MR J. MILLS AT PORT CHALMERS.

Evening Star, Issue 7179, 5 April 1887, Page 1

MR J. MILLS AT PORT CHALMERS.

Mr James Milk addressed a meeting of the Fort Chalmers deefanafff " at the Foresters' Hall* yater&j~ n ena>hig. About 300 &* - Mayor (Mr E. a. Atfen> chair. The as a candidate for tl»B|U§raß?Oons» of Assembly, of Mr Majpandrew, chairman, of the, doing - else neutrality. -He mighty - Mr. Mills, Chalmers, was a jf"* having oome fsbere lotogJielft^Bol^^aem. very lzxgfi dm *- first tinwirfhfar^J^^^^KisSr' mentary - novi<»*V^jg^gJJgJJ^^J3_ iS^ftafrardjnwg'_*j >^Ji^^Hj^Jj ' rHr • MaojSndrQWi. him.~ (Applause.) , '' -jjfif MraJnaid te woaid-uuui s jjdg|sjHMß>.

like a political manifesto. Such an attempt womX out of place in a new aspirant for political honors who had only reached the outer edge of politics; and another reason was that it was not altogether wise for a bednner to commit himself too far, for one s first opinions were not always the soundest, and he took it that no sensible man need be ashamed to profit by experience. He was glad of this opportunity of meeting the electors, and might say that he esteemed highly the compliment that had been paid to him by the electors in inviting him to succeed so eminent a statesman as Mr Macandrew. — (Applause.) He, however, quite recognised the difficulty he should labor under if chosen, as the successor of so able a man, and must say that he could never hope to occupy the place in public esteem that had been held by the late member for the district. He must say that he had a substantial claim to represent the district, for his first experiences since he was a little boy had been gained there. He felt keenly the difficulty of following in the steps of such a man as his predecessor, but he could at least emulate one of Mr Macandrews virtues, for he would never degenerate into a mere talking machine, and would never be heard speaking except when he had something to say. Many public men, he thought, did not really know when they had nothing to say. Leaving personal matters, he would refer briefly to two or three of the most important public questions. One of the first questions that would occupy the attention of the House was the Representation Bill. When the present Bill was passed an understanding was arrived at that at the expiry of the present Parliament representation should be readjusted on the basis of population, or as near thereto as was practicable. This he looked upon as being the only proper method of treating the question, although it might result in the Northern Island gaining members at the expense of the South. That result seemed to be inevitable, as for some years past population had been increasing in the North Isiand in a greater ratio than in the South ; and the North Island had also been contributing a greater share to the general revenue than previously. No doubt some of the smaller districts would suffer by the readjustment of representation, and the members of such districts would strenuously oppose the Bill; but he took it that this was purely a colonial question, and must be looked at from a broad point of view. Referring to the number of members in the House, he might Bay that he was very strongly of opinion that their Parliament was far too large, and that if reduced the cost would be lessened and the general tone of the House improved, because, the electorates being larger, local influence would not be so strong, and questions would be dealt with from a public point of view.—(Applause.) The great question of the day, however, was that of ways and means and of finance generally. There they had a difficulty that must be grappled with at once. At no time should the finance of the country be subordinated to other questions; but especially now, when there was such serious depression in the Colony, and people were least able to bear the burdens cast upon them—when there was a diminishing revenue and an increasing expenditure, with the prospect of increased taxation staring them in the face—especially at the present time should the people as a whole arouse themselves and insist upon their representatives setting to work to honestly and earnestly devise the best means of placing the finances of the Colony upon a firm footing without unduly loading the people.—(Applause). No matter which set of men held the reins of goyernment, there always appeared to be the eame old story—loud denouncing of the administration of their predecessors, great promises of reform and retrenchment, and nothing done in that direction, but matters even getting worse. Their politicians aimed too much at being considered brilliant statesmen, and did not devote themselves sufficiently to the practical work of administration. A great talk was made of retrenchment, and what was the result ? The result was that a few pounds were clipped off here and there from the salaries of some poor miserable clerks, whilst tens of thousands of pounds were frittered away in other directions. In the present condition of the Colony they did not require brilliant statesmen ; they did not require to be distracted by fanciful schemes of speculative legislation—what might be called political fireworks—schemed that pleased the eye and made a great flutt-.f at their initiation, but soon sank into obscurity. There had been too much of that sort of thing, and such things created distrust in the minds of their friends at a distance who held the pnrseBtrings, and by weakening their confidence in them did the Colony incalculable harm. They wanted the public affairs of the Colony so administered as to restore New Zealand to the place in the opinion of the investing public that she held some years ago. At one time their loans compared favorably with any other colonial loans, but now they Were at the bottom of the list. His attention was drawn the other day to a financial newspaper in which was published a list showing the average price realised for the different colonial loans during ISB6, and he found that of the 4 per cent, loans Victoria's averaged 106, Queensland's 105, Tasmania's 100, South Australia's 994, aud N ew Zea " land's 974- Their loans had since gone down to 94, while the city of Melbourne loan, a purely local loan, at 4 per cent., had averaged 104. That was not as it should be, and in his opinion it was not owing so much to mistrust of the resources of the Colony as to the prevailing uneasiness regarding the administration of the Colony. What all should strive after was to bring about a feeling of rest and security, so as to inspire confidence both within and without the Colony, and then he felt sure it would not be long before they experienced a good deal of relief from the present depression. There should also be an honest and earnest effort at retrenchment, and that retrenchment should not be effected by visiting the sins of the Legislature upon poor clerks, but should commence at the fountain-head. There was a total departmental expenditure of something very near two millions" and a-quarter, and surely out of that large sum there must be immense room for saving.—(Mr Mason : "Take L 250.000 from the Governor at once."—Laughter.) He would say let them reduce the number of members of both Houses by one-half—(applause)—and reduce the honorarium by one-half. Surely, at all events with a shortened session, 100 guineas would be enough, and more than enough, to pay the expenses of any member residing in Wellington during the session.—("Question!") He did not think that the ordinary method of reducing salaries indiscriminately was a good one, and thought that a saving could be effected in the Works Department by stopping the frittering away of money all over the country without producing any results whatever, but simply to meet the exigencies of the moment or to secure political support. If an honest attempt at retrenchment were made in some such way as this, he felt certain that the deficiency which he understood now stared them in the face would speedily disappear, and there would be no necessity for further taxation. Another question was that of further borrowing, and he must confess that he was

