THE TIMARU SEAT.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12844, 29 November 1905, Page 5

THE TIMARU SEAT.

MR ROLLESTON AT THE THEATRE ROYAL. Mr P. J. Rolleston gave his second address to electors in Timaru in the Theatre Royal last night, and he had a most encouraging reception. Long before eight o'clock the dress, circle and stage were filled, almost wholly, by ladies, and stalls and pit were packed, chiefly by men, though some ladies occupied seats "in the stalls. There Lad probably never been so many ladies present at a political meeting in Timaru, and the dress circle presented a very bright appearance. The Theatre being so thoroughly filled, there must have been about 900 present. Mr Rolleston was warmly cheered and applauded and pelted with roses when lie appeared on the stage at 8 o'clock with the Mayor. The Mayor explained his presence as chairman as his duty as Mayor. He had already acted as chairman for Mr HallJones, and as readily acceded to Mr Rolleston's request to preside at his meeting. He looked upon the contest as a very proper one, a clean out and cut fight on definite issues, with no rail-sitter or "Independent" to complicate matters. He mentioned that when he arrived in Timaru'

in 1868 there were placards in the windows "Vote for Rolleston,'' —("That's what we are going to do") —Mr W. Rolleston, the present candidate's father, being then a candidate fcr the Superintendency. The boy of '6B had now the honour of presiding at a political meeting convened by that Mr Rolleston's son. If Mr Rolleston was elected and did his work for Timaru and the colony well, whether as Mayor or as a private citizen, he would be one of the first to thank him. —(Applause.) Mr Rolleston was greeted with prolonged applause on rising to speak. He thanked the meeting for their enthusiastic leception on this occasion, and iV.r the kind and attentive hearing given him at his former meeting, nearly three months ago. The situation had changed a good deal in the interim, the election day was drawing near, and the electors had been giying mow attention to political matters than they had done up to the time «<f his lir.st address; but he hoped again to have an attentive hearing. He would. »s ho had said before, carry on the contest without any personal feeling, and h* hoped that there would be no bitterness aroused by the contest. He knew that there were two sides to every question; anil could understand that people might bo perfectly conscientious in holding opinions differing from his own. He hoped they would all consider what was to ba said on both sides, and then vote according to their conscience irrespective of any personal feeling.—(Hear,' hear.)—He implored them not to listen to any stories or rumours that had been set" on foot by persons who allowed their enthusiasm to run away with them, to the saying of things they would afterwards regret. And he asked them not to listen to anysuch stories or rumours about his opponent, but to attend their meetings and hear what they had to say. and if thev wanted further- information they coul<i question the candidates to remove misunderstanding. (One or two of the "storied" alluded to were dealt with later on.) Mr Rolleston then summed up liis position. As the Mayor had said, this was A STRAIGHT-OUT FIGHT. He had nothing to say against the legislation cf the Government, but there were other things to be considered—the wav the Government had acted as trustees of the public property. He would give credit where credit was due, namely, for the good measures they had passed. But there was a demand for certain reforms, and he ranged himself with those who were demanding them. He again explained that there was now no real Conservative party in New Zealand, in the old sense of the word; there was no party opposed to propress. A fortnight ago the Minister for Public Works occupied that platform, in reply to his speech, and he attended that meeting in order to hear for himself what

the Minister said, and to avoid doing iiimj any injustice. The Oppcsitifln gave the Go-{ vernment credit for what good work they had done; but the Minister gave the Opposition no credit at a'.l. He (Mr Rolieslon) had pointed out that the most liberal measure of all. manhood wns -d»e to the so-called Conservatives. Mr Hall-.Jnnes said "it was due to four Liberal Auckland members crossing over to the Government side.. But it was a Government- nic.-srre, and the Government should have the credit for it. He had also referred to the Fr%"~ntinn Act of 1877, and the Minister hrui notattempted to take away the credit for from the present Opposition party. He had complained of the '.entrnlisine teader-^y-nf-tr.e greatest Goverftment in the nrntter of EDUCATION.

