PARLIAMENT.

Evening Post, Volume XLI, Issue 149, 26 June 1891, Page 4

PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF BKPRKSENTATIVKS. Yertebday'b Kvr.NiNO Sitting. TUE FINANCIAL DEUATE. Mr. DUTHIE, rosuming tho debate on the Finanoial Statement, asked that anything lio might say would bo accepted as tho view of an unbiassed oitizon, untraramulled by nn.y Party tics. Until some years iiffo he attached littlo attention to the exodus of population became tliovo was formerly a largo portioi. I Oi onr pooplo dircotly or indirectly afiocti (1 I>Y flic "toppagc of pnblic works, lint (hat explanation had not existed for tho lift two 0 • three years, and it was necessary to loolv ukiewlicro. The ■-o-callod Liberal Party had o.'ton twitted thoiv oppow-nts with being respoiiHiblo for the exodus, but their own n.lvont to pnwor had not stopped theontliow, because the not loss of population of tho hut four months wiw 3083. JJe-mles, the increase o* tho unemployed, who must now number about 1000, was another proof of depreHfion, and in addition to these tlioro mii!«t be large numbers whoso indopondeneo prevented thorn from accepting relief employment under tho Government, and tho Liboral retime Beeracd to doopon rather than alleviate tho evil. Tho anpect of affairs in rogard to tho employment of capital, as shown by its accumulation in bankK, was nUo vory serious, for not only had tho advances formerly used in business been abandoned, but tlioro was an additional accumulation to the extent of .£1,308,000. Altor careful ly reading tho Statement he hiiw nothing solid iv it. In its evident purPoho of stirring up a state of exoitoment, it r.-tninded him of Mr. Fishcr'n election tactics Homo years ago in creating an imaginary '■ Paiiama-stroot King," through tho denunciations of which ho managed to carry himself to tho top of the municipal poll. It was a sorioH of cries to catch popularity, without any solidity iv it whatever. Oim of those wii tho cry of dummyism. «et up to make pwplo think there were \arious machinat ons to rob tho country of its lauds. On 1 lvostigation there hcetncd to bo very little in it. Thero wero also tho land tax, the rjtrcncliraent, tlio no borrowing policy, and tho promised improvomont in the r ilations between capitalists and employe^. A< to land settlement, while lie would be glad to soo the conutry populated with 8 nail settlors, tho thing could only be done to a limited extent. Small settlement could only lie carried on in proximity to a market where the sottlors 1 produce could bo sold, and also near to large blocks, where tho sottlors could got partial employment. Of itself, it was no cure for tho depression, however desirable it might bo for its own Bvko. The country to bo bottled was bush, and as soon as a small block of it was put into grass there was » return from it, but in a year or two it decayed, and until tho roots woro removed it was impossible) to break it up or uho it for any thing but grazing. In the proposals to buy up land tioro was danger of jobbery for tho benefit of largo ownors. Besides, there was no necessity for tho step while tho colony had 2,850,000 acres of its own apart from tho large areas yet to bo acquired from tho natives. It was proposed by the Govorumont to loaso land troni the natives jor settlement purposes, but ho abhorred tho Icasohold system altogether, and did not wish to .see a Maori aristocracy grow up to whom tho European 8 jitters would bo hewers* of wood and drawers of water. Native rights wcro getting yoar by yoar into such a complicated state that thoro was no wonder tho Land Court system was growing so rapidly in scope and oxpenso. The timo had como when tho titlo to all uativo laud should bo finally ascertained. As tho process wont on tho Government should buy up tho land whenovor that was possible, or if the Ownors refused to sell they should bo mado responsible for rates and taxes, in tho same way as Europeans. Tho effoot of tliis would bo that thore would bo amplo land in the market for settlement. It whs to bo regretted that tho Govcrninont took no action in tho matter of absenteeism. In tho bost interests of tho country the question must bo grappled with at an early dato. Judging from tho Estimates, thore ecemed to have been vory littlo real retrenchment. Officers bad been dispensed with upon one oxouse and anothor, but tho oxpondituro was very little reduced. As to the Public Works Department ho recognised that it had had to be reduced, but was not altogether satisfied that in making the choice of thoso who must go tho host interests of tho oonntry had boen consulted, especially its to the loss of tho services of Mr. C. Y. O'Connor. He oonld also give the Government credit for the reductions of tho numbor of police inspectors, but in this roapect thoy stood self-convicted of having when formorly in office undone tho necessary ratronchmont of their predecessors. Nor * could he soo tho basis upon which th« selections wero made. It was not for ago, nor was it that the juniors wokj picked out. ,It was, however, whispered that the victims were those who had- boon stationed in districts whero strikes had occurred, and because they had como into collision with