MR THOMSON AT BALCLUTHA

Bruce Herald, Volume VI, Issue 399, 27 December 1871, Page 6

MR THOMSON AT BALCLUTHA

We are obliged- to repriut from the ' I>aily. Times,'. Mr Thomson's speech ; fc,t Biilolutlm, 'as Mr Fleming, who r.eceived'Mr Thomson's manuscript to furnish a report to that paper, hasfailecl to 'hand us the document in time, albhough requested to do so bj r Mr Thomson's authority which -was shown "to him. We would have preferred the original, as we understand the address has not been printed in full. Our own opinionfroni what is given: 'is, that there is much contained in it worthy of thoughtful -consideration. Mr Thomson, may not be a brilliant , speaker , but webelieve on matters of public policy, he is an earnest and honest thinker.

' Mr J. W. Thomson, M.~H. R. , met his con■stituents^ in Barr's 'Hall,. Balclo tha, on Monday evening. His Worship the Mayor presided. The attendance at the commencement of the address was small, hut gradually, increased to a fair representation of the Balclutha district of the constituency

The Chairman having briefly explained the object o£. the meeting, introduced Mr Thomson, who delivered a very full and exhaustive address, of which the space at our disposal prevents our giving more than the main points. Mr Thomson began by blaming the Government for the delay which took place at the beginning of the session, owing to the Bills not being prepared. The 3ills referred to by the Governor in his introductory speech rela'tfed to purely social subjects, and some of these at least might have been ready to lay before the Legislature, such, for instance as the Education and Insolvency Bills. With regard to : -■•-.■■;,■..

THE EDtjCATION BILL,

he supported it, not Because he believed it wduld be any improvement on the system of education established in Otago, but simply in. the interests of those Provinces where education i 3 almost neglected. .. Had tlie Bill aclvahced'in GonMnitlee to the il Aided Schools" clauses, it was his intention to vote against them. He believed that the retentioh of those clauses in the Bill wonld have had the effect of breaking up oufr present, "Bysteih, which been working satisfactory for many jrears, and of establishing in" its "place the denommational Bystem-, with all it« / accompanying evils, not the least 'Of "which be the eßtablishmerit of two or three schools in a districtable to maintain only one. The teachers, also, would be inetßdient, because poorly paid. It would be far better to have one good teacher in a district than two bad ones. He hoped the constituencies w ould think carefully over this education question during the recess. ./•_.;.

THB JINANCIIAL STA±EIffENT of the Colonial Treasurer showed, ahlpng other things, that the actual revenue. of ; the $&&¥ Wai LIIG,OOO 16SS tkxb tkfe T*easiirer had estimated it would be Surely it did not show any great financial foresight—f-of whifeh we heard so much--^-on the part of the Creasarer, to be so wide of the mark as this, which was abont the ninth part of the total revenue of thepolony for the year. When Mr Vdgel was of O.fcago he always fell into .the same erf or, so that ; it seemed to' h& A4^Ul*al to him. JSh.& PitianeiAl .Statement also revealed that there waa a falling off in the revenue »f the past financial year as compared with ; the previohs one, of nearly LBS,OOO, • and that the present financial yeai. waß;oon3menced;with a deficiency of MdS,OO!J. To wipe off this; the.; Treasurer took a leaf ! out of the book (jf^^ those"; unfortunate individuals; whb.are.notiable ;tp pay- 4heir -debts when due, and therefore ask for time. .Sa |the Treasui?er-pro*pQse?fctO make the payment of this deficiency extend o' cer' a s period .of three, years ; but jfchere Could be iittli'dottbithat it, .would ultimately ■be added to the permanent , debt erf tlie" 66ulivtr^» ci With" regard tKe r

Treasurer's statement that the Estimates showed a saving of £50,100 as compared with the Estimates of the previous year, he (Mr Thomson) could not look* upon it in any other light than an attempt to deceive the House and the country. »uch savings as were 'effected— and they certainly did not amount to ' L'so, ooo— were not of a vary desirable nature ; and : a careful comparison r o£ iSteEifcimates of the Wo years clearly showed that the salaries were, as a rule, ratlier higher this year than last. Mr Thorn-, son wenb o*ri to refer to the reduction of the capitation grant to the provinces, and the; distribution among the Road Boards of the LldO, ooo grant out of the lo*n. The latter;; he said, was doubtless given to tile outlying, districts in the iriearitime.x just to keep them quiet uniiil Provincialism' was quashed. With regard to our prospects for the current year, he said- we should, during that period, run into debt to. the amount of L3Bs|OpO, which' was I "made up as follows :— Road Boards' Grant, LiOOjOOO ; Supplementary Estimates, , ■"L25-'o'p6 ; amount raised under Public Re/ venues Act" to meet deficiencies,'" L 100,00 0; Defence (charged to loan), L160,000. . This, was apart altogether froni .our d-xily increasing indebtedness in connection with " the noble of colonisation." ; Arid notwithstanding all this, additional taxation, in the sh&pe of increased Customs and Stathp duties, had been imposed. Yet the: Treasurer, -wlfo 'concluded his Budget with a lecture on the lessons of economy, and fru- j •gality to be learned from the crisis thrpugh which the country had been passing, had, at the very time that such economy and frugality had been forced on the people,, been spending the good money of the country in] London on carriages, coachmen, and foot- J men/. ; ■ ■ ■._■ ....■■..■:■ ■'.. ■ : ■

