760
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 14

Legislation dealing with old-age pensions will be submitted fixing the age for women at sixty years and for widows at fifty-five years without any restrictions as to children. Proposals for invalidity cases will also be placed before you.

It is proposed to establish a Bureau of Justice, by providing, at the expense of the State in all proper cases, legal assistance for the protection or defence of a man’s rights and liberty where he has not the means of securing such assistance.

Facts have come before my Advisers which show that trusts and combines are operating to some extent in this Dominion, and, as the existing legislation may prove insufficient to suppress the evil, a Bill extending the present law will be introduced.

The success which has followed State enterprise in New Zealand has induced my Advisers to decide upon the nationalization of the iron industry. By providing cheaper material the ironworking establishments that now employ a large number of people will be able to greatly expand their operations, and employment will be found for a great number of workers in producing iron and steel from the raw product. If satisfactory arrangements cannot be made with regard to the development of the oilfields of the Dominion by private enterprise, or if any attempt is made to put it under the control of any trust or combine, that industry will be nationalized as well.

Proposals will be submitted to establish a State coal-mine and coal-depots in the Provincial District of Auckland in order to give the inestimable advantage of cheaper coal to the people of that province.

My Ministers are satisfied that it would be of great advantage to the workers in the different centres if they were able to acquire cottage farms from the State sufficiently near their usual work to enable them to employ their spare time upon these farms, in fruitgrowing, dairying, market gardening, or other profitable purposes. The proposed system is based upon lines which have proved so successful in England and America, and on the Continent of Europe.

My Government, as the results of practical experiments on poor and what has hitherto been regarded as unproductive land, have decided to set aside areas for disposal on easy terms for fruitgrowing under co-operative associations and small holdings to individuals, and for this purpose will render reasonable financial assistance to enable the farms in the earlier stages to be profitably worked.

The legislation introduced last year for the creation and promotion of co-operative farmers’ banks will be proceeded with, but with more effective machinery than the Bill of last session contained.

The Bill providing for a State-note issue in New Zealand, which was before Parliament last year, will be reintroduced.

Anomalies exist in the First Division of the Railway Department, and legislation will be submitted providing for a more equitable classification of the members of that branch of the service.

My Advisers hold that the ideal of our education system should be to make it free from the primary school to the University, and proposals to give effect to this will be submitted. Special provision will also be made for the development of agricultural colleges and experimental farms to equip our present and future settlers with the best and most up-to-date scientific training.

You will, I feel confident, give the position of the Dominion and the several matters I have brought under your notice, together with the measures that are to be submitted, your earnest and careful consideration; and I trust that your labours and decisions may, with God’s blessing, result in materially promoting the prosperity, happiness, well-being, and lasting benefit of the people of New Zealand.

By Authority: JOHN MACKAY, Government Printer, Wellington.