POST-SESSIONAL.

Press, Volume XLI, Issue 6119, 29 April 1885, Page 3

POST-SESSIONAL.

MB PKAESON AT OXFOBD

rt* Monday evening Mr W. P- Pearson, r wrff-RTfcrthe Ashley electoral district, £%& at the East Oxford Town 3gnTTlMsre vera fcrty-tiireepreeent, oat of almost 8000 registered ffevS'H. Pabish, -who was voted to the -<4afe,%pMSßed the pleasure it gave him ITii&oaiee their member.who would give of Mβ stewardship in the past. «Bdlpossjhly state what measures he would be had chosen East Ox--fmStthis time for hia meeting, as he had on 4*eauent occasions held them in the western Srtion of the township. It was to be rethere was so poor an attendance, S*Whhe attributed to there beingliltie interest taken in public matteis except the question of the probabilities rf warT It would be a.pity, however.,to lose all concern in their affairs, and allow ■that of the war to have the effect of draw? guT their attention away from local .concerns, as it was possible for the Government while public attention was directed to the warlike outlook to take -advantage of them by applying their attention toother than the objects which should 1* dealt with. Before referring to the acts .of the session, he desired to say, in respect to the steps being taken by the Government to defend the colony against the probable ■visit of an hostile cruiser, that the members of the Aeeemblymust thoroughly approve of its action. When the House met he •expected it would quite endorse its action in naving placed the ports in such a condition that in a week hence they would be in a good state of defence. In Oxford, it had ~been stated that some of their ladies were very much exercised in their minds because their sons were being enrolled in the Militia. Their fears of anything senoue he considered to be premature, and at the worst the invading foe was hardly likely to , •come to Oxford, and the day was far distant when the Bunians would come there. The visit would be confined to the arrival of a belligerent war vessel, which would be driven off by the defences at the ports. It was dreary I work speaking to empty benches, but he would now proceed to give a reeiwne of the work of the session. "When he began his ■ canvass last election he stood before - them as an independent candidate, and the ex- ' -pressions he made use of were -reported at the time, as they would find by reference te the newspapers. I'hey were aware how the downfall of the Atkinson Ministry came about, and that in the previous session to this, out of the chaotic state of ' parties, it was impossible to obtain a j strong Government. It being impossible for him to give a pledge to support any Government therefore, he was returned at the election as an entirely independent member. He desired to make this clear in ite connection with what he had to cay further on. When the new Parliament met, upon the first day. Major Atkinson's Government finding they were .in a minority did the proper thing by resigning, and Mr Stout was sent ifor, and formed s Ministry which, however much to the surprise of the party, of which he was one, was turned out by a large majority. The Atkinson-Wakefield was next formed, but expired in thirty six hours after its appointment. A deal of confusion then resulted in the rank and file of the House, owing t> the difficulty of effecting a coalition betwceilthe Atkinson and the Vogel parties. The Canterbury membeis had agreed to support the latter, ftnri in speaking of this he desired it to be generally known that Mr John Holmes, the member for Christchurch South, was one of the principal members in bringing about the formation of the present Ministry. He had not seen this matter referred to, but should be glad to see it go forth, and that Mr Holmes should have the credit of his actions in this respect. The result had been eminently satisfactory in the appointment of a good, practical, energetic Government, which had the full confidence of the country, and in no part of the colony was this more sensibly known than in the Canterbury district. Before going on he eulogised iheversonnel of the Government. Sir Julius "Voxel's name had been intimately before New Zealand for the past twenty years, and in him were not fltftj the elements of a most able politician, but the qualifications of a good administrator. To Mr Stout some might take exception, on account of some of his peculiar views, but in matters of general politics he held very liberal and advanced opinions 'las'well as a deep sympathy in the welfare