LIBERAL LEADER.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 75, 5 May 1914, Page 2

LIBERAL LEADER.

SPEECH IN THE CITY. GREAT GATHERING IN SQUARE. EEPLIES TO CRITICISM. Between three and four thousand people gathered at Victoria Square last t evening to hear a political address by ! Sir Joseph Ward, leader of the Opposition. Unfortunately a light drizzle commenced to fall some ten minutes before the address commenced, and there was talk of adjourning to Hay ward's stables, in Armagh Street, but the crowd seemed quite content to remain there and hear Avhat was to be said. In the end the meeting remained where it had originally commenced. $ The Mayor, Mr H. Holland, presided over the meeting. In his introductory j remarks die stated that before the meeting proper took place there "were some presentations to be made. He thereupon presented bouquets to Lady Ward and her daughter, Mrs B. B. Woods. Mr C. H. Gilby apologised for the contretemps which had arisen in connection with the securing of a suitable, hall. The Mayor also apologised for the absence of a suitable liall, and said they knew Avhere they stood now —-they must have a Town Hall. Sir Joseph Ward was aceorded a hearty ovation on arising to speak. . He thanked all those who had endeavoured to make the outside hall

what it was. He-was sorry it was a little cold, but he hoped to make it a little warm- He wished to deal with some interesting subjects which, at this juncture werei.pf importance to them all. He hoped! that at the end of his remarks he would be found to have acted fairly. In the first place he wanted to refer to the position of parties. The present party was still the representative of the same old Tory Party, the political position, in New Zealand.-was the same now as it had been in the past. The present party represented a little over a third of the voted at the first ahd.seeond ballots at the last election. The p'osition of the holders of the Government benches at the present time was due to the secession of some members who were relied on to support the Liberal Party. Dealing with the surplus of the Liberal Party for .the past 17 years, Sir Joseph said the present Government had always quoted the Liberal Party's surpluses in London in their prospectus—that those surpluses had been transferred to public works, and had always earned 4 per cent, clear profit. (Hear, hear.) Members of. the Government had voted against the proposal to establish a sinking fund to repay loans, yet they quoted that Act when applying for loans in England. That was a tribute to the Liberals. He himself was; responsible for that Act. '(Hear, hear.) ■jIYINvt OTs THE LIBEKALS. He had been amazed to find how the administration of the Liberal Party had been adversely criticised by those who were now in charge. The Liberals had succeeded in introducing 280,000 people to N«w Zealand since 1901, immense, increases had been made in the stock of, the country, railways revenue had increased to the extent of £3,100,000. .Exports and imports had increased by ; 26 millions sterling, and the value, of wool had increased by four and a half millions. Land values had increased, savings bank deposits had increased by 23 millions sterling, everything had prospered during the regime of the Liberals, and what was me result?.' The '.present Government seized these facts, went Home and paraded them in order to secure their £4,500,QQ0 loan, They were living on the deeds of their predecessors—the Liberals. (Applause.) THE TREASURY CHEST. When Mr Massey was at Tapanui he said that when the Government came into office it fbund the Treasury chest depleted, though Mr Allen, in his 1912 Budget, showed a surplus of £807,276 in the ordinary t revenue. That showed how ridiculous, the statement of A the i Prime Minister was. The '' Otago I Daily Times,',' in referring to the same matter said: "'"lt. is. true enough that j there was a credit balance on the Consolidated Fund of £807,276 when Sir Joseph Ward left office, and if the transfer of £500,000 to the Public Works Fund was disregarded, the revenue of the Dominion for the preceding twelve ] months would, as the Leader of the Op- j position claimed, have exceeded the ex- j penditure by £1,307,276." So how the | Prime Minister, in the face of Mr! Allen.'s 1913 , Budget, and the . state- ! ment of the '' Otago Daily Times,'' I could make.;the statement that the Treasury chest, was depleted was extra-! ordinary. • It is the sort of criticism ! that no. man an Opposition should be j called upon .to meet. If the Treasury chest was depleted, how did Mr Allen find the surplus of £807,276 which he showed in the"l9l2 Budget. Sir Joseph claimed that in addition to £1,050>000 uuexhausted authorities for the Public Works loan there was j also available £4,750,121 of unexhausted! authorities- when he went out of office. ! He had. no. hesitation whatever in say- { ing that the amount left at the credit of" the Consolidated Firnd for the pre-1 sent treasurer was the strongest posi- j tion ever left to any treasurer in this country. Mr' Allen had attempted to mix up the balance available for public works, £82,000, with the general financial position, and to his mind that I was a wretched attempt at a fair dis-j cussion of r the financial position. The Public"'Works ; Fund mainly depended on two sources: (1) Loan money, and (2) transfers from the consolidated