and Mr Hail-Jones had replied Tjith acolumn of figures. Of course with the growth of the colory there must be an in- • crease of expenditure in nineteen years. The centralising tendency was seen in other facts, rather than in figures. He quoted Mr Hogg, lately a Government Whip, that the central authority was muzzling the local education authorities by their centralising methods, and the same condemnation oppiied to other departments as well. No more damning remarks had-been made by any member of the Opposition. Many of the Education Boards passed resolutions voicing their complaint, and he quoted the editor >of the " Lyttelton Times," the meet pronounced Government organ in the / co"ony, in the snme direction. He did not want anything better than those extracts to prove that his former criticisms were justified. And they were supported ter the fact that Education Boards all over the colony, were finding the greatest difficulty in getting teachers. This was one of the most important departments of the State, and it was ope in which every family was interested. and could understand the need for its proper administration. That reed | was one reason for putting in power some j one who would properly administer it. (Applause.)

A STORY J Had been eirrnlnted tint his father bad said that a fnuiili stunrlnrcl education was goc<l enough for a working man's children, i •and that it had been said that he (the speaker) had invented that story himself so that he might have the opportunity of contradicting it. He t'nad traced that story to its source, and the author of it had apologised and undertook to withdraw the statement to those to whom it had been addressed. (Applause.) It was most unfair to make use of such practices against a candidate, and in future he would not liestitate to deal with such cases from the platform. It was a shame to circulate such stories about his father, who was no longer here to defend himself. (Hear,

hear.) Thirty-five yfar<* ago, when his father was Superintendent, he was most unpopular wjtli a certain class, because he tried to prevent them getting all the lands for their own selfish purposes, and he caused many thousands of acres to be reserved for education purposes and these were now of great assistance in maintaining the education system. THE LAND QUESTION was next dealt with, and Mr Rolleston repeated that he supported the system the Opposition were advocating, a system that would enable a man to make 3iia home find his farm his own. It was not proposed to do away with the leasehold tenure, the best to enable a man to take Tip land; but they would allow the tenant to acquire the freehold. It was easy to prevent these lands falling into the hands of large holders. He ridiculed the 999 years'lease by saying that if such leases .'had been granted in the time of William the Conqueror they would have over 100 yeara to run yet. The argument of the Government that they could not *ell at the original price because the land had increased in value had no foundation, because the State could not. claim that increase for 999 years. The Minister of Public Works Jiad" provided an answer to his own argument that the increase belonged to the State, by quoting the case of Mr Leonard's sale, by which he put J3IOCO into his pocket. Mr Lenrvard g.t whatever increase there was in the value and the State made no claim to it. The Opposition said that the Government had no policy with regard to the land question, and Mr Rolleston referred to their conflicting votes in the House, .on .the lease in perpetuity question, and their non-adoption of any of the numerous j recommendations of the expensive Land; Commission, in proof of that assertion.? Eyen the "Lyttelton Times" admitted that 1 Ministers had got themselves into '.'a! prctiy ittess,"' and tiat " the situation was

rendered complicated." It was more than complicated, except on one explanation—that Minister* were waiting to see how the cat was going to jump. That altitude would not- suit the electors in a candidate. and a Ministry must be as definite an they would require their candidate to f" T*i betn V the Minister of Public Works a! a country meeting, that lie was going back on the principles his ftitlier bad stood for. Ihai \v,js ouitc incorrect. His father had said that leasehold and freehold should run side bv side* and that was what the present said The Premier had admitted tbat tbat was his fathers attitude- (Applause.) Those who criticised the svstem of OLD AGE PENSIONS

