THE COMING ELECTION.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 143, 18 June 1887, Page 2

THE COMING ELECTION.

Mr Moss Before His Constituents.

fe F. J. Moss, M.H.R. for Parnell, ad" jhair: and there was a crowded.. auditory. The Chairman briefly bespoke for Mr Moss a fair hearing. ■ i .;. .' ~ - d Mr Moss, who was well received, saia that he & the a food many years, and he nau X thiW takeJ the rivine an account of his stewardship, to of the dangerous had been .pursuedan the 10 or 15 years. He thought, that, tiie electors of Parnell would feel pleasure in knowing that ever since that policy ad been initiated ~ the r f .member had been foremost in Both he and: his predecessor ¥»&«£» Wood, had done this. He #g* always laid stress on the fact tliat must come when their security would fall in value, and had warned them fliat when Sat time arrived they imistb, e ;.mepa E ec or the struggle as the weight 6±- taxation should ialbupon That was the true struggle^. which they were now engaged- the. bin - den should fall fairly and • evenly on all classes, or -byVfcwaey: jugglery be cast on the masses? Another great question was whether the policy, of the .country should.be mouVded to teep up the price of the land and to- lower the late of wages. That- was another issue they wquklWe to face. They would have, to say whether ttey would lend their hand to lower the grest mass of their fellow-colo-Ss for the few. : Then there wasathirdissue: Shortly, great runs in ie SoutV would fall into-the hands of the Cown, and •! it would nave, to be deeded how this matter should i, e dc*lt with—for the benefit of the inanyorof the few; They would recollect the/ast occasion when this matter came foeflre Parliament in 1879, and the trouble tJ&b then took place. He would like to 4,y a few words to them on the borrowing -policy of the'past. It was to this policy ' that they in a great measure owed the difficulties into .which they were plunged. Hedid not mean to say that this was the only cause, because he believed that another cause was the change in .the form of government. He reminded #iein that when provincialism was abolished the people were bribed with promises that could not; be' ' fulfilled except by borrowing:' :They now 37 millions, and were in the position of the man who boasted that three i years ago he ,was not' worth 6d, and now owed £20,000. (Laughter.) -Not .even their representatives knew how the money borrowed had been spent. The very medals worn by' -their: Volunteers ; every chair: in the Agent- : Generals office in London ; every telegraph post, 'had-;'come out:-'.! oi ■[ ; the bor-i •rowed- J money. Victoria,, which had, spent its borrowed ..money-on- ; repro-; ductiye- public works, received £900,000 annually from public works; while we with a larger expenditure only derived L 300,000. Their exports were larger than ours, and their prosperity-greater in every way/ With, reference to his own action in Parliament .he quoted from the c " Hansard" reports o£ 1880 to show that he. had then condemned the borrowing policy and warned Parliament. 'against' the' danger•!which would! i culminate iii lowering the credit of. the colony ■;'■ had 'advocated the re'ducti-on of the members; of the, General Assembly and the number -of Ministers.i l There was not a year since that he had not movedj ,in the same-direction*,,% In August; 1881,1 "speaking to a motion of Sir George Grey's,; he had condemned the extravagance of a large House of Representatives, and advo- " cated the reduction of the number of : mem* •bers by one-half, which, wo-ald be followed by a substantial reduction in the mental expenditure.. Year after year he had gone on, and now he found he wag coolly reproached for standing alone; When he commenced, the party of retrenchment numbered 15 or 16, but one by : one -they had dropped : off, and he was left alone. It <"was- not a pleasant .position, to' isolate one's self ; from- his. fellow members, but for three years he-had not :' believed :either- Government pi? Opposition . were- in s earnest. -'He; was np'w delighted that the people were- at lasfraroused and would not further allow this fair : country to be a plaything in,the. hands', of politicians. | 'Massing on to allude to the,deficit, Major Atkinson .had accused the Grey Government j of leaving a deficiliof £911,000, arid of havitrg' forestalled the £5,000,000 loan j yo'o the Hall-Atkinson Government, instead of . 