PROVINCIAL INSTITUTIONS,

After recai»itulating the action of the Government in the matter of the . Provincial Governments Bill, and the^Provincial Powers Transfer Bill, Mr Thomson said that from the'very first the real object the Government had in view was not to simplify Provincial Councils in order to make them more efficient but rather to destroy them j and this view was openly expressed by one'of their own supporters. He thought the duties, powers, and revenues of the Proviriciil Oouncik should be fixed, once and for all, so that they might not be in continual dread as at present, both as to the legality of any legislation they might attempt, 'and the revenues they expected to rebeiye. iHe did not approve of doing away with the Councils altogether, and throwing their duties on the Assembly. Among other reasons against it, the sessions of Assembly would be greatly protracted thereby, arid the work? wouJdiriqt be so well done, as. the men doing it would not have the necessaryi local knowledge. ;

THK : SiAMJ? DUTIES

The whole sum the Treasurer expected to realise from the additional Stamp duties, which; would press most heavily upon ; the general public, was L 17,000, and this sii.m might easily have been saved off the Estimates.

DUTY ON GEAIff,

, Mr Thomson explained why he had voted against the duty on grain, an action which his agriciiltural'constituents might regard as contrary to their interests Statistics showed that : tlie imports of cereals into the Colony had. greatly diminished of late years, and he i believed they would cease altogether. At the same time bur exports of grain and flour were rapidly increasing; and largely exceeded our imports of those articles !He thought, therefore, that the tine for imposing a protective duty had gone liy, and our clear duty as an agricultural community was to look out formarkets for our stii'pliii? produce. But if we adopted a protective policy, those Colonies to, which we might look for a market, and which had not yet adopted such a policy, might do so with the view of excluding oiir grain, to the great injury of our agricultural indtistry. Besides, the fact of this protection being extended to agriculturists miglrt be. made an excuse for taxing them in other ways. Indeed, in the debate oh the. Bill introducing these duties, it was resolved on account of their imposition to retain the duties on ploughshares, coulters, and mouldings, which it was proposed in the Bill to abolish. -

THE BROGDF/N CONTRACTS,

After describing, fche provisions of these contracts and the amendment of Mr Reynolds modifying No. 2 Contract, Mr Thomson went on to say that one very objectionable feature" in' the original contracts was the reference of differences 'between the Grovernment and tlie Contractors to arbitration. Some members had so strong a. feeling against this feature, that to get rid of it they were quite willing to louble the amount of No/ 2 Contract, and accept Mr Reynolds's amendment, which, was 'carried. But as he (Mr Thomson). looked on the contracts as a monopoly, and an infringemeo,*; of tlie good principle/that .contracts should be thrown open to competition, he did not see his way to support Mr Reynolds's amendment, doubling No. 2 Contract, but voted against it with, tlie view of supporting that contract as it originally stood. The .'result,/ however, was that the Messrs Brogdeni were to get railways to construct to the amount of one million, and that without having to compete With any other contractor.

i-HK EAM.WAY SCHEME

The sch'edale of the Railways Bill as originally brbiigh't down ; was unjust to thG.Middle tsiarid as'cbmpared with the North Island; but As ultimately vigreed to, the schedule made the Middle Island appear to even greater disadvantage. The. Government should have taken a stand on the schedule of tteir/Bill as they brought it down,- but they did not: ' They allowed the House to go into Committee with tLe view of hearing proposals as in new railways, saying they would be prepared to hear arguments in support of ea6h proposal. Then ensued a fTcramble, not. unlike the scetie : wh/ich sometimes takes place at hoflte i at a' wedding/ when the happy couple 6r their/ friends throw coppers out of the window to the assembled youngsters. While this scramble was going on, Mr Stafford rose and said he would take no part in it; and wallced out of the House. The placing on the schedblebf lines which Mr Gisbo^rie admitted might i; not be Commenced; frtr years, was (jnite'of'a jiiece with Mr Vogel's action iirlißu at the Keatd of tlie Qtagp Goyerament. He always placed more works 6ri ; the "Estimates than there was the slightest hope of Executing: ; "' 7 "-Gbv.ernmerit'tho' '-of 'seiectidri^— a p^ower which might be \used ais ameatis' of 'getting political support.