were Mid to be enemies of the aged poor. That was the sort of leply intended to stifle all effective criticism. The principle that- the Opposition were fighting for was justice to all. A division list had been circulated to show that a number of members had voted against the increase of the pension. whereas it was a division list on an amendment to the Bill, in favour of the thrifty man. The Minister said a man had earned a pension by life-long contributions to the Customs. That was so, but the Government refused to grant a pension to a man who had paid his Customs duties, if he had also saved up a few pounds. Tber said: If you make it contributorr vou will kill the system. 'Yet the Minister the other n'ght talked of a system of universal pensions* to. be founded on subsidised contributions. Mrs Rolleston also mesUoced tbe Superannuation schemes now in existence, and the colony's -guarantee of their soundness, and reminded his hearers that Sir Harry Atkinson toured the colony to advocate the scheme now approved by tbe Premier. Complaint had been made that there were 2500 speeches made on the Old Age Pensions' Bill. If that were true, it showed that members were very much in earnest about it.

THE PUBLIC REVENUES ACT was next don't with, and Mr Rolleston read the c ause of the Act which gave the Government power to pay the members the extra JMO, and in reply to Mr Hall-Jones's assertion that this could have been paid without that clause, be challenged him to show under what provision of any previous Act it could have been done. The clause so manifestly fitted that particular payment as to suggest that it was passed on purpose. It gave a dangerous power to the House, and the Opposition were pledged to repeal it. Another item affected by that Act was the power to transfer votes. Previously only the surplus of a vole, after a work bad been completed, could be transferedd to another work; now a whole vote could be transferred without any of tbe work it was intended for being done.

EXTRAVAGANT ADMINISTRATION was another charge against the G«vern-1 mini, and the Minister had challenged him to name an instance. The Minister's own speech supplied instances, in the I-and Commission, an absolutely unwarranted and useless expenditure of £IO,OOO at least: i and the £4OOO Mapourika trip. The Minister snid this was asked for by mem-: Jers of the Opposition; but ht could find 10 record of it, except a question by Mr John liutchessm in 1900. And the only' mswer the Minister cculd iK:ika io tbsi :harge was that twenty years ago a Miniserial excursion down the Wansranui river •ost £4OO and a corkscrew.-—^Laughter.)— B4CO was a long way short of the Ma- j lourika £5000; but two wrongs did not rake a light, and if there was r.o oJicr Jtienc-i to one wrong than to set osjaiust t another, it were better to make no deence at all. The Minister had kindly irovided him with another instance of exravagance, right nnder their nos«s. in 8200 granted for a worjc in the Ltsvels bounty, which the County Council knew :olliing whatever about.—(Laughter.}—The ncral of that case was that the Public i iVrrks Fund was administered in an unfair! nanner. and that districts returning Minis-: dial support-rrs would receive unfair consideration. That grant of £2OO was nt erly wrong, and the system that permitted I, shoald not be tolerated. Of course, f that were done in one instance, it was irobably done in many others in the'sanr? iray. The Opposition policy was to leave ill local works to the kcal bodies, and o assist thein with subsidies in proportion o the rate they levied, and without regard :o the party leaniugs of the members the listricts returned. (Applause.)— Regarding

THE REFERENDUM. . Mr Rolleston again explained his opposition to the use of this political device in connection with colonial questions. It was very useful and appropriate in local casts of rates, loans, and local option, but it would work unevenly if applied to the whole colony, the big cities would have such a preponderant weight.. If applied to the question of single tax. fcr instance. .I- ;j could all see that. By the represear.iiivo KvMeir. Mlis!' 'or,-as and rmal ccainuinities were placed DC r.- S~~?' with the cities. Mr Holiest or. next dealt with tbe subject of the proposed CIVIL SERVICE BOARD.

reolying to the Minister's instance of its failure in one instance in Xew South Wales, by citing its success in other States and the Commonwealth, and quoting an instance furnished by Mr Charles Lewis, of the partiality shown under tbe present system of Government appointments. Mr Lewis, representing Christchurcli, with a constituency of 21,000., got three appointments in three yean?, while Sir W. Steward, representing 4500j, got fifteen in one year.

