THE GENERAL ELECTION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16903, 30 November 1922, Page 9

THE GENERAL ELECTION.

Extracts From Speeches of Candidates.

SPECIAL REPORTS FOR THE “STAR"

MR ISITT’S POSITION. POINTS FROM ELMWOOD. “ There has been a good deal of | talk about my position.*’ said Mr L. M. Isitt to an interested audience at j Elmwood last night, “ but what I j want to know is why this talk did not j eventuate three years ago, because my position on the occasion of this election is exactly the same as my position was three years ago. “ You have been told that 1 am not a true Liberal : that 1 am in Massey’s pocket, and that I have sold the worker. Why didn’t these people i talk like this in 1912? “ If there is one thing *» man i- j careful about it is his election manifesto. He writes it as carefully »:s \ he writes a letter to his girl. Here i i- my manifesto, written in 1919: | *• T am a Liberal, and if Sir Joseph j Ward, my leader, is returned with • a Liberal majority I shall support j his claim to lead the House; but if I hi< majority is given him by the extreme Labour Party I shall do my utmost to aid in the defeat of ! the extreme Labour device. “ ft you can have anything plainer j than that I would like to see it •• That is mv position, ami it was my position in 1919. I am as strong a Liberal as T ever was, but my love for Liberalism would prevent me doing anything to lift that party into power at the mercy of the extreme Labour mafcbine. “ f would rather go out ori my ear a dozen times than associate myself j with a party which I regard as utterly and absolutely un-British and disloyal. ‘' A man told me that 1 still stood whore I stood in 1912, while he had progressed. Well, I still stand where T stood. I still love my country and the Empire and British parliamentary institutions; and T do not love Russia and Sovietism and all the sanguinary blood muddle thev have there. T cannot slobber on Lenin and Trotskc; I and curse Lloyd George and Bonar Law. I am not going to. swallow what the / Maori!and Worker’ lavishes on any enemy of England. ” I do not believe the lies—the wicked lie#—that, are constantly appearing in that, official organ of the extreme Labour Party. They say that the English statesmen who travelled and agonised all through the terrible years of war are now prepared vo S lunge all Europe into a new blood at-h and imperil the position of their own nation—-what for, to secure a strangle-hold on what—petrol oil. I am not exaggerating—this is the position they put forward. “ I still love the British people more than I lovo Russian* and Prussians and Austrians and the unspeakable 'lurk. I hate their dirty work, and J believe in British honour. et T am diametrically opposed to glorifying everything foreign and villifying everything British. “ They may talk about my froth and ■wild language; but I have never seen any man. either Howard or Holland, or anyone else, to dispute the correctness of anything I hove said. Read what Mr Howard says: f I want t# make it clearly understood that I am just na red ’ (not pink or blue, or block or brown) 4 just as red, and I stand in all things where my leader stands, and I back up everything he has got to say.' 1 But they say they have cause for complaint when we call them red; yet one moment they are proud of flaunting it, and triumphing in it, and the next they arc complaining about it. “ Take Mr Holland. He says. ‘ 1 am not ashamed of the brand of a revolutionary Socialist and a Revolutionary Socialist is not a pacifist. “ In the last issue of 4 The Maoriland Worker 9 you hove a manifesto from the miners saying they are prepared to link up with the Moscow Socialists. 4< The one desire of the leaders of the extreme Labour Party to-day is the formation of one big union. “ The only Liberal? for whom the extreme Labour Party have a good word are the dead Liberals. ** You nay he a Methodist or an Anglican or a Presbyterian, or a Roman Catholic ; but there is no love for God that is worth a rap but serving men. A man does not serve God by going to church. All these means of giace are simply designed by God to build up in us a spirit that will make us go out to do service for God by doing service for mau 44 Tlie Bolshevist and the Bed Fed and the Socialists are right when they say that the privileges and pleasures of life should belong to the few : but we must go to work in the sane and com-mon-sense fashion and try little by little to raise the position of the masses economically so that we shall not have extremes of poverty on the one hand and extreme wealth on the other. There is my creed in a nutshell. “You say what is my constructive policy. f will begin with an Irishism : My constructive policy in the first place is to prevent the destruction of what we possess. We have, in this little section of the Empire, a section of people who arc determined to uproot and destroy those privileges which w*‘ ought. to hold most dear. 44 After twelve years* experience T have got n mighty poor opinion of party government, and the oVrly reason I hold on to it is that I cannot sec anything better. “We politicians have been disgrace ftjjly lax. We have allowed the ex x rtwf Labour leaders to go the county speaking on Sunday nights and every night filling the heads of th© workers with those extraordinary notion.*; that there is this great wealth t<* ho distributed. One of the first duties of Mr Wilford and Mr Massey when they return to ih© House is to say to their members. -'There is a peculiar rcsponftibility resting mi you to meet the MMp-fiox with the soap-box, but when

