Mr. T. Fergus, M.H.R., at Queenstown.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1581, 18 March 1887, Page 2

Mr. T. Fergus, M.H.R., at Queenstown.

Notwithstanding the rather short notice given a large assemblage < f persons—many of them in* fluential men from various parts of the district—met to the Town Hall on Tuesday evening, for the pin pose of hearing an address from the member for the Wakatipu. The meeting was a very orderly one, and the speaker was repeatedly applauded during the course of his address.

Mr J. Rkid (Mayor) presided, and briefly opened proceedings by stating the object for wimh the meeting was called, namely, to hear from their respected member a statement of the affairs of the last sitting of the colony, and his political views more especially on matters likely to be brought forward at next sitting of Parliament. Mr FERGUS, who rose amid prolonged cheers, ■aid —Mr Chairman ami gentlemen, I need not tell you that it gives me very great pleasure to meet you all once more. I have endeavored during the past session of Parliament—as in previous sittings during which 1 had the honor of representing this electorate—to the best of my ability to advance the welfare of the colony generally and, at the same time, to look after the interests of my constituency, and now come forward, as has been my usual c.itom, to give an account of my stewardship, and aKo to afford you an opportunity of expressing your appioval or otherwise of my action as ynnr representative. For my part I have always endeavored t • obtain your u"od favor. There are occasions w •■• w • have differed—and, perhaps, must differ—l.ui il »!icn at Wellington, I hive always used :mv . s" efforts to advance the well-being cf all aid; I'oinpatible with my duty t> the trailer

c 11 -1 tu> ncv of Xew Zealand as a whole. My task on tin present occasion, however, is an easy and pleasant one, on account of having had the honor of your confidence for the past seven years, which renders it superfluous for me to go into a detailed statement of my political faith again, which I do not thii'k has altered much. Still there are questions of moment arising daily which it is well we should meet and discuss, in order that I may secure your assistance and cooperation, and you, as my constituents, may place your opinions and wants before me. Since my maiden speech in ihe House of Representatives, I have beta of opinion that

WE LEGISLATE TOO MUCH. Indeed, the aim of each succeeding Government seems to be to get a bigger volume of laws out each session, even if the House has to be asked to repeal some of them the following year. This tendency is not confined to the Government alone, for many members have political nostrums winch they advertise year bv year on the floor of the House, bring out their bantlings and try to set them to roost among the colonial statutes. People too seem to think that Parliament can, of its own sweet will, create plenty or poverty by the passage of a measure or tao, and that too irrespective altogether of the state of tra''c and position of our industries. Many a time I have been asked—"What are vou going to In for ns this year in Wellington?" The causes which make or mar prosperity, to mv thinking, lie greatly beyond the powers of Parliament: and the best that the ablest stateinen can do is to wisely administer the affairs o f the colony according to its circumstances, instead of trying by a drastic change in its land and commercial laws to fool the people into a belief that their change will effect the necessary object. It is, then, principally to the proper administration of the Government that we must look ; and as the rrm.ic works is one of the largest departments, and one with which 1 am most intimately acquainted, I will address myself to it iirst. Tint we do not deserve lninh relit fir the curving out of the public works of the colony goes, I think, without sating. I do nut Idune the present Government f"r this—they inherited a bad concern, which *as just being tackled by Mi Mitchelson, the late Minister for Work*: but what they are to be blamed for, and for which there is no Excuse, is that they did not continue the work o f reformation, or even maintain the reforms whi-h were being initiated bv Mr Mucin lsou, Even thing seemed favorable. There was placid at the head of the department a gentlei.ian of great experience in about every line necessary to intelligently ri!l the post. A trained civil engineer, having experience in more colonies than one, tried as a contractor for one of the largest works in the co'om-, tested before as a Minister of the Crown, the colony lull a liyht to expect that, whitever other branches of the public service f.iled to come up to expect ata'ion under the new legme, this ,nie at least wi-iild, when weighed in the balame. not be found wanting. In his Ibst Public Woik< Stitem-nt he says, "Although I am not yet prepared to state to whit r stent reductions can be ma ' I mi i.f r.| i.ioiis that the staff is much larger • e •••!; iv for the due supervision of the •'.!• colony now has in hand." And iita been in-.'e to make satisfactory >\'e imi-t presume ''. it when Mr

