MR EARNSHAW AT THE CITY HALL.

Evening Star, Issue 10149, 30 October 1896, Page 1

MR EARNSHAW AT THE CITY HALL.

Mr William Earnshaw, one of the present members of the Houso of Representatives for the City of Dunedin, addressed a meeting of his constituents in the City Hall last night upon past and prospective legislation. The hall was densely packed, especially at the rear, from which quarter a large amount of disturbance emanated throughout tho evening. Mr R. N. Adams presided, and seats on the platform were occupied by the Rev. W. Ready, Messrs W. H. Warren, A. C. Broad, W. Wardrop, R. Rao, J. Watkins, J. Jolly, and others, including several ladies. Mr Earnshaw, who was received with applause* -said it was six years since he was elected as one of the representatives of the City—(A Voioh : " Yes, and we have had enough of you ") —and ho was there that to ask them if they would continue to put their trust in him. The Liberal party had come into power on the elf-reliant, non-borrowing policy enunciated by the late Mr Ballance, and he (the speaker) as a j worker had been returned to take part iu the new programme of experimental legislation foreshadowed at that time. He claimed to havo earned and to have enjoyed tho respect and confidence of his first political chtef, tho Hon, Mr Ballance. Ho desired to contrast the two misters under whom he had served his political apprenticeship—Mr Bailance and Mr Seddon—and to show how the policy of the one was a policy in the best interests < f tho working man, and how the policy of the other was a policy of disaster to the laborers of the colony. (Hear, hear ; applause and dissent.) The policy advocated by Mr Ballance—a policy of felfreliance and economy—had been approved of by all the labor organisations cf the colony ; but that policy had been departed from since Mr Ward became Colonial Treasurer and Messrs Seddon and Ward had gone in for plungiog, borrowing, and squandering. As a member "of Parliament lie had, ho c'aimed, been true to his pledges in supporting the Ballance Administration, and equally true to them in oppasiug the pobcy of plunge adopted by the feddon Administration. Before tho lait elections both the Premier and tho Colonial Treasurer repeatedly declared them.'elves in favor of selfreliance and non-borrowing, but they had increased taxation through the Customs by from £70,000 to £IOO,OOO per annum and had borrowed a million of nionoy, besides getting money under various heads, having, for example, so manipulated their finanou as last year to seize £BO,OOO belonging to the local bodies' sinking fund. Money had been squandered, and instead of a reduction there had been a largo increase Li tho duties on the necessaries of lifo. Did the working man of New Zealand think that the piling up of a national debt was going to giro them increased wages, more employment, or a better social status?—(lnterruption.) He had opposed the borrowing policy as the representative of the working man, because he was convinced that if wages were to be maintained and education provided New Zealand must bo in the van of the whole of the Australasian colonies with regard to its finance. New S'outh Wales had entered upon a Freetrado policy, and if New Zea'aud was to lead as a manufacturing country and to command tho Island trade, its finance must be put on a sounder footing than even the finance of that colony. (Interruption.) He asked if these interruptions were fair or manly they should give him a fair chance and ho would fight it out with them.—(Applause.) It was impossible to keep on talking at tho top of his voice. If it was beer that was howling he could understand* it; certainly it was not intelligence that was expressed in that way. If working men wanted a policy that would be of real assistance to them they should to a man advocate a reduction of the duties upon the necessaries of life and go in for direct taxation, for the moment they understood how much they bad to pay they would insist upon knowing the why and wherefore of lavish expenditure, and reform would follow. Could they not see that if ♦ I'ey went on piling indebtedness on the country tboy would themselves have to bear the burdei of that indebtedness ? At the present time on borrowed money for national and local purposes they were sending away £2,000,000 per annum as interest. That burden must fall on the shoulders of the producers. Did they realise that just in proportion as they increased the burdeis of the