TUESDAY JULY 1.

Clutha Leader, Volume XVII, Issue 833, 4 July 1890, Page 3

TUESDAY JULY 1.

In the Legislative Council — Several unimportant bills were advanced a stage, when, on account of the no-confi donee motion in the House of" Representatives, the Council adjourned. In the House of Representatives — NO-CONFIDENCE DEBATE. Mr J. Ballance gave notice that he would move, on going into committee of supply —'That in the opinion of this house the continuance of the primage duty is unnecessary, and is a distinct breach of the understanding arrived at when it was first imposed ; that further retrenchment is imperatively demanded, and can be effected without impairing the efficiency of the public service; that tho retention of the property tax in its present form and the land policy pursued by the Government alike impede the progress of the country.' Hon. E. Mitchelson said that, after the motion pr3posed by Mr Ballance, which was a direct challenge to the Government, he did not propose, to answer any questions that day, but the Government would proceed with the financial debate at once. It was agreed that the no-con fid en co debate should commence at the evening sitting. Mr Ballance rose and said that if the amendment of which he had given notice should be carried nobody expected that Ministers on the benches would leave them. The Ministry, in his opinion, occupied o, rather unfortunate position. It seemed to be one of their own choosing. They all knew the state of the Premier's health, and he thought the determination to which the Ministerial party had come to placed the House in an anomalous position, as they had a nominal Premier and an acting-Premier. They would all have liked to see the Premier in his place that night, and to be able to take part in the present debate. But he blamed the Ministry for having placed the House in its present position. Referring to the financial statement, he- said, the Government complained about a false impression being afloat as to the conditiou of the colony, but he asked what had the present Ministry done to remove that false impression 1 They wore told they had a surplus of LI 15,000, but the Government had a deficiency in 1888,-and they naturally contrived to have a surplus this year., Hy asserted, however, that there was no surplus. The primage duty had been accounted for, but the liabilities of the year had not been taken into account. The Treasurer said therei had been L 36,500 with which to begin; the year, but that meant that L 36,500! and not L 115,000 was the real surplus. Then as to the primage duty, did they, not all understand ■ that the duty was • to be for only two years, and now they

