Untitled

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XV, Issue 1129, 23 April 1858, Page 1 (Supplement)

(Continued from third page.) Ministers and also on that of the House, that the affairs dt ihe colony could be carried on withoutiembarassment. In reference to the second paragraph of His Excellency's Speech, he (Mr. II.) wan anxious to hear from the Ministry what steps had bpen taken to ensure the payment to the New Zealand Company of £200,000 by the Ist of this month ; because, failing such payment,n t, the Act relieving our waste lands trom the Company's mortgage become null and void. He did full credit to the energy and ability displayed by Mr. Sewell on behalf of the colony, but he must reserve any moro, decided (repression of opinion upon the subject of this negotiation, until the papers relating to it wjere before them. He next came to the dis illowance of the Waste Lands Act, ISSS} f which Act had been described by the lion, member for the Bay .as the backbone of the financial adjustment of the last'scs&ion. lie dissented most emphatically from that statement. The adjustment in question was altogether independent of that Act, which, indeed, at one period of the last session, the Government hid intended altogether to drop. The financial arrangement was based on a series of resolutions, which were long an 1 carefully discussed in that House, and which, under a due sense of their importance, were deliberately adopted by a considerable majority. In pursuance of this adjustment laige sums had been borrowed for the extinction of Native title ; £40,000 had" been, or wouid shortly be repaid to the Province of Auckland ; and the Land kevenue was declared to be provincial X^YPnue. Tnls adjustment formed a selemn compact between the si\ Provinces of New Zealand, no part of which could l>e altered unless by mutual consent. (ikMMVhear). With reference to the extinction of Native Title he must, in the absence of Wellington members^ remind the House of the serious complaints from that'SErovince of the supinene»s of the Government in this matter* and of the extent to which they had allowed favorable opportunities for effecting extensive ' purchases to escape. He trusted lhat information would be soon afforded which would enable the Hou9e t> judge how far these complaints were well founded. The next paragraph of his Excellency' 9 S eech stated, " I congratulate you on the steady advancement of the (Solony, as manifested by the increased Revenue of the Customs during the hist year." He (Mr. H.) had fully expected to hear His, Excellency add, " and on the fact tliat the gloomy/ desponding, ami lugubrious views upon this subject, so repeatedly expressed bv my advisers in your last session, have been entirely falsified." (Laughter.) It would be recollected that the predecessors of the present Government had taken a more sanguine and cheerful view of the prospects and destiny of the colony ; they had estimated the Customs revenue of the then ensuing financial year, as at least equal to that which had pr&eded it ; they did not believe that the steady progress of New Zealand in population, wealth, and pxosperity, was to be arrested and turned back. These views, which formed the basis of the financial policy of the Fox ministry had been stigmatized by the Colonial Treasurer as the finance of " youth and hope" ; the event, however, had proved r that such a finance was one well adapted to a young and hopeful country. He trusted, however, that any disappointment the present might feel at such' falsification of their predictions, would be obscured in satisfaction at the actual progress and prosperity of the colony. With regard to the expenditure of the Government," he shared the agreeable surprise which had b«en expressed by the seconder of the address, that it had i.illpn short of the sums voted for the public service. He believed it was almost the only instance of the kind on record in the history of Responsible Government. Very much, however, depended on the items in which savings had been effected. On one of these, viz., that of steam communication, it had been effected at the - cost of immense inconvenience and injury to the inhabitants of the colony, especially of the remoter Provinces. It was almost impossible to overrate the inconvenince and the difficulties to which the absence of anything like inter-provincial postal communication exposed persons of all classes, nor the embaraosment to those engaged in carrying on the work of Government. *"" Important communications were replied to" in" periods wrying from one to six months; one of the best officers of the General Government, in his own province, assured him that he now received answers fioni Eng- * land in less time than was sometimes required to obcam official answers from Auckland. If the Government had really been unable to obviate this state of things, ' they would be exonerated from blame, but it would be incumbent on them to shew that they had "done their utmost to provide against it. (Hear, heir). He (Mr. II.) could not help thinking that, in the absence of steamers, fast-sailing vessels should have been employed to keep up the best possible communication. 