IMMIGBAXTONV

Thaßjil promised by the Governor in His opening 'ispeechj- to provide for.ithesettlement or\ itnraigrantsj was liot ; iiifcrpducedv The controlling;, pdwer given ; by ihe Jmmif gration aiidlPublic, Works; Act . .tQ^Superinteridents irt the. matter,: was withdrawn; andvtlie whole power, vested in the .Genera} GoTorttmbht. Mr Gisborne,- in his fubli

Statement, said that L2E>O,SK) would be spent during this and th^ succeeding year on immigration. This sum, however, was afterwards reduced by the Government to L 200.000. The Government , had always admitted : thfc necessity of immigration, but their only idea on: the subject seemed: to be. to introduce laboring men, who make on" the railways 'fnqney sufficient to enable ibem _to settle |ti the country. He (Mr Thomson) did not believe iii this policy of bringing more laborers' to 'the colony. He thought inducements ought to be held out to small capitalists — men who 'were in such a pecuniary; position as to be able at once to occupy the waste lands. , There was not much chance, however, of this class throwing in their lot among ua^ as the heavy taxation, besides acting very, in jurioiisly on those already here, would act still more injuriously in the way of preventing small capitalists and evan laborers from 'coming amongst U3.

THE LEGISLATION OF THE LATE SESSION appeared to be little better than a farce. The trumpery Bills came, on in the early part of the session, the Bills of secondary importance about the middle of the session, and the most important Bills of all — the Rail ways . . Bill . and !, the Immigration and Public Works Bill— only a fevy days before the House broke up. In the early part of the session the Bills passed throiigh their variotis ■ stages; in; the usual Parliamentary way of not more than one stage each day. But in the latter part of the session all Parliamentary formST^-afc least in respect of Government Bills— were set at defiance, and measures; of great importance were passed through their principal stages in one or two days. Questions' of the most vital importance were under discussion in ilie small hours of the morning, when some members were as sound 'asleep as if in their comfortable beds at home ; arid some of the members who were good at sketching used to amuse themselves by drawing the grotesque figures of their fellp^-membp.rs. <

ALDITIONAL TAXATION

He had sometimes been asked his opinion as to the probability of an income-tax or property-tax being imposed. We ; all knew that a larger revenue would^ be required each auccieeding year to meet the' interest on our increasing loans." There,, was : - not niuch appearance of this increasing revenue f being, drawn from an equally increasing population, so that it must be. drawn ma great measure from /those < already here; . ,He did ..not ! see how, the Customs. duties could. beVvery much increased. r - Poor men. could live in the country- if: these duties were very much higher, than at present. These considerations led him to think it riot at all unlikely that an income-tax or property-tax, ox* poth, might be imposed before very many years elapsed. . ■ - -

THE PBOSPBCXS OF THE COLONY

lie did not consider to be -very encouraging at present. The (government were" extravaf gant, and; were absorbing th^e Provincial revenues, borrowing mphey, and increasing the taxation of tlie people, siihpJy with the view of meeting the general expenditure'; TKey manifested no desire to economise, and the probability, therefore, ,was that, they -would carry their extravagances, into", .the large railway works proposed to ; be undertaken., and that there would be very little to. show for the money.; expended, v . lt: was true that the' country was at present laboring uncler.,a depression- which he did not think had been altogether brought about by legislation,- and which- legislation -could not altogether re-' move. The Opposition, however, gave the. Government one piece of good advice. They said— "Live within your income ; square your expenditure with the revenue.'.' t£\tt this good advice the- Government despised. He would say— let railways to a moderate extent be constructed each year, but let them be : constructed : as economically as possible,, aiid in those districts where 'they would be niost likely to.pay. Be was also of ■bpiiiibnthat we did not pay sufficient attention to the; bfest nieansrof deVeiripinc the resource^. of tlie country. And last, though not least, more liberal inducemeilts should be held out.ftp people to come and occupy the 1 waste lands.; Men with more experience than -himself might suggest other things, but these, lie thought, should go a good way towards helping the Colony out of its difficiiltieg.'f: A: speculative policy might lead to fortune, brtt was more likely to lead to ruin. 'In his opinion, the only policy deserving of encouragement at the present juncture of affairs was one in which caution and foresight were the prevailing ingredients.

At the conclusion oi" his address, Mr Thomson, who had been' repeatedly applauded throughout its delivery, received an unanimous voteof confidence

A vote of thanks to/ the Chairman concluded the proceedings