PARLIAMENT OUT OF SESSION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXIII, Issue 7561, 28 May 1885, Page 6

PARLIAMENT OUT OF SESSION.

ME D. M'MILLAN AT SHEFFIELD,

On Tuesday night Mr D. M'Millan, M.H.E. for the Coleridge District, addressed the electors in the Eoad Board office, Sheffield. The chair was taken by Mr Barr, Chairman of the East Malvern Eoad Board, and there was a fairly numerous attendance. *. The Chairman having briefly introduced the speaker,, ... Mr M'Millan addressed the meeting to the following effect:—He had requested them, in accordance with the usual very good custom, to meet him that they might have an opportunity of hearing what he had to say as to the business done last session, and what were his views on the principal business likely to engage the attention of Parliament during the next session. On an occasion like the present, the electors had a fitting opportunity to draw their members' attention to matters they might consider to be of importance to the welfare of the electorate. They would all recollect how high political feeling had run during the last general election, and how the country had been anxiously looking to see what turn things were going to take. When Parliament assembled, the Atkinson Government had found themselves in no better position than when they appealed to the country, and therefore very soon resigned. During the subsequent four weeks, some extraordinary feats were-performed in the construction and. destruction of Ministries; all sorts of combinations were attempted, no one party being strong enough to carry on of themselves. In" fact, tho present Ministry on taking office would have been as easily upset' as their predecessors had been, but for the extreme desire of members on all sides to proceed with the business of the country. ' A general understanding was arrived at that no factious opposition should be offered to the Stout-Vogel Ministry, provided, however, that the Government should not alter the incidence of taxation, or bring down any question of policy, that would imperil their existence. When the Government at length made a start, they brought down business very rapidly, considering the short time they had been in office, and the Opposition under I Major Atkinson behaved very handsomely to them; so that what at one time seemed likely to be a barren and useless session, proved to be one of great importance -to the progress and welfare of the country, and the Government on the whole were to be congratulated on what they had accomplished. He, along with most of the Canterbury members, had done his bes;t to keep Sir Julius Vogel to the front in the struggle for power, and had given the Government A GOOD GENERAL SUPPORT during the session, as he would continue to do so long as their policy was kept within the limits'of reason and practicability. He was not one of those who expected a Government to do impossibilities. Many men had fondly believed that with Sir Julius Vogel in power, times would rapidly improve, confidence be restored, property become more buoyant, and a general wave of prosperity spread over the land; in fact, Sir Julius himself was vain enough to hold out hopes in that direction, which had not as yet been realised, and were beyond the power of any Government to realise. The fact was that THE MAIN CAUSE OF THE DEPBES6ION was the having to part with the produce of the land at less tnan it cost to produce; and while that state of things lasted there could not be prosperous times. Of course good government would assist the country to • a certain extent, and he gave the Government credit for doing their utmost; but no Government could do impossibilities. Eeturning.to the business done last session, he reminded the meeting that altogether eighty-two Acts had been placed on the Statute Book, the most important of these being the East and West Coast Eailway Act, the Greymouth and Westport Harbour Acts, and the.'Married Women's Property Act. There were also some Consolidated Acts passed, such as the Impounding Act, the Electric Lines, the Eiver Boards, and the Police Offences Acts. These were a great convenience, as by the Impounding Act thirty-seven former Ordinances and Acts were; repealed and consolidated into one Act. By far the most important, as far as Canterbury was concerned, was THE EAST AND WEST COAST EAILWAY BILL. To this a great deal of opposition had been shown in both Houses, but the Government had stuck well to it, and it had been pulled through the Lower House, where the route was fixed to be by Arthur's Pass. In the Upper House, however, the route had been left an open question. He had not the least doubt that when the relative merits of the different routes came to be considered, Arthur's Pass would yet have to be chosen. It was much to be hoped that the gentlemen who had gone Home would be successful in arranging with a syndicate for the construction of the railway, though he confessed he had never been sangume that they would, especially after the Canterbury people consented to include the Nelson line. Should, however, the present attempt fail, he thought the line ought to be constructed by the Colony; indeed, he had always held that it would be better for the Colony to construct the line than that it snould be handed over to a Company with such an enormous tract of country. He had done what he could to get the Bill passed, believing -that it was a work that ought to be carried out some way or other. Then, if a good harbour could be made at Greymouth, so that the Melbourne steamers could make use of it, a great deal of the Melbourne traffic with this Island would pass over the East and West Coast Eailway, connecting with the steamer at Greymouth. THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE ELECTION BILL had met with the same fate last session as in the previous sessions,. this last time having a still greater majority against- it. The principal points in the Bill were the defining of what a householder was; the giving power to Education Boards to alter the date of the annual meeting, which at present is a very inconvenient time to the people of Canterbury; and the abolition of the cumulative vote. He had always supported that Bill, because he thought it a great improvement on the present mode of elections; but many opposed it, thinking it might lead to further amendments which would affect the principle of our present Education Act. He did not agree with this view, for he would be sorry to do anything that would imperil the present Act. r THE DISTRICT BAILWAYS Leasing and Purchasing Act had been passed by the Lower House, but rejected by the Upper House, who gave their reason for doing so. The mistake the Government had made was embodying all the District Eailways in the Bill, and putting all on the same footing, so that the House had to vote for all or none. No doubt this had secured more support in the Lower House; but he considered that each railway should have been treated on its individual merits, and in that case he would not have voted for all of them. The Government had naturally felt annoyed-at the course taken by the Upper House, and Sir Julius Vogel gave notice of a motion authorising the Government to buy the railways right out, and so defied the Upper House. This was a course which he (Mr M'Millan) considered extreme and unconstitutional, and could not support the Government in. He had, however, agreed to the modified motion, that the Government were to ascertain the best terms that the various lines could be obtained on, and submit tmxresult to Parliament, a course yhich he believed would prove to be the wisest that" could be adopted. He understood that satisfactory arrangements would be made witFnearly all the

