THE COMING ELECTION.

Evening Star, Issue 7251, 30 June 1887, Page 4

THE COMING ELECTION.

MB J. ALLEN AT THE. NORTH DUNEDIN HALL.

Mr James Allen, 8.A., a candidate for the representation of Dunedin East, addressed the eleotors at the North Dunedin Hall last evening. > The hall was uncomfortably crowded, and fully 800 people must have been present. On the motion of Mr W. P. Street, Mr J. W. Jago was voted to the chair. The Chairman, in taking the chair, said that he wished it to be distinctly understood that he was not ooramitted, to support Mr Allen.— (Hear.) He was not there as a partisan.Hear.) He wag there l\ke one.of themselves, to hear Mr Allen for the first time make the profession of his faith and tell them the lines upon whioh he wanted their suffrages—(hear)— and it would be his business to endeavor to seoure for the candidate a patient and attentive hearing.—(Hear.) It would further be his business to endeavor to secure for any gentleman who might wish to ask Mr Al en any question at the olose of his address also a patient hearing.—(Hear.) Mr Allen, so far as he knew, had not been in the habit of addressing many meetings of this character.—(" No.") He had not had the experience—("Givo him a Bhow"H-that some other gentlmnen had who vrexe before the publio,' &n& consequently he might riot have the coolness that they had, and therefore all the more consideration should be given to-him.—(Hear.) Mr Allkn, on stepping forward, was received w*r.h loud and prolonged applause. Jest as he v.a j i»bout to commerce speaking, a squeaking toy was started. The Chairman : I have just to say that I will-notf tolorarte suoh a proceeding as that. If that is to be continued 1 shall ask the meeting to put out the individual who is guilty of it, and if the meeting will not support me in my conduot of it I shall retire from the seat to which you have called mo and allow you to put someone else here in whom you have confidence.— (Applause. )■ Mr Allen thenspoke as follows: Gentlemen, fellow-eleotors of Dunedin Fast,—l have not the slightest doubt, nor have I tho slightest fear,! that I shall receive from you generous and fair treatment.—(Hear.) You know, as Mr Jago has told you, that I am not accustomed to appear before large meetings and to express to the there assembled my views. Yet, for all that, Seeling .i'ti i ■■■•"■ \a a good cavuo, I i.ave no" doubt thai words will be given to me to express what I mean to say.— (Hear.) Having said *o much, let me now pass on to the matters I have to put before you to-night.

PERSONAL EXPLANATION. I consider it is due to you, before entering upon the various political questions whic x are agitating the public mind at the present time, that I should offer some explanation of what may appear to many too much assumption on my;parfcin coming before yon in opposition to a gentleman whom I respect— (hear),—whom I call a personal friend, and with whom I trust I may before many years are gono by join hands to help to carry out those truly liberal measures which in our hearts we both believe are for the good of our home and country.—(Hear.) It is not so much in opposition to him that I stand before you, as to raise my rrotest against a combination on the Ministerial benches which the country does not approve of.—(Hear.) Sir B. Stout would pleaso us if he stuck to his old principles and led the way to that balancing of the public aooounts whioh wo all desire, but the Stout-Vogel combination have not our confidence, ■;-(Hear.) Gentlemen, you know that over 400 electors of Dunedin East have asked me to allow myself to be nominated, and you know also that I expressed to thoso electors my gratitude at their expression of confience, and I consented. I weighed well my personal"feelings and obligations to Sir Robert, and the responsibility I was taking upon myself—a responsibility so great that ao one time I would have been glad to have retired altogether from the political field, had I aot felt it was a duty to myself, a duty I o\\ ml :ay couatry as an independent man, as colonial born, as one whose welfare was tied and bound to the success of this country,—had I not felt it a duty, I say, to seek in politics, especially at the present time, a means of being of some use to my fellow men. —(Hear.) I ask your pardon for making so long a personal explanation, and will now proceed to put before you my vitws on some political questions, and on the state of the country at this present time.