country the wages of the working classes must come down ? It was a fact all the world over, and as the national debt of tho colony had gone up tho wages of the peoplo had gone down. Another question of serious import was the violation of tho law tho Government were continually committing. There was a gross breach of the law of contract in regard to tho cooperative works on the Otago Central Railway. The men had been paid 3s 6d per yard less for work thin they had contracted to do it for. On that question he had fought the Premier, but had got no satisfaction, for the Premier had been ably supported by his "barracker" of Caversham. If a democracy was to stand it must be by the observance of the law. If the law was wrong it must be altered, but if any Government—Tory, Liberal, or Radical—broko the law, and was permitted to break it, then the downfall of democracy began.—(Applause.) He maintained that another gross breach of contract had taken place in connection with the Horowhenua Block, because tl'.e Government had sought to set aside by Act of Parliament the Crown lands title which bad been granted to Major Kemp.. Then, the Government had sought to break the contract entered into with the manager of tho Bank of New Zealand. The manager had been appointed for a period of ten years, and by an Act of Parliament tho Government bad sought to determine that contract without compensation.—(A YorCK: "Quito right.") He said it was quite wrong.—(A Votcis : "it's quite right," and interruption.) He had no sympathy with tho gentleman who had been appointed, but he did fay that it was a very serious thing when the Government sought to set aside a contract they had made in tire manner that had been don'!. Those were only three illustrations of many that might be given, and the matter was on* of serious moment to the democracy, because if one Government by its overwhelming majority defied the law or altered the law to suit themselves a precedent would be established the results of which must prove disastrous. Mr Earnshaw then traced the history of the banking legislation, and adversely criticised the conduct of the Government respecting it, during which criticism he was frequently interrupted. Continuing, he said they had now a State bank, and that State bark a State burden which he balieved would sooner or later involve the country in a loss of at least five million pounds of money. 'I hey had entered into commercial banking, and that was a matter which, above all others, should be kept entirely apart from political influence. He did not say that that Government had been corrupt with regard to banking. He believed that Richard Seddon had done the best ho could in the interests of the colony—("Hear, bear," and applause) and that he had suffered very Foriously physically because of tho strain he had undergone in dealing with this question. At the same time he asserted that the Premier had deliberately stonewalled the Banking Committee from beginning to end in order to shield his late colleague Mr J. G. Ward. —(Cries of "Yes" and "No," and interruption.) Before dealing with other questions he wanted to say a few words in connection with the labor organisations and tho intriguers and billet-hninters in those organisations,— (Dissent.) As a working man, he said ho had been unfairly dealt with in regard to the selection by tho Workers' Political Committee.—("No," and "Hear, hear.") If they would listen to him they would agree with him.. Why had his name not been submitted as a candidate to those organisations?-("Because you turned round." " Uecause we have a better man." " Rat," and interruption.! He said he had been faithful to the Labor party—none more so.—("Yes," and "No, no," and interruption.) Did they call themselves men ; all he wanted was a fair fight. He had advocator! labor measures when other members had sat in their seats liko dumb dogs. Who had stood the brunt of opposition in 1891, 1892, and 1893 with regard to labor measures ? ' Hansard' would give them proof that in the House and in committee ho bad fought more for labor measures than all the other local labor members put together.—(Applause.) They all knew that be had not got on very well with the late Minister of Labor, the Hon. W. P. Reeves, but that gentleman and a very able Minister of Labor he had " been had admitted that he (Mr Earnshaw) had consistently supported labor measures. The fact, he maintained, was tbatwhether supporting or opposing the Govern-