'endeavouring, to. reduce the expenditure, '•funded the deficit, increased the taxation, abolished; the, unimproved land tax, /jubsti'tuted the property tax, and took 12 revenue against II months' ■They effected a - temporary . 'saving-of L 50,000 by imposing a tax. of 10 per cent. qn the unfortunate ' civil; ser.-yants. He remembered .that his , frienc'i Air Sadler, " who" had'been receiving tb.e magnificent salaryof ,L6;a year- as postm'astesin P.arhell, told him that.at'the end. of the year he had Jiad 12s deducted f.rom his Atkinson <pfe»f<essed" to ■ retrench, 1 j and retrench largely,, ;and appointed, a com|mispjion of 'Goyemme'jit'-officers;-'- They; made a report- and' Bent-* it in, but in the meantime Atkins bnuwas turned out of office,, and an extraordinary thing;happened. Atkinson destroyed the report of the commission on the grounds thai) it wa&-confi-dential. This he'demurred.to,, v Thereport .was prepared by' Government bfEcers, and .should have beery-left' for the benent.df their successors. Msijbr Atkinson 'left , a deficit of £182,000 on ; the, year's .transactions when he went out of'.of§ce. '. The 'Stout-Vogel Ministry' : QjA -nothing " mucib - ' in ; the way of retoenchment,...and,- they cribbed, the .last thing, left, to,, sink- ' 'ing fund. He knew that' Treasurers were always teUing themiihat they were making lots of money by converting/loans'arid amalgamating, offices, but. notwithstanding that they were' gojrig steadily to the bad.' ,<lij.irM due to'the charging of all kinds • of : expenses to loanii■; ;He had examined ?the accounts ';bf .Victoria,'■': and,, -fdurid th;at t; they had''riot spent \ a' ■single penny of borrowed' ■ rrione'y' • oh' immigrar tipn. >-,We,ron the,.-otjher^hand,;ihad spent ,'i£2,oo<),ooo, and so on with.;.pther.l:dharges, JHe- had .been, —'ridiculed, -,as,;,& ■ pas!jsaridtti, a Jeremiab', ."'.the Ivofce'.fof/one 'crying .iii.the \vilderness,"',but' he ; djd • not-fear for7the colony" now.:that, the people-f-were' .roused.' -TheS people down there- "were , .-very., virtuous now, when 'itheir-f "credit"," was tliey"could riot' sell their 'debentures..:'He said they^muSt , refeerich, blit' they ' must '.Teconstruct the whole ; system,arid' begin at; 'the; top.; He 'wished 'to speak ; with ; '-the ■ greatest^respect of-the' , Governor, , but-they could nptaffordto spend'"lilo;000 per annum Extravagances "of -this kind" c6uld',V.-,.iiQt "''be '"-. stopped unless -the whole .: colony.. demanded • it.- • He f .advocated the redu'etipn' ,of -the number of the members of the"' Housej but then they'would require to increase the '-local government powers. They might induce the, members ;tp";4p. or 45, and the •Legislative Council : to'2o iHhey established ( efficient local He, did . not " favour-' the. abortion, of f thetlJpper ,'House, : ' as. he considered^thati ' check ion the : Hoiise '■ bf' Representatives. •If;;;the. Council: were...abpl^hed,',:,,;:,what'appeal would they! have * apainsti . :; ,;f;he. House of< Representatives?f Council' , might, be. elected ■ by ; . the J^cal., govern- , "ing 'bodies.: -Without,' :,a ;gpod t ;ipystem of local , • gpyernmenfc,,,;, how fvtjrj he feared they would" still ; go blufiMine op' (through lack of local ; jin $her. Assembly local .'■l-fIT

Until they/snade of ~ the : : Parliament* a, council, and nob a mere. "Board of ' iVorks, "they could not expect: colony Wprpspeiv , ' He yarned-His headers; not*to t/e carried away "entirely-by those who crj ed out so loudly for retrenchment, andw/ho wished to get to Wellington on that fW alona There were other matters < equjJly important, and firstly there was taxation. There were numbers of people -who could, afford, to..pay...taxes who .had,, ir/ade money through the Public Works tJolicy, and a fair- share.of taxation should be borne by them and not the whole ot it thrown ; on the struggling masses. It was the wrong time when wages were low and times were hard to impose increased duty on'tea arid , stigar."' One of the greatest helps the colony, could have m this crisis, was ■ the. settlement of people on the lands, and. when Mr Ballance promulgated his Village Settlement scheme he had "given it his cordial support. Many people .preferred a country life, and. would accept it if they, had the chance; and see how this relieved, the crowded ranks of labour. (Cheers.)