revenue. It could not be denied that there was plenty of money in the Consolidated Revenue, and apart from that it was ludicrous to suggest that temporary accommodation, which every country in the world required from time to time, could not have been obtained. To introduce the position of the Public Works Fund into a sane discussion, on ' the finances of the country at that juncture would not be accepted as a fair thing by any reliable authority. He pointed out that during the time he was Prime Minister, from 1906 to 1912, the loans raised amounted to £22*,162,913, the interest for the same period being £439,956. That worked out at a little less than 2 per cent, on the! whole increase on the loans during that time. A refererfee to the records would show that interest on loans in 1895 amounted to £2 10/3 per head, and in 1912 to £2 12/1 per head, an increase, I notwithstanding the addition of the whole of the loans for that period, of only 1/10 per head. The increase of population had to be taken into account, but it would be seen at once on going inro the matter that under the Liberal Administration, in the conversion and renewal of loans at a lower rate of interest, there had been effected an "enormous saving to the people. In 1906,-for instance, the interest on Treasury Bills was £24,500. In 1912. it was only £11,459. From 1904 to 1910 £700,000 of Treasury Bills, that were practically of a permanent nature, were* paid off out of revenue, in addition to which a Sinking Fund was created, which on March 31, 1913, amounted to £2,603,643. His Government paid .off altogether; amounts totalling £2,240,076. The figures of the present Minister of Finance would not stand examination by any tenth-rate accountant in the country. (Applause.) ~ ADYANC.ES TO. SETTLERS? i The Minister, of Finance's references to the Advances to Settlers Department were reviewed by Sir Joseph.- He said that up to the publication of thetfetpns to the end of the December quarter «nly £250,000 of loan money had been provided for that Department by vernment, so that the moneys being loaned out were coming from*the ordinary revenue and resources of"thY Department. The statement, that, the \ amount to be,advanced to indiv4sup,hi ; had been increased from £SOO tQv£f<|Q(| ; had to be looked at from more than standpoint. Tiie fact that the ment had lent about £1,600,000 less.frtfiri the State Department than he had.dGne showed pretty clearly that a, great jojumbe.* of men who required advances ;<up to £SOO were going to be entirely disappointed. He held that it was. desirable, until there was sufficient money to go all round, that the smaller men . -should be provided for first. Mr Allen also stated., that there was a debit of liabilities on-the branch of £660,000, which the Government had to face at the present day. Sir Joseph said that he had been absolutely astonished to find the Minister of Finance attempting to perpetuate and make political capital out of whatj at the very outset of his taking office, was disproved. The <*liabilities?? referred.to, were sometimes termed by - the Reform! Party "liabilities," and 'sometimes "commitments." Sir Joseph . quoted! from Mr Allen's last Budget, in which Mr Allen showed that the liabilities -on March 31, 1912, on the Loans tor: Local Bodies Act were nil, and on the!' State Guaranteed Advances Account upto the' same date only £389. What Mr Allen | meant in his statement at Milton was jthat the authorised loans to local bodies to be paid over a period extending over 1912, 1913, and 1914, amounted to j£Gol,3lo. Sir Joseph quoted from; f the i evidence given before the Committee I that fully enquired into the whole matiter in Wellington, where it was tshown [that against the £651,310, which -i expended up to -19.14, there were autliorijties available for £825,000. That- was | £173,690 more than the whole of' the commitments. Under the Act he (the speaker) had borrowed, provision was made for borrowing £1,000,000' a year for these purposes, so that the burden referred to by Mr Allen did noicome out of the ordinary revenue, t$ was I unfortunately. Mr Allen's custom- to convey an erroneous impression, so long, as it was calculated to prejudice his! ; predecessor. ! THE FIGURES. . ■ ;! | The Secretary of the Treasury, whose j t evidence Sir.Joseph quoted, had shown! ithat the loans authorised to local public' bodies for 1912 were about £300,000 and 1913 £1912,895, and "for 1914 £91,465. Mr Allen, in referring to ] these commitments, practically t .sug-: gested that the whole amount ■fori the* whole period should be borrowed, h* the 1 first year. That would have, meant.ithafr the country would have lost the interest in the meantime, unless some investment could be found for the monev. It .