tho Unionists. If a policeman had to rink losing Ilia office fordoing his duty it became a mattor of great peril to the country. In the case of one man who had boen marked out for retirement, tho editor of a local paper, who could write with effect, took up hia dofonco, whoroupon the Govornmont retracted their action and rotired anothor officer instead. (Hon. Mr. Forgus — Thero is angler reason than that, and a deeper one.) As to the genoral policy of retrenchment, it was to bo feared that Ministers set about it in a stato of high glee. Some men heard nothing about their intended dismissal until thoy read of it in the papers. That was a brutal and cruol thing, which tho Government onght to be ashamod of. For it tho Government was blamed by tho newspapers, and they promised that it would not occur again, but their only amendment was that they published an equally cruel announcement, which was vaguely made, that so many men in a particular department w ere to be dispensed with. If that was Liberalism, God save tho country from a reign of Liboralism ! It all arose from men having got into office ■who had had no training in regard to organisation. It had disorganised the Civil Sorvico and produced a condition of terror and chaos. Sorely Ministers could not have been awaro of the evils they wrought. In view of these facts it was all very well for Ministers to promise to talk about " putting the service upon a satisfactory footing," but they had already brought about a condition of affairs in the sorvico which it would take years to recover from. As to taxation, he thought tho property tax fair enough, bocauso Tinder it a man paid only upon the marketable valuo of his property. In the Government schemo the greatest objection lay in tho progressive land tax, which was a modified moans of confiscation, having its root in dishonesty. If it over became necessary to break up big estates the quostion must be approached by direct legislation. To attempt it by indirect means was unfair to a class of men on whom tho prosperity of the colony largely dopendod. His greatest objection to the income tax was that under it a Colonial Treasurer could not absolutely depend upon the revenue it would yield him. In England the conditions as to regularity of income in different trades more or less balanced each othor. Hero most of the trado dopendod upon tho state of the wool market, and in case of a fall the labouring, trading classes, and importers, wero more or less direotly affected. Thore were years when traders or manufacturers had very littlo income, and so they would bo qnite justified in sending in almost nominal returns. This being tho case, the Treasurer would find incomes a very unstable source of rovonue. Tho tax was also objectionable in that it necessitated a close examination of every man's books. The valuo of property was moro or less ovident at all times, but with an income tax very careful sorutiny would be necessary to avoid evasions. Was tho discontent that was certain to arise from tho income and land taxes the sort of thing to bring prosperity to a country ? Ho did not soo why building societios and companios which served to bring capital to the conutry should be specially bnrdenod. Salaried people were also' vory hardly treated, especially when it was romembered that thoy paid heavy indirect taxes, and had sorious exponsos imposed by their positions as to tho education and rearing of their families. While he could put his own pound upon tho totalisator, and whilo ho admired a good horse as much as any man, ho deprecated the maintenance of gambling for the sako of tho revenue derived from it. It had boon represented in tho Houso that he (Mr. Dutliie) was the reprosontative of tho capitalists and the Civil Sorvico, hut if he had not had tho support of more of tho labouring class than thero wore in tho whole of the electorate bf tho hon. member who said so, he could not havo been returned. Though ho preferred to state his views plainly, and not to bow the knee to the working men, he was certain that he received a considerable amount of support from thorn. He was told only the other day that tho working men paid nine-tenths of the taxation of tho country. But what whero facts ? Tho workor paid no duty upon his - fish, flesh, or fowl ; upon milk, butter, eggs, choose, vegetables, fruit, hams, or bacon, which wore his ohief necessaries of life, or upon the locally-manufactured clothing he wore ; and it was upon these items that ninetenths of his income was spent. (Mr. Duncan—No.) It was true thore was somothing paid on kitchen oondiments, and on tea, -* coffee, and sugar, also upon tobacco, which was rather a luxury; also upon boer and spirits, and feminine, clothing, but on the whole, the working' man aid not pay as muoh through the 'Customs as the cost of the education of his, children. Mr. Duthie objected to certain parts of the Statement as -very likely to stir up class feeling. As a business man he was glad to hear of the rednction of postage rates, but he feared that the cheapening would seriously encroach upon tho revonno of the Telegraph Department. Ho advocated the creation of a fund for opening up of nativo land for settlement. It