THE SECOND BALLOT FIGHT.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 12840, 11 December 1911, Page 8

THE SECOND BALLOT FIGHT.

MR. VEITCH AT THE OPERA HOUSE. ,

Mr. Veitch opened his "second -ballot Sight on Saturday evening, when he a large meeting at the Opera House. Mr. Veitch had a very -enthusiastic reception, and, his speech' was punctuated with -applause. At the conclusion he was accorded a vote -of thanks amid cheers, and .singing of -"For He's-a Jolly Good Fellov/." The Mayor, Mr. 0. E. Mackay, occupied the chair. . MR. VEITCH'S PLEDGE. After referring to the defeated candidates at the first ballot, Mr. Veitch ssaid a great deal was being made of -the fact that he had pledged himself -to vote against the present Cabinet.; ""Canvassers are stating in town," .said Mr. Veitch, "that I have pledged myself to followtlVlr. Massey in the siext Parliament if I am.elected. I do jio think it is fair that should be said. 1 have not pledged myself to follow Mr. Massey. I have: not pledged myself to follow any. .party except Laihour. I^aye saicL tjiaf over, and over tagain afld j resent ttie false ruinour--ttiat is being circutaie.d:. tf y.etiM be fetter if the people nialdu£ those sstatementsy/ould,first question, me, my njeetings, or read the. airess reports. , They,.would then, rea-; iise my true position. I have nothing ■*b say against iMr^Massey as .a .gentle--*nan or against.Sir; Joseph Wprd. aa :a gentleman. I am not prepared to ifbllow' MX Massey, 'rbecause. lus. pou-\ ■llcal ideals are different to .niine. I, •stm not^prepared-to follow Sir Joseph "Ward because I am convinced he, is. not thei right-man to the right, place. f stand"ftor, 'the principles:.of the, ; La% *our ''■.'■PfoiyFkp&ft will; rsup'pcirt tl\e, LabouV?Pa^y/in:iPariiament.Jfirie]ec^7r -^,1 ttfat? ;S.h9'iJld r 'W understupd by/, Dili's time, that is; unless people intentionally misrepresent me,---It is very -unfair to adopt such tactics as are ■feeing adopted. I have pledged myself to turn the present Cabinet out ■oof power, because I know we cannot •set a better Cabinet until this one ?s turned out. During the. 2 6 years I have been here I nave been a follower.of Liberalism. lam a Liberal -still and that .is the reason why I liave left the present Government. 'The,present Government bav-i become Conservative —more so than the Con•aervative^party itself. The result of ■4he elections showed that 1 am not :alone in this opinion. There are .thousands and thousands of people who are in the same position as I -find myself in. There are some of those people in this hall now. (Applause.) We are not tired of LiberalIsm but of Wardism and one-man Government. (Applause.) The^ first *ime" I spoke I said I hoped and be-. Tieved that we would be aDle to getLabour Party strong enough to «carry the balance of power between the two parties that exist in the House at the present time. I believe .that hope is to be fulfilled. It seems <* although, of course, we cannot yet say how it will work out) that the ■present Government and Mr. Massey's party wlll.ibe .of. .the., same: strength.. II we .can get half-a-dozen, of our T?arty in, we can turn out the lot, and >-so get a better party, than now exists. AVnen I say a "better party" I mean •trae that conforms more to ouv ideals «of what a Labour party should be. ■If 3s reasonable t,o suppose that the.Labour party Tvlll^hold.1 the balance, of> •^power. I have bqen sorry all. along *hat the Labour party did' not begin , -organising-twelve-, months ago, for; tnen-w^ con 14 have put up a man for j -*jac& seat However. It is no; «sb crvt ] :i rag over apitttinilk or looking at |he '■"^past--J "WtF'mttsi look /■■to^th^,;ftttuTe. ■. taiid ehdeaVdur to avoids the ifiistakeß •aof the past. '..',.,..,.^, "'■ ' ' THE COUNTpY'^YJE^DICT. can see1 frbni^thelxe^uJis^QL *he elections soiarttat-t^ffGovern-ment has lost a great' fUefA of its -strength. It.is.^eU t9;cpnaide.r^Qme of the causes' tM^ha^e 1 VdifgTit; this I believe bri*rqrthe most important causes is lia^ r||^ -boss system in'Parlla^/jnt.TTie ] -people resent the one-n>aii; ru^ej we , liave had to tolerat.feV ?$? .l^op^e j realise that they h^.K^ti&rPPWff of self-government.; JJntijl' we v 4Tive Sir Joseph Ward ' ij>ii£ , an^i s<)XCsAihP elective executive 6n, .Pa,rlfament»-.^ft' <an neVer be sure tfiatthis party; system will not'exist.;, Wpil? the;,Ausv \ tralian Labour Party has,adopted, tjte ■caucus system, that,is rip. reason why we, should follow t^eir example.;, Ati~ <»ther cause of , j\vas"/;tTie^ postponing of :eayl"ia%»»t-.ftp .enable' Sir Joseph Ward to return from Eng3and. ■■-WuejaIv,w:s, ; .ccmsider.'.rtlio. enormous rush :<>l legisiatiori' at "the of ;the session, we must expect a large number pf errdrsi/ : Many -necessary ( things were not done owing to Parliament waiting- for Sir .Tosepfi Ward to a-eturn from England-,.. It w/is a great •^confession when the party admitted it ■^vas liriabl© to carry on -; the business *of the ?ci6untry in; the ; absence pf.-its leader". It ge%ms, to, mo Pariiament -should'consist of-men having the flourage, of their CO|l iyictibns and -abitt-;. •*y! ;ta ':'ijm-- ;rthe of the' • country. ''.J. ,o!pn;^l^ipw;; KoaV 'theySviil on when tiiJeirj chief is g^ne, but :?t seems,to me-that-their chief will "have to fight on the other side of the House,.if.he fights at all. (Applause.) • Continuing, Mr. Veitch said anfother pause of complaint against the was its failu'-e to grapple -with the cost of living, which had enormously increased. The oxtravafgance of Parliament was still enothey

