REMARKS BY MR. SMITH. M.P.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16507, 7 August 1919, Page 6

REMARKS BY MR. SMITH. M.P.

MEETING AT TATAR AIMAK A. NO PARTY LEANINGS. Over 40 men and women gave an attentive hearing to Mr. S. G. Smith, M.P., in the Tatarainmka School on "Wednesday evening, when he took the first step to fulfil a promise to address settlers at that and other country centres that could not be reached prior to the bye-election last October. Sir. AV. Honeyficld was voted to the chair. ADVENTURES OF HARBOUR BILL. Mr. Smith first referred to the fact that before the election he was reported to hold very dangerous views. He sought to dispel any such idea and in doing so mentioned that it had been said that the passage of tho Now Plymouth Harbour Empowering Bill depended upon his not being elected. Nevertheless he had .got the Bill through Parliament in face of the difficulties. At the beginning of the session it was said that no local legislation would be dealt with, but eventually the Bill reached the stage where it came before tho Local Bills Committee ami the difficulty was to induce that committee to consider it. Mr. Smith described apparent attempts to have the Bill shelved. One day, after he had left the room, a resolution was carried deterring consideration of the Bill till December 42, although it was known that the session would conclude on December 11. On hearing of this tho speaker and Air. "Wilkinson immediately demanded that,- in the interests of the district, the committee should consider the Bill and they succeeded in having a day fixed. There was difficulty wilh representatives of the interests in South Taranaki, but a compromise was effected and the Bill was passed. Air. Smith said he was proud of that and the fact that the loan had been raised and the work commenced. He was indebted to Air. Wilkinson, flic Hon. O. Samuel, and Alossrs Lee (Oamaru) and Vigor Brown (Napier) for assistance. The New Plymouth-Opunake railway, Mr. Smith said, was a matter in which ho interested himself immediately he became a member of Parliament, and ho had been promised definitely that during the coming session the line would be placed on the list of authorised railways. If it was not placed on iho list there was going to be a row, and if it was placed on the list the matter of its speedy construction would have his closest attention if he was still member for the district. DEFENCE DEPARTMENT FAILINGS In dealing with the claims of the soldiers on the people of the country, Air. Smith said it was unfortunately true that some soldiers were not getting justice from officer;; of tho Defence Department. On his files he had records of jfrom 90 to 100 cases in which he had been called on to make representations. A typical case was one in which a widow, whose son was killed at the front was ignorant of her right to an allowance until some time alter her son had left Now Zcalaifd, and then her claim was not made out in tho correct way. After some time had elapsed the application was amended, but the widow was paid Irom that time, not from the time of her son leaving Now Zealand. ‘‘if a satisfactory reply is not received from the Defence Minister about that one case the House of Parliament will hear something about it,"’ declared Air. Smith, and he added, '•J do not think the people of this country desire that mothers of sokHcrs who have made tho supreme sactTaco should lose anything because of some stupid regulations.” , In the same connection, the speaker said that a remarkable thing was the number of soldiers who said they had written several times to the Defence Department and received no reply. He thought half the trouble with the soldiers was due to a kind of system the defence officers followed of ignoring the letters of soldiers in tho hope that tho writers would become disgusted and abandon their rights.' OF INTEREST TO FARMERS. Referring to reading matters, Air. Smith said that, while he sympathised with tho Taranaki County Council in their unfortunate position, ho thought the wheel tax was a huge mistake, and that other means of raising revenue should have, been found. He pointed out that tho by-law had been confirmed and a schedule of charges drawn up and any future council might put it into operation, even if the present council decided not to. 'The speaker suggested that a tax on motor cars as they were imported would bo the fairest'method of taxing users of that class of vehicle. Education was described by Air. Smith as the most important element in social reconstruction and he said he hoped to see developments in the administration and system in tho near future. He, spoke unfavourably of (he present free education which does not continue after tho ago of 14 if a. child fails to gain a proficiency certificate). He said ho hoped that when tho experts of the Education Department had finished with tho “export” matters they would get to work and see that anomalies, of which ho mentioned several glaring instances, were disposed of. In connection with cheap fertilisers for fanners Air. Smith mentioned that he had made proposals for Government action in obtaining supplies and that the procedure of tho Government in the matter was not satisfactory. Regarding Nauru Island, of which much had been hoard, he did not think triplecontrol was going to prove satisfactory to New Zealand or that wo were o-oing to got from that island tho cheap phosphates that had been expected. Ho considered- that in the matter of fertilisers there should bo close investigation and some restrictions in order to ensure that the users received pure stuff and were nof. taken down over the price. Mr. Smith gpoko against the butterfat tax and the equalisation fund and said: “Tho small farmer has my sympathy and as far as I am able he is goin<r to have my support.” Regarding hyclro-elcctric power, ho thought the Government schemes, which wore goincr to cost between six and seven million poTmds, would not benefit Taranaki for 10 years to come, and that the scheme bein (r adopted by the Now Plymouth Boroneli Council should bo the one depended upon by the people of the surrounding districts for the present. Iho scheme should be canned out in such V way that it could link up with the Government one when the latter be(Yj.rn pi available.

