NO SOCIALISM.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9254, 5 June 1908, Page 1

NO SOCIALISM.

«, THE PREMIER AND LAND NATIONALISATION. [From Our Correspondent.] WAIMATE, June 4. -In the course of his speech at Waimate this evening, the Prime Minister mad© reference to the demands of the Socialists in New. Zealand. "There are men in, this country," he said, " who say that we should nationalise the land, the flour mills, the coal mines and everything. Also the nationalisation of the land is urged by men who do not understand the enormous responsibility that they ask the Government to undertake. If men with such ideas fot into power and tried to realise heir schemes they would land this country in bankruptcy beyond all question. It would ooVt over, one hundred and fifty mfllibn sterling to nationalise the land alone, not to speak of the other things suggested. Where is the money to come from? A man told a meeting in Dunedin that it would be done without money. Well, I should like to have the recipe. "Sou cannot turn back the clock in the affairs of this country any more than in your own affairs. We are spending half a million a year in buying estates for settlement. That is safe and profitable. An attempt to nationalise all the l^nd would mean smashing up the country and desolating every interest in it. The proposal is impracticable and impossible, and I should be lacking in" my duty were I not to express my opinion on the subject as Prime Minister of the dominion."