they talk nonsense you must talk solid j sense.’ “ We have got- to do our very utmost to reduce overheat! charges to save wherever we can save, and to increase production. •' We have got to establish our own J • In conjunction with that .ocean line the Government should say. ‘Ycm ore no longer going to carry out that wretched system of waterside workers.* 1 1 you wanted to create Bolshevism you could not hare found a better means : and any foreign scallywag that likes to drop off into this country from r. foreign vessel and naturalises himself can pay os and become a member of the waterside union. Every ballot taken on a strike should be a secret ballot, under Government control, so that you get the real and not the terrorised opinion of the men ; and I. would go further and say that I would not take a ballot unless the wives had a vote too. “ If there is more than a reasonable prospect of developing an industry ax huge as the sugar beet industry, which

would give Canterbury and New Zealand a, tremendous lift, it is worthy the earnest consideration of Christchurch business men and above all the Progress League.” “ We have got to go in for inten. give farming and we must stop the aggregation of land. We have got. to make New Zealand a duplicate oi Denmark. “We must increase our population and consequently I am strongly in far our of an imigration policy. The result of the British elections 1 will give a fillip to proportional representation that will astonish. us. Tlie present system is a rotten system. “If we say to the worker 4 You have nr right to go in for direct action 5 we must be able to say that we have ' a Parliamentary system which will give representation even to a minority in the legislature of the country “We most have the co-operative principle We must try and give the worker a personal interest, in the business in which ho is working. *• The Government made a huge mistake in the system of purchasing .soldiers’ lands. It had legislation by ' which, it could have taken the lands at a reasonable valuation, and if it. had not it could have passed such legisla- ; tion. “ Farmers who. never intended to | stop farming sold their land at the i huge price and became competitors ' ! against the soldiers. The only thing j now for the Government is to face J the inevitable and cut their losses, re- | ducing the valuation to a figure that i will enable the soldier to make a fair competence. “ You have got. a rotten system of building railways. Ihe premier said ‘ Why. it took mo thirteen years to build mv poor little railway.’ I felt like savino* ‘Yes. and now that it is finished it is a poor little railway. “ Yon can put me out on my ear, j and I won’t squeak if you carry that. | prohibition issue. Aon will do more ! good than all tlie political parties and | the policians put together.” A hearty vote of thanks and con- | fide nee was carried on a show of hands j with only one dissentient. Jhe a ore : I hd«nce/ ,X

THE REFORM REBELS.

MALCONTENTS IN CHRISTCHURCH NORTH. ' Tile action of the Reform I'.’:, i titiVO ! in supporting Mr l— M. Isitt instead of Mr E. 11. Andrews was trie suojeet of bitter comment at the meeting adj dressed in the Rugby Street its: la j evening by Mr Andrews. 1 hero was a fair attendance. Points irom Mr Andrew’s address were:— I n j have no regrets that 1 acceded I to the requests that I should become a candidate. My supporters are working j all thev know, and the most encourag- : mg reports are coming to hand. •• To-day there is little doubt that I December 7 will see me at the top of the poll for Christchurch North. 1 * * The Reformers are rallying to the ! real Reform banner daily. They are J coming over ©very day. They recogj nise that if they arc Reformers they must suport. the 'Reform candidate. I Within the last two days two members of the Reform executive have said: j • You are making it pretty hot. old j man, and you are going to get a lot more votes than you know about, meaning, I suppose, that they are coming into th© real Reform fold. “ Mr Isitt’s campaign of calumny and vilification is bearing the result that we expected. It is recoiling on his own head. lie is losing ground through his abuse of the other candidates. He goes out to try to steal votes from those who have no syrn- ' pathv with him j Mi Liu actual!;, told a meeting

the other night that C con Id not get I 1200 votes. If that is so. why did be ; tell a meeting of hie frieruis to s Looh out for thstc mart Andrews; he is a strong man, who has. a big following and has to be reckoned with F r Mr Ixitt wants to get in by book or by crook, and to get the votes of all parties. •* Mr Isitfc has angled for the Reform vote. Let me tell him ho is hiring his own L9>era.l supporters. I am getting numerous promises of support from Liberals who prefer a straightout opponent to a man on the rail.'** ,r Since 1919 tlier© have been twelve no-confidence motions, and Mr Isitt voted against the Government with the Reds in six of them. In four others he did not vote at nil. • ‘ Mr Isitt has made a oompect with Reform. Not so many years ago, when he succeeded Mr T. EJ. Taylor, he made a compact with Labour. He has thrown over the Labour party amt can’t go back to them. He has gone with the Liberal Party, and now he want* to make a pact with tlm Reformers. The true Reformers won’t stand for it. 4 * The statement that by voting for me you are going to put the Labour candidate in is a canard. I don't think the Labour candidate has a very great chance. • There, will be a big poll this time, and F question whether 3600 votes will put a man in. I cannot see Mr Archer getting anvthing like that. • Reform has only got to vote reasonably solid to put its man in. tf They don’t entirely vote for me they will vote reasonably solid for me. I have a pretty big ’ personal following coining with me; many Liberals are disgusted with Mr Isitt: and I have a certain amount of support from working men who will not stand Mr Isitt at an a* price. •• There is only a quarter of til** Christchurch North population west cf Papanui Rond. _ Let them go over to East St Albans, where there is three

