THE FINANCIAL DEBATE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 196, 19 August 1899, Page 3

THE FINANCIAL DEBATE.

I Resuming the Financial Debate the | member for Hawcra (Mr F. McGuire), j was the first speaker. He said, he i wished he could congratulate the j Treasurer on the result of the Statement, but he could not honestly do so as the Statement was quite unreliable, j and full of fiction. It was purely an electioneering manifesto because it S contained a good many bribes. That , was only what might be expected from j the Premier. The system of under- j estimating- the revenue was evident j all through the Statement, with the j manifest object of showing- a surplus. : He deprecated the land being- further burdened with taxation, and urged that on account of its great import- j ance the question of federating with ! Australia should receive early consideration. As an instance of parsimonious saving by the Government, he ! pointed to the unexpected balance of the education vote, £12,000, in face of; the fact that schools in many country ! districts were required. Referring to j the Custom duties he contended that i the Government had increased that \ form of taxation by £400,000, and j this by a Government that pretended i to be so greatly interested in the wel- I fare of the people. He hoped the | Government was in earnest in its pro- j mise' to reduce the rate of interest to local bodies. It was simply scandalous the manner in which settlers in the back blocks had been treated in ! regard to the failure to supply them ' with roads. However, there was hope j for the settlers yet. The Premier! was now trying to curry favour with i the coujntry. Mr McGuire declared j for freehold tenure of land, and urged ; the Stratford route for the North Is- j land Main Trunk railway. He con- j demned the railway manag-ement, and i characterised the marine and the Wrigg- scandals as blots upon the administration of the affairs of the country. Mr Parata considered that the amount proposed to be borrowed should be considerably increased so that the main lines of railway might be completed, and roads made where required. He objected to the proposal to expend £ 50,000 in the purchase of native lands. The time had j come when that system should be abolished, and the remaining area of native land be vested in a native council. Mr Monk who followed, said those who would succeed must help themselves. The young Maoris must be j trained in the habits of self-reliance, j and in habits of inchistrial application. As to the Statement, it had a promise ! for everj'one. It was done up in rose- j ate hues, but when a man sent up his plate he would be disappointed, as the menu promised more than was at the disposal of the steward to give. Mr Monk was disappointed that nothing had been said in the Statement about { federation. This question had be- j come so prominent that a statement i was not complete without any allusion ' to it. He feared the million loan was i being borrowed for election purposes I rather than for the true advance- j ment of the colony. He would have | preferred to see the proposal sub- j mitted to the people at the next election. A certain sum should be allocated for each specific work. Perhaps it might be necessary to borrow £3,000,000 or £4,000,000, but there should be a definite statement as to how the money was to be spent. The Premier had the power of the pursestrings, and used that power improperly for political purposes. There should be an automatic distribution of public money and a non-political Board should be set up to deal with appointments to the Civil Service. His own electorate of Waitemata had ! not been fairly treated as regards the distribution of public money. Witemata had contributed over £70,000 to ! the revenue, and what had that elec- ! torate received in return? On the - basis of its contribution to the revenue : Waitemata ought to get £14,285 out lof the £1,000,000 that was to be borrowed. He appealed to the sense of equity of the House to see that Wai- : temata was treated more fairly in the j future. There was urgent need of I some alteration. He was not' so much j afraid of borrowing as of the money being mis-spent. Mr Monk said he had intended to make some reference to the Kaipara railway, but he had now decided to wait and see what the Government proposed to do in this matter. If they did not make substantial provision for this work they would certainly hear more from him in the , future. Mr Monk spoke till the half-past five adjournment. The House resumed at half-past seven. Mr Cadman said the Opposition had, in criticising the Financial Statement, only touched the fringe of the ! financial operations and the position ! of the colony. Small items had been ; taken exception to, but the leading principles had been ignored. With regard to the borrowing policy, he said that to be fair the Opposition should have admitted that the amount borrowed, £4,700,000. had been expended on public works. Then, when the Opposition were asked for a policy, they replied that they would disclose their policy when they got on to the Treasury benches. As a matter of fact, they were not unanimous on any point. * Take the freehold land

tenure, a subject on which they differed very materially. Neither were they unanimous as to appointing a Civil Service Board. Further, they said that they would not disturb any legislation passed by the Government. "Well, he could only speak from experience, and he believed that if they reverted to the freehold system, the result would again be an aggregation of large estates. To appoint a Civil Service Board would, in his opinion, simply be an abrogation of responsibility on the part of the Government. With regard to railway management, the Opposition contended that the railways were better managed under the control of the Commissioners. Well, his reply to that assertion was to challenge the Opposition to make the question one of their planks at the forthcoming election, and the people's decision would decide. Then take the property tax. The Liberals fought that question year by year, at last successfully. The purchase of land for settlement had also been opposed by the Opposition. At the time that Act was brought into force, hardly au acre of land was available for settlement, and the Government was forced, in the interests of the people, to acquire land for that purpose. It was absurd for the Opposition to say, therefore, that they would not repeal the legislation of the Government. They dare not. It was said that the Premier dominated the House and

committees, and run the whole colony. Well, he looked upon that assertion as complimentary to Mr Seddon. Then take the Land for Settlement x\ct. That measure had now had a fair trial, and had proved a success. It was said that the amount of tho land tax would be reduced by the operation of the Act. That might be, but the difference was made up by the increase in Customs duties owing- to the larger population on the land. Speaking on the question of the administration of the railways, he said that the Opposition generally sheltered themselves behind the Commissioners when criticising the railways. Personally, he had always studiously avoided referring to the Commissioners, as they were not there to defend themselves; but if the Opposition wanted to compare the management of the railways they should compare it with their own administration. Fair and honest criticism was desirable, and he courted such criticism of his administration, but the basis of such criticism should not be mere supposition. It had been said, for instance, that had the harvest last year been as good as was expected, and had the grain been rushed into the stations all at once, the Department could not have overtaken the traffic, but the fact was that these circumstances did not arise and the Department did undertake the traffic successfully. He criticised in detail the attacks that had been made upon his administration, contending that the railways had not been starved. On the contrary, he asserted that they were In good order, and he would have the satisfaction when he resigned his position shortly of saying that when he took charge of the railways they were earning £2 14/6-per cent., and that when he left them they were returning £3 5/10 per cent.

Mr Carson defended the Railway Commissioners from the charge that they had starved the railways, the truth being that they were not voted sufficient funds to properly carry out their suggestions. The proposal to borrow £1,000,000 on the eve of the election was a piece of electioneering-. He advocated that the whole of that loan should be devoted to the completion of the North Island Trunk railway. The South Island had a line from Christchurch to the Bluff, but at the present rate of progress it would take another 36 years before railway communication was established between Wellington iand Auckland. It was also shameful that these cities had not yet been connected by a road, and that settlers in the back blocks had been neglected. At the next election a new Ministry would be formed, no matter which party w^as predominant, and members expectant of portfolios were keeping their mouths shut. He hoped that after the election members would be free, and vote as they pleased, instead of doing as they had lately done, observed a servile attitude. He stigmatised the Marine and Wrigg scandals as degrading to the Administration.

A discussion ensued upon a point of order raised by Captain Russell, who made a personal explanation regarding the Russell land graiit, refuting a statement by the Premier and Colonial Secretary that the grant had been improperly obtained.

The 'Premier, Mr Hall-Jones, and Mr Carroll replied, and after an animated discussion of over an hour and a-half (reported elsewhere), Mr O'Regan moved the adjournment of the Financial debate, which was agreed to.

The House rose at a quarter past twelve a.m.