POLITICAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 111, 31 October 1911, Page 3

POLITICAL.

j TAUMARL'NUI ELECTORATE. MR. JEXXIXGS AT WAITAEA. There was a packed attendance of electors at St. John's Hall, Waitara, last evening, when the sitting member, Mr. W. T. Jennings, gave a political address, and rendered an account of his stewardship. The Mayor (Mr. W. Jenkins) presided, and on the platform were members of Mr. Jennings' committee. Mr. Jennings, who was received with applause, said he intended to place the position of the Dominion, as it affected the people, from various standpoints; and he hoped to be able to claim that under a Liberal Administration, which had taken a departure during the past twenty years in experimental legislation, that the result on the whole had been satisfactory. The main points that he would touch upon would lie national questions, such as finance, taxation, land settlement (both Crown and native), Labor problems, defence, etc. Before doing so, ho wished, as briefly as possible, to allude to a statement made by his op- I ; ponent. Mr. Wilson, when he spoke there recently. Ho was reported to have said: "He would wipe the Minister of Public Works off the face of the earth. He (the speaker) went to Wellington a few weeks ago as one of a deputation, and was ushered into the august presence with all solemnity. The hon. gentleman had not the courtesy to take his pipe out of his mouth, or his hat off, and absolutely flew at them when they said they wanted money for their roads." Had this statement referred to himself (Mr. Jennings), lje would have taken no notice of it. but as it referred to the Minister of Public Works, and as he introduced Mr. Wilson and the other members of the deputation to Mr. McKenzie, he could not help saying that Mr. Wilson had let his imagination run awav with him. The Minister was exceedingly busy with his Public Works Estimates when the deputation came to see him. > The speaker had some difficulty in getting this interview under the circumstances. Mr. McKenzie heard the deputation and said he thought some of their I suggestions were, good. The. deputation thanked him, and went away happy; and in the Te Kuiti paper a report of the interview of Messrs Elliot, Wilson and Wall was published, and Mr. Wilson and his co-deputationists record in cold print that "Mr. McKenzie received the deputation most courteously, and after listening to their views attentively, said he appreciated some of their suggestions, and would visit Te Kuiti and see for himself into the matters represented." He only mentioned this incident, as it was typical of many things that were ' soing on. and it was distasteful, because it was not politics. I

HIS STEWARDSHIP. Mr. Jennings continued:—l just here want to say that so far as my representation of this electorate is concerned, T hare during the past three years carried out every promise I have made. My political promises, such as that of voting for the freehold, I was not found wanting in. under most trying and exceptional circumstances, so far as myself was concerned. I have, further, supported everv measure that went in the direction of helping and benefiting the "man on the land," particularly those who were the advance guard in hush and swamp districts, and I would have heen a political cur h«.<l I not done otherwise, knowing what I do of the trying circumstances under which they were struggling with their wives and families. Further, in regard to workers, both manual and brain, such as teachers, railwaymen and others, my support has never been lacking; and this sheave of I I votes of thanks from county councils, J ! boroughs, town boards, farmers' unions, j teachers' institutes, railwaymen, etc.. bear out my statement. I have person--1 ally visited my vast electorate—almost every road in it. T have gone into and seen for myself what was being done. There is hardly a school, post office, telephone communication, road or bridge, etc.. that I have not been associated with the settlers in obtaining durins the past ten years. Hundreds of settlers I have assisted, by my advice and information, in obtaining sections. The work has been hard—few know how hard—but it has been satisfactory. CHARGES AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT.

I will now proceed to deal with the many assertions that have been recklessly made by the "talkers" during the past few months; jiml I am reminded of the four lines, which are applicable to these fault-finding talkers:

He who talks and talks, This proverb should reveal, The steam that blows the whistle Will never turn the wheel. JVhat have these talkers done —both in the House and out of it—in the way of constructive legislation? Have they not opposed every measure that has been placed on the Statute I'ook by the present Liberal Party? Is it not true that they have hurled charges of corruption and that they are running the country into debt? Have they proved any one charge of corruption against the present Administration? No; they have not. The whole of the charges, with the exception of Heiiare Kaihau, fell to the ground. There are four charges brought against the present Government: (1) That they are running the country headlong into debt. (2) That tliev are unduly increasing the annual expenditure. (3) That they are non-progressive. (4) That they are corrupt in their administration.

