EVENING SITTING.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8535, 15 July 1893, Page 9

EVENING SITTING.

The House resumed at 7.30.

FINANOIAI. DEBATE. Mr MOORE resumed the debate on the Financial Statement. He thought the Opposition should not be censured for the delay that had' taken place in oommenclag the financial debate, as it was swing altogether to the Rees-Cadman incident on Tuesday aftec-aon., It was almost time, he .held, that some Minister, able to do so, was put up to.reply to Sir John Hall's speech oa. the Budget proposals. They would all, he felt sure, be pleased that the Government were about to purchase. Native lands, but if. they did purchase them he hoped they would be mora careful than they had been in the past. Referring to the .Railway Commissioners, he asserted that mercantile men were greatly against

the proposal to hand the railways, over to Government control. He should like te ask also, what experience the Premier had of the working of railways that he should desire a seat on the Railway Board. There had

been a oessiderable increase of passengers on our railway lines since the Commissioners h»d taken them over, and he thought if the Minister fop Public Works had control of them they would apt have been worked so satisfactorily. Aa to the power of veto which. Ministers sought for he thought the Commissieaers might just as well be dene away with altogether if that were to be allowed... The. railways also paid better last year than they had ever done before, and they-might.. fairly say that the Commissioners, and the railway employees had worked together without any fraction. On every gi bund he thought the ceiony had reason to be satisfied with the manner in which the railways had been worked. He quite agreed Mr Earnshaw when he said that the Government had used their position to keep some of the Bills on the Order Paper from being considered by the House. After referring at some length to the public debt of the cplouy he said the statement in reference to non-borrowing was all moonshine. $hey were borrowing by means of debentures,, and they were also rapidly increasing the debt of the colony. With respect to the exemption of improvements some members had pointed out that neither the working people nor the middle classes would; benefit by this exemption, and he agreed with all in the view that there was no. doubt the cities and large towus would baueflfc by exemption and nob the small farmers. If any exemption at all were to be made it should be in the direction of exemption of farming lands in partnership in the sauaa way as partners in business. Referring to land settlement, of which the Minister fori Lands talked so much, he quoted figures to prove that there were fifty-two less settlers on special settlements than last year. As a, matter of fact there had been a steady decrease in the number ot settlers put on the, land during the present Ministry's (term of office. In 1889 there were 2592 settlers put on the land, in 1890 there were 2034, in 1891. there were 1881, in 1892 the number was 1953, whilst in 1893 there were 1908. Aa to the Cheviot estate purchase the Government should have taken the House into their confidence, aad as fir as be could see the Treasurer had made no provision for the payment of tbe money. Referring to the statement as a w ; hplehe "was afraid that* Mr Ward would find, if he relied on the surplus to carry on the public works, before long there would be no surplus at all, . Mr WILLIS congratulated Mr Ward on his able,statement, and ,said that although the Opposition had attacked it they were not able to. find >nuch fault with it- The present Government had a great many disabilities to contend against. They found the land was gone, and they found it had "been squandered by the Opposition when in power. \ He hoped that hot only the Cheviot. ;eatate hut several others would be acquired far settlement by the Government. In bis own district there were 18,000 to 20,000 acres held "over. He- said that he felt sure there was. no chance of smalt settlement. As to the exemption of improvements, he held that it was only "a simple act of justice that .they should bei removed. The acquisition of * Native lands would prove of great value to the colony. The Natives were deakous-of their lands being acquired, and there should be. no difficulty in obtaining them. The graduated tax was one of ;the greatest blessings they possessed, as it iwoutd cause the bursting up of large estates, which were a curse to the colony. It was a paltry cry to say that the tea and sugar duties-should be remitted.; k The.true policy was a surplus, which would enable roads to be made and employment given to the people: Referring to the unemployed question, he" believed there were now less unemployed;than for a long time past. The Governmentwere- doing their best to find employment fob the people by making roads, btit the Opposition condemned the Labour Bureau, or. co-operative system, which he strongly approved of. A great deal had been said about the Railway management, but lie held it was a necessity that the Government should be represented on the BoardV The object' or the- railways was to open up the country, not merely for money making. He strongly deprecated ''the." wastei iJ x»f tihie that occurred In the :_ToUaeover trivial matters, and said that morttime was spent in useless talk than in transacting the'business of the country.