*' He believed it had been a step in the right direction. Proceeding to deal with the matter of Land Tax.he said he approved of a small improved land tax, just to show that' the people 'of'the''colony meant the holding ,o£,large areas, for speculative .purposes to cease.. .It...should not be put on in ; a vengeful spirit,, but merely to let, people see that it was not a safe thing to speculate in landReferring to protection, he r said .if they set themselves to protect wisely every , local industry that could be successfully carried out,' they would give new life'to the colony. (Cheers.) When the Government brought downthe Tariff Bill, it gave him a good deal of concern as to now he should vote. He did not like the Government, because: they had shirked great qnestions l but he liked Stout, who was at one with him in mpst of his views, but he regretted that he had linked himself to Sir J. Vogel. whose views were diametrically opposite to his own. Stout was a Demdcrat, while Vogel was a Conservative. He condemned strongly, the Vogel policy, which he knew Stout also opposed. Stout, in an evil moment, had joined a coalition,, and if the people allowed it, it would, be governed by a coalition again. So long as they suffered coalition they would hare to suffer from great jobs, which done by the Government of the day would , be connived at by leaders of the Opposition anxious to get troublesome, political questions out of the way. Corning to his action in connection with the Tariff 'BiUj.hei strongly advocated the adoption of a thorough policy of protection, which not only would enable them to return to prosperity, but as in America they could commence td pay back' what they owed, and get the colony out of the hands of the money-lenders. They had to send home L 3,000,000 annually to pay interest on what they owed, and unless they pursued a protective policy he did not see how they could stand the strain. Ho quoted from the statistics of the colony of Victoria, showing , what protection had done for it since ■theinitiation' of that policy in 20 years. They should not protect articles that they could not manufacture in sufficient quantities .to satisfy all their own demands, and if they adopted this policy he felt quite satisfied, and in the course of 4 or 5 years they might begin to payoff their debt.'; It would be a proud day • the Treasurer of' New Zealand who made the first: repayment of LIOO,OOO, and commenced, to'buy'back the colony from those into whose hands they and if had been so recklessly sold. Speaking generally of his action in Parliament, he said that he had taken part in several liberal measures—triennial Parliaments, the extension of the suffrage, and the fixing of the payment of members, and hoped still to take part in securing that one man. should have but one vote. It was living people and not the dead property tlv-tt ' constituted the. nation, and whom its legislature should represent.. He concluded by announcing thatTi'e intended again to offer himselC for Parnell. (Loud and-prolbnged cheers.) ' \ } Mr Hodge asked amidst interruption ii Mr Moss considered; Stout sincere in his desire for retrenchment when he had linked himself with, a biliet-hunter like Vogel,., Mr Moss said he had already expressed the sentiment he .felt in regarding -thj Stuart-Vogel evolution.: ■■'■■ ~-■ ..;,'' ! In reply to Mr Fowler, Mr Mosasaiditht totaLamountke, had received from Govern ment for his .visit was £10 ss. - - ] Me ■JSreylor/fo'asoffiewJhafc incoherent ad : dress,, recommended ,the electors to '< rut out the f ossilated old fossils," andintimatet tliat on some future occasion-he would ccci "their suffrages. ;In reply to Mr Raynes, who wanted p lthow why they Could not get a raihva; station for Parnell, Mr Moss said that h< had made several attempts to get this, ~bu had always been told that the gradient wa too stegp.. • (■] J!: ■'' ".<'■ ; ■■' '■■'"- '■ Mr H. R. Jury moved a vote of thanki to Mr Moss 1 for his address and cohtinuec confidence in him as their representative He commended Mr Moss's action in puttinj his finger on the' Threats and Molestatio) Bill. He could ,•. easily lunderstand. ■ M Moss's position in; supporting,, the Govern merit on the Tariff Bill, v/f' ; , >'- J ; Mr Clarke'seconded. ! |-| ;; j ..The- .motion;: was .pub,: and eaWiec unanimously.'_" " "'■"■■. - ; i Mr Moss briefly thanked them for tht vote, and moved ,a. ./vote! 'of thanki to the Chairmari which was.'camed arid'thi meeting separated. i-.. • :•■; ■ ■< -■■ !