were told it was to be continued for school buildings, whereas last year they were led to believe the school buildings vote came out of the consolidated fund. He quoted from figures to prove that there was L 45,000 deficiency in the land revenue for two years by the Treasurer's own showing. If, itherefore, that L 45 i OOO were deducted front L 36,500 there was not only not a^ surplus but a deficiency. Then; there were other items to be added, making altogether a net deficiency of L 18,639. While, therefore, the Treasurer con- ' tended there, .was a surplus there actually existed a large deficiency. He referred at some length to transactions in the Lands Department, and said there was a 'deficiency in the estimate of the Minister of Lands also. Then as to borrowing, they were, told the Government were not prepared to recommend a system of ordinary borrowing, but they were prepared to revert to the system of extraordinary borrowing. They were told it would be a wise thing to borrow for making roads to open up lands for sale, but to open up the country by means of the tortuous plan proposed would not be likely to commend itself to the House. They were also to borrow for the pur- ; chase of Native lands, but. the proposed way of doiug this was even a more treacherous way than the other. They had been told they wei*e to have freetrade in Native land, but he asserted that freetrade in Native land' had effected absolutely nothing except the clearing up o£ old transactions. As to the administration of Government, he alleged there had been great extravagance and illegality.' Mr Edwards had been appointed a judge of the Native Lands Court at LI SOO a year when thb same work could have been performed for LSOO. He contended there was no precedent for appointing a Supreme Court judge until his salary had first been fixed. He was not aware whether Mr Edwards' acts as judge would be legal or not, but notice had been given of a bill, which he was informed was to validate Mr Edwards' appointment. He thought the House should be informed by the legal gentlemen in it as to whether this appointment was legally made or not. They were told last session that the Native department should be abolished, but they actually found that the estimates of that department were increasing by the appointment of Native land judges. The Public Works Department was also to be abolished, but it had not been done, and additional appointments were actually being made. As to defence they had spent nearly half-a-million of money in making fortifications, yet they must go further. His opinion was they wore amply defended at present for all purposes. As to school buildings, ho. would ask how was the Minister to take over part of the administration of the money. He thought the money would have been more economically spent, and say onesixth provided from particular districts. He strongly condemned the proposal to send delegates to the Federation Convention on the ground that we had already decided against federation. Coming to tho property tax, ho assertedthe Government should have made progress towards changing the in r cidence of taxation. His idea was that a land tax was the best form of taxation. Such a tax. had been in existence some years ago on Sir G. Grey's motion, but was superseded by the Counties Act, brought in by the present Premier. Ho '• thought that they should now take gradual steps to restore the land tax, but with the exemption of improvements. He contended that it was the duty of tho Government to announce some policy for the constituencies to consider at the next election, but whether the Government did so or not the property tax question would occupy large attention during those elections. Referring to land settlement he said that the policy of the present Ministry was that the more land that was alienated from the Colony the more successful their policy would be, but he (Mr Ballance) asked whether that was a policy suited to the country. His idea was that a proper policy was that by which a large number of settlers should go on the land. The number of settlers at tho pi^esent time was actually decreasing, though the Government had the boldness to declare that their land policy compared favorably with that of their predecessors. .He quoted largely from statistics, contrasting the land policy of the Government with that of the previous Government, and said that if there .was more genuine settlement in the country, the larger and more flourishing would be the towns. He defended the village settlement scheme, and asserted that those special settlers had paid 5Jr per cent, of the ! whole cost of the scheme. The Financial Statement as a whole was speculative, and the surplus was financially indefensible. The Government had no idea of land settlement, and they were promoting dummy ism instead of stopping it. They were also increasing expenditure instead of reducing it. They were making unnecessary appointments, such as that of assistant ouditorgeneral, when one officer could have dono all the work ; and that of Mr, Edwards, who was not a fit and proper person to be a judge of the Supreme) Court. The Government had. offered Ino policy to attract people to the