-Wason record that Mr Allen had so much' ; money available for lending to .local' bodies that he sent the Secretary of the Treasury to all the banking institu-i ] tions to try to get them to- accept de.posits, which they declined. Sir Josepk commented on the fact that nonsuch' practice had ever been carried opt by him in the matter of for the purchase of land under; the Land for Settlement Act, nor in providing money for the payment, of '•ontracts. . " THE SAME PRINCIPLE., yV;".':'; Sir Joseph claimed that Mr Allen had i : applied the same argument to the contract for the Otira tunnel. He(jMr i Allen) always referred to the. whole 1 amount -of "the contracts, although, it ' was spread over a period of vears,' to the amount of £325,870. Mr Allen ac- ' tiially referred to them in his 1913' state- ' ment as having been written off.. This ] was the same line of reasoning which i Mr Allen had applied to what he term-! Ed the commitments under the loans j'] to local bodies. Surely no man who - was Minister of Finance, knowing that local bodies required to have fixed fin- ' ance to carry out certain works,'for J 1 which they had to get the authority of the ratepayers, would ask ordinary com- j monsense people to regard, the arrange- ' ment made by the past Government as j a burden. During his (the speaker's) administration £2,194,845 had been - authorised to local bodies, and i £1,481,700 had been actually paid in his ( time, and he had experienced no difficulty whatever in making provision for ] that large sum. Yet less than half the j j amount spread over three years was, ' i under the present Minister of Finance, i, a burden. That was the sort of eriti- 11 cism that was put forth in order to ; create the impression that the Govern- ' ment was being embarrassed by its pre- 1 deeessors. " ' < A LEAK STOPPED. j< i Tn further reference to local boJiesj, loans, Sir Joseph said that notwith- j standing the unfair way in which he 7 had been criticised by the present Go- f vernment regarding the scheme -he 0 brought into operation, the fact re- ( , mained that the loss to the country under the bid Loans to Local Bodies Act was £2,300,000. He had stopped, this loss altogether, and had provided 1 money for local public bodies through- e out the country, whose securities were j 1 right, at the rate of - a year' i

t at 3* per eent. ft was a fine scheme, - and an . effective scheme, and there > t had not been the loss of a penny-piece - from any of the publie bodies. The - total amount it had cost th« country j upon advances of £1,481,700 was about > £23,000, and that loss was incurred i while the money was waiting, before it i was actually taken over by the local fc bodies. ..;.,:;. \ THE SURPLUS. \ Sir Joseph said that he was • -not going to discuss the £400,000 surplus \ referred to by Mr Allen until he had L the details and the whole of the returns . in the "Gazette." The fact remained [ that it was a greatly reduced surplus '. to that which the Minister of Finance had been left with. Until he was in a ; position to know what had been transferred to the Public Works Fund dur- /, ing the year he could uot criticise the * , statement in detail. RENEWAL OF LOANS. Referring to the renewal of loans,. Sir Joseph stated that it was extraordinary how the present Government harped on this matter, as if something very unusual had been done. It ought to be a sufficient answer to any rational person to know that the whole'.of the renewals required had been provided for, including some £8,0Q0,000, and.the Post Office loans, which would take about 10 minutes of any ordinary Treasurer's time once he agreed with k the Postal Department upon the rate of interest. The proportion of loans for renewals in New Zealand was 28 per cent., which was the lowest as against the Comomnwealth 33 per cent., New South Wales 38 per cent., Queensland 32 per cent., Tasmania 38 per cent. Conversions and renewals had been going on from time to time throughout the Liberal Administration, at times for very large amounts. What would - be said of the Treasurer of the tlay in 1930, when New- Zealand loans fell due amounting to £29,295,302, and* in 1940 £17,528,932. A.certain amount of Sinking Fund would be available, but the way in which the renewal of loans had been magnified* in this country in recent times was a striking contrast to what, was done by mother countries. The Minister of Finance was entitled to do whatever he thought proper in [the matter. It was a regrettable thing that the leading members of the present Government, right through their history, had FOOTBALLED THE FINANCES ' of New Zealand into the political arena for party purposes, were doing so even while they were .in office. It was not the best way to- get the best results for the Dominion. •■■■•' . '■ ■.'