cause of complaint! If departments v.were\ prbperly 'supervised^ they; could be ' productive .of - nlore ■>good, at a greatly decreased .cQst.',l^7i£h- tße exception of "Sir- Joseph. Ward,'-there was a complete lack of industry on. the part of Ministers. Still' another causa for the people's ..dissatisfactions was the Gdy ernmeH t 'g, IslcIc: o|; -.C6u ?-. age. -. They had 'sat 'down 'arid-waited for the: people to give them a lead in-' ■ stead of initiating a policy. They followed the line of least resistance. Tney had been .buffeted \by every • wind, and now they had been blown ion the rocks. . J "r ■ • i Mr. Veitch then went on to'o>f>li with the planks of the Labour Party's j platform, speaking on the lines of i previous speeches. QUESTIONS. In renly to questions Mr. Veitch said:.- ."„ . ~;. I, ."I waat to make.an explanation reigarding my attitude to preference to i unionists. I have explained that I j am in favour of the principle of statutory preference to unionists. Every | man should be a unionist ami take his share in carrying on unijn work, it is not fair that ;the man ho does t not.,contribute should get - the, . game j benefits. On the other hand, we must jbe verys careful that we do .rot go to j. the mother Extreme, ;No union that1 j gets preference should hrtvc the right to make a close corporation ct itself. Ev£ry man -in his trade sliould be allbv/ed'tb' join .Ore; union qnT-payihent of a small sum. There should; be no limit of membership When preference to unionists is adopted." ''There is a misunderstanding . reg^'rding the Labour Party's attitude oii,;the land question. ; Our. idea is f.ha.f the principle of the . leasehold sHall apply to Crown lands. 'We Adiitt want to sell any more' Crown. lands; i{ We do not want to Ktqpany-. "iivfal owning land of his ,o\YA.JtPidQ, ly'hat he likes with it. Our policy is that all the land must.be used, and any man having more* than he can use should be "compelled, by means of taxation or otherwise, to subdivide it. We Would not take away the light of a man to own-his land. If he can buy his home or farm- (outp.ide of Crown; land) byvall-means; let';him; do so; the Labour Party will never prevent him. We believe that if Crown lands are not sold the people of New Zealand will benefit." In support of this contention, Mr. Veitch pointed to what endowments had done for education in Wanganui. The Labour Party wants to exempt improvements from taxation. The Labour Party is out for reform. We want to see New Zealand made a better country. We don't want legislation for the workers as against others. I wish something could be done'to bring about a better understanding between employers and employees than at present exists.. One cannot work- without the other. One is absolutely necessary to the othex, and it is absolutely desirable that labour disputes should be avoided. The only way is to adopt arbitration between bofh. . The Government boasted that a large proportion of the loans were in-terest-bearing, but there was no reason why, if sound finance -were built up, loans could not be avoided. Though late, why not start to "build I up sound finance? ; ■He had no knowledge of the OIK phant-Hughes case, but, if elected, lie : would go into the. matter, and. if satisfied that Hughes had .been-badly /treated, would do all'in his itower to have justice done. ,He would guarantee not to talce* three years ever the matter. (Laughter^ and applause.,),. After several'bth'ej -questions had been, answered,, Mr t Vettcb. .was aqCorded a Hearty vote oC'thanks'and; conjadencet carried with" cheers' aii4 tnusical honours; !; , ~ "i I' \ r}' i:i ""'■* ■ • .n(v.i\*