MR FISH BEFORE HIS CONSTITUENTS.

Evening Star, Issue 7449, 18 February 1888, Page 1

MR FISH BEFORE HIS CONSTITUENTS.

The member of the House of Representatives for Dunedin South met the electors in Nftumann’s Hall last evening. The building was crowded. Mr M. Sullivan, Mayor of the Borough, occupied the chair. Mr Fish said that at the last election he warned the electors that the Press of the country were flaunting the flag of retrenchment too much, and blinding the constituencies to the more important issue of Protection, .As regarded the fear expressed by the Press of the borrowing and general financial proposals of the Government, it would bo recognised that, however the Stout-Vogel Government were to be feared on that account, the present Government had set no better example. When, after an adjournment of practically three weeks, the Government at last met the House, he for one was extremely disappointed, because the policy they brought down dealt too much in generalities and not enough in details. As regarded the Government, too, it was thought by members on both sides of the House to be too much of a one-man Administration. He agreed with this, and was strongly of opinion that their policy was of a retrogressive character. He must be pardoned, too, for expressing the regret that the House or the Opposition felt at the Government allowing the Financial debate to drag on without attempting to curtail it, in order that their measures should be kept back so late that there would not be time to give them full consideration. This delay was most shameful, measures being passed by the Ministerial majority which half the members had no opportunity of even reading. If they endeavored to discuss them, they were immediately met by the Major with the cry of “Obstruction!" The first thing that caused regret was a notification that the Government did not intend to revise the Tariff that session. The Premier informed a deputation that he trusted be would be able to bring in \ tariff next session which would suit Freetraders and Protectionists alike. The question was, Would Sir Harry Atkinson bring in a Protectionist tariff?—(A Voice: “ Wo.”) The speaker hoped and trusted thathe would; and if he did, he (Mr Fish) would be prepared to support him and his Government in that respect. He did not care what Government was in power so long as it was one which would introduce and make law a policy of Protection, which would give work to thousands of colonists and prevent the dreadful exodus now taking place. If this were done there would of course be a splitting up of parties. The Major would lose a few Freetraders like Mr Barron, Mr Scobie Mackenzie, and others, and in the place of those irresolute weak-kneed gentlemen would gain men of strong mind as adherents, like (he might say) himself —(laughter) —who would support him for the common good. As to retrenchment, the question was often asked whether the retrenchment of this Government was real or not. In the Civil Service large savings could undoubtedly be made, but they could be made not so -much by reducing salaries as by the amalgamation of departments, and compelling Civil servants, like other men, to give a fair Jay’s work for a fair day’s pay. True retrenchment could only be obtained by striking out some of those permanent charges which had swollen so largely in the past, and he was led to believe that the Atkinson Government were not sincere in saying they meant retrenchment of the right character. He instanced the votes for public buildings in Auckland, which would cost L 17,000 or L 20,000, the tower of the new Wellington Post Office, and the retention of two costly ocean mail services. If the Premier were sincere, such a saving as the latter would not have escaped his notice; but the fact was, he had Wellington friends who wanted to retain th,e direct service, and Auckland friends who would leave him if it were proposed to touch the San Francisco service. Again, the Premier had promised to bring in a Bill to repeal the Crown and Native Lands Eating Act, which cost the .country LSI, 000 annually; but when the session closed this measure was among the slaughtered innocents. The reason, in the speaker’s opinion, was that there were a large number of representatives in the North Island whose districts were largely affected by this particular Act, and whose constituents would lose the greater part of their revenue by its repeal. As to the Education vote, the Government proposed to largely reduce it in one direction, and properly so, by increasing the school age to six, which would have produced a saving of L 26.000. But the Government as a whole were halfhearted on the question, and they did not get their followers to support it as though they were sincere; consequently it was lost. The reduction in the Governor’s salary was one which lie (Mr Fish) approved of, but not so the reduction of Ministerial salaries. He held that every man, whether he was a bricklayer’s laborer or occupied the highest station in the land, was worthy of his hire; and if we wanted Ministers who would represent the masses as well as the other portions of the community we must give them salaries that would induce men of intellect and ability to accept office. If the salaries were reduced below what they should be, the government would be thrown into the hands either of needy men who would accept office for the sake of the pay attached to it, or of those who were so wealthy as to make the salary a matter of no importance. Either of these contingencies he held was inimical to the best interests of the community. By the reductions of the Ministerial salaries more harm than good was done; and when a more moderate proposal in the same direction had been made in 1879 by Sir George Grey, Major Atkinson opposed it for the very reasons he (Mr Fish) had now given. He had also opposed the reduction of the honorarium ; and he believed, so far as the.lnterests of democracy were concerned,fit would be found that a great mistake had been made. Eetrenohment also might be carried too far and proceed in the wrong direction. The result might be to drive population from our shores, and to cause the Colony to lose the fruit of its expenditure on education; and this, he believed, was the direction in which the retrenchment was now going on. One of the most important measures that came before Parliament was the Bepresentation Bill, which proposed to reduce the number of European members from ninetyone to sixty-seven, and the Maori members from four to three. This Bill he had opposed, because (1) it should have been placed before the people before becoming law; (2) its introduction was inopportune—there was no necessity to pass it last session; and (4) it practically gave the Government a lease of power for the duration of the present Parliament. Five or six of the Government supporters had voted with the majority in carrying n clause providing that the Bill should not come ,nto operation until the third session of Parliament, so that if Parliament were dissolved in the meantime a House of ninety-five members would be returned. It was a surprise to the Opposition to find this amendment treated as a party question. For his part, he believed the Premier’s threat to resign if the decision was not reversed was only a bit of bounce; but the “ Vogel” bogie was brought out, and the supporters of the Government who had voted in favor of this amendment upon conviction behaved like lambs, and the clause of the Bill was reinstated. The Native members threatened to vote against the Government if the number of Maori members was reduced, and the Premier gave in to them. Another reason for opposing the Bill was that to reduce the number of members so largely would increase the size of the country districts to such an extent that it would be difficult for men who were not well off to become candidates, and this also was against the interests of democracy. His last reason for opposing the Bill was on the ground that it transpired during the debate that this was bat an instalment of intended legislation on the subject. The Land Act be opposed as being most retrogressive in character. It provided •for free selection before survey, which was, he asserted, one of the worst principles in connection with land legislation, and it gave the capitalist power to destroy settlement and to acquire an unlimited extent of land; because, though the amount to be taken,up by a selector was limited, as soon as the title was secured, and it could be purchased at ogee, anyone who liked could buy from the selector. This Bill opened the door to the acquisition of large estates, and practically reversed the liberal land legislation which the people and Parliament had been at sqch trouble to secure. He regarded the loan proposals of the Government as excessive, and considered that a prudent Government would not have borrowed to

