POLITICAL JOTTINGS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3372, 11 November 1911, Page 11

POLITICAL JOTTINGS.

FROM THE ARENA,

To date 248 candidates for the 76 European seats in Parliament have been announced. .In 15 constituencies only two candidates .have been announced, and in seven. ■ there avc so far .five candidates.

“He objected to the practice of bringing down the Public Works Estimates at the end of a session. It serves the Prime' Minister well, as- it gave hm an opportunity of punishing members who did not please him during the session The practice made it possible for the Government if it chose to do so bo practically buy votes with the people’s own money.”—Mr. Ensor, Independent candidate for Riccarton.

Referring to the Government at one of his meetings, Mr. G. W. Armitage, the Opposition candidate for lemuka, said that like a weather-cock it turned whichever way the wind blew. It had bean ‘t/crmO'cl the? bafck-down Government for after pressure it generally backed down. Then it had been called the be-knighted Government, and after the election he hoped it would be lett out in the cold and be in another sense the benighted Government.

When the Ballance Government came into power, it had pledged itself to a self-reliant policy but the present party , Ballance’s successors, had departed widelv from that policy. Borrowing was necessary, but the development or the country could be carierd in a much better way that that of the present Administration. Vote after vote had been increased 1 to many times its original value because of wasteful expenditure. —Mr. J. H. Escott, Opposition candidate, for Pahiatua.

, The Government’s Tammanyism extends in various directions, according t oMr. Pearce. M.P., who referred to the subject in his speech at Patea. 'For instance, when the Opunake railway was being urged by Mr. Pearce and Mr Hine in the House recently the Hon. R Mackenzie interjected that if two Government members were returned for Taranaki, the line would be granted. What was that but a bribe to secure the return of the Hon. T. Mackenzie? No matter whether a member was a Government or Opposition- supporter his district should receive a fair share of Government votes.

“I don’t know on what principle the Government has acted in granting increases of salaries in the Civil Service,” said! Mr. Herdman in reply to a questioner recently. “Nobody knows. Nobody can find out. Four years ago the Classification, and Superannuation Act was passed, and a board was appointed to draw up a scheme to be submitted to Parliament. The four years have gone by, and only a few weeks ago the scheme was submitted, but there was no nominal roll with it, and so the men do not know, even now, where they stand. That is the, sort of thing you get under Ministerial control.”

In view- of the frequent references to the national debt and the departure from the “self-reliant” policy of the Ballance Government, the following extract from a speech made by Mr. Ballance on June 30th, 1892 (less than a year before his death) is of interest:

“Borrowing in the London market must cease. Our debt is great, and the population to bear the burden comparatively small. We have marched for 20 years at a furious pace, too severe to last; and have piled up obligations which should make sane men pause. But now for the first' time we have determined on a policy of self-reliance the only policy to make this a great country.”

In a review of Mr, Fowld’s address to the Grey Lynn electors, the Wellingto Post remarks:—“We believe that Mr. Fowld’s calculation of the unearned increment enjoye dby_ the private owners of land to the distress of landless bread-winners can be modified to make a less distressing picture than he painted. He deduced that every working head of every family of five people in New Zealand ’had each to create by labor “an annual value of £Bl, which was handed over to the landlords before the workers began to receive anything to buy food and clothing.” What is the final disposition of that £Bl ? How much of it finally goes in the payment of wages? How much of it is invested here to increase the amount of food and clothing available' for distribution ? Mr Fowlds did not complete his argument”

The following is the text of a letter from Mr Moss, who has withdrawn from the candidature of the Parnell seat, to the electors of that constituency: “Feeling satisfied now that I cannot completely recover from a recent operation before election day, I have with very great regret to announce my withdrawal as a candidate from the Parnell seat at the fortcoming general election. In doing so, I desire to express my sincere thanks to all the members of my committee for the valuable assistance they have given me. I have discussed the’situation with my friends, and have also carefully considered the platforms of the other candidates who are contesting the seat, and in doing so have arrived at the conclusion that the policy expressed by Mr. J. S. Diskson is more in accordance with that of the party with which I am connected than that of any other candidate, and trust my friends, who have been rendering me such splendid services, will see the position as I do, and will assist in placing Mr Dickson at the top of the poll.”