lines. In his opinion, the District JRailways Act was a i blunder, but wben once made and acted upon it was a great mistake for the Government to make branch railways to other districts, without vthese districts being responsible for a certain percentage on the outlay. "With regard to

THE DEFENCES OF THE COLONY no one could blame the Government for want of energy, and, in fact, they sere well backed up by the military ardour of all classes of the community—perhaps a little too much so. He did not mean to say that the Government had done too much in the way of defences, but they had been gcaded on to do the work with extreme haste, and consequently at a greater cost than otherwise would have been necessary. He thought Mr Ballance deserved great credit for the manner in which he had come through the war scare, and although Government would have to meet Parliament with a large unauthorised expenditure, the Defence Minister would in all probability meet with nothing but approval of his actions. Mr Ballance would be able to effect a considerable reduction in the North Island Armed Constabulary, and this would go a little way in reducing the large expenditure entered upon when the country could ill afford it. With regard to the work of next session, one of the most important matters to be dealt with would be LOCAL GOVERNMENT, a subject on which people differed very much in opinion, some holding that Provinces should be reverted to, and others that Road Boards were all that was required. He thought that the majority would agree that the best thing to be done would be to improve the present system of Counties, Boroughs and Eoad Boards. The partial failure of this system was, in his opinion, due to a large extent to the want of' funds to carry their functions on with, for where local government had been most successful, was where there had been ample funds. He hoped, the Government would fully consider, before bringing down their scheme, that to ensure success the •local bodies must be provided with funds sufficient for the discharge of the duties imposed upon them. " Substantial Endowments " had been the • term used at the time of Abolition, and the bait held out had succeeded, but no substantial endowments had followed. With regard to Eoad Boards, he did not think much improvement could made, except that their size and geographical boundaries could in many cases be improved ; for to be units of a County each Eoad Board ought, he thought, to form a riding; and in determining road districts, not only area, but community of interest and the geographical features of the country ought to be considered. .The boundaries once made, ought not to be altered except under very spepial circumstances. There were too great facilities now for altering boundaries, and the tendency was always to split up, never to amalgamate; and hence local districts were often cut up into all shapes and sizes. With regard to County Councils, it would have been better had they been larger, so that they could the better, deal with such subjects as Hospitals and Charitable Aid. For the better dealing with these matters, Boroughs ought to be included in Counties ; but for all Municipal purposes the Counties ought to have no control whatever over the Boroughs. The same remarks applied to the boundaries of the Counties as to those of Eoad Districts ; when once defined they should not easily be altered. The Counties Act should not be permissive, except in a few instances, such as Stewart Island, &c, which were now exempted from its operation. The respective functions of Counties and Eoad Boards ought to be clearly defined. The latter should undertake all works of a purely local character, and collect all rates in their district, whether levied for road purposes or anything else; and* the former should deal with arterial main roads, bridges and ferries, water races and drainage works (where they extend through two or more ridings), river conservation, and all works of a large character which would be for the benefit of two or more ridings., In fact, he would give Counties as full powers as possible short of actual legislation. The Counties and Eoad Boards could do all the work connected with roads and bridges now done by the Public Works Department, the Crown Lands Department and the Mines Department. For this purpose, a fixed percentage of the Land Fund and Property tax should be secured to the local bodies; a better plan than pubsidies, which induced people to rate themselves to the utmost. An attempt might be made to substitute