country, and they 'acknowledged that no pains had been taken to make known the position of the Colony :t'o thepeople of England and Australia. . He asked whether , the Government held office constitutionally at present. He thought the only remedy for the present state of things was an immediate dissolution, as 21 members were now sitting in the House who had .no right to sit. Their only remedy was, therefore, to dissolve Parliament without delay. Mr Ballance then moved the amendment of which he had given notice in the afternoon. .'....■ Hon. G. F. Richardson said the amendment was of a disingenious character Mr Balance did not refer to those points on which substantial retrenchment could be made. The late Government. had stated that it was im-possible-to effect a saving of L 350,000, but the present Government had :made a saving of L 300,000: Mr Ballance had omitted to state that the property tax exempted encumbrances, and it really" amounted' -to aland tax such as he suggested. His speech was to this effect briefly— that, there was no surplus, that there should be more retrenchment, and in , condemnation of the. Crown lands administration. As to Mr Ballance's arguments with respect to the surplus, he said the primage duty for. the last year wasLss,ooo, but yet 75,000 of an old debt had been wiped off. L1'09,000 was the total amount Mr Ballance said should bo deducted from the surplus : so that in any case there would be a surplus of L6OOO according to Mr Ballance's own figures. The purpose for which primage duty had been impossed was fulfilled, and the Government now asked the House to reimpose the duty for another purpose. That was no breach of agreement but a fresh proposal. He (Mr Richardson) thought the Government proposals for roacling the lands of; the country were very reasonable. The reason why freetrade in Native lands was not a success was V>ocause of: \ tho extremely librral provisions of ,tho Land Act of 1887, and it was not possible for private individuals to obtain Native Land on as favorable terms as the Government. The lion, gentleman, as he had stated, had not made any proposals as to how substantial retrenchment could be effected. There were not many items on the Estimates in which such retrenchment could bo made. Ho referred in detail to several items, and asked whether the Opposition wanted to reduce items such as capitation to school children, subsidies to local bodies, or a reduction of tho vote for working railways. Mr Ballance had stated that the figures in tho Crown lands report were not fairly stated, but he (Mr Richardson) claimed credit for the fact that never before were these reports prepared in a clearer or more useful form. Last session Mr Ballance had stated that the true test of success in land settlement was the number of agricultural holdings, but he (Mr Richardson) now stated that last year there was 500 agricultural holdings in excess of the largest average of any year for the past four years. As to the village settlors, of which Mr Ballance had so much to say, only 800 of these settlors remained on the land at present, and 10 percent, had dropped off during the present year. Referring to the perpetual leasing system, he said that, as that stood now, there would be practically no freehold acquired under it for 29 years. Mr Ballance had not attempted to abolish the purchasing clause, and there had been no attempt made to kill the perpetual lease system.. He desired to show that " large areas were in the market, and that there was no occasion for anybody to Jeave the Colony because they could not get land. Taking the two and a-half years that the Government were in oflico, 327,000 acres more were disposed of than in the previous throe years, and at a saving in cost of L 141,000 ; and at the present time there was land in the market for large and small men. He was glad to state also that dummyism did not exist at present to anything like the extent complained of, and the Government were as ambitious as any lion, gentleman to stop it. He should be better satisfied if Mr Ball an co had indicated the direction in which substantial retrenchment could be effected, and he also should like to hear from him how the land administration could be improved. Mr Reeves (St. Albans) referred to tho fact that the leader of the House had not replied to Mr Ballance's speech. The Premier was of course absent from the House through no fault of his own, but tho acting-loader | had deputed leadership to tho Minister for Lands. But ho (Mr Reeves) thought that although the acting-Pre-mier did not pi'etond to possess oratorical powers, he would at any rate have acquitted himself bettor than his colleague, the Minister for Lands. After referring to the Minister's remarks on tho surplus and land administration, he said he came from a part of the colony which had been half ruined by the cash system of selling land. They had had three distinct systems of land selling in Canterbury, and each system was worse than the other. The result was that the province of Canterbury, which should be one of the most flourishing districts in the colony, wasi now one of the most depressed and; stagnant. The cash system in Canter-; bury was a success financially, but it; had utterly '"broken down so far as

settlement was concerned. Ho quoted tho names of several persons who had purchased land in large quantities in Canterbury. Referring to the Financial Statement, he thought the borrowing proposals shadowed forth in it would require tho most careful consideration. With respect to the Financial Statement, he considered that it should have been prepared in a busi-ness-like manner, and framed so that" the people of the colony could understand the position of tho country, but he failed to see that it was prepared in that manner. He referred .to the utter lack of enterprise in tho colony and the exodus of our people to Australia as evidence that the colony was not in a hopeful condition. The country had no confidence in its present 'condition, and yet they were asked to believe that the Government policy had been a success. That policy would' to a certain extent have been successful, but only because it wp.s a stolen policy from the Stont-Vogel Government. The present Government had only- stopped borrowing because they could not borrow any more, but if anybody 1 studied tho Financial Statement they must come to the conclusion that further borrowing was contemplated. The Government also asked for fresh taxation now, and they told them that in the future they must have further taxation; The Government was put into power to make the people live within their means, and they had not done it yet. As to tho alleged surplus there was no doubt that the deficiency in tho land, fund should be taken from it, and together ■ with other charges tho surplus appeared to be a bogus one. In fact there was a deficit, not a surplus. He pointed out that during, the last year large. numbers of people had jleft tho colony, and tho only remedy the Government provided for this state of things was that they took Captain Russell into thq Cabinet and re-admitted Mr Hislop into the Ministry, That was the sum total of what the Government had done to keep tho people in tho colony. He finally urged the necessity of an appeal being made to the country before the policy of the Government was adopted.- and that other steps should be taken for remedying tho present position of the colony. Mr Kerr moved the adjournment of tho debate, and the House rose ab 11.40.