RESPONSIBILITY FOR COAL SITUATION.

Coming to the question of tho coal supply. Air. Smith said he wanted to be perfectly fair and candid by saying that to a largo extent the miners of this country had his sympathy in their claims for improved conditions, but he did not wish ins hearers to read into that statement that he always agreed with the tactics the minors adopted. Tho speaker continued tn say that tho people were-told there was a great shortage of coal and that it was due almost entirely to the. miners, because they would not work. Ho produced a Board of Trade report on coni matters and quote! figures. In 1913, when the mines were fully staffed with 3197 miners, 1,888,000 ions of coal were produced ; in 1918, .892 men mined 2,034,000 coal were imported, and in 1918 tho quantity was only 255,000. In 1013 a total of 2,357.000 tons was mined and imported, while in 1918 the total was 2.289,000. The quantity was short in 1918, not because of the miners, but bcean.se of the smaller imports. It was a peculiar thing that §12,000 tons of coal were exported in 1913 and 186,000 tons were exported in 1918. That was a decrease on the 1913 exports, but for each of the four preceding years there had been an increase. Mr. Smith said lie considered the trouble was due tc tho Government handing over control of distribution to the Coal Committee. every member of which, he believed, was a representative of the mine owners. The individual output of the miners wiv- 500 tons in 191.3 and 703 tons in 1918, Could the shortage be. laid at the feet of the miners? “1 believe, there is an attempt being made to gojul the. miners into taking dm;-lic steps tor some other reason than the good of the people of the country. ’’ Air. Smith declared, and he advocated Government control of the mines as the remedy for the unrest among the miners. BANKING AND PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION. Banking was an important question requiring attention. The speaker pointed out that during the war period the banks bad made lingo profits out of the people of tho country. Tho Government should have taken over the Bank of New Zealand in 1596 when it came to the bank’s assistance. He believed that the day was Mot far distant when the Bank of New Zealand would be taken over or a State Bank would he established. There was a grave danger of shipping combines and the meat trust controlling prices of produce and the Government would have to step in and deal in a comprehensive manner with shipping and distribution of produce. “Our present stupid system of fiisT pnst-thc-post will have to be abolished in the very near future,” Air. -Smith said regarding the method of election. Something would have to bo substituted and he thought the best system would be proportional representation. POSITION IN POLITICS. In conclusion Air. Smith dealt briefly with his political position. He said the National Government, which lie had promised to support as far as war measures went and no further, had been a grim failure .from the point of view of "domestic administration. Deputations had waited upon him recently to ask him to join certain parties and one of those deputations was from the Labour Party. “I wont into this last election free from all parties.” Mr. Smith continued. “,and personally 1 believe that the interest of the people of this country has suffered because the interest ofthe particular party in power has been made to have a prior claim.” Continuing, the speaker said he was representing the people of this district unattached to any party. In reply to the Labour parly he had said that whilst he believed to a certain extent in many of (be planks in their platform, he was,not prepared to join them because ho. did not agree with the tactics adopted by some of their leaders. Mr. Smith repeated that he did not believe in extremes. He expressed the opinion that the Farmers’ Union .should join with the sane element of Labour in New Plymouth to control the policy of the members who represented them and that they should have the power to recall him if ho failed to carry out their policy. . _ . ~T , Air. Alassey and Sir Joseph Bard had returned to New Zealand. The Premier had said lie did not think there was much prospect of New Zealand getting am- indemnity from Germany. It ii.ppearccl to Air. Smith that all the leaders had come back with was a sort of third share in Nauru Island and a cruiser for which there was no coal at present. \ Only one question was asked at tne conclusion of Air. Smith’s address and a vote of thanks to him was earned by acclamation, on the motion of the chairman and Air. R. H. Gatenby. On tho motion of Air. Smith a similar compliment was paid to the chairman.