A LAND TAX for the Property tax, but as they knew, his opinion was that the Property tax was by far the fairest, though it was open to improvement. With regard to

PROTECTION, he considered it meant simply increased taxation. He was prepared to give industries a fair start, but the burden of this ought to be borne equally by all classes. Looking over the list of alterations recommended to be made in the tariff, he found that they would, tax the country for the benefit of the towns. With regard to Sir Julius Vogel's scheme of

CHEAP LOANS for the improvement of lands, if the thing were practicable it would be all right for the Company who managed the concern, but it would not benefit the struggling man, who would be unable to find the necessary security. • Besides, he did not think that Government should interfere with the legitimate business of. moneylending institutions, or offer further inducements for the people to borrow. The country was suffering too much already from borrowing, both public and private. However, should the matter come before the House, he would give it his best consideration; and if the scheme was at all feasible, and likely to confer a benefit on the community, would support it. With regard to EAILWAY MANAGEMENT, he thought that Mr Eichardson was probably waiting for the establishment of non-political Boards. However that might be, there was no doubt that the tariff for both goods and passengers was far too high at present. He would now be happy to answer any question as to matters he might have omitted to refer to, and to give any information the meeting might desire. In answer to questions, Mr M'Millan said he objected to the syndicate for the East and West Coast Eailway because it gave a monopoly of a large tract af land. But for the heavy indebtedness of the Colony, he would be in favour of-a ioan being raised, and the Government retaining the land. He thought that any person entitled to vote for a representative in Parliament should have a vote for the licensing Committees. At present, when no ratepayers' roll existed, the electoral roll was adopted. He would support a Bill defining the disabilities of school committeemen. Government, he thought, should provide accommodation for the delivary of goods in front of the railway station. With regard to the Sheffield station, he thought the road should be widened by the Eoad Board; the present road was within the Eailway Ee3erve, and the Government required no more accommodation for the department. As long as Sir Julius Vogel was Tieasurer, there would be plenty of money ; but the day of reckoning would have to be prepared for. Borrowing for remunerative public works he would not be opposed to. With regard to the Sheffield and Oxford railway, he had interviewed the railway managers, who said it would net pay. He maintained that this could not be known without trial, and had urged that the train might be allowed to run through instead of stopping at Oxford. This was a matter he did not intend to lose sight of when in Wellington. He advo-

cated and had requested the Government that a train should be run to and fro between Oxford and Sheffield, at least once or twice a week. THANKS AND, CONFIDENCE. Mr Eobeetson moved- —" A vote of thanks to and confidence in Mr M'Millan as the member for the district." Mr Bull seconded the motion, which was carried by acclamation, and briefly acknowledged by Mr M'Millan. A vote of thanks to the chair closed the meeting.