A CORRECTION. ! Mr Rolleston next dealt with Mr Hall- ! > Jone's figures regarding borrowing by tie: present and "previous Governments, pointing out that the Stout-Vogel Government was in power for three years of the time; : that was included-in the* period attributed to the present Opposition party. The! Ministerial reply to the charge of excessive borrowing was that the loans were reproductive, having been spent on land and' i advanced to settlers. That was all very ' well while times were good: but if the tenants evtr became unable to pay their rents or interest, the taxpayers would have! to make np the deficiency. Mr Rolles-' ton next devoted some time to explaining the position of die . colony in 1887. when Sir Harry Atkinson bad to execute retrenchments. He apologised for referring! to these matters, now nearly twenty years j old, but he felt that it was his duty to| defend those who had to face a veiy disagreeable task. Prices and wages were low. and the colony was passing through! a, tiyincr time, but as tbe Atkinson Govern- j ment began their severe retrenchments | three months after they took office, tbe! hard times could not have been-due to I them. The puesent Government made a! ■ r re.T' d<»al of tbe cuttinsr down of wages' bv Sir Harry Atkinson, but did not men-; tion that he cut down iis <?alary as Pre-: mier from £I7OO to £IOOO, and other Mm-i istors reduced theirs by £4OO each —(applause)—and the members of the House! were satisfied with a honorarium of £l5O. i i All honour to tbe man who did an unpopular thing and -took tie consequences. (Applause.) Mr Rolkston quoted the words of Mr Seddon. then a member of i the Opposition, approving of the reductions ■ i proposed by the Government. Was it J any wonder that some people wished to j see "Hansard" abolished. (Grtat laughter.}— The Tesnlt of -the retrenchment i was that after a few years the civil ser-

rants got their deduct ions L_U'k again. Then Air Ballance came into powt-r, and; he urged the continuance of tbe economical course instituted by Sir Harry Atkinson. The present Government might set against the 4s 6d a day <jf that lime the caw* quoted by the member for Timaru. <i a, time four years alter the present party came into power, a case of a married man employed on a big ©state near Timaru, wjjuse wages were reduced from 20s to 15s a week, out of which he Lad to pay 6s a week for house rent, and oa 10s a week keep a family of six.—(Laughter. ) —He o;.u]d not underst and why t&ero ■was such a prejudice against the Opposition and Mr Manner in regard to- the wage*. (juts!ion. No man in the Hense had nioie sympathy with the workers than Mr M.-issty. for he was himself a working man. who had raised himself by his own efforts.— A v<.ioc : power to him.")

TAXATION. Mr Hall-Jones blamed Sir Harrr Atkinson for putting m £280.000 of erira taxation. It was necessary, but it was not tbe present Opposition, who put it on. Among those wL<* voted for it were Messrs C.idmaia, -.John McKenzie. IJallaucc, R«eev< j *» Guinness, Steward, Ward and Seddon —(laughter)—and amorg those against it were Russtll, James Allen, and Buchanan—the only three members of the present Opposition tiien in the House. They left their leader on that question because*of his taxation proposal, and the very mem who now were condemning it, at that time supported it . iApplause.) He next dealt with the

MOST SERIOUS CHARGE OP ALL that he was a young man, and gave several replies to this, among them, that there were two younger men in the late House, and several younger men among the candidates. He claimed to have {contrary to his opponents 1 assertions) a considerable experience of the business of local bodies; and for the members of the Opposition claimed that among them -were men of more Parliamentary experience than the members of the present Ministry had when they took office. He then referred to a persistent rumour that the Premier was coming to Timaxu to deliver an address. He denied the light of any Minister to dictate to the electors for whom they should vote. (Applause.) The rumour reminded him the story of a. fewyears ago. of a Nf/rth Island candidate who telegraphed to the Premier: *' My *«at is in danger; for God's sake come and help me." {Great laughter.) For his own part, hi would ask no ore to help him; if ho could not win on his own merits he did not wish to win on any o»e else's. (Applaame.) In conclusion Mr Rolleston gave tbe planks of She Opposition platform:—Reform of the land system, of the administration, of education administration, of the civil service, of the Legislative Council, of the tenure of office of District Court Judges and Magistrates, and of tbe finances, with reduction of the duties on necessaries of life; and if elected he pledged himself to help to carry out these reforms. If they did hint the honour to return him, it would be his wish and ambition, to •show himself worthy of their confidence. w The conclusion of the address ,at 9.45 was followed by prolonged applause mangled with cheers. Tlie meeting had been most orderly and attentive, eren though people at the back of tbe pit could not hear veiy well, and the applause was frequent ?r»d heartv. QUESTIONS.