■' PUBLIC WORKS FUND. " Dealing with the question of Publie Works expenditure, Sir Joseph referred to further statements of Mr Allen, to the effect that this fund had been de.pleted. He had complained that'- on ■■■*.. March 31, 1912, there was only £B'4,OW in the Publie Works Fund. What on earth did he think'they had been/doing . with it? They had been carrying on important public works, and had been spending money legitimately authorised by . Parliament. . (Applause.) Mr Allen had placed on record all kinds of peculiar statements and figures in order to create the idea that he.-and his colleagues were' some kind- of superior beings to their predecessors. (Laughter.) The Prime Minister and those with him had opposed the State Advances, and called it -a pawnshop. The Department had shown a profit ,of £208,602, after paying for all the loans raised for the State Advances Department. An elderly man who had pushed-up to the front interjected violently, t but pointedly r ' ; .-•.•'■; -.?>; ; "Let me have a say first, .and,you. come tip afteAvards,'' ,said Sir Joseph amid cheers.. LOANS TO :"' During his Administration the Government had lent to workers, £7,100,000 to settlers, and £1,300,000 - ... in two years to local bodies to enable them to carry oh the work of an urgent nature which was required. He would always be proud of the' fact that, in \ the teeth of powerful opposition, the (Liberal Party put measures'on'the Stall tute Book which the Government of the j day had strongly opposed. The Goj v eminent were going about the country "• ; taking the children of the Liberal Party ■ to their,''bosoms, and almost claiming j the paternity of them. (LoUd laughter.) \ .SOCIAL LAWS. . The Liberal Party had also put soma social laws,on the Statute Book. were 2300 widows drawing pensions,' without their paying a penny in contributions. That was introduced"'; by himself, who was 'sometimes regarded as a political monster. Since the year 1908 there had been introduced by him and put through, by the Liberal Party g an Act permitting local bodies- to establish pension funds for their employees. All that tlie local bodies had to do — and he marvelled that it had not been done in this country—was to group together and form a superannuation fund. There; were already funds for the railwaymen; police, Civil Servants. ' The Liberal Party had sometimes to'i*emind the people of the country of -iVhat they had done. ; : „ f V PROMISES. The Government ,had de- > i nounced, hi mi as a terrible borrower, | and saic.that if tne people did not stop j him the money-lenders should, They [promised to reduce borrowing, reorgan- ! ise the.-Legislative Council, reduce the cost of living, prevent late hours in Parliament, do away with the end of the session rush, have insurance against . unemployment, and have industrial peace in this country. (Loud'laughter.) Instead of keeping these promises they had increased borrowing enormously, and the expenditure had increased by £741,000 in .12 months. The Publie Works expenditure had also increased, and the building vote had gone, up tremendously. The building vote was terrible. The present administration were only £222,000 over their estimate. Referring to the new post offices in Wellington and Auckland, Sir Joseph spoke of the way in which the present Prime Minister and the Postmaster-General had had large slabs of marble bearing *' their own names in letters of gold placed alongside the slabs containing his (Sir Joseph's) own name in the foundations, of that building, in order that their names may go on record as men responsible for the ereetiou oi: those post offices. ' THE COST OF LIVING, ' How had the present Government, reduced the cost of living?. The Liberat administrations had reduced the cost of foodstuffs from 22 per cent, to 4.3 i>or cent. Yet the present Government, m instead of carrying out its.promise to 9 make, a s"till further reduction, durinothe past twelve months had actually ii£ creased the cost of living by 4.3 per cent. THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. Coining to the question of the Legislative Council, Sir Joseph quoted from a speech by Mr Massey prior to the last election, in which he stated that aii citizens of a .democratic ■ country-

the citizens of New. Zealand should not allow their laws to be made by a set of men in whose election the people had no voice. Mr Massey then declared for an elective upper chamber constituted on the basis of two members for four electorates, or, better still, three members for six electorates. The poor man was not worried by any thought of the sizes of the electorates. Mr Massey had declared that the upper chamber should be elected by the people, and the representatives therein should be known as good public men. Yet what was the next thing that had happened. When the time of four members of the Legislative Council expired the present Government appointed in their places four men who had been defeated at the polls years before. TOURING MINISTERS. Sir Joseph went on to speak of the fact that despite all--the Government's •assertions about proper Government, only one representative of it was left