cover the L 400,0110 deficiency, but would have imposed taxation to meet a large portion of that deficit. A proposal was made by thi‘ Opposition, but not for party puv poses, to reduce tho loan by half a million; but the Government supporters, including Messrs Barron, Scobie Mackenzie, and Allen, who were pledged to oppose borrowing, had voted against this, declaring that they would amend the schedule of the Bill and so reduce tho amount. After atlirmiug the principle it was absurd to talk of making reductions in that manner, and tho Opposition very properly decided not to attempt it, but to support the Government as to details. As to raising the loan or part of it in the Colony, as was advocated by some people, he held it would take so large an amount of our valuable coin from the ordinary channels as to raise the rate of bank discounts and money lent on mortgage, to the great detriment of borrowers. In" tho Loan Bill the Premier moved a new clause providing that there should be no further borrowing for five years, but the House by a lar.'o majority threw the clause out on the principle that it would not allow any restriction of borrowing to he incorporated with an Act authorising the raisiag of a loan. The Loan Bill was read a second time after nearly all tho Otago members had left, ami what was their disgust to find that by a Message from the Governor at the last moment the same clause which had been rejected by the House had been smuggled in, except that the term was fixed at three years instead of five. No man occupying such a position as the Premier should do a thing of that kind. It was a breach of trust, and stamped him as a different man to what most people in the Colony were in the habit of thinking him to to As the result of this, the loan now could not be raised at all till the Act was altered. Some people said it would make no difference, but lie did not thiuk Sir Hany Atkinson and his colleagues would disregard the Act, and it therefore seemed that the loan could not bo raised until Parliament had been called together. As for the vote of L/ 0,000 for immigration, if it was to go to bring mechanics here to further crowd these branches of industry, he would fight against it, but be hold that to bring people with money in their pockets to settle on the land would bo a great boon to the country. Another most important Bill discussed on almost the last day would have the effect of saddling upon the Colony an annual charge of L 22,000 at present, and in the future a much larger sum. Ho referred to the Naval Defence Bill, which should have had the earnest attention of the House for at least two or three weeks. One reason given for its passage was that it would draw closer the bonds between Great Britain and the colonies and tend to federation in a much quicker way than it could otherwise be accomplished ; but he was opposed to tho Bill on these very grounds. Every man should aim at making New Zealand a nation—New Zealand for the New Zealanders—(applause); and should strive not for federation of the colonies with Great Britain, but for the federation of the Australasian group, with or without New Zealand — making her a nationality or a republic for ourselves. The only reason why we required our forts and defences was because of our connection with Great Britain, and ho held that we should do nothing to draw tighter the bonds in tho direction of federation. The late Government had paid great attention, and properly so, to the development of the mining industry, but tho present Government had entirely opposite views on this subject, and was practically doing nothing to assist enterprise in this direction. He might briefly refer to a return laid on the table of tho House showing that the amount of work done at the Hillside workshops during two years for other places amounted in value to Ln.OOO, while at the Addington shops for other places there bod been done during the same period work representing L 44.823. This return explained why there were so many empty houses ia South Dunedin, For this the late Government were responsible. Ho did not think tho late Premier had been aware of it, but at that time he conaidered that any Minister or any Government that permitted such an injustice to be done to Dunedin was deserving of censure. Under the present Minister of Public Works he thought such a thing (would not be possible, for be (Mr Fish) had the Minister’s assurance that care should be taken to have the work done in the shops in the districts to which the work belonged. As a matter of local interest, lie would mention that in conjunction with Mr Latnacli ho bad succeeded in obtaining the stoppage of the express train at Kensington siding; and he trusted ho would be able to get a station erected there. In answer to questions, Mr Fish said that he would not be in favor of a Bill to regulate doctor’s charges. His recommendation was that men should join friendly societies. Being asked if he was in favor of having resident magistrate’s who were barristers in the large centres of population, Mr Fish replied that wo could not get a very much more able man than we bad in Dunedin at present. Mr Fikhkh moved, and Captain Stirling seconded, a vote of thanks and confidence, which was carried unanimously. Mr H. Gourlky then came to the front and presented Mr Fish with a purse of sixty-ono sovereigns. It had been intended to banquet Mr Fish on his return from Wellington, but the .subscribers bad considered it advisable to make the presentation in this form as a protest against the reduction of the honorarium. The money had been raised in subscriptions of from lialf-a-crown upwards. The presentation was suitably acknowledged hy tho recipient, and the proccetlmga cloaetl l>y the meeting giving three cheers to Mr Oourley ami a vote of thanks to the Mayor.