THE ELECTIONS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 210, 9 October 1914, Page 8

THE ELECTIONS.

»■■ THE SELWYN SEAT. ME HAMLET AT ALLENTONY Mr Joseph Hamlet, who is standing as a candidate for the Selwyn seat in the Reform interests, addressed a largelyattended meeting in the School-room at Allenton last evening. Mr C. J. Harper presided. ' OTHER CANDIDATES. Mr Hamlet said he was in the position where his conscience demanded that he should speak the truth, and he intended to do so. Of Mr Dickie, he had only to say that he admired Mr Dickie, who was his friend. They were, no doubt, all aware that there was another candidate on behalf of Reform who was going to contest that electorate. That was Mr George Sheat. He maintained that Mr David Jones had not got the Government support for Mr Sheat fairly. Mr Jones had said he had been right through the electorate, and the only man who had a chance of winning was Mr Sheat. He would like to ask Mr Jones and Mr Sheat how it was that at one meeting held all the hands were put up for Hamlet, and none for Sheat. The Government, he declared, had got cold feet on Mr Sheat. Mr Jones had said to the electors, You will have to have Sheat,. whether you like it or not. Mr Hamlet said he had offered some time ago to abide by a vote of the people as to whether he would contest the seat or not, but others would not come at that. They still maintained that Mr Sheat was the strong man. If Mr Sheat was a strong man, was it not all the more reason why they should have accepted his proposal? But they .would not dp it. .It was a pity the.Reform votes were split. He could not get out. He could have gone for North Christchurch, where he would have liked to have had a go at the "roaring lion." He could have contested Riccarton. But they would have said he wasa coward. As matters stood at the present time, he knew of two very excellent men to contest the Selwyn electorate —Mr Jim Jessop and Mr Frank Pawson. He was prepared to let them have a go. It was up to the people to see that only one man ran. It had been said scurrilously of him that he was an but those who said it would not dare to say it to his face. It had been said by Mr George Sheat to discredit him that he was only in the fight to split the vote, and that he was only nominally Reform. It had been said also that he was in the pay of the "booze" trade. That was the greatest libel ever uttered against a white man. LABOUR AND RAILWAYS. He had been wrongly reported in regard to what he had said concerning a minimum wage. He had said he favoured a minimum wage if the receiver of it guaranteed a minimum amount of work. He liked the labour unions up to a cer-

tain point. They had seen that childlabour was dispensed with, and that the sweating of women was abolished. But when labour unions became dogmatic and arbitrary, they attained to the law of diminishing'returns. The world would come to an end when men went on strike and refused to listen to arbitration. The strong man welcomed arbitration, but weaklings rejected it. The money or property that a man had was only incidental. What the world wanted was a man in whom other men could repose their confidence. He would not stand much more of the allusions to himself that he was a carpet-bagger. No capitalistic monopoly could send him to Parliament to hound down the workers.

He had been misquoted as to what he had said regarding the railways. It had been said he had favoured selling the railroads. Nothing could be further from the truth. The railways were very inefficient, and, admitted of enormous improvement. In America the railways were run by private interests, and the same thing took place in Great Britain. In France the State owned the railways. The wages paid in France were much below those paid to the railroad .servants in America. He was in favour of giving a lease of a certain amount of land at the side ..of. the railways to farmers to build grain sheds. The Canterbury position in regard to railways was much worse than Wellington's. The railway should go right up to Picton, and a State ferry service should connect up the North and South Island railway systems. In the last twenty years only 903 miles of railways had been built in New Zealand. The State had, in the first instance, run the railways because they could not find the capitalists to invest their money in this young country. He did not like State monopoly in everything: It created a race of inefficients, dependent on the .State. One in every eight in New. Zealand were dependent on the State, and we were sailing very close to the line. There were many things in America he did not like, but he liked their progressiveness. DEFENCE AND PROHIBITION. In regard to naval and military matters, Mr Hamlet quoted the axiom that "he who could not obey should not command. '' He favoured, military training for the young, but a navy was more important. He had told the people in Rakaia that he was anxious for a federation with Australia in regard to naval matters. Australia was larger than we, and the Pacific washed her shores. He would federate with Australia, and lie would federate with Canada, India, and Africa in regard to_ the navy. The New Zealand troops could not have gone to Samoa if it had not been for the Australian Navy. That proved that he was right. "Every knock is a boost now," he said, "and I do not care what those against me say." He did not fear to express his opinion on.the prohibition question. AH his life he had been a total abstainer, and he would remain so till he shuffled off this mortal coil. He hated extremes. Prohibition was not a howling success in the Garden of Eden. "I really believe," he said, "the darned fruit would have been on the trees yet .if the birds did not cat it, and had Adam not pulled it down.'' As local option had not been a ,sucoess he did not think national prohibition would be a success. He had no interest in any pub and had no friends in any pub. He had been told by a priest that Oamaru was a disgrace to the South Island. It was full of sly-grog shops. He would vote for prohibition on two conditions. The Government should pay compensation for stopping the businesses. He considered that under prohibition our reputation in other places would vanish, our influence would depreciate and we would be unable to raise money on such good terms as heretofore, because we would be under the stigma of being a crowd of drunken imbeciles. If the prohibition party could guarantee that our national credit would not be disturbed he would be prepared to vote for prohibition. '' But you will not have Utopia,'' he said. "This is not Utopia by a jugfull." He was in favour of the Go-