in Wellington the other day, and that was its representative in the Second Chamber. AH the others were touring the couutrj;. .Yet in Mr Seddon's time the party now in. power had always declaimed against members, of the Cabinet touring and electioneering. Why, one member of the present Cabinet was speaking in his (Sir Joseph's) electorate to-night. "And I'm sure he will enjoy-himself," added the speaker. The members of the Cabinet had been promising things right and left lately. How many millions had they promised in the last six weeks? He believed the amount promised was about £25,000,000; and he had an idea that this was election year. His party was getting first-class certificates from its opponents for all that had been done under the Government of Ballance, of Sedtlon, and of himself. The Prime Minister at the present time was right away in the south. Of course he would follow him. He had to do that as a matter of duty. (Laughter.) As a matter of fact, the Government were all away—there was only one Minister in Wellington. If at any time anyone would take the trouble to look up * 'Hansard," they would see that they nearly strangled themselves in their criticism of what the Liberals had done "in a moderate, mild way." How could they swallow the words they had so sincerely uttered in the past, as they were doing the same things at the present? Referring to the question of population, he said he could see the great crocodile tears falling upon the Prime Minister's waistcoat as he had lamented the fact that the population of New Zealand was not increasing. The Prime Minister had said that he had not the figures by him, but the "New Zealand Herald" had said that more had gone than had come in. In the Liberal days the increase in proportion was greater than the increase in the German Empire, in England and Wales, or in the Commonwealth. In * political speech the Prime Minister.had said that the London money-lenders should stop the borrowing by New Zealand if the local people did not. Mr Massey had since beaten their record of debt and their building vote "right away to glory." They had a great record of concessions to the people. They had saved £1,250,000 by the State Fire Departa ment; £6,500,000 by the** Customs reductions; £2,000,000 upon railway expenditure; and £500,000 on the Post Office. ELECTORAL REFORM. The position in connection with electoral reform at the present time was that the party in power was afraid i to trust the people. In connection with the repeal of the Second Ballot Bill, he said his • party had not been treated as members of Parliament should be treated, for they represented the people. They had the guillotine brought down. (Shame.) His idea of the people of this country was that they would not tolerate the abrogation of their rights as to majority rule. . The question was whether the peoi>le who were opposed to the reactionaries and the representatives of the large land holders were going to allow themselves to be made fools of, and be made to submit to the first past the post system —a system which in New Zealand at the present time would result in minority representation. Why could not the Government come out now and state what they were prepared to do in connection with electoral reform? • Voice: "Why don't you." Sir Joseph Ward: "We know better." Ho went on to say that they were not going to put their programme before the present Government. The Government \s platform at present was composed of most of the Liberal policy, and they had not got the decency to .acknowledge it and say "Thank you." They knew what their policy was going to be, and it would be a sound and progressive policy, framed for the good of the whole people, and not to keep from them what are their just rights. (Applause.) THE DREADNOUGHT. "Now, ladies and gentlemen," Sir Joseph continued, "I want to ask you

if you have heard of the Dreadnought? l(Loud laughter.) Well, lam going to tell ; you something about it. Who paid for it?" (Voices: We did.) The members of the Government, Sir Joseph continued, had often said that the question of naval defence should be kopt out of party politics, but how had they lived up to this ideal? They had accused him of giving a Dreadnought for which the workers had paid. But who had he asked to pay for it? Was it the farmer, the tradesman, or the worker? No! He had provided that the money should be drawn from three sources, and had arranged taxation accordingly. In tht first place he had imposed upon the banks an increased tax on their note issue. Had any of his hearers paid more for their pound-notes than before? (Cries of "No!" and laughter.) Then he had increased the tax on racing clubs. Had any of them who "patronised the races paid more for their totalisator perr.