■"'H* LAND OUKSTION. There can be no doubt that the disposal and settlement of the land is one of the greatest problems we have had and still have to deal with. Myown tiieoryis that we ought never to have parted with land in large blocks.—(Hear, and a Voice : " How about you ?") I have not trot any large blocks of land. It seems to me the State would hive enjoyed the benefits of a great unearned increment if tmall blocks had been sold and leased alternately: but I won't bother you with my theories. Gentlemen, I believe the settlement of many people on our Unds is the only true foundation stone upon which to build New Zealand's prosperity. The building up of great cities here I hold depends entirely upon land settlement on an extended scale. By this means will be produced a demand for those manufactures which towns supply. Remember, too, that the confines of a city are not the bistplac ph to rear up a healthy, vigorous race. It in the euuntry air, the hills and dales, wilh their _ver-varying scenery, that must keep alive in us that vital energy which we shall need surely enough in the world's keen competU tion. You will gather from what I have said that I am in favor of liberal laud laws, that I do not desire that the land should be held by the few, that I would like to see the large landed estates broken up for settlement, that 1 would give every reasonable encouragement to a real settler population.—(Hear.) How far do the existing means of land settlement meet my views? We have perpetual leasehold, village homestead, deferred payment, village settlement, and other schemes. So far as I can gather, the perpetual leasehold is not turning out a success, and I believe the consensus of opinion points to these leases passing into something nearer approaching to freehold. The village homeste.id I know little about. The deferred paymc.t, as far as I can gather, is the Elan which is s acceding the best, and I would e inclined to make it even joorc liberal than it now is by reducing the amount which may be paid off yearly from LlO to L 5. (Hear.) One word about tho Land Acquisition Bill. There are two sides at which you may look upon this Bill. There is a bright side—a side upon whioh you may imagine yo.u have a pure and perfect Legislature; and if you had a pure and perfect Legislature, then I believe that the land acquisition would be a good thing for us. But there is another hide. None of the Legislatures that esibt here upon earth are born in Heaven, and none of them are perfectly pure, and how far would they be pure enough to resist the large landed companies from gett ; ng rid of bad and mortgaged lands, and how far pure enough to resist a rash speculator from getting rid of a bad bargain ? I do not know. And rather than see this Bill made the means of anything impure I would see it abandoned altogether. With regard to

LAND NATIONALISATION, I honestly coafess I have not educated my mind to believe in that; nor does it seem that those who advocate it are very consistent. {Considerable interruption here occurred owing to a number of people forcing their way into the already overcrowded hall.) For example, tho:e who advocated nationalisation have just allowed 2,500,000 acres to pass out of their hands to a syndicate who were prepared to construct a railway from the Eabt to the West Coast—a railway which I believe will not pay for greasing the axles, and which, I believe, one day will have to be purchased by the State, as many another line has already been ; and another day you see those gentlemen who abandoned their principles over the East and West Coast Railway sticking to their principles and refusing to grant 250,000 acres -which it ■waß proposed t > t»ke for the Otago Central, There is af want of consistency here at any rate. —(Applause.)

VILLAGE SETTLEMENTS. Let me here draw yiur attention also to another proceeding which seems to me not constitu tional. I refer to a matttr connected with the village settlement scheme. You are aware that the House voted the sum of L 5.000 to make an experiment with this method of inducing settlement, and that the Minister iDst?ad has incurred a liability of L 70.000 Now I hold it is not a right proceeding, when a certain vote is passed, that a Minister should exceed it unless some very good reason is shown. In support of this let me read you an extract from a work on •Central Government,' by H. D. Traill. He says, speaking of the control of public expenditure : It is, in other words, essential to the efficiency of such control that Parliament should possess the power of following its grants into the hands of the Executive, and of taking care that these grants are employed for the specific purposes for which they were intended, and in the intended proportions." And further on he says: " Provided, of course, that the ser/ice to which he applies any money has been voted by Parliament, and that the vote be not exceeded." Ton will agree with me, I am sure, that it is not right for a Minister to incur large liabilities over and above a sum which the House has voted for any specific object. Is the vote of the House to be considered as nothing, and the Minister to put his hand as deeply as he likes into the State purse, that he may try after all only an experiment ? I hope that I have now made'my views plain on the land question,— (Applause). If I have not, you will have an opportunity of aßking me farther at the end of the meeting. I come now to an unpleasant but necessary matter, viz.,