vernment running the hotels. He would make them close down the bar portions of the establishments at 6 o'clock, when other businesses stopped. He would make them close half the places altogether and make the rest worth living in and make them sell the best liquor possible to buy. (Applause.) BIBLE IN SCHOOLS. A very vexed question at present was the Bible in State Schools. At the outset he would say he was not in favour of it. Bible reading in the schools could never, he thought, cause any harm, but he did not believe in coercing any man. "In Ireland, where I come from," he said, "the Church owned your soul and the State your body. We ; had a system of proselytising that I did not like. I was taught to pray by Act of Parliament. What we want is a religion that will teach us how to live, because we can all die without assistance and the only wfiy to get to Heaven is to work your way." In New South Wales, where they had Bible reading in State schools, the proportion of illegitimate births was six to one compared with Victoria, where there was no Bible reading in the schools. The New Zealand State schools were a credit to the country. . They should really leave well enough alone. ''There is no harm in Bible reading in State schools," he said, "so long as you keep on reading, but the minute you start proselytising other people's children I am down and out." He hated to offend a man of any religious persuasion. (Applause,) He did not favour the' taxing of motor cars on the horse power, but advocated the taxation being put on the tyres. He did not favour taxing the small stationary engines of the farmers. He was an advocate of protection as against full trade. He favoured preferential tariffs because reciprocity was ,the greatest .'thing in life. We should ibe more self-contained in this country and should manufacture more. It did not pay to export all the raw products. We should manufacture more in this country. OTHER MATTERS. '■•-' Concerning the Upper House, Mr Hamlet said he would not let a man who was beaten by the people lake a seat in the House. He did not like this "box seat business." "It does away with your democracy," he said. "It is too much like Kaiser Bill, and Ido not like it." He was a democrat. He was hot a Socialist: There was only one thing wrong with Socialism—it would not work." The Socialists," he said, "would like to turn kerosene into oyster soup and stones into bread, not by work, hot by a jugful—but by resolutions." (Laughter.) New Zealand was over governed. The people lived too extravagantly—more extravagantly than the prosperity of the country warranted. The present Government had been in power only two and a-j|uarter .years, and he would like to tell them what he had found out they had done. Seeing was believing. It was clear that thesun of Reform was still at the meridian. He objected to the way the Dreadnought had been given by Sir Joseph Ward. He did not think it was wrong to give the Dreadnought, but Sir Joseph Ward should have asked, "By your leave." If he had asked permission he would! have got it and his image would have been cast in deathless bronze. He was glad the Civil Service ha been so reorganised. that appointments were made according to - merit. We had no longer one man government. He liked to think that a man was allowed to own his own plot. It gave him a greater interest in it and offered the incentive to work. He favoured the graduated land tax up to a reasonable point. He would allow no man to hold a large area of land and refuse to part with it. If he kept it he would make him pay proportionately in his taxes. But a man must be paid the market value for his land. They could not rob him. He believed in buying land at the proper market value. He believed the present Government had acted more liberally in the interests of the workers than had any preceding Government. It was indiscreet of Sir Joseph Ward to say that he could have settled the big strike in two days. Why had he not settled previous strikes during his term*of office? There was too much party bickering in New Zealand. He did not wish to speak disparagingly of anybody, but the official Year Book spoke against the Liberals. In the face pf the Opposition heckling he thought the Government had done well. ;• -" The Government, he considered, was high minded enough to work for everybody.' ? Mr Hamlet sat down amidst applause. In reply to questions, Mr Hamlet said he did not blame the Liberal Party for any retrogression in education, but why did they refuse to assist the Catholics unless they went to the State schools'? He did not favour the taxing of the stationary engines ofi farmers t because that would be placing a cog in the wheels of industry. He did not believe Allen had bungled in regard to the Navy. He believed Mr Allen was the brainy man of New Zealand. (Applause.) England had broken her agreement with. New Zealand, but she had to defend her base at Home. He believed in granting the freehold because it brought peace to a man to know that he owned his own home. On the motion of Mr D. Mclntyre, a vote of thanks to the candidate was carried unanimously amid applause. NEWS AND NOTES. In all probability there will be a straight-out contest for the Riccarton seat between Mr George Witty, M.P. (Liberal) and Mr B. Bunn (Reform). Mr L. C. Walker Btates that he will hot be a candidate. The. position in Christchurch East is becoming more interesting day by day. The only candidates definitely in the field are Mr T. H. Davey, the present member, and Mr Hiram Hunter, SocialDemocrat. Mr Davey has had acute i differences with the Liberal Party, and it is exceedingly unlikely that the breach will be healed before the election. The Liberal League will select the "official" candidate, but Mr Davey will command a large following of his old supporters. Mr A. M. Loasby, who was mentioned as a probable Liberal candidate, informed a SUN representative to-day that he had definitely decided not to come forward. Mr C. H. Gilby, who is secretary of the Christchurch Progressive Liberal and Labour Association, states that so far no official candidate has been selected. The selection would, in any case, be made by the Liberal League in Wellington, to which the local association was not affiliated, though its aims and objects were identical. The association had not approached Dr Thacker, whose name had been mentioned as a probable Liberal candidate. Nothinghad yet been decided in regard to the seat. The elections for all the Christchurch seats promise to be of surpassing interest this year. It seems that "first past the post" is to be the, rule pf the

race, and the betting man who can "pick all the winners" will pocket more than the ordinary tote return. PATEA SEAT. Press Association. WANGANUI, October 9. Mr W. Morrison, the selected Liberal candidate for the Patea seat, opened his campaign at Kaiawi last night. He was accorded an attentive hearing and a vote of thanks was passed to the speaker, and confidence was unanimously expressed in the Liberal Party under the leadership of Sir Joseph Ward.