o . nude \n- statement lie had an intelligent .. i :st Hiding of his position, an.l intended to cany Lis refoims out, compatible alwavs with the due elli.icney of the service, but he has failed to <to so, and we must only charitably say that while the knowledge and the will were there his power was gone, or, i.i other words, that he had outlived his day. The system which was in vogue, and a pernicious system too, of scattering over a host of fragmentary lilies the various loans, and which was so warmly condemned by the present Government, their supporters and the Government Press when they were in Opposition, still flourishes more vigorously than ever. Nay more, instead of limiting themselves to the completion to a payable point of those lines which had been already commenced, and rendering remunerative the moneys sunk thereon, they have initiated other railways, and thereby made more distant than ever the chance of completing the main trunk lines both north and south, which would be of advantage to the colony both directly and indirectly. I cannot say that I agree with those who would go in for an absolute cessation of borrowing, nor do I think that our depression demands it—a depression which I am glad to think is wearing off—but that borrowing must lie limited, and limited, too, to the completion of those works already far advanced to a point where they would be of advantage to the people. By a return to the 3lnt M neb, 188:5, of expenditure out of immigration and public works funds only, we find that out of £24,068. 167) 18s fid there has been spent,on railways only £12,736,074 13s 3d, and that too includes purchase of district lines, so that unless the loan expenditure is more carefully administered in the future, 1 see but. little probability of the necessary and prospectively payable uncompleted lines being brought to a point of usefulness readily. One of the main charges against the Atkinson administration was the shameful way in which

THE OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY had bee-i neglected, ami the moneys voted either nut expended or diverted into other channel* From the tallies attached to tlie Public Works Statement, I tiud that to the 31st March, 1886, there hud been spent on the railway the sum of £'•207.218 9* sd, and there were liibiiities of £o 1,202 l.lsSd, making a total of £318,4-21 5s Id, but as a matter of fact the contracts entered into amounted to onlv about £210,000. so that there was £IOB,OOO to he accounted for. Say that £IO.OOO would be required for rails and sleepers on the portion already constructed, an I another £IO,OOO for survey, cost of supervision, etc., we have still 30 pr cent of the money expended to account for. When you compare the systematic and economical way in which private companies hdvecairied out their work wi:h thcprodijnl waste on our Government undertakings, you will agree with me tli.it a clunee IE verv much neede<!. I know that the bulk of this £90,000 has gone in providing woik for the Ho-called unemployed, but to this expenditure I totally object. In the first plase woik done by men put on as it were in charity, be Hie wngu ever so small, has never compired with the work done by men emnloyed in the ordinary way at a fair and reasonable rate; s*c..: 1 ? the men were good men and the object u,!si simply t.- relieve their labor market that could have Iweh effected by letting the work in the crdiuary course, but if the works were destined only as relief works designed only to assist the