ment he had fought the battle of labor in the House. Take the cise of the Typographical Society. He had done more for the members of that society than all the other labor memberß put together.—("Yes" and "No.") In 1891 he had proposed, and had got carried, a resolution authorising the manufacture of school books and requisites within the colony. As a consequence they had a ' School Reader' manufactured in the colony, and if the Minister of Education and Labor had been alive on the Bubject.all school requisites might have been produced within the colony. Then as to the Bootmakers' Union. Ho was not speaking against unionists or workers outside unions, but only making a charge against the coterie who dominated the unions, and who were a greater danger to the unions than all the capitalists were. He claimed that during the discussion of the tariff he had striven to protect the interests of the workers, while a member who had been selected by the unions had not opened his mouth on the question except to explain what were "maids' sizes" in boots. Ho could also ask tho workers on the Otago Central if he had not fought for them, and remind the railway workmen that he had accepted tho position of president of their society when requested to do so. So far as labor measures were concerned he had fought both Government and Opposition, and ho had a right to expect the sympathy of the engineers and of the members of the railway union. On tbo question of the recout classification he had fought in the interests of tho railway workers until five o'clock in the morning against proposals which meant reducing tho wages of the workmen.— ("No, no.") It would be found that the proposals would reduco the wages of workmen and increase the salaiios of the permanent officials. Against this ho had protested and voted, but the other labor members had voted for the big s»lario?. For the railway men he had also fought tho silent system, and made the workshops fit for men to be employed in, and be really believed he deserved better treatment from tliid society than he had received. (Applause.) He had also voted for the Shipping and Seamen's Bill quite as much as Mr Millar himself had done, and he had a right to expect better treatment from tbem. He would not, however, submit to the dictates of a small number of these workers, and appealed with confidence to tho general body against the intriguers, the wire-puller?, and the billet-hunters. (Cries of "Oh! oh!" and interruption.) Yes, ho called them billethunters advisedly ; and if they had any conception of the correspondence which took place t-etweeii these billet-hunters and the Government they would soon open their eyes. He appealed from tho resolution of these organisations to tho working men of Dunedin, and said that in their interests he had voted, and had a right to receive recognition, and believed ho would receive it at their hands.— (Applause.) The complaint against him was really not that he had not supported Liberal measures, but that he had not supported the one-man Government of Richard Seddon. That tLis was so was apparent from the printed programmo put forward by the Wellington Electoral League, of which the Prenver was the head. It was stated that the object of the L'.-ague was to assist in maintaining the liberal policy of the present Administration by returning three members of Parliament for the City of Wellington, pledged to support the administration of the Hon. Kicbard Seddon.— (A Voice : "Quite right.") It was easy to say "Quite right," but what was the resolution of tho Workers' Political Committee prior to the selection of candidates at the last General Election. It was that members should bo returned pledged to support measures, not men.—(Applause ) He had been true to that, for he had always supported measures, not men. He had been told that a subscription was being got up to publish hn misdeeds, and he had offered to subscibe for the purpose himself. If such a compilation had been made ho hoped it would be produced, and that he would bo challenged with it. He claimed that he had fulfilled every one of his pledges to the Workero' Political Committee and to every other association. If anyone thought he did not do ao, he challenged tbem to got up In a quiet, proper, and straightforward m inner and show in what he had failed—(Applause.) The measures he had opposed were measures which would disintegrate and demoralise the labor market. The Master and Apprentice Bill as introduced was impracticable, and would be iujurious in its effects. Ho believed there was no necessity njw to apprentice boys, and thought that the ratio of boy to adult labor shou'd be decided by the Conciliation and Arbitration Court. He had himself always favorod the establishment of old age pensions, but the measure introduced by tho Government was simply a new form of charitable aid that would demoi alise labor and pauperise the recipients! Ihe provision for old age pensions must always come out of production—that was, out of the labor of the colony—and if peoule thought they could take 10j or 12s a'-weekout of the Consolidated Revenue for an old ago pension without first putting it there they were very muoh mistaken. The people ought to contribute to old age pensions and to claim them as a matter of right, not receive them as a charity in relief of indigence. But, as a matter ot fact, it could not have been intended that the measure introduced by the Government should become law, for the Government had made absolutely no provision for the finance, and had not even data on which to base tho proposals. The first Bill had been withdrawn almost immediately it was laid on the table of the House ; but fortunately he had got hold of it. and he found that subsequently the Government, for election purposes, had struck out the sources from which the revenue was to come, and had substituted more specious ones in order to gull the working man. As was known, he had his own views regarding the regulation of the liquor traffic, and had made no secret of them, but as between the two parties —the one demanding tho sale of liquor as they liked, and the other the suppression of the traffic—it was needful to take a side, and he had no hesitation in taking the side of temperance reform. The greatest instrument the employer bad to keep down labor was this curse of drink. measures they could put en the Statute Fook would be comparatively worthless to the working man as long as the publican stood at the street corner to appropriate his wages at each week's end. It was because lie believed it. to bo in the interests of the working man that the drink traffic should cease that ho had taken this stand, and although when he went to Parliament he was Dot strictly an abstainer, he had, in order to practise what he preached, becomo an abstainer. He claimed that he had for six years faithfully represented his constituents in Parliament, and had supported all Liberal measures and kept all his pledges. He could say that he was now a poorer man than when he was a journeyman, and that if ho returned t > the ranks of labor he could stand up in his boots as a man who had done nothing to be ashamed of.—(Applause.) If returned-as he beik-ved he should be—he should still support measures, not men. There could be no greater nonsense than for people who favored an elective executive and the referendum to talk of placing party before principles or measures. He thanked them for their patient hearing. (Laughter.) He did not mind the row, only he had felt the strain on his throat. In conclusion, he reminded them that he was a poor man, and could not have paid committees or extensive political organisations in his favor ; but he should, he said, address the constituents wherever he could.—(lnterruption.) He had no doubt he was going to Wellington. Whether returned or not he should preserve his self-respect, for he felt there was no man who could tell him that either in or out of Parliament he bad betrayed or degraded the trust they had put in him. He thanked them for the kindness they manifested to him, and hoped that if they believed in him they would fight for him in the coming campaign. A number of questions were put amidst more or less continued interruption, and were answered. In reply to some of the questions, he said ho did not favor the election of a Governor within the colony, but thought that the colony should have a voice in the selection of the Governor who was sent here. This right had been conceded in the case of Queensland. He thought that the Governors who had been appointed had done good service for the colony, and were to be preferred to any who would be elected as the result of a party fight within the colony. He did not favor reducing the number of members by onehalf, as the only safety of a democracy was in having full representation. He was opposed to any Chinese coming to the colony, and was strongly in favor of the present system of education, and would oppose any attempt to break it down,

Mr W. Waudsof moved a vote of thanks to and of confidence in Mr Earnshaw.

The Chairman, who was greeted with hooting and other marks of disapproval, put the motion, but in the uproar very few among the audience heard what he sa : d. About 100 hands were held up for the motion, and very few against it. '1 he chairman declared the mot'on carried. A vote of thanks to the chairman closed the meeting.