M the colony. The Bon. Mr Ballance was > 4 good successor to Mr John Bryce as Native Minister. In what were the disturbed districts the hostile feeling of the Natives hae been allayed,.and an_im- - proved state of affairs was being fast introduced by Mr Ballance, who as Minister of Lands, also was carrying out a policy of village settlement, with which he (the speaker) quite agreed. His administration of the land laws did not differ much from that of Mr Bollestoa. but the proposition to establish these settlements in proximity to towns where those residents in the settlements on land of good quality might readily find labor, was a commendable project. Those who leased the lands in these eattlemerts, besides beinvr near employment, would be enabled in case of lack of work, to cultivate the land, and thereby earn a living from it. The most • «aUent part of the btout - Voge • policy when they were fairly fit office, was the proposal to raise the "jtinlUan and a half loan. It was found that *"£he previous loan of three millions had ■ " bun spent on other works than the Parliament which passed the Loan Bill intended. - Aeoneinstance of this he said that the sum -sgt aside for the extension cf the Northern lima to the Bed Poit had been expended in the maintenance of the Hurunui —Bluff Kne, or towards keeping in repair and renewing sleepers on the line to the Waikaxi. The present Government, nor did the ' House, seriously object to this, as the work vat required, and the money had been fairly spent. Since the present Government had obtained the Loan Bill, none of the . nflCon and a half had been raised, but it had floated the third million of the last loan obtained by the Atkinson Ministry. Toe present Ministry, he went on to say, had applied .£244,000 of the interest towards the sinking fund, by the conversion of the loan, which had the practical effect ef saving the sum, and the Ministry thereby brought about a fMittgof .£130,000 in the taxation, there- . fora allowing a reduction to be made in the property tax for the year. Although he save this Government a general rapport, ie had felt touod to oppose teeir District Sauways Leasing Bill, under which several of the existing private lines, namely, those Jttfle and now in the hands of private comjM&ies, were intended to be taken over by tna Parliament. Several of these lines -Mβ been built with debentures, which «tey a had experienced soma difficulty in - mating, and the encumbrances in respect «.»Meh it was the desire of those most ooensted should be taken over. He did not TOsbtogain cheap popularity by opposing w« BQI, but candidly he could not, vaao the circumstances of some of «oe cases, agree to their being taken ftSl c best of them was the Ashburton . intaxs line, which, as they were aware, was ] . paying about 3£-per cent, on the outlay, a «*am nearly equal to that received from .ge General Government lines. The next ****»from a financial point of view, was •w Waimea Plains line, constructed by ' , 2 e ™Jtf owners of that district to open up war lands, the lands of the New Zealand Aggcplfaucal Land Company being the ; JJg£j pa *' upon finding their line ■gs not pay, now wished to hand it over to : *« Government. The Duntroon line was •wither which was mado to increase the •!W of lands sold, and which, now that «Hyh*4 been improved by the line, was SWW&ed to be handed over. TheWairoate jM* waa an instance in which the Ugffciee of only two large landed pro-. ~i22?P ere benefited. Some of the ;"■&& shareholders on the Waimea Hae IS? E «a. Campbell, 3600 shares of JBIO !*»i_J" McGregor had 1000 shares; 1000 shares; J. A.Fraser, 10fo> ~*gg-aU persons who should hardly *3° v ernment to t%ke over Che I,l,lß *Jfe ave been a pecuniary! SSS to ,them. The Government, he con*fk£fr* "** no more "Sht to take over which were privately built, and I^ o**0 ** P&y. than they had to take over £* "JptjMrt house on the plains, which he gaa he cpnld not keep up or no longer *££ X SL£ t - There was a iST?.*?"* P the House, however, who - -wht*^ 0,1 ? J? takeover these lines, and «S£PJZ£zJ% bapei Parliament would •4» tSST 3 * i? fio 60 "P os * the** merits «B» • ihem . Q P *° auction, or -vlfc«[ 30 *, them at a fair valuar? M»tokait nmmf.atiy unfair wweovesr the Duntroon line, which was "feliSuSn^^fe^H 18 same P^* , '«3tel ?JT nS^eS - ta&&?«iM **«**■ tlM *e *ac seme 11^ fa Assembly -' o'b'Sajg tiie Knee, and that •v'"S3fiS» i?*fc be ?»J ,w,, "* to affect the Actions. This Bailway .eßtia^Uppej^^ifcwMeetontS ill - ;