1 will deal with these four charges as I have put them. First, tlie debt. I am onlv to deal with the question since Sir .Joseph- Ward took office —that is. from 1000 to mil. During that period the national deht lias grown from cr>n.o7o.-m to .cTiI.SS/.liSfi, an inn-ease in round ligures of £20,000,000. Of tiiat money two million was invested in the Dreadnought; one million in buying the Weliington-Manawatu railway, and the balance in loans to local bodies, making new railways, advances to settlers, advances to workers, and buying land for closer settlement, so that outside of the money invested in the Dmdnmight every penny is not onlv earning interest which is paying for it, but actually more. One proof of that is this —that when the Liberal Government took power the non-interest-beari'ng portion of th<> debt cost every man, woman and child in the community for interest CI 8s a year, while to-day the same debt only costs ISs 7y»d per head. This has been brought about by two or three factors—

First, the increase in population; second, tiie decrease ill the price of monev; and, third, that almost all the money that has been borrowed of Tecent vears has been borrowed for investment in interest-pro-ducing sources. To show that, the Opposition do not condemn the borrowing, last week one of the new members ill the Opposition ranks moved lli:-l one loan should be reduced by £2011.000. Eight members of the Opposition, seven of them being there for the first Parliament. voted for this motion, and it might be said that every one of these eight were bigger clarnorers for borrowed

money than any men in Parliament. Mr. I ferries, Mr. Oke v, Mr. .TTardy and Mr, Mnssev, ia fact, all the Opposition mem-

bers who were in the House at the time, except the eight, voted against tlie pro-' posal to reduce the loan. As to the second charge, the following J figures are interesting. The annual expenditure in 1!K)8 was £7y12'2,340. This . year it is £!),343,106. an increase in j round figures of £'2,000,000. During that I time the expenditure in the Railway Department has increased in round figures by £700,000, but during the same period the revenue from that Department lias increased by £1,100,000. The postal expenditure has increased by £350,000, 'but the revenue from that Department has increased during the same period by nearly £700,000. The expenditure on old-age pensions has grown by £IOB,OOO, on education it has grown by £'210,000, while subsidies to local bodies and expenditure on improving Crown lands have increased by £200,000. This leaves some £350,000 increase on all the other Departments of State in five years, and it should be remembered that in these five years the population of this country has grown by over 120,000 people. This means increased expenditure on mental hospitals, gaols, hospitals, and all the many services of the State. As to progressive legislation, the Liberal ' Party during the five years of Sir Joseph Ward's administration has set apart 0,000,000 acres of Crown lands as a national endowment, has largely reduced the taxation through the Customs on all the necessaries of life, has reduced the hours and increased the wages of the Hail way Department, and has improved the position of the teaching staffs by the superannuation scheme and by increased wages; has passed a Hospital and Charitable Aid Act, which is one of the most advanced, and has put a Death Duties Act on the Statute Book which is the most far-reaching of any similar measure in the English-speaking world; has increased the scope of the old-age pensions, and has just put on the Statute Book an Act which provides a pension for oil widows left with young children. In his Budget speech the present Prime Minister put before the country a more advanced programme than any Government in Australasia.

A LOCAL MATTER. I now come to a local matter, and I seriously ask those electors in North Taranaki, and particularly those about Waitara, Tikorangi and Huirangi, to remember a few incidents in connection with a Bill I had before the House of Representatives in 1907 and the fierce fight that took place over it. I refer to the Waitara Harbor District and Empowering Dill. Who were the opposers of that measure that was to give relief to the settlers nround this district? Was it the Liberal Party and Liberal Government that opposed it? I pause for a reply. Those who opposed this reasonable Bill, every mother's son of them, were Opposition members to a man. Let me read their names. In support of the Bill Sir Joseph Ward and all the members of the. Ministry voted, and 35 Liberal Government supporters. The Opposition, to a man, who voted against were: Messrs Aitken, J. Allen, Bollard. W. Eraser, Har<ly, Herries, Lang, Letlibridge, Malcolm, Massey, Reid; tellers, Messrs Mander and Okey. What do tke supporters of the Opposition party in this district think of Messrs Massey, Allen and Co. after this action?

