The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] FRIDAY, JULY 7, 1911. MR. MASSEY’S SPEECH.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13421, 7 July 1911, Page 4

The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] FRIDAY, JULY 7, 1911. MR. MASSEY’S SPEECH.

In accordance with his promise, Air AA r . F. Mnssey, the leader and champion of his Majesty’s Opposition in this Dominion, lias followed up his pro-sessional electioneering campaign by a meeting in AY cl lington. Since Sir Joseph AA’avd’s departure for the Old Country—wo do not suggest that there ia any particular significance iu Air Alassey’s activity in tho absence of the Premier—the, leader of the Opposition has been stumping the country from one cud to the other—a role he has tilled for the last eight years, with the usual result. Air Alassey’s mission has not differed greatly from that which has distinguished liis actions at homo in his Auckland province or in Parliament. The same old questions have cropped up with monotonous iteration, the same old tattered arguments have been used and applauded by that section of the community who consider the voice of the leader of the Opposition the voice of the oracle. Last night’s meeting was no exception to tho rule. The freehold banner was again hoisted; the Civil Service Board, which the Oppo.eillon have been harping on for years, was resuscitated; the increase of tho public debt was condemned; and the old stock charges of hypocrisy, dishonesty, bribery, and corruption, were again levelled at the Government. Air Alasscy has been iu Opposition for seventeen years, and he is likely to continue on the Opposition benches if he has nothing more substantial to offer to tho electors than the pabulum of alleged Tammany and extravagance and incapacity, of which the people are so thoroughly sick. Speaking on the land question, he said that many farmers—himself no doubt amongst the number—were convinced that “the only tenure that was any good to them was the option of purchase.’’ Air Alasaey must know perfectly well that when ho suggests such a change in the law he advocates a system that would place every acre of soil in the country under the absolute control of a mere handful of people. Tho process of buying estates and selling I them again might ward off the worst evils of land monopoly for a time, perhaps for twenty or thirty years, but in the end the condition of the Dominion in this respect would be no better than that

of the Mother Country. What further proof is needed than to state the fact, which Mr Massey cannot deny, that notwithstanding recent legislation and the cutting up of a few of the largest holdings, the tendency throughout tho Dominion is to create larger estates, and today there are more holdings of from 5000 to 10,000 acres than there were several years ago. AVe know of a ease not a hundred miles from Wanganui where a well-known landed proprietor has been mopping up the laud all around him, with the result that quite a number of families formerly settled on the land have removed elsewhere. So far as actual land settlement is concerned, the Government has don c good work. The number of settlers placed on Crown lauds and Land for : Settlement land in the last three years has been 0945, and the area settled 4,954,8*12 acres. The results accruing D-om such a policy must he infinitely better than would obtain from a continuance of the system of big holdings. So far as the increase of the public debt is concerned, Mr Massey still refrains from giving a very necessary explanation. On this point tho Wellington Tost of Wednesday evening takes the leader of the Opposition to task, and we can not do better than quote the words of our contemporary“ The public debt of New Zealand is colossal. A country which, with a, population of a. million, lias run up a debt of 181,000,000 has certainly performed a- remarkable feat. But to state the fact in this bald fashion, as though the whole amount represented a deadweight of debt against which no provision had been made, is utterly misleading. According to Sir James Carroll’s statement in Invercargill, no lees than .£(52,493,000, or 7(5 per cent, of the gross debt, is interest-bearing, profit-earning, or indirectly returning interest. AVe have not; checked these figures, but have no doubt that, oven after a liberal wilting down, they will leave something more than ha'f of the public debt iu the position claimed for it, by the Acting-Premier. Among the larger items are such things as tho loans for Advances to Settlors and for t'lie purchase of Laud fur Settlements. Tho Opposition approve of these objects, and they know that the money is as safe as though sinking funds had accumulated to the amount of the loans, Yet iu speech after speech Mr Massey and others hold up to execration the Government which has piled up so vast a debt, and they decline to make any allowance for the millions which have been turned to such excellent use and are now represented by gi’.tedged securitcs.” Mr Massey professes to be shocked at tho enormous extension of the borrowing policy of tho Government, though he knows that from all parts of the country there is and has been an incessant clamour for cheap money for workers and, for farmers, and for expenditure on public works, and from no part of the country is the demand more earnest or louder than from those constituencies represented by members of the Opposition. The fact is tho needs of tho country have developed with the population, and borrowing must be continued for .some years yet. It is quite unnecessary to try to follow other points of Mr Massey’s address, for lie has been using the like arguments and making similar statements and allegations against tho Government for long years past. It is principally on land and finance that the loader of tho Opposition and tho Government differ. Without the differences of opinion on these questions Air Massey's occupation would bo gone and his chief happiness in life disappear. It is, of course, Air Alassey's purpose fo discredit tho Government and all its works, and that is why his remarks arc never complimentary, and arc ever attuned in the minor key which is the mood of pessimism. The doctors know this, and attach such importance to his utterances as they deserve.