could readily bo got within tho colony, and wonld serve the_ purposo of providing a stable kind of investment, but tho proceeds of such land should be kept separata from all othor funds, and used over and over again for land purposes. Tho Public Trust office had been completely wrocked, largely becauso of tho sensation-mongering of the Government in giving information as £o tho late enquiry before it had been completed. Thoro seemed to bo some blame due to tho heads of the department. Itr had, however, been ill organised from tho* outset, and > Parliament must take the responsibility for having placed its chief oflicor in an absolutely inde-i pendent position before it had any knowledge of his ability to carry on the business, and then inconsiderately heaping now duties upon him time after time. The proposed interference by the Government with sub-contracting was another attempt to catch popularity. Ho doprecated the idea that all working men woro to be kept at a dead level. Tho aim of tho old Liberal party — to which he had supposed he belonged — was to give every man the chances of rising that were due to his abilities. All the contractors of to-day were men who had risen from the positions of masons or carpenters, first to small contracts, and then to larger. But now it appeared that all this was to be swept away, and with it all means •f advancement. The abolition of sub-con-fcmcting would also break up all existing working arrangements between employers

and employ^, and would compel men to spend half their timo in hunting around for leavo to toil. Mr. Duthie took strong oxcoption to tho quotation in tho Statement of tho paragraph from tbo Financial Reform Almanac about pauperism in England as being unnecessary, and as being another contribution to class .strife. Tho Government would not restore prosperity withont thoy restored confidence, and for tho absence of that no clasrf would suffer so much as the working people the Government prof oased to specially represent. It would never be restored unless thero wan a fair fieWl in which employers could got a fair return for their enterprise. The tendency of tbo Government was to crush any man who wan dointf good for himself, which tfter all meant doin^' j;ood to the community. He strongly adviwed Ministcrn to retrace their atop!) and advance in a direction wbicb wonld not tend to set class against claw. (Applause.) . Mr. M'GUIRE supported the policy of the Government, with some reservations. Captain RUSSELL claimed that the settlement of land Within tho last threo years had been phonomonal. He protested against tho Minister for Education classing men who had Hpcnt the best portion of thoir lives m subduing tho wilderness as " social pestß. and on a par with book-fiends, and urßoil that tho continual throats against capital kopfc away from tho colony men who would otherwise invest capital in it. When lately in Australia he had mot many tourists who were greatly pleased with Now Zealand in evory way, but who would not stay in it, owing to tho uncertainty of land tenure, and the threats of taxation of land. Why, ho asked, should tlio wretched men who were so unfortunate as to be called social pests bo spocially singled out for taxation r Ho believed the averago profit of traders was oven moro than tho 10 per cent, stated by Mr. Brvco, but why should they bo specially looked "after, whilo tho unlucky farmer who had to work from daylight to dawn, realising not more than 5 percent., bo specially taxed. As to our land laws, he quoted statistics to show that settlement in New Zealand was moro successful than in other colonies ; and the postal conoossion was a piece of claptrap which nobody demanded. Though n. sporting man, ho opposed tlio legalisation ot the totnlisator, and contended that it was not legalised by tbo Gaming and Lotteries Act, but was only put into that Act in order to bo controlled. Presont Ministers had lately mado it twico ns easy to indulge in totalisator gambling than it was boforo they camo into office Ho believed in the totalisator as a means of enabling the man who did not bet to got a sufficient stake in a raco. If, however, it wcro abolished there would bo a return of tho old days when bookies bawled tho odds on all parts of tho course, when joekoyH could bo bought and corruption generally prevailed. Touching upon tbo Estimates, Captain Russell said it was evident there wonld yet havo to bo considerable Supplementary Estimates and precious large unauthorised expenditure. Ho condomncd tho nativo land policy of the Government, and advocated the comploto individnalisation of titlo, tho location of Laud Court Judges in particular dihtricts,andthe giving of faCllitos to natives to soil to small sottlors subject to reasonable reservations for thoir own use. In tbo land tax, the £3000 exomption was a monstrous piece of iniquity. Ho could not neo why thero should bo any oxomption at all. Ho found fault with tho Govornmont for not having remitted taxation upon tho uccessarios of life, instead of submitting to the country a Budget which tended to stir up class animosity. On tho motion of Mr. PINKERTON tlio debate was adjourned till this afternoon. The Houso roae at 11 p.m.