'An important fact, .with regard to the public expenditure, viz., that for the last six months it had been carried on without any authority of law, was nowhere faoticed'in his, Excellency's Speech. He (Mr., H.) was hot prepared to say that circumstances might not justify this proceeding, but it was a decided infraction of the law, and so serious an assumption of responsibility .should sUrely have been referred to on the very earliest occasion on which his Excellency met the representatives of the people. Upon the subject of the Tariff the Government announced their intention of remedying •what they called its " imperfections." If they were acquainted with public feeling on the subject in the ' Southern Provinces, they would frardly have been satisfied with so mild a term. The system of collecting duties by measurement appeared to him altogether objectionable. Its pressure upon articles of different classes was most unequal, and upon articles of the same class, the coarser and more bulky they were, and therefore the less able to bear taxation, the «iore heavily they were taxed He was sorry to find that Govern- * ment proposed to adhere to the principleof tonnage * dudes ; the instance! of injustice to which it gave rise *vrere almost endlpss, and could not be provided against Vy any modification of the presentplan. The most important statement contained in the address was probably that referring to the course of events at Taranaki. The proceedings which had taken place in that Province during «the past three years, amounted to civil war between her Majesty's subjects of the Native race. These persons were being told at the present time that 'they must not make laws for themselves, as some of them desued to do, because they were the Queen's subjects, and therefore under the authority of her laws. < Yet we practically denied this doctrine because during three years we had allowed them, in defiance of the law, to levy civil war against each other, and had taken no steps to vindicate the authority of the Government. He believed that interference should have taken place long ago; that it had not, was perhaps not the fault of the existing administration. As to the steps which had now been" taken, the speech was necessarily vague , he inferred, however, that a decided stop was to be put to the war now being carried on among the Natives, and that, whether on their own land, or on land purchased by the Grown, they were to be compelled to respect and and conform to the British law. If this was the case, and presuming that the Government had taken the necessary steps for enforcing their orders, he (Mr. H.) thought they had acted wisely aB well as boldly, and were entitled to the moral support which the expression of this opinion from independent members might afford. He regretted to find no mention in his Excellency's Speech of the course proposed to be adopted by the Government in respect to the relations of the General and Provincial Governments. In some Provinces certain powers were held and exercised by the Provincial authorities, in others by the General Government, and in other's again the same powers were beiug exercised at the same time by both Governments. Great uncertainty and confusion exiited upon the subject. In the last 'session a resolution had been passed by that House, asserting that the Telative position of the two Governments ought to be settled and defined by the General Assembly. It was true this lesolution had been proposed by the hon. member for Wanganui, but his opponents asserted that it had, among other things, been •stolert-from them. He (Mr. H.) had expected, therefore, to find the present Government had taken up the subject. He hoped, before long, to hear from them a general statement of their intended policy on this and on many other important questions. They had been placed in very a favorable position for maturing such a policy ; they had had plenty of time. {'tSTgfMV' from Jfa i uuffm tti) At least a j'ear and a half had elapsed -since, the last session, and they met a House in which no formidable party opposition need he apprehended.

i It was true that many important questions were mer I tioned in the address, but the way in which they wei [. I mentioned was studiously vague ; it might mean whi . ' ! Hon. members oppoure could agree to, it might mea I what he (Mr. 11.) could agree to, anil it might mean c and he supposed this was about the truth of the mattei " nothing at all. (Hear, and laughter.) On the undei I standing that this was the case, and in the hope of soo i e hearing more dec dod explanations of the intentions c 5 the (government, he should vote for the address whic ,° had been proposed. '" j Mr. Carlkton rose to expliin. He had never sai * I wh:it was attributed to him by the Colonial Secretar !S! Sand ' and Mr. Hall) lie had distinctly stated that if th c | Ministry were beaten upon any preat question of policy c j it would be their duty to retire from office ; but whs c j he desired was, that they should not be top susceptibl £• on lesser matters. And the Colonial Secretary ha ' I since agreed to precisely what he (Mr. C.) had pro ! posed. ' I Mr. Packer addressed himself at some length to th cmsideration of the various topics embraced in the repl * and dwelt forcibly on the necessity for immediate step t being taken for establishing inter-provincial communi ' o ition which if not speedily established must of neces jj-1 *i ty revive the question as to a change of the seat t Government. The honorable gentlemen expressed hi j sitisfaction generally with the reply the adoption c a which he supported. Mr. Richmond proposed to solve some of the doubt: and questions that had been raised during the presen jr debate. In the first place they would be glad to lear . distinctly that the negotiations with the Union Ban] "c were complete. It was a moral certainty that the Ne\ ' Zealand Company was by this time paid off. The las despatches enclosed a copy of a communication fron t