VALUE OF PUBLIC PROPERTY. The Year Book for 1010 shows the total public debt as £74.800,643, and against that the value of public property i§ shown as follows: — £ Crown lands .'21,511,053 Local authorities' lands 7,103,722 Education lands 5,038.615 Church and other lands .. 3,555,271 Government railways ... 30,321,101 Other public works, telegraphs, etc 45,750,000 £73,340,452 TAXATION.

The policy outlined in the Financial j Statement was one that acted right up i to the traditions of the Liberal Party. It showed the revenue for last year exceeded 10 millions, but. it had to be re-. membered, while it was stated that the taxation of the people was at the rate of £lO per head, £5,447,000 only came from taxation. The money derived from taxation did not amount to £lO per head. In 1!)01 it amounted to £3 18s !)d per head, and in 1010 to £4 6s lOd per head. The increase was only under the headings of land tax, income tax and death duties, all of which fell on the wealthier classes, while last year Customs and excise duties showed a decrease of one-eighth. The number of' those who puid land tax increased from 10,900 in 1901 to 33,200 in 1910, while the number of income-tax pavers increased from 5700 to 11,200. THE PUBLIC DEBT.

Our debt was certainly a large and increasing one, having risen from £4f1,500.000 (or £O4 3s 7d per head) ten years ago to £81,000,000 (or £BO per head). Close scrutiny showed that fi!) per cent, of the increase in debt was directly selfsupporting, 9% per cent, wa-s indirectly self-supporting, and 31 x /-> per cent, was the real addition to the burden of the taxpayer. But if our liabilities had increased so had our assets. The unimproved value of our lands had increased from 93 million sterling in 1902 to 175 million —an increase of 83 per cent. The improvements had increased from 59 millions to 102 millions in value—an increase of 71 per cent. The total trade had increased from 24 millions to 30 millions—ail increase of 5!) per cent.

BANK DEPOSITS. The bank deposits had increased from 15 t millions in 1!)00 to *24 millions' —an increase of 57 per cent. In view of these figures (which he showed compared favorably with those of Australia), he thought he was justified in saying that we were in a sound financial position. If he did not -hold that opinion he would support tho Opposition. He hoped at no distant time to see the Government evolve a superannuation scheme on right lines for employees of local bodies.

INCREASED COST OF LIVIN'O. Much lias boon said in this connection, as if Sew Zealand were the only place where the cost of living had increased. Only tho other day a. cablegram appeared in the papers stating that the French Government were setting up a commission to enquire into the cause. It seemed a strange economic anomaly thai where prosperity exists, and where wages are fairly high, the conditions of the general run of the people are not very much improved, owing to the cost of living going up. Tn this connee tion, I will point out what has been done by the present party in saving the household expenses of the majority of the people. On these articles of consumption in most households the saving has been as follows: 11)08 100!) c ,c Kerosene 132.320 OS.-1.04 nice 21.188 '22,322 Salt !),32(i I), 204 Figs, dates and prunes 22.128 34,1154 \ Currants •& raisins 05.U15 40.170 i!>o4 inor, won

Tea .... 77,418 101,120, 120,447 This represents a saving in taxation on the poor man's light in two years only of £230,774, and in food for two years of £235,687, and in the case of tea for three years of £2O-8,985. On articles of luxury, euch as furs, pianos, jewellery,