of the same mind as the Premier in that respect, the Premier having stated more than once in public that they should so arrange their expenditure that they could look forward to a cessation of borrowing at no distant period. It was quite out of the question to atop borrowing at once. He felt sure that the finances of the Colony would not pbrmit that, and, besides, there were no doubt a great many works in progress which should be and must be completed up to paying points. Bat it was absolutely essential that no new works should be undertaken excepting such as were necessary to bring the present lines to a paying point, and such as would certainly be reproductive. He would even go farther, and stop all works that would not be reproductive rather than cast further burdens upon the community. Further borrowing would be necessary, but it should be rigidly curtailed and controlled by Parliament. Regarding the Colony's resources and their development, many knew that he did not hold with the view that the resources of the Colony would be best developed by {ratting prohibitive duties on all articles of mport.—(Applause.) He was of opinion that instead of seeking to further isolate themselves by putting prohibitive duties on imports, this Colony and the sister .. colonies should sejk to secure some measure of reciprocity between them. If they could, by opening their marketß to other colonies, induce the latter to remove, or even relax, some of their duties on New Zealand products, a very large market '' indeed would,be secured for all their grain, ""' dairy produce, and even meat, and the * Wers would never know what was meant •By ttie words " hard times." Besides toat, too, a great stimulus would be given to the --Wtoent . *h* oowrtry j and J*'«tf to tfaatfthey jnat