TAXATION, which may be considered, I presume, under three heads. It should fall on those who have the best means to pay it, first—(" Quite right"); it should not cause any hindrance to industries, on the other hand; and, thirdly, it should be easy of collection. Now, I believe one tax which conforms most nearly to these conditions is an income tax.—(Applause and a call for three cheers for Allen, which were given vigorously. Cheers were also called for for Sir R. Stout, but were overpowered by groans.) At the same time I do not know that it would be wise to alter the property tax at (" Oh 1") for this reason, because it has cost * great deal in valuations, and it is better to let it ran its short, term and then bring in another ax. Gentlemen, we have at present a property

tax, and I may tell you that I do not approve of what has bee a called a graduated property tax —-not, that is to say, in tho sense in whioh the Government speak of it. If you read the 'Hansard' speeches, you will see that the Premier says the property tax was a graduated* one before they proposed that properties above L 2,500 should have no exemption, and should, moreover, be charged 3-lGths of a penny more than properties under that sum'. What does th<s mean? It means that a man with L 2.500 will pay L6.15a 6d(A Voice: "And very liberal, too")—and one with 'L2.550 will pay HO 16s 6d in property tak -(" Oh.") I ask you Is that "equality of sacrifice "? Gentlemen, I believe that all necessary precautions against this tax injuring the poor are seoured by the present exemption. By this means the poorest men pay nothing on account of property tax, and that is, it seems to mfe, a right and reasonable thing, and as far as we need go in the direotion of thing In the direotion proposed by the Government gives rise to inconsistencies, as I have shown. Under the head of taxation I would consider with you the Government tariff proposals. Now, this tariff was brought down to the House as a means of raisirg revenue, but in the discussion of it the question of

