THE CITY ELECTIONS. MR. SHAW AT TE ARO.

Evening Post, Volume XXII, Issue 89, 13 October 1881, Page 2

THE CITY ELECTIONS. MR. SHAW AT TE ARO.

About 500 persons assombled at the Arcade, Manners-straot, last evening, for the pnrpose of hearing an exposition of tho political views of Mr. J. H, Shaw, one of the c.uididateß for tho representation in Parliapient of the To Aro electoral district, at the impending general elootion. Mr. I?. W. Wataon presided. Mr. Shaw, who was well received, after a few prefatory remarks, eaid he ontored the Wellington Hoads 23 years ago, since which time he had resided ohieflv in this city. On reaching here ho observed that the eystoin of Provincial Government was going on, a system whioli gavo rise to many abases. <<t that titno the colony lived liko a spendthrift, so to speak. It lived on its capital — the public rates, which were soon got through. About ten years ago a wizard appeared on the scene, breathed into the ears of tho desponding people, who thon took to tho spendthrift's trick of borrowing. All tho available land bad now gone, our borrowed money had gone, and the wizard had gone. And what had we lolt ? A powerful, wealthy class, which built itsolf up on the system of Provincialism, claiming to be the governing class as a right. (Hear, hear.) Taxation also waa left us— taxation of the most terriblo sort. (Applause.) We were now at a crisis, and on ourselves depended tho issue. Now ho intended that evening to speak principally on two topics — tho land and taxation. Ho found that .£100,000,000 worth of land of the colony had passed into private hands. More than half ot this was hold in estates valued at over .£5000 ; while under the valuo of JBsoo— estates which affected thomasßof tho people — there was loss than one-tenth of this enormous value. He also found that seven owners possessed land of tho valuo of .£2,098,6 10, or l-47th of the whole property in New Zealand. The quantity of land sold up to the 3lßt December, 1879, was 1i.357,523 acres. In America this quantity would have been divided into 91,600 small farms, with a population of about 733,000. Our census returns showed thero were only 13,707 freeholds of over ono aoro. with probably a population of about 110,000. What a contrast ! And in th« South Island there were 92 estates containing in the aggregate 2,398,100 acres, an averago of 26,000 nores each. In one of these oatatoa there was a piece of' laud of tho finost oharaoter, con« taining sheep and a shepherd's hut or two at present, which was as largo as the whole island of Jersey. Remaining in the hands of tho Government (excluding Maori land) thoro woro 34 866,000 acres of a comparatively worthless character. Ho next proceeded to refer to tho system of " gridironing " practised in tho Middle Island, and quoted from a pamphlet entitlod, " Aro wo to stay hereP" which ho recommended tho people to read. They ought to secure tho election of candidates who would ea&uro tho sule of tho public lands to bond fide settlers in limited quantities, and stop the system of speculation and grabbing by oompanies. (Applause.) Private dealings with tho natives about their lands should also be prohibited except in cases where the natives were will* ing to get over tho difficulties regarding titles by putting large blocks into the hands of a trustee. All our lands, in foot, had been administered tho wrong way. ThesW*Bte Lands Boards should bo abolished, and in their Btead there should bo an administrative Board elected by tho people, of which the . Minister of Lands should be chairman ess officio. And now a few words about taxation. Our net colonial debt was the annual charge on which was .£1,513,000. This uid not include our munioipal liabilities, < private mortgages, debts due to banks, nor - the working expenses of the Government To meet the whole of these liabilities the colony had to find .£3,911,000 annually. That meant that 130,000 persons— men between the ages of 20 and 60— had to pay £30 eaoh pec annum. Tho Colonial Treasurer estimated the total revenue for tho current financial year at .£3,297,650, and he (Mr Shaw) showed that a heavy proportion of this burden of taxation towards raising this revenue fell on the poor and middle classes. The land had benefited most by the expenditure of our borrowed money, and therefore the land should be mado' the source from which these great liabilities should bo justly met. Unluokily. however, through tho clever management or the Property Tax Act, which was passed mainly to shunt off the Land Tax, this was not tho case. Ho was in favour, moreover, of a wool tax of say £d per lb., whioh would ooßt nothing to collect and would yield a handsome return. Another fair tax was ono on all incomes above a certain minimum. New Zealand was also tho country of all others for a land tax on a graduated and progressive basio. With regard to other minor subjeotfl, he might say he approved the present system of primary education, which should bo continued, with certain modifications. For instanoe, up to the fourth standard Bay, education should be free, boyond that it should bo paid for, aa wo could not afford to make it free altogether. Educational affairs, moreover, should be administered by local bodies. An attempt should also be made by tho North Island at any rate to secure tho resumption of the enormous endowments to universities in the fcouth I«land, or, failing that, these reserves should bo taxed (Hear, hear.) Our Nativo policy was a disgraco to the colony. (Loud applause.) Tho Nativo Office, as a distinctive offioe, should be abolished; it did ten times more misohief than good. He agreed, too, that T« Whiti should be wiped < out, believing that if the prophet were seized tho Nativo difficulty would exist no more. He oondemned tho present multiplicity of governing bodies throughout, tho country, and suggested a simplification of the Bcheme. The "emig.ation game" which had been going on for the past 7 or 10 years he characterised as villaiuous, and thought a good deal of money might have been saved by allowing the labour to find its w»7 here without the assistance it had received, believing that labour would always *md its own level. Kolative to local industries, these ought to be encouraged in every reasonable way. Raw material fir manufacturing purposes ought to bo admitted into the colony free of duty, and a duty ought to be imposed on articles which oould bo manufactured from products indigenous to the colony. The insolvency laws needed revision, and bankruptcies ought to be die* cour aged. In order to accomplish thiß result it might be worth while to consider a plan of disfranchising for some time every elector who failed to pay 10s in the £. Thepresent system of representation was not, fie said, ono of representing population, as believed, but was Bimply a representation of arithmetic, and divided districts whose interests were common. He resumed his seat amid loud and continued applause, his speech having occupied exactly a couple of hours. Mr. J. Pktherick, jun.,here propounded a series of questions, which were _ duly answered. They were of no particular importance. Mr. T. CiBTEB enquired if the candidate were in favor of putting a stop to the "Lords" being granted honorarium, and the money being appropriated towards pro* viding a Home for Aged and Infirm People. (Loud laughter). Mr. Shaw rose to answer the question, but Bat down again on someone calling out that the question was intended merely as a " dig " at a certain Legislative CoanciHor. Mr. R. J Duncan then moved a " vote of thanks to Mr. Shaw for his interesting address." Withont being seconded, the motion was pnt to the meeting and carried nern. dt«. amid warm applause. This concluded the proceedinge.