times The population. They will got the shock of their lives as to what i« going to happen to Mr Isitt.” On a motion of thanks and confidence there was a lively discussion. The action of the Reform Executive in declining to support Air Andrews was variously described as “ deplorable.” “un-British,” “unpatriotic” and “ disastrous.” One speaker said that it was 44 dastardly.” An entertaining interlude was. furnished by Airs Foster, who gave a lively description of a Reform ladies* ially held that, afternoon. She said that Alessrs David Jones, Devereux, Loach, Lane and Kyle were present, and each had “ just a few words to say.” On© of the speakers dealt tf'iH the Reform p*ejects in other dist —but he left out Christchurch North. There were cries of “ What about Christchurch North?” but tjiey would not answer any questions about ’t. (Laughter.! After the meeting was over vhe told Mr Jones that Rvf-.rm-ers in Christchurch North were working hand and foot for Mr Andrews. “I told them,” said Mrs Foster, energetically, 44 that they were not game enough to back Air Isitt at the meeting. Tf Air Archer is not going to get in Mr Tsitt’s not going to get in.” (Loud applause.) Finally. Airs Foster said that they should not be discouraged. They should have the spirit of optimism, the latest example of which was provided by “a Scotchman touring America with a corkscrew.” (Loud laughter and applause.) The motion was carried, and cheers were given for the candidate and Mr Alassey. The chairman ('Air Crampton) said that the Reform Executive was sorry for what if had done. If it was not. it would he.

SOUTH CHRISTCHURCH.

MR ELL’S CAMPAIGN. Mr H. G. Ell, Independent Liberal candidate for Christchurch South, actdressed the electors a't the Sydenham Football ' Hub’s rooms last night. Air IT. Slatter. who presided, remarked that he had been associated with Mr Ell on the Trades and Labour Council some twenty years ago. Reference was made by Mr Ell to his association with the Labour Council and he proceeded to say that he had never deserted the policy of reform in the interests of the masses of the people The only difference which had separated him from active association with the Trades and

Labour Council had been their alteration of policy, and he thought, too, that a very grave mistake had been made by chose, in charge in putting a stof) to the practice of inviting members of Parliament to meet the Trades and Labour Council in conference. When this procedure was in operation members went away from such conferences with a more intimate knowledge of the requirements of Labour organisations in the way of factory laws and legislation generally. In 1902 when a vote was taken as to who should receive Labour support he had come out on top, which was a splendid encouragement considering the fact that then he had been in Parliament only three years. Belittling references had been made