A considerable number of <g«estioßs werß handed op, some of lljcm. referring Jo the Bible in schools and licensing questions, being in print and of some length. W<r have spice only for brief indicatior.s of the candidate's replies. He weald maintain the present local option law, and if necessary support legislation, to remecv any defect that permits the will of the penple to be defeated by mere technicality. The present licensing laws ought to be a good . d&al more stringently enforced than they were. He was opposed to Bible reading in schools, as calculated to do more harm than good without instruction; and if religions instruction was /given it would i» impossible to refuse grants to Catholic schools. He would not favour a plebiscite on the subject. He did not favour giving the Thussday half-holiday to shops when another octu:red on an other day in the week. The anomaly of a railway rate twice as much from Oamara to Ducedin as frcni Danedin to Oanvaru should be got rid of. As they had a State coal mine, he did not see why they should not have a. Stale coal d<'pot in Timrura. The difct:ncti»n in railway concessions first class and second class holiday tickets, between Classes L and IL in the railway service, it would be well to alter and mate the tickets differ with the amount of salary. (One qucst&ucr pointed out that a man in class IT. must rravcl . second class, • while hi* b"»T a in Class 1 amid gc firfjr V."" 5 ?- i 5 ''lis was writ good for GCiuestJc c^fcijiline.-lie would not support taking the franchise from ;he railway men and the Civil Service.—The Harvester Trust, or any ether Trust that would work unfairly ajjainst the industries of the colony should be resisted. The farmers should help the town citizens by reasonable protection, to keep the men in employment properly provided for. 1 Applause.*)— Ho did not give himsdf a political title at all ; the electors could invent one for b<m He objected to "Conservative" because it gave people a wrong impression.—He had no special sympathy for masters more servants; he would look after tire interest* of all.—He oould not give any reason# why farmers should rote for him; but if they did *o it would show their intelligence slaughter!.—He did not nftiint- » ! compulsory half holiday for farm hand* i would be practicable.—He had never *»«* that 6s a day was enough for a labouring man; he thought 8* fair pay for 8 hours' ; graft.—The land for settlements system should be continued, with amendments be had spoken of. The increased cost of living required too long an explanation to be given in answer to & question.— He could not see that post office officials could be given reduced postal rates because railway men got reduced passage rati*.— Mr Seddon could not claim credit for high prices any more than for the spread of thistle or potato blight.—H« strongly sympathised with the proposal to establish a dental hospital, and would do all lie could to help to imprcve tbe position of the volunteers. He 'approved of a, txnifonn set of school books throughout tlw colony.—Tf railway men had to work for more than 48 hours a week they should have some compensation for it. He thought that Government employees should hare the right to have tJieir wages and conditions of service settled by the Arbitration Court. Some questions proposed had been aa- : swened in tbe course of the address. Questions being answered. Mr S. McBride briefly proposed, and Mr ,T. R. IWe >. seconded, a vote of thanks aad confidence in Mr RoCeston as the future member for Tim am. A good many hands were held up for the motion and the Mayor declared it canned. This was the "signal for prolonged npplanse mingled with cheers. , _Mr Rolleston returned . lhar.k« for the mo- : tion and the reception the xnetihiji had given him, and proposed ,a v<«te of ta the Mayor for presiding, and Ih<» incpling closed at 10.15 p.m. Mr Rtdleston was cheered ?gaia lb;crowd outside as be left tho Thoatrc. *