GOVERNMENT ATTACKED.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 78, 8 May 1914, Page 10

GOVERNMENT ATTACKED.

MR W. D. S. MACDONALD.

Press Association. WELLINGTON, May 8. Mr W. D. S. Ma,cdonald addressed the constituents of Tekaraka last evening when, despite hisi recent accident, he spoke for two hours vigorously criticising the Government. He received a unanimous vote of 1 thanks and confidence. In the course of his speech Mr Macdonald said the Government had been in power only a few months, yet they spoke derisively of those who built up .the country in years past. The Liberals, for this reason, would fight the coming election from the North Cape to the Bluff. He challenged Mr Massey to prove his statement about giving 20,000 people the right to acquire the freehold, and twitted the Government with having a leaseholder in the Cabinet. If Mr Massey remained in power till the crack of doom he could not possibly put as many people on the land as the Liberals had done In the past twenty-one years. He made ex-

tended reference to native affairs, and charggd the Government with leaving the door wide open so that-'west coast native reserves were filched from the Taranaki natives. He did not believe the country would agree with the last remnant of native land being taken away and the Maoris allowed to remain paupers or be placed on reservations. Regarding finance, he criticised Mr Allen's attitude, and quoted his statement to the Loudon, financiers that there was a surplus of £8,335,000 accumulated from 1891 to 1932, and compared this with his statement that he had found the finances of the country in a chaotic condition.

Naval matters were not a party question, but the people must see that they could not afford to spend £BOO,OOO a year when the calls for roads and bridges and settlement were ko great. New Zealand must rely on the British Navy. He quoted Hansard to show that on Mr Massey's own admission the conference which was attempting to settle the biggest strike in the history of the Dominion had only lasted five minutes.

The Liberals were not out for one section of the community, but for every section.