: Mr BRUCE{'said that ih consequence of Ms "retiring from public life for a time, and probably for ever, he had 'intended-,, to be comparatively silent this session, but he wished now to say a few words. He referred ito an article.that-appeared in the New Zealan&Times criticising a speech of hisin Auckland as. a farrago of nonsense, but that was jessentialiy criticism Of a liberal character. ' What right or title had the present Government to the name of Liberals? Was it-be-cause they brought down a lot of rubbishing legislation that simply harassed people, and ; -was' Very far removed from the Liberal Iprinciplesof Bright and Cobden. The -pre.-'.' j sent Government party advocated land legisilation,- whereas Mr Gladstone} leader of the • Liberals in tbeoldcountcy,,denoupced thafcin ;strong terms. Mr Willis'had asked what :the Opposition cared for the working men. iDid he and his party assume all the credit Ho themselves for sympathy-with the workling men? They traded on that in season !and out of season. The Liberal-Govern-fment had landed this colony | in disaster, ihcl it had taken i all the f efforts of .best public _jmen to >extricate it the position in ■f which a LiberallGbvernment had left it. A f great dealof credit was due in this respect I to a statesman whb-was scarcely cold in his : graven audit was not very chivalrous of the Premier to tell a. country audience ] sthat the Atkinson Ministry were ruining f the had introIducedihe income tax, bat Mr Gladstone and j the Ljherat party in. England were deteraway with that tax at the first f opportunity, they wert.taxing most heavily sail the iindnatriaL classes of. the colony. | Their graduated tax was a disgrace to the | Statute Boole, and - yet it was proposed to |raise, i£ *The, fact was the Government fwere boding the knee u to the Trades and Council, who wanted the graduated Respecting the railway i management, he did hot care whether they Lwere Radicals or Communists, who were ; Railway Commissioners, so long as they did not introduce political influence. He did not, ,'*hdw.ev'eVj -know any extreme Radicals who had brains enough- for : the position. He referred at length to the ; lancMor: settlement and co-operative labour 'questions/"..He said.the latter was open to great abuses,! and was likely to prove a powerful political lever at election times. Then'theGovernment paid great attention to tjui question, of "spoils to the victors," especially in the appointment of J.P.s and in thematteroiGovernment advertising, and he instan'ce;d: cases where advertisements were newspapers whose circulation was not a quarter of those which were refused them. The Government had now been nearly three .years in office, and what had they done for the colony? Had they reduced taxation in any way? They bad The Government policy would hot stand the test of analysing, but it was revolutionary and reactionary. In consequence of the Government policy being such as he had indicated he held members were unw4"sphy Of the confidence oi the people of the colony. ..'*'. . Mr REEVES said he should not have risen-at such a late hour were it not for the fact, that Ministers had been taunted with not replying to some speeches from the Opbenches. He referred Brawls remarks that it would probably he tW last Fißftßoial Statement he would but he (Mr Reeves) would •ready regret that hon. gentleman« ibsence from the House. Mr Bruce had referred to the Literalism of the _«*?»?

Government as not beinj in accordance with that of Bright and Cobden, but Mr Bruce'a Liberalism was that of sixty years ago. The very essence of Liberalism of to-day was that it progressed with the agej hut the logical outceme of the Lfl»ralism advocated by Mr Bruce was simple negation. He denied that the Geverameat had yielded to the clamour of the Trades and Labour Council when they decided to raise the graduated tax, and there had certainly been no general demand far such a change. If it were se, was it mot to the credit of the werking classes of the colony that instead of urging a reduction on the necessaries of life which directly affected them, they should first of all advocate change from the property tax to the land and income tax which did not affect them at all. He held that his party could fairly claim that they had contributed their share towards the improved prosperity of the colony for the last year or two, and they had absolutely falsified the prediction which had been uttered as to the effect of their advent to power. He defeaded the Premier from the charge of making an attack oa Sir H. Atkinson at Otaki. Mr Seddou had not attacked Sir H. Atkinson, but his Government, and however much a man might be lamented or his loss regretted, one must criticise his work as a public man. Referring to Sir John Hall's speech, he regretted very* much that it was probably the last time he would speak* on a financial statement. The hoa. gentleman had been a prominent figure in colonial politics for many years, and his example was one to be imitated. Sir John I Hall was in fact a gentleman of whom his I party might be proud, and whom his op- | ponents wight revere. It would, however, I be his (Mr Reeves's) lot to show that several of Sir J. Hall's statements were open to question. Sir J. Hull had made a great deal of capital out of the surplus not being the real surplus of the year, aud he contended that it aid not depend on the various items brought forward from last year, but he (Mr Reeves) contended that it did depend on them. The " Government were then charged with carrying on a Public Works policy on the strength of the proceeds of conversion, but he pointed out that the amount from that source was £222,000 and therefore they could not have carried on for two and a half years on that amount. The Government were determined to maintain a " strong finance and they refused to heedlessly reduce taxation. The most legitimate work of the Government in a country like this was to carry on colonisation, and he should like them to ask the country settlers whether they were prepared to forego this advantage in order to reduce taxation on the necessaries of life. Sir J. .Hall had asked how the Government had added to the prosperity of New Zealand. To do that he would reply they did so by doing what' Sir J. Hall did not want to do, and by not doing what he wanted them to do. The Opposition had raised a bitter cry about the tax on improvements, which they alleged* was a tax on industry, but how the Government had taken off that tax, they were attacked for doing so. There were two reasons why the Cheviot Estate was purchased by the Government, namely, to protect their finances and to encourage settlement. He defended- the graduated tax at great length, and said it mast remain a policy tax, not for the purposes -of bursting up large estates suddenly, but to compel their owners to subdivide them in a gradual manner. He complimented Mr Hutchison on his exceedingly able speech: It had been his good for* tune to hear him attack both sides of the House, and he often wondered whether that gentleman attacked the present Government better than he had done the late Government. Conservatism was no doubt more his element than Liberslism. That being •«o he probably attacked the present - Government mors ably than the late Government. He had attacked the Goveramert for not being strong enough to gain the confidence of the country, but he never had confidence in. them. The question was not whether the hou. geatleman had confidence in,; the Government but whether, their party and the country, had confidence in them- ; They deeply regretted the loss of their late leader, but they were honestly endeavouring to carry ? out the legacy left by the late Premier. . They would go to the country and. let it judge whether they were not ; hoaeatlv striving to do so. He nu\inUioed that the Government were, prepared to carry out a liberal programme, and they claimed to represent the views of the majority of the people. "They were pregared.to do the.work of to-day, ana to leave to-morrow to take care of itself. MrMITCHELSON moved tfce adjournmeht of the debate.

Agreed to. The House rose at 12,30 a>m.