FREKTRADE AND PROTECTION his cropped up, and as it is a question in which wfc all feel great interest, and in which all are detirous of forming a correct opinion, I will speak of it here befoi e raying what I have to say on the tariff proposals generally. Let me, however, remind you that this cannot be considered the vital question at stake just now. Even if the views of these who hold that a tariff should be prohibitive be correct, it is impossible that the imposition of such a tariff will cure at once tho ills we complain of. But before taking into consideration this question, I will ask you for a few moments to consider what these two words Protection and Freetrade mean, so as not to be led away by what is simply an election cry, What theoretically does Freetrade mean ? Theoretically', I take it, Freetrade means this: I have pictured it, and it means to me that the ocean pathways of the world should be covere I with many stately vessels, the making of which has g ven employment to many and many a hand in mining, metallurgy, and ship-building, and which vessels are now giving employment to many and many brave seamen ; that these vessels are carrying from one clime productions suitable to its" peculiar conditions to another clime which cannot raise such productions, or not so conveniently, and that in return tho commodities of this latter are sent to the other, which has them not—(Applause.) We give of our abundance, and receive in exchange from the abundance of others. Now what does a protectionist prohibitive tariff desire? It desires that we should put on such a duty that no other country should be able to send to us things we could produce ourselves, and that all other countries should by a similar high duty prevent us from sendin? to them any things they could produce, even if we had plenty and to spare. Look for a moment at theso two theoretic pictures.—(A Voice: "Give us practice.") The former means eacli country busy in producing things natural tj itself, the sea studded with vast merchant ships ; the second means each country depending on itself, foicing on productions not natural to it, and sea with a few ships here and there; and say which you think the brighter fcene.—("No, no," hear, hear, and applause.) lam aware that there are many different opinions upon this subject, and I do not wish to cram mine down anybody's throat I )iave put before you these theoretic pictures, but unfortunately we cannot carry out ttieories. We do not possess Freetrade all over the world. -4(A Voica: "Wo want it.'') I think we do want it, and I think we should endeavor to establish Freetrade at any rate in this part of the world. We should endeavor to establish intercolonial Freetrader). What a great thing it would be for us could we only induce Australian ports to admit free of duty those articles which we are so eminently fitted to producenamely, butter, bacon, cheese, and so on ; arid how many could find employment in tho production of these articles had We but that market for them. And how by a sort of reflex action would this stimulate the city industries. (Applause and uproar.) I ask you Is intercolonial Freetrade nothing to us? It is a very great deal. Take for instance theso facts: In lcßo Victoria took L 91.000 less of our products than in 1884—(A Voice : " Buncombe.)—whereas in 1880 New South Wales took LIOB.OOO more. Widen the field a little larger; take into consideration the Englishspeaking race—l say it would be a grand thing to have Freetrade bet' een the inglish-speaking races. It is almost too good a thing to look forward to. I believe it to he one of the keynotes of a federation of the English-.speaking poople, a federation which might make wars cease, and would see that justice was done to al'. But, gentlemen, I have been drifting from the subject, and we have to take things as they are, not a* they might be I have told you my principles, and now you may well ask me how I intend to encourage native industries. Gentlemen, in the first place I accept; the present tariff It is based, I believe, f..>r the most part en als per cent, ml valorem duty. Undtr that duty our greatest native industries, the woollen industries, have grown into a flourishing existence, and I know they do not require further protection.—(Applause.) Really this 15 per cent, represents per cent., and when freight and other charges are added it often amounts, lam told, to 40 per cent. That the present tariff is high enough to drive imported goods surely but gradually out of our markets is shown in a table in the 'Daily Times,' June 1, ISS7. You will see from that that the decrease in imports o the following goods in 18SG was— Boots and shoes, 1/28,000 ; candles, L 29,000; leather, L 30.000. If that decrease continues for two years, not a candle and not a bit of leather would bo imported, and it would not take many years to shut out als , all boots and shoes,—(Applause.) But are there no other means of encouraging native industry ? I believe there are. 1 believe cheap rail way charges will uicouragc them. Take, for instance, the carriage of fruit, the carriage of fish from Wakatipu at,d Hampden, the carriage of cement, and so on. But you will tell rr.e if we cheapen railway charges we shall lessen railway revenue. Is that so ? Are not goods now sent by road and by steamer which should be seemed by the railway ? I believe an increased business would make up in return for lessened charges, and most certainly many native industries would be aided. I will not pursue the subject further now, more than to say that I believe the railways would be better managed away from that direct Government control under which they now are. There is also another means of encouraging native industries, by so restoring our credit as to induce cheap capital to come here ; and not only that, but by inducing the men with capital to come to a country which ought to be a good field for investment, to make use of our raw material. And lastly, I would encourago native industry by giving our youths a good technical education. But of this I will speak later on. And now, gentlemen, let me say a few words with regard to the

