POLITICAL POINTS

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 69, 1 November 1928, Page 3

POLITICAL POINTS

FROM MR POLSON’S ADDRESSES. Mr Poison has addressed several very successful meetings in the north end of the electorate, where he has been most enthusiastically received. In the course of his address he disposed of many of the statements made regarding him by opponents, the more important' matters dealt with being reported elsewhere in this issue. XXX There! is mere attention being paid to this electorate than any other in the Dominion. lam fiercely attacked by Ministers of the Crown, as well as by my opponent', said Mr Poison. When such attention is paid to one who has just entered the political arena it is a sure sign there is something unusual in this contest 1 . XXX I have never mentioned my opponent’s name until yesterday, Mr Poison remarked at Tikorangi. I treated him fairly in every respect, and when votes of confidence in me were suggsted I asked that they be held over until he had been heard. But since he took up the fight he has attacked me, and made attempts to discredit me. xxx Economist's say that collection of taxation through the Customs is extravagant, but if th e objects of the tariff were economical and bearing fairly upon all sections of the community, said Mr Poison, there would be something in its favour. But, he said, after reading Mr Hawken’s ad- . dress to the Reform Conference as published in the Newsletter, if is employed for political purposes largely and mainly for the purchase of votes. xxx England repealed her corn laws in 1840, but we still have ours. We are the only country with a tax on bread, and according to Mr Hawken’s statement to the Reform Conference we are not taxing food of the people for economical purposes. Mr Hawken says he is a free trader if he consulted his own ideas, but he is crying protection to get men into the House. To teach that doctrine , to men entering politics is degrading. xxx “In the face of the condemnation by the Commission appointed by Mr Massey, Mr. Coates is pushing on the Taupo-Rotorua line, stated Mr Poison. The t'alk about it being necessary for timber is not convincing as there already is a private lin e laid —the Taupo Timber Co.’s line from Putaruru and another is contemplated from the Main Trunk ■ for the Tongariro Timber Co. There • is *no justification for the railway. XXX “Though he did not please some people, Mr. Villey at least made the railways pay, even under modern conditions, but the Government got • rid of him on a pension, and appointed a Board which have since been pensioned off, and now we have another general manager appointed with a seven years’ engagement and pension of £2500 at the end of it.” xxx “We hav e railways running at a dead loss, and they are still kept in operation. Many of them are in the constituencies of Reform members. The Kaikohe line in Mr. Coates, electorate loses £728 per mile a year, the Opunake line in Mr. Hawken’s electorate loses £lOls per mile per annum, while the Greytown line in Mr McLeod’s constituency shows a yearly loss of £llOB per mile. Those are only three. Is it any wonder the railways are not 1 paying?”