the Treasury to the Union Bank accepting the term ■, offered by the Bank and recommended by Mr. Sewel on behalf of the Colony. The Colony is now, therefore ® free from that moral incubus the New Zealand Com pany's fourths. It was true that the formal agreemen 6 was not signed at the date of the last commumcatioi i' but all the terms of the contract were contained in thi ' correspondence. In reference to the unauthorised ex c penditure for the past six months he would remark tha e r it was entirely in accordance with the practice of th( ' House of Commons . that the expenses of the curren I year should not be provided for until at a late period o 3 the session. Mr. Hall in his remarks on the working 7 of the tariff had entirely omitfrd to mention that during I the last session the tariff was modified and the estimata " J modified accordingly. Mr.- Fox's estimate under thi B • old tariff was taken at £110,000, Mr. Sewell's a' [ £98,000 ; but under the new tariff their estimate o 3 Customs was within a lew hundreds of £115,00( I and .the actual produce was £117,°00. H« did not agree with .Mr. Hall that the country conj demned the principle of the present tariff. At Welling, ton, though the tonnage duty was objected to, no dis3 position had been shown to return to the old ad valorem P duty ; they rather seemed inclined to knock off dutj f altogether, (laughter) reserving only some 8 or 10 articles upon which a fixed rate should be levied. He » would alto observe that at a public meeting held at r . Wellington, the opinions expressed were entirely op1 posed to the conclusions arrived at by the Chamber oi [ Commerce. With respect to the management of public 5 lands, three distinct things were to be considered : legis- " lation on the subject of regulations, the administration [of laws, and the administration of revenue, any two L might be invested in Provincial bodies, without the 1 other one. In reply toy&frTHffrl's observations, he could only say that the Government had given proof of their determination to carry out the resolutions of last ; session, to which that hon. member had referred. In ' reference to the remarks that had been made concern- '' ing the reply being merely an echo, of the Governor's speech, he would remind them that it was necessary to be careful not to echo too fully. The House must of } course assume the correctness of the statements made in his Excellency's speech ; for instance, when they were told that the negotiations respecting the loan had been favourably completed, they werp bound to believe the statement, <and in their reply they merely exjfressed their gratification that such should be the case. In matters ot detail, the House would of course have a right to seek information, and that information would not be withheld ; but he did not think that, either in justice to the Government or to the lloiuss.time should be frittered away in useless discu-sion, on what the Government had done or proposed to do, when such information would be before the House, in the Bills which would be brought before them anil in the correspondence which would be laid on the table." ,In reference to the acquiring land from the natives, the Auckland members were not justified in coming to any conclusion as to what had been accomplished, from the . purchases which h.id been effected in the North, where land came in piecemeal. In the South, large and valuable blocks had been purchased. In Ahuriri, one to I the extent of 250,000 acres was already valuably occu1 pied. Again even in some of the more barren portions , in the Northern Province, they must not look merely , to the value of the land obtined— they must not overlook one advantage, that if it was found practicable to purchase blocks at 6d. per acre, as at Kaipara, although the land might not be occupied for years to come, a political advantage was gained, apart from «ny commercial benefit, for the natives never believe the Queen's writ runs on any land not in possession of the Crown. He admitted that the land he had spoken of was not land to pay fancy prices for, but still an advantage was gained in its purchase, from the fact that the Queen's law became established there and that it was incumbent on natives to conform to it. It enabled the Government, when occasion required, to interfere with a high band, which otherwise they would be unable to do. A complaint had been made that no indication had been shown of taking steps for the adjustment of relations between the Provincial and General Governments. He thought that the powers of the Provincial Governments could be be6t defined by' the action of the General Assembly. The best means of limiting the powers of Provincial Councils would be by doing what was necessary themselves and not leaving it for others to do. They had no idea of stopping other people from doing that which they were afraid of doing themselves. The bon. member concluded by commenting on the cheering offer of support made by thehon,. member for the Bay. J^tfwfer some remarks fr»m Mr. Brodie, which we have not space in this issue to give Mr. Bbckham replied, and the question w£ put and passed. Oft the motion of Mr. Stafford, it was resolved that the Speaker, accompanied by such members of the House as were willing to attend, should present the Reply to his Excellency. The House then proceeded to the orders of the day. The Interpretation Bill passed through Committee, and the House having resumed, was read a third time and passed. The House then adjourned. We must hold over, untilj our next, the report of proceedings on Wednesday and Thursday.