EDUCATION QUESTION. All thinking men must admit, putting other considerations away for Ihe time being, that that country is bound to come to the forefront in the not-distant future which has the best educated population. —(A Voice: "Stout again.") We have a glorious inheritance in our free education system, and I would not see its efficiency destroyed—(lr.'ar, hear) —but, at the sumo time, it d .i;s not fellow that we are to set this education question up before us as a fetish. It is quite possible that tiie expenditure upon education may be decreased without the efficiency of the system being destroyed. I am not at all sure that it would not be a wise thing for us—and I believe medical testimony supports me in this opinion—to raise the school age from five to six years. —(A Voice: "No, no.") But upon one point I am sure we are not doing our duty, and that is with regard to technical education. lam glad to see that at Tofcomairiro and at tne George street School they have made a beginning, and that the deep importance of the question has been recognised. There was an article in one of the "periodicals lately—l forget now which —that dealt with the extraordinary ad vane* made in the I'nited States in the direction of technical ■ ducation; and I feel sure that if we are not to be behindhand we must technically educate too. What wo want, and what Protectionists want, is a manufacturing population hers—(A VOICE: "Quite right")—and I believe that onu of the beat means of getting such a population is not to neglect this question of technical education.— (Applause.) It is our duty to see that our young people have the w*y paved for them, so that we may lay the foundations of a large manufacturing population, and not put any stumbling-block in their way. And now, gentlemen, I have put before you most of the views upon main political questions, and I pass on to consider the things that

THE STOUT-VOGEL COMBINATION professed they would do and what they have done for us. Let me quota from the Financial Statement of 1881.—(Interruption.) The Treasurer says, talking of conversion : "By the aid of this act I propose to save the Colony some L 300.000 a-year. It cannot all be done at once ; but effected it will be, as the market will allow of its being done. And my proposal is to accept the debt as it at present stands; not vainly to tax the colonists to pay it off, but, by conversion, to approach to the result of saving L 300.000 a-year. This means that, without further annual charges than at present, you may borrow seven and a-half additional millions. Under a reinstated finance and diminished expenditure, the country will, we are convinced, rouse itself from apathy and spring forward with leaps and bounds of progress."— (Laughter.) " With common prudence we need have no more financial embarrassment or vexatious taxation." And again: " But that there is an understanding not to press the question this session, I should recommend a rate—not a large one—to meet the costs of charitable relief and hospitals, together with a few additions to the stamp duties and the total abolition of the property tax with its crushing effects on the progress of the Colony." And he concludes: "I wish I could have discharged my task with more force and ability. Still, I shall not have striven in vain if I have succeeded in impressing honorable members with my own strong conviction that the finances of New Zealand are not in a condition of difficulty; that they are suffering only- from mismanagement; that they are elaatio and buoyant enough to satisfy the most

