The Press. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1895. CAUSTIC CRITICISM.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9022, 7 February 1895, Page 4

The Press. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1895. CAUSTIC CRITICISM.

No man of tbe present Parliament wields a more skilful rapier in debate, or a more trenchant blade as a political speechmaker than Mr. Geoege Hutchison, the member for Patea, and the Ministry have just had an unpleasant taste of his quality at Patea, where last week he delivered a very caustic and destructive criticism of the Government of the day.

Tho session, he remarked, began mauspiciously. Members who could bo found to swallow the Fraseb scandal might be depended on to stomach anything. After disposing of the alleged precedents quoted by the Premier, the member for Patea proceeded to say:—" But there was really no precedent for such an unsavoury job committed under the very nose of Parliament. The Premier called on his majority to whitewash him by making the affai.% Ministerial question. There was considerable reluctance on the part of some Ministerialists. It was a sharp curve, but they took it; There seemed to be some method also in the Premier demanding implicit obedience in a desperate course from recruits at the very beginning of. the campaign. The majority had to be broken in. It was like a timid boy bathing, who has to be soused into the water—in this instance not over clean—while he is tremblingly thinking of turning back. After that there was little trouble with, at any rate, a sufficient number." This describes the situation with neatness, and the illustration of the new members being promptly soused in the unclean waters of Beddonism is distinctly good. Of the reversionary interest in the Premiership it was pointed out that it was matter of no importance ; .whether Mr. Balance Mr. 1 Seddon or some one else. The point was as to whether the Premier's word , could be taken. That gentleman had ' deliberately stated that his "lamented chief," as he had called him, had given him certain documents with an intimation that he should take the lead should the then Premier's illness end fatally. That statement had been positively contradicted by those who | claimed to know the . truth. Mr. I Seddon had been again and again j challenged to make good his assertion !by producing the papers he said he j had. He had never done so, and there was very liijfcle doubt he could not do so. The honour of the colony was associated with the character of the Premier, and after all that had been said and written, the whole subject was summed up in the postscript of a letter written by Mrs. Ballance—"l know, of course, my husband's wish is of no importance now, but Mr. Seddon should not make false state;ments.";

Of the Banking legislation, - Mr. Hutchison said the Colonial Treasurer assured Parliament everything was right. It was now almost certain he knew nothing more than it suited the Bank to tell him. He was, no doubt, impressed with the gravity of the position, and adopted the argument down to the very words supplied by the ißank officials. The Government was overcome by panic, and so it acted without proper judgment. It must now be pretty generally recognised that it" was a national calamity that the colony had as its Treasurer at such a" crisis one largely interested in commercial concerns. There were indications that more demands may be made on Parliament affecting Banks, and involving the credit of the colony. There were still rumours of amalgamations . and guarantees, but there could never be such a surprise attempted again as last session. The "eternal.lease" Mr. Hutcthson very conclusively showed to be "a colossal fraud." The State had to consider how to achieve the very best results for the settler, and long experience had shown that no tenure effected this so well as that called the freehold. Not that a grant in freehold restricted in one jot the paramount title to the State to do whatever it decreed by legislation. The Land for Settlement Act surely made that plain, for under it any land could be resumed by the State on payment of fair compensation. The only thing certain about the " eternal lease " was that it offered a continual premium on disturbance, while as for the freehold, while not derogating from the right of the State as the paramount owner, it offered the highest inducement for the settler to improve his condition and to advance the State. Restrict the area and impose reasonable conditions, but give the settler the hope, give him the right, some day to stand a free man upon free land. Touching the resumption of estates for settlement, Mr. Hutchison pointed out that there was nothing in the experience of the past that would indicate the owner was not likely to get value heaped full and running over. In support of this he naturally dwelt upon the Pomahaka purchase, declaring the petition to have been bogus, and got up at a cost of 2s 7*d per head. No more injurious public utterance has been published against the cheap

money scheme than that of the member for Patea. If tho Treasury, he is reported to have said, would only keep its hands off the trust funds, there would be ample for all purposes, and the machinery for lending which already j existed in the Government Insurance Department and Public Trust Office j might easily have been extended to meet all requirements. Close on £6,000,000 of trust moneys were available for investment by the three lending departments of the State. More than £3,600,000 had been taken up on Government bonds and Treasury Bills, and only about £780,000 invested in land mortgages. Considering that the bulk of the Government bonds might with very little expense or outcry have been turned into cash on the Stock Exchange, there was 110 justification for going in for a public loan of £3,000,000 with all the attendant weakening of public and private credit. But as to the cheap money scheme, Mr. Georgr Hutchison sees still cheaper money in the near future, and then he pertinently asks how is the Treasurer to profitably employ the early repayments of his settler clients. We are properly reminded that the money returned by borrowers to the Treasury will bo able only to find safe investments at lower rates of interest than 5 per cent. But what then becomes of the margin of safety and profit ? It will bo gone. ' The conduct of the Treasurer, under cover of the Consols Act, came ■ naturally under review. The Bill ! had been introduced in the Financial Statement, under the"taking head of "The Thrift of People." The Premier, it was pointed out, embellished the subject by explaining that consols were designed to charm into the Treasury the money hoarded up in old teapot 3, arid this money when obtained was to be used " in promoting the development of the country." The particular form of development, however, in one instance (the £150,000 transaction) was to take the money from the Bank of New Zealand and deposit it in the Colonial Bank, whose only claim to consideration so far as the public could surmise, was being interested in the important concerns comprehended under the title of the J. G. Ward Farmers' Association (Limited), and as being the Bank for which strenuous, but unsuccessful, efforts were made during the session for the amalgamation with the Bank of New Zealand.

Mr. Wahd's departure from the colony and the great Valentine Agency in turn received due meed of attention from the speaker under roview, and according to him, it seems that Mr. Valentine only ceased to be our " Produce Commissioner " a few weeks ago, and up to the date he last left London he had still offices at the AgentGeneral's. It was of course, he said, of the highest importance that the markets for our produce should be developed, but surely nothing but discredit could result from the Government or any one associated with them being concerned in Company mongering. Among the disorders the colony had of late suffered from was one described as an acute attack of Nepotism. The word looked and -sounded like the name of some- disease. And so it was, a political diseaJse that made' the colony limp along on tender bones. The literal meaning of the word was "fondness for nephews," and the Minister for Lands had developed the disease in quitea malignant form. Of the prospects of the comingsession Mr. Hutchison is not sanguine of much good result. Local Government reform he thinks not yet ai hand, for it Would be a death blow to the Tammany Hall tactics of the Government, and without the Public Works fund half their persuasive powers would, be lost. " Boodle is King, and the Boodlers vote as steady as a fence."

As for the Tariff Commission he anticipates it will recommend a number of higher protective and some retaliatory duties. He reminded his hearers that the Premier . and Treasurer last session both spoke upon the side of dear fuel and dear bread. The old Gry —the old lie —that the consumers would not pay the increased duty was again going up, and he closed this part of his subject by urging that the first and last consideration should be to resist everything that may tend to hamper the production of our national staples, wool, meat, butter, timber, the products of the land.

In concluding what may be described as the best extra-Parliamentary speech delivered since last session, the member for Patea said—"lt is characteristic of our race to preserve, and though those opposed to the Government in Parliament are few in number, the voice of public opinion seems gathering in denunciation of the Ministry and their methods. The two forces acting to the same end—the little force within, the mighty force without—may be expected to prevent some evil, if- they cannot immediately achieve any good." So mote it be 1