to his work in connection with the | Summit Road scheme. He believed, j however, that the Sign of the Kiwi | m would yet. bring in a revenue oi £3OO j fl for the Summit Road. The tram ter- j g minus house, Kennedy’s Bush, and the J | house he hoped to see built at Coop- ; 1 tr’s Knob would be of further assist- 1 | ence to the scheme. The Scenic Pre- j | servation Act of 1903 was brought in j | by the late Richard Seddon,. who | | backed up the measure with an appro }• | priation of £100,(K>0 for the purpose of j | securing reserves for the benefit of \ jj future generations. In introducing the j | Bill Mr Seddon reminded the House I jj that he had kept his promise to Mr Ell j jj and the speaker took this as a great | i compliment. He would vote to put the Conserve.- j 1 five Party out and he would work I with the progressive party as one of 1 1 the advance wings as he had always ’ 8 done, though he would never give a ' 9 verbal or written pledge to any party. 1 g He was not going to give, up his right j I to exercise his personal judgment. If ! i returned he would be found with the I advanced section of the Liberal Party. ! $ It was not policy issues that separated f him from Mr Holland. He (Mr Pill) ]| would not support any man who did | P not stand b3' the maintenance of the i | British Navy and he would not support j j Mr Holland on the want of confidence I i motion. The Laboitr Leader did r.ot j j believe ir. the maintenance of the Bri- j j tish Navy—there was no reference to j j it in his platform and he meant to j I repeal the Defence Act. The sooner | j they got back to an alliance between j J the Radical element and the Labour j element the sooner would they ad- j ! vance in reform. It yvas a recognised principle that i I taxation should be levied, not only as ; a means of providing money to carry ! | on the State services, but also in such a | | way as to remove inequalities i in. the distribution of wealth. There j | tem which would defeat that object t rioro than the Customs taxation, because it fell on everyone. It fell heavily on the man with a large family. He urged that Customs taxation for revenue purposes should be confined to absolute luxuries and that the necessaries ot' life should be made duty free. The Government was going back on the principle laid down first of nil by Sir George Grey for a free breakfast table. One of the Reform candidates had said that the proper system was to' spread taxation, and ‘so were keeping on the tea taxgenev source of revenue—and twisting the tariff. Japanese silk was being admitted at 10 ner cent and British cot- I tons were being levied 120 per cent. The revenue could be found elsewhere by a slight levy on .the sales of land and mortgages transferred. Town and suburban land sold last year amounted to 18.1.34 acres, valued at £27.173,531. Country lands sold amounted to 1.557.328 acres, valued at £81.790,063. A levy of Ud on the latter sum would have produced £511,887, and one penny in the £1 on the value of mortgages ‘transferred would have brought in .0233,674. The extra tax on \ transfers would be a deterrent to deals j which were not beneficial to the coun- i try. It would also help to get some of the unearned increment 'which the community was creating. Further, land values in the country districts ought to bear the cost of maintaining the roads, and the general taxpayer should not be called upon to provide a subsidy on rates. Constitutional reforms of which Air Ell was in favour included the election of the Legislative Council by the House of Representatives, and making the Council a revising body. He advocated an elective executive, believing it would result in a hotter administration and a stronger body—though Mr Holland’s platform did not contain any reference to this, previously well recognised as part of Labour’s policy. He would support reverting to the second ballot rather than proportional representation. though he would vote for the latter as a second choice. Mr Holland, however, had voted against proportional representation. In view of the results of the first-past-Hie-post system, every opportunity should bo taken to secure a reform. Mr Ell said he thought the country quota, should be eliminated now; its introduction at a time when tlio country was sparsely populated had served it’s purpose. Mr Esl paid a tribute to Sir Joseph Ward, who had voted for all Labour legislation and had given to the people the Parliamentary franchise for local elec- J A number of questions were answered. The candidate said he was a supporter of Mr Wilford. hut he would not give an unconditional pledge. A vote of thanks to Mr Ell was car- j ried hy acclamation. THE REFORM MANIFESTO. POLICY AND PERFORMANCE. Speaking at North Avon Road last night the Hon G. AY. Russell remarked that plank 8 of Mr Massey’s: manifesto was encouragement of industries in every possible way. but especially bv (a) using np our own material*;; (b) encouraging the establishment oi ironworks. shipbuilding and other secondary industries with a view to providing employment for our people and to avoid a disadvantageous trade balance. The policy proposed was very good, but did it square with the performances of the Government? Turning to the Railways Report Mr Russell pointed out that during the last year thirtv railway engines were added to the stock, three of which were built in the Government, railway shops, the remaininc twenty-seven being imported from. Great Britain, and there were eighteen 1 .-still on order. With regard to railway j waggons 233 were manufactured in New Zealand last year in the Govern. ‘ rnent railway shops. while 613 fourwheel waggons were imported from Great Britain. This was not all'. for j tiie report proceeded to state that at the close of the vent* there were under ; construction in the railway work-hops i 268 waggons. whilst a further 1887 j were under contract for manufacture in j Great Britain. It would thus be seen j that the importations were forty-five ! railway engines and 2500 waggons, j This was the manner in which the I Government assisted the industries of j the country. Tt would be observed that, a number of railway engines were j being made within the country and it i was well-known that New Zealand- : made engines were of the highest order 1 of quality in every way; in fact they were superior to any that were import- ] ed. and the same remark applied with \ regard to the waggons. j If the workshops in New Zealand were capable of turning out the numbers that were manufactured last year, all that was necessary was to extend thorn as required and they would be able to cope with the entire requirements of the Dominion without importation He stressed the point because throughout the last year unemployment had been j rife in the Dominion. Thousands of men j were unemployed and hundreds of thes rj were expert fitters and engineers who j could have been engaged on the \ manufacture of the railway stock i ■"'lnch had been imported. He left | Mr Massey to square tro policy j with his recent performances and j he ventured to say that if the ! Liberal Government were in power it I would accept the principle that no im- i portation was to be spado of any rolling 1 stock for the railways, no- any equip- j ment required either for livdro-olectri • works or telegraph and telephone set- | vices which could be manufactured j within the country. (Loud appiauj*.)