exacting financier; that oppressive taxation is not required; and that, under good government, we may safely rely on a progressive improvement of the country's resources." How many of these grand promises or grand prognostications have bqen fulfilled?-(Voices: "None" and " All.") Have we no financial embarrassment? Have we no vexatious taxations pioposed? He has fulfilled two of them. He has fulfilled this one for instance, that he has proposed additions on the stamp tax, He has fulfilled this one, and I think you will agree with me that he has proved to us that we are suffering not only from mismanagement, but from extravaganoe. He has not abolished the property tax, nor has he done any of the other things that he thought he could do. I believe, gentlemen, you know now the value of all these professions that he made, and I will not detain you further over them.—(Hear*, htjar.) I may only say that there have been no real reductions as this country demands: arjd in order that you may see that no real reductions have been made, I would ask yqu, if you have not done bo already, to read through a table that was brought forward at the request of the member for Oaversham, and which is a very instructive one. If you will notice, you will find that since 1881 there has been an increase of nearly L 3,000 under the heading Governor, L 2.500 under the heading Ministers, LB.OOO under the heading Legislature, arid L 214.000 under the heading Departments. Bjit leaving that aside, let us come to the days of] the present Treasurer—to what has been doing during the present Treasurer's time of office. For the year ending March, 1884, the expenditure was L 3,681,320, and for the year ending March, 1887, the expenditure was L 4,012,597 —an increase in expenditure in three years of L 331,277. Can we wonder at all at; this when we have a gentleman at the head of the Treasury who has declared in his speeches td the effect that "retrenchment is a humbig and a sham i: ? Now, let us come to last year. What do we.learn from that ? We learn that the Estimates had been so care'ully prepared that the reveuu.i showed L 192.493 less than the estimate, and that there was an alleged saving of L 98.000 on. the amount estimated. What does this alleged saving consist of? It consists of L 65.511 alleged to be saved on railways. But it happens in this way. The estimate was that fhe railways would produce L 157.030 more than they did, and you must all be aware that to make money you must spend money. Tho L 157,000 was not produced, and consequently the L 65.511 was not needed in its production, and it is put down as a saving. On the Education vote LII.BOO was a supposed saving, but I understand this happened because the capitation payment was much less than expected. Over LB,OOO supposed saving in the Defence Department has never been, so far as I can learn, explained. Then there is LII,OOO over-calculated for interest and Sinking Fund. There are many other items, such as L' 26,000 of the L7G.000 voted as subsidies to local bjdies, which had not been paid. But enough has been said to prove that the supposed L98.C00 salving on the Estimates was no true saving at all. Now there hj a professed saving of L 150,000 during the current year, but from this has to be deducted the Supplementary Estimates, which oiie in.iv assume to be say L 40,000, seeiug that last year they amounted to L 42.000. That leaves a professed saving of LIIO.OOO. How may it be accounted for? Not by any large retrenchment, but by such items as these: LII.GSO on the census, L 20.000 on the property tax, LI,OOO to the Colonial Exhibition, L(3,000 new boilers to the Hinemoa—(laughter)—L2,ooo to Sir W. Fox, L 3.000 to F. D. Rich and others, and L 2,000 for the Tarawera disaster. These surely are special items which, because they do not need to be paid every year, can scarcely bo put down as savings in the sense we mean saving.—(Applause.) Besides there is also a sum of L 20,000 saving in subsidies; but this is obviously no saving to the country, as the necessity to provide this sum will fall upon the local bodies. The only real retrenchment shown is the . 20,000 on the Civil Service. We are told there has been no increased taxation. Let me lifer you to a speech by Dr Newman in 'Hansard' (1887). Hesays: ' Weareborrowin»inaid of revenue nearly half a million of money overy year became of what has happened sinco the Treasurer lias been in office. The whole of the annual Sinking Fund, L 250.000 a yew, is charged to loan, and a largo amount of the defence expenditure, which should be paid for out of current revenue. i« also charged to loan We are borrowing against the rates on Crown and Native lands—those rate* are largely paid out of loan; and we are also largely maintaining the poor of this Colony out of loan." And '•we take LIOO.OOO from loan to buy Native land, and we borrow to make roads and bridges through it and improve it, and then we sell it .and put the prcceeds into current revenue, and never wipe out the debt." If thid does not mean taxation, direct or indirect, I don't know what taxation is. Gentlemen, I have not been able to point out to you leaps and bounds of progress so far, but perhaps an inspection of the last Financial Statement will disclose them. There is a bound certainly represented by a sum of L 02.000, but it is a bound in the wrong direction —(applause)-- into debt or rather deficiency. But why is it so small a sum ? You know the story. The deficiency would have been L 196.000 but for what has been called a w.ndfall in the shape of L 104,030 from the Sinking Fund. This windfall really acciued in 1884, and, had it been used at that tim", it should have gone to reduce the Major Atkinson deficit of L 150.000, leaving a deficit for the present Government of L 46.000. And let me point out here one other item which I fancy has been overlooked. If you examiue the Financial Statement of this year you will find these words: " The North Island Trunk loan lias not been floated yet. Hon. members will rtcollect that I expressly kept it out of the market until i s proceeds were ear-marked by the legislation of last year. There now stands charged against it L325.G85. . . . There is thus about LG75.000 of it still available for expenditure." It seems to me that no one can justify such action as this. The loan is not floated, and yet over one-third of it is spent How the money has been found I don't know ; but surely the fact that it is already partly pledged, and therefore mubt be procured soon at any cost, must militate against the loan fetching a good price in the English market. Time will not permit my going further into what the present Govi-rnment have professed to do and have done. Let us pass on to see what tliey would do. How do they intend to make the two ends meet ? What is their proposed cure ? (Continued in inside pages.)