\lt? No,' they had not. Thirdly, he. shad increased the death duties." As none of them were dead, they could have paid nothing under that, head. (Loud laughter and cheers.) Thus the statements of his opponents were completely refuted. (Applause.) There was no man or woman in the average position in life could say that he should go about with that arrow in him. A voice: Why did you not tell us this before? Sir Joseph: I could not go everywhere before. He went on to say that the first Lord of the Admiralty had described the gift as one of the greatest acts of farsighted imagination which any modern state could claim credit for. . NO LOCAL NAVY. Sir Joseph defended his opposition to i the local navy. "If we have this local navy shibboleth put on us in New Zealand will mean disaster from the financial standpoint as far as this country is concerned." If they were to have a local navy it must be efficient, and one Bristol cruiser could not defend their commerce and their shores. Their naval officer would send along a requisition for millions,, or he would not be responsible for the efficiency of the defence of the country. It would be incomparably better for them to stand by the old British Navy, and give a direct contribution to that navy. Continuing, Sir Joseph said that the defence vote last year amounted to over £500,000, and if the present policy were allowed to go on the Dominion would be payiiig £1,500,000 a year on naval and land defence before five years had passed. It was next door to madness to embark upon such a policy, with all it meant and implied. But we were bound to have an efficient system of defence. What we should do was to see that the cost did not run away with us, or that the system of defence did not bring us into a spirit of jingoism or interfere unduly with the ordinary occupations of the people. We were bound to face our responsibilities, the responsibility of defending this valuable country, and that responsibility involved by our attachment to the Motherland and to ;the Empire, but the question should be discussed from an impartial standpoint. THE STRIKE. Dealing with the strike, Sir Joseph quoted at length from speeches delivered by him in the House of Representatives on October 30 and November 5 of last year, to prove how he had been persistently misquoted and misrepresented by his opponents. Ho showed that he and his party had stood for the maintenance of law and order. Capital had its duties and rights, and Labour had its duties and rights. He had tried to place the question of the strike on a higher plane than that of party. After reviewing the efforts he had "made to get the Government to settle the question, without success, Sir Joseph said: — "The strike ought never to have been allowed to drift on. The Government had no right to allow its functions to be handed over to committees, no matter how good the members of those committees may be. 1 believe that if the Government had kept the matter in its own hands the trouble would never have spread." Voices: How do you like that, Holland '? "I- have recognised,", proceeded Sir Joseph Ward, "that any man or woman 'should have the right to strike if they ; think that is the best way of bettering ! their conditions. But I do not believe i that striking is the right way of sei curing better conditions. 1 believe that ! strikes invariably occasion an enormous I amount of harm to the workers. Neither ! strikes nor sympathetic strikes have ever yet been beneficial to the people whose* interests they are supposed to ! serve. The idea that has been circu- ■ lated through the country that I and those with me were fomenting the j trouble, and had '-egged on' the strike, ' is absolutely untrue.'' I " UNFAIR TACTICS. " i After further reviewing matters con--1 nected with the strike, and repelling I the accusation that he had been in j league with forces of disorder, the | speaker said that the Government had

also been grossly unfair in attempting to mix the strike question with the second ballot stonewall. He criticised the letter which had been circulated among Reform organisations by the Reform Party's organiser, asking them to have motions carried protesting against "the action of the Liberals iu embarrassing the Government in a time of in-dustrial-trouble." That was an utterly unfair and unworthy thing. Sir Joseph proceeded to contrast the deeds of the Reform and Liberal parties. Reform was only Conservatism under a new name. Liberalism was progress. There was hearty applause when Sir Joseph concluded. Mr H. Pearce moved, and Mr R. H. Rusbridge seconded, a motion: —"That this large and influential meeting of Christchurch electors heartily thanks Sir Joseph Ward for his brilliant and statesmanlike address, and desires to dxpress its continued confidence in the party of which he is the acknowledged leader, and pledges itself to do its utmost to return the Liberal Party to power at the next election." Mr F. Cooke moved an amendment to the effect that the meeting had no confidence in the Liberal Party, on the ground that it had passed a compulsory military training Act without consulting the people. The amendment was not seconded, and the motion was carried, with only twb hands raised against it. The meeting finished with the usual compliments.