7 etc., owing to a re-distribution of taxa- ■\ lion, the amount received in the year 1 I .MM) from luxui'ii i was .L'iMlUoii. while ;. in the yi ar UMiS liiu amount received j was £!.:-i47,605. in connection with helping the mass of the people to a furI tlis i' nuving. I have a suggestion to offer. It is in connection with what is used in j every home, and that is butter. In

some places in my electorate as high as Is 8d per pound has 'been paid this year. Wo have lately been suffering from a dearth of butter, and what we have

been able to get has gone up in price. Why should not legislation be introduced making it obligatory for factories to retain, say, 25 per cent, of their annual output for home, consumption. In these days of domestic legislation such an enactment cannot be out of place. The factories sell their annual output at, say, l'iy 4 d per lb, but they could get at least '2d per lb more locally, so they.could not object to a proposed remedy for providing against future shortage. Perhaps it may be necessary for the Government to guarantee a market for the 25 per cent, withheld frbm the London market. COMPULSORY MILITARY. TRAINING. The next matter that may be termed national is that of military training. When one recognises what, is going on in the world, and how distance over ocean has 'been annihilated, as compared with less than 100 years ago, this question of defending our country has to be grappled with. Within a given time a single vessel of the Mauretania or Deutschland class could transport more |,roops froin Europe to the American shores than could all the fleets of England have done at the time of the war of ISI2. Vessels of this class will carry a brigade, together with all of its equipment, from Europe to the United States in six days. The entire merchant marine of Germany and Japan can be converted into transports immediately upon declaration o£ war, anil land with- 1 in a month more than a quarter of a million men on . either shore. Where | there is an absence, from a national standpoint, of military training, there is also an absence of self-control and discipline. In 190G in England to each million of population, eight murders were committed; in Germany, where compulsory training is severe, there were eight; 1 in the United States, whero military training is discontinued, there were 118 murders per million. Js this not convincing? Again, Japan can support a standing peace army exceeding one million men for the same amount of money the American Republic now spends on 50,000. THE DREADNOUGHT POSITION.

Oversea trade exports and imports per head per annum amount to £'2B for Great Britain and £35 for'Xew Zealand. The cost of maintaining a navy to protect our commerce and defend our country per head per annum is 18s lid for Great Britain and 3s lid for New Zealand. In the case of New Zealand we pay £IOO,0(H) per annum to the Navy. This equals 2s per head. The Dreadnought costs for interest and sinking fund Is lid per head per annum. Is this too great a cost for us as a people to bear? Each one must answer for himself. REFORM IN LEGISLATION.

The next question of importance is that in connection with the reform of our Parliamentary methods and the Legislature. The present system of whole nomination of the Legislative Council is wrong, as it undoubtedly tends to throw the whole power of that body into the hands of the commercial and townspeople. When I tell you there is not a representative in that Council between Eltham and Wellington and only one representative between Auckland and Wellington, a distance of over 450 miles, it ian easily be seen that country in,t vests must suffer. It is felt that there must be a change in connection with the present position of the Legislative Council; and if it is to exist, then representation from a geographical standpoint must be considered. A sys- ] tem of partly elective and partly nomin- I ative seems the best solution. Again,! it is worthy of consideration whether the I great cost entailed in connection with I triennial Parliaments, the constant up- , setting and disorganising of business, the hatred and malice engendered, the. sacrifice of truth, etc., is wort!', a three-yearly Parliament. In addition, there is also the disarrangement of public works, such as roads and bridges, as continuity is not preserved, owing to the disarrangements caused by changes in elections aiul in boundaries Personally, I would pre- - fer a four years' Parliament. It would, in my opinion, lead to better results in every direction.

LAND SETTLEMENT. Mr. Jennings touched very fully on this question, quoting what had been done (the figures have already appeared in our coloumns), and ho also gave, the names of blocks of land that are to be

thrown open for selection in the Taraliaki district this coming and the following month. There was a total of 2(5.438 acres of land for selection in the Taranaki land district. NATIVE LANDS AND TAXATION.

The speaker went into this matter very fullv, showing what, had been done ami the "future operations. He showed that under the Native Rating Bill, passed last year, one county, the Waitomo, had figures prepared, which showed that the rateable values for 1010-11 were £512.702, while for this year, owing to the passing of the Bill, the value was £813,845, an increase of £301.143, which, at %d in the £, gave an increase in rates of £941. (To be concluded.)