look for a return of prosperity, aud not to the creation of a town population by artificial means. Another resource they possessed, and which had not been made the most of, was to be found in their scenery and climate. With regard to scenery and climate, New Zealand occupied an unique position in the Australasian Group. Within a very small compass they had a variety of climate, and the most varied and attractive scenery of any country on the face of the earth. Those things should prove of great value, for there could hardly be a greater source of wealth to a country than a Btream of tourists. In his opinion every effort should be made by the Government to place before the colonists of Australia the advantages of New Zealand in respect of scenery and climate : and he would even go so far as to say that the Government would be justified in offering inducements to erect attractive places of accommodation at interesting spots in the Colony where such accommodation did not at present exist. A very large increase in visitors would then set in, and they had only to look at Switzerland and other places of resort to see the beneficial results accruing from a large stream of tourists passing through the country. The impression was prevalent that although there was a great deal of interest to l)e seen in New Zealand, yet there was no pleasure in travelling there owing to want of proper accommodation ; and that was unfortunately true with regard to many of the resorts of tourists. It was only necessary to consider that there was in Australasia a population of 3,000,000 people from which to draw tourists to see the importance' of the question, and it should be remembered that the number of residents in Australia who would, find it necessary to seek relief from the heat of their climate in our more salubrious clime would increase every year. This being the case, it was really surprising how few tourists visited New Zealand. Although within six or seven months there had been some fifty steamer departures from Melbourne and Sydney for New Zealand, out of all the passengers he did not think there were more than 300 bona fide tourists. That was a miserable record, for there should be at least 10,000 tourists from Australia to New Zealand every year ; and as every tourist must certainly spend not less than LSO in the Colony, that number of tourists would mean half a million o-year. They would also get some of the tourists to stay in the Colony, for it was well known that all visitors appreciated its scenery, and also its educational institutions. All this would mean wealth to the Colony. He felt confident that if our Parliament devoted itself to well and economically administering public affairs ; to giving no more legislation

than was actually necessary; to encouraging people to settle on the land ; and to opening up markets for produce, a great deal would be done towards removing the depression that now existed. Nothing beneficial, however, could be effected by legislating for class against class. They were all in the Eame boat—employers and employed, laborers, and capitalists—and all must work together.—("Rot!") They must do something for themselves, and not sit down and wait for a rise in the price of wool. He might be told that there would be a steady ana permanent rise in wool, and that that would do a great deal of good ; and so it would, but still it would not be sufficient, for they must help themselves by watching the course of legislation and enforcing economy upon those who administered public affairs.—(Applause.) There was one more question on which he would like to say a few words, viz., the dock question. The position, he took it, was a very simple one The present dock was fully taxed in overtaking the ordinary work of the Port, and it was certain another was required to meet the increase in trade which they were justified in anticipating.— (Hear, hear.) Several endowments had been set aside for the work, but they had been taken away without any compensation or equivalent. That he regarded as manifestly wrong, and he agreed with the view taken by the Dock Trust that either they should receive other endowments or a monetary equivalent. He would do all he could to bring that about. He thanked them for having given him such a patient hearing, and would willingly answer questions to the best of his ability. In answer to questions, the candidate said he was in favor of Bible-reading in schools with a conscience clause; but he was afraid that if it was introduced into the syllabus they would risk their whole educational system. The committees had power to allow the Bible to be read in schools, and the committees were elected by the people. He was in favor of the committees haying power to have the Bible read, with a timetable and a conscience clause. There was, he thought, room for a readjustment of the tariff, and some duties might be increased; but on principle he was opposed to any increase of taxation, because he did not consider ft necessary. In the matter of supporting the present Government, he thought that should be left to his own discretion. He would support them if he thought they were right, but he would not support them if he thought they were wrong. He was in favor of the funds of the upper and lower harbors being kept separate—that provision in the Act should have been respected by the Harbor Board more than it had been. The railways should bo made to pay interest. He was not, like the member for Dunedin West, in favor of making the railways as free as the roads.

Dr Deysdale proposed, and Mr A. Thomson seconded, a vote of thanks and confidence in Mr Mills, which was put and carried unanimously with considerable enthusiasm. Mr Mills having returned thanks and proposed a vote of thanks to the chairman, the meeting terminated.