Government that had held office in New Zealand as far as settlement on the land was concerned. During the last financial year the Government had bought up only 233 acres for settlement at a cost of £22,552. These were open cultivated areas and were in most cases at the height of production and could not be expected to produce more. If the country did not increase production and reduce borrowing and throwing away the money as this Government was doing, the position of the Dominion would not improve. His own view was that the Government could buy land at prices that would ensure a profitable return. He was opposed to confiscation, but would support a policy for the sub-dividing by consent of some of the big stations, where vast areas of fertile land were not producing one-tenth as much as could be done by intensive cultivation. Dealing with bush lands, he said there were large areas of worked-out bush lands available for settlement. Some were not worth farming, and he would favour the utilization of these for afforestation, but there were areas which could be brought to a high state of productivity. These he would favour being sub-divided into blocks of 200 acres on which would be placed suitable occupiers who would have the fee simple of the land and be given the advantage of Government grants for buildings and improvements. This would seem to be giving money away, but the return in increased productivity would easily offset this. Mr Taylor said he knew of a 3000-acre block of land just outside Riverton on which was some of the finest grazing land in the country. The Government had cut the area into 15 farms and the Lands Department had administered the estate until the Forestry Department had taken charge, and despite the protest of the other Department, had planted some 500 or 600 acres in trees. This, declared the candidate, was scandalous and was a matter to which he would devote his immediate attention were he returned. Freehold Favoured. The speaker said he was strongly in favour of freehold tenure and believed that the occupier of rural lands was entitled to a permanent interest. Still, he would not suggest the setting aside of the leasehold as this sponsored by the Liberal Government had assisted many people with small capital to get on the land.

The Liberal Government had set aside a tremendous number of education endowments and these were leased for 14 or 21 years with the right of renewal. At the expiry of the lease a valuer would visit the property, and if it was being only poorly farmed the rent would remain at the same figure as previously. If, however, the oc-