side, and he gave the Upper House great credit for its action on <Mq question. One ge> at argument ia the discussion on the matter was that the ratepayers of the die. tncts affected suffered. Against this he found that the ratepayers on the Waimea ijuoe were, one owing £3003, another owing •£335. another £120, and two hundred others owing various sums from M to 3s 4d each. This did not look like Buffering, aaa he voted dead against the proposal. One of the principal Bills affecting Canterbury was that to provide for the West Coast railway, power being given to a syndicate to obtain the money necessary for building the line. With the prospect of war, he was afraid the raising of lite amount would have to be deferred, and if there was any doubt about procuring the amount to construct the West Coast railway, he considered it would be the duty of the Government to find the money and do it themselves next year. Though he supported the Bill empowering the raising of the syndicate, he would rather have seen the Government go on with the line, and avoid giving large tracts of laad into the hands of monopolists, which would be regretted in yean to come. There was not a great deal of land this side of the range, but on the other side, near Lake Brunner, he was assured by Captain Busaell, one of the Boyal Commission, that there was sufficient land to guarantee the payment of the total construction of the line. The residents here had no cause to be downhearted. He had no wish to see Oxford district benefitted at the expense of the colony, but in all respects the West Coast railway would be a benefit to the colony. In reference to the South Sea Trading measure proposed by the Government, he regretted that it was not carried. It was patent that not only to Auckland butto Canterbury this wasasub* iect of importance, eeeiog the Islands would be the consumers of a large portion of their produce. Jt was now too late to take steps, as New Zealand had allowed itself to be forestalled by Sydney and Germany. Show* ing how important this trade must he remarked en passant that Bismarck was Inducing the German Government to paes large votes for the purpose of subsidising steamers to Samoa and the , South Sea Islands. A vital subject in~ assisting the material progress of the colony was the passing of the two Harbor J Bills, both of which went in the direction of enabling the opening up of certain ports, andaffouling an outlet for timber, grain, and coaL In regard of the latter they were sending .£2OO 0.0 a year from the country for coal, of which, there was a practically inexhaustible supply, and of a superior quality, within their own territory. The day was not far distant when they would largely use their own coal, and from this question it was easy to diverge to that of colonial industries. In these hard times the wite of persons were sharpened in devising new schemes for employing, the labor and developing their productions. Ihe present Government were determined to assist by all reasonable means in this respect. In their own district he failed to see why they should not be able to produce cement to meet the demand for the thousands of tons of that article which were imported. Although a free trader, he considered it to be a chief duty of the Government to encourage such institutions as the Zaiapoi Woollen Factory, where'they could produce every kind of woollen goods required for ordinary wear. He *hould look with interest for the announced fiscal policy of- the Government and give his earnest help in assisting the promotion of local industries. The Government had not given indication of its proposals, but one of them would probably have a bearing on local government. Haviag had an experience extending over a number of years in local government he should be able to give it full consideration. The Government would possibly take action in the way of amalgamating the local bodies and give the management of .hospitals, charitable aid and the police to local control. As to the former he could not see any serious objection, but the efficiency of the police force and the success of that branch in the detection of crime might suffer if managed by several bodies instead of being kept as it now was, under control from a centre. In the days of Provincialism he thought it was found that the divided police systems throughout the colony did not succeed, nor were they as cheaply conducted ajj at present. The Government would possibly propose to go back to the system of subsidising the local bodies, and if thia was done it must be upon some well thought out and new scale, as he could not see the justice of giving to a district like Avon, in which all their bridges and streets weie made, the same grant as would be paid, probably to the Oxford district, many of the roada ; and bridges in which have to be entirely made. Belative to*,the cheap money proposals, no doubt any scheme which would have for its object the lessen , ing of the rate of interest would receive a general support. They only had a faint outline of tfae suggestions on this matter, but in the details he could not yet clearly eeehow those who wanted cheap money, and had no security to offer, were goin* to be benefited. The man who was under a lease, had a lien on his crops, and a bill of sale over his effects, was not the man who would benefit by the scheme. Any plan having for its object the improvement of the condition of the farming community would have his most cordial assistance. Turning the first sod of the Te Awamutn Bailway was the beginning of an era in tHe history of New Zealand which must tend to the removal of the feeling which hsd existed between the Maoris and the whites under the liberal actions of the Native Minister, and the kind way in which the Natives were taking to the policy. If the European war did not break into the scheme it would be soon an accomplished fact that I some hundreds of miles of railway would ! epen the country to settlers. Though not a supporter of Sir Juliua Yogel on all matters, he considered the Colonial Treasurer a liberal statesman, whose actions would be for the advancemert of all parts of the colony, not only Canterbury, but Auckland. The local feeling, which was so rampant in 1882 and 18S3, he was glad to seagoing out. and when the next statements of Ministers were made he trusted to find them of the most popular order. It was his intention to support the present Government, though reserving to himself the right of independent action in case of nectßßity. Hβ trusted that the present dark lane would open into brighter sunshine, and that the settlers would not only become prosperous, but that the fair land of their adopted homes would be retained for the benefit of the largest number. They had grand resources and magnificent harbors, and as better times came round he hoped to see the country advancing. Regarding local matters, he had been twitted with getting too many votes for his district. Whatever he had got, he challenged anyone to say that the votes were spent in any unproductive way. Tβ the Oxford water race tbe Government granted £3300, and the land sold by that m.ans realised right away £4000. The settlers on the plains had greatly improved their position by means of this race, and an enhanced value was given to property. While he had been mainly instrumental in bringing about a reduction in the railway tariff, he hoped to see further reductions, and a more satisfactory management created, doing away with separate systems of management at Auckland, Wellington, Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago. Jn this respect there was room for radical reform as well as in the tariff question, for when oats were only at Is 7d per buihel in Oxford, and it cost 2&d to to take them to port, the gilt soon went off the gingerbread. He trusted his opinions had been expressed dearly, and he should now be glad to answer any questions. lCheera.J I On the motion of Dr. Wβ u>, seconded by Mr Colb, a vote of thanks and confidence was unanimously passed to Mr Pearson, i who briefly acknowledged the compliment, and a similar vote to the Chairman concluded the proceedings.