poor irrespective of the value they gave in exchange then I demur altogether to the burden of their support falling on the vote for Otago Central Railway. We have received nothing like value for the £90,000 expended ou unemployed lalior. The condition of things which obtains with regard to the Otago Ceutral railway is similar to that of the NORTH ISLAND MAIN TRUNK LINK, It is rather amusing to read the treasurer's statements as to the piobable time of opening the latter line, the latest date fixed being, I believe, 1890, but there are few, I should think, so sanguine as he of its early completion, even if he be so himself. Indeed, a breach of faith was made with the colony in commencing this line before an adequate amount of land had been acquired from the Natives to justify its construction. The action of the Minister of Works and the Native Minister in this matter has rendered more remote the settlement of the so-called King country by Europeans, as was conclusively shown by Mr Bryce at Waitotara the other day. Whatever, however, may be said to condone the errors of the minister in administering the works department, there can be but little said for his management or rather MISMANAGEMENT OF THE RAILWAYS. He recognised that this branch of the pnblic service was in a woeful state, and after mature reflection, aye, even from the opening ot our first line of rail, thus expresses himself. " Without wishing to cast any reflection on the present general manager of railways, I unhesitatingly express my opinion that the condition and management of our railways are in a very state. My honorable colleague recently said that, in many (if the railway systems not nearly so large as that of ours in New Zealand, it would be thought absurd to leave to one man the virtually imposiible control and management without anyone to consult on the many difficult points which arise from day to day." He then goes on to advocate the formation of Railway Boards, and says that if he had not been convinced that the Government and the House were determinad to create such boards of management, he would not have consented to take office. Now, he may or may not have been right, that the solution of his difficulty was the formation of railway boards, that is a question which I am not going to'discuss to-night, but he was clearly wrong in not bringing down his Bill as promised, and give us the benefit of his mature judgment, and if the House was not satisfied it might have done what it has had to do before with this Government —make a good measure suitable for the working of the railways for the welfare of the colony. We are all agreed with the Minister that radical changes are needed, and there is one paragraph especially from the statement which I have jnst quoted of much interest to you. In describing the inadequate increase in the rates for the year, he said, "The remedy, as I have already informed the house, lies in a thorough revision not only of the rates charged but in the classification of the goods, ami while this revision is being made, every opportunity must be taken to make the rates press as lightly as possible on all the local production and on all articles, the reduction on which will help either the settlers throughout the country or the local industries which are already established or are likely to succeed." Has he applied the remedy which we agree with him is a sound one ? Hardly. Take one of the industries of this district, and one destined to be of considerable importance, i.e., the fruit growing industry. There is a railway ruimiiing up from the large centres of Invercargill and Dunedin to Kingston, We are in almost daily communication with these places to import their fi tiit, from Tasmania and Victoria than take it from us. There are hundreds of tons of fruit, and fruit which cannot be beaten anywhere, rotting on our ttees because we cannot get it to market. Onr lakes too teem with lisli, but we cannot semi them to Dunedin at anything like a price which will enable the working man to purchase, simply because the freight is so high, ami yet the trains are running down to the coast half empty. The trnr3t protection we can have in the interior is to enable us to get our produce svuftly and cheaply to maiket. Until our railways are managed less theoretically less, on political and more on commercial principles, I despair of any change for the better. THE INCIDENCE OF TAXATION. The rate on the public works, the faulty administration of our railways, coupled with the low prices tilling for our staple products, make our burdens press rather heavily on us, and the strain on the colonial revenue i? so great that the Treasurer is continually looking out to see how it can be relieved. An insiduous attempt was made last year lo place the cost of erecting school buildings on local bodies. It is true that the clause was permission, but had that passed I am sure it would soon have been made mandatory, the object being ultimately to shift the whole of this expenditure from the general Government shoulders. Tin's may or may not be right, but it is undoubtedly wrong to make struggling up-country districts bear this expenditure unaided. .Some people, especially those resident in the cities, argue that all school expenditure and charitable taxation should be placed directly on the rateable property on the immediate locality. What would the consequences be in the outlying country districts? We will take, if yon will, any of the adjoining electorate of Hokonui, Puustan, Mount Ida or Waitaki. These are nearly all sparsely settled tracts of country, where schools are few and far between, and in which there are enormous lengths of road to make and maintain. In UnU the Wakatipu electorate, there are no less than 2500 miles of roads and tracks, aud the funds available, e*en now, are quite inadequate for the work required to be done. Had we our land revenue, as of old, we would not complain. That is, however, now colonial property, and but increase the burdens still more in the directions indicated by the Colonial Treasurer, aud, consequently, it must follow that the country will be denuded of its outlying population, for none of the counties can support this additional taxation. That being the case, no man who has the welfare of his children at heart will take up or even stay on land which, by reason of its remoteness from the school-house, would force him to bring him children up in utter ignorance. The cities are but the result of the settlement and prosperity of the country, and if settlement be delayed or stopped, they are likely to feel the effects first. Similarly with respect to HOSPITALS AND CHARITABLE AID. This subject has always been in unsatisfactory position, and although not quite sure that it has been much improved by recent legislation, I am willin» to give the Government credit for the best intentions in introducing the measure. Prior to the coming into force of the present Act, the hospitals were maintained partly by Government aud partly by private subscriptions, and charitable aid in a similar wav, but the Government contribution to each particular district was by no means equal. Thus Auckland received at the rate of 3s per head of entire population; Hawkes Bay. 6a sdj Taranaki, 2s sd; Wellington. 3s Id; Nehon, 5s Id; Marlborough, 2sßd; Westland, 6s 9d; Canterbury, 3s Gd; Otago, Is lOd. That was the entire contribution for both hospital and aid, bat the charitable aid is more marked if taken alone. For example Auckland with a population of 114,250 got £6230 3s 7d, Canterbury with a population of 129,799 got £14.232 12s fid, aud Otaao with a population of 153,901 got £3GIO 5s lOd. Now these figures are very suggestive, and we naturally ask why Canterbury, with a population one-fifth less than Otago, should have required from Government four times the amount of aid. There was no greater distress in Cauteibury than Otago, but I think the real reason was that the distribution of aid here being left chiefly to the voluntary subscribers, the disbursements was more carefully looked after than they would other vise have been. However, there is no doubt that the system wanted regulating, and our present Act is the outcome. I had two objections to the measure. Firstly, it would dry up all sources of private benevolence; and secondly, it would increase the cost of our institutions. Both have been realised. Notwithstanding all efforts, subscriptions to our hospitals, etc., are rapidly falling off, and since the Act came into force in Otago the cost of hospital and charitable aids has iucreased 30 per cent. I mean the total sum required to maintain both charities, I think it is

bad that the maintenance of this should have been thrown on the rateable property in the various counties and boroughs, while the man who has his money in bank at deposit, in shares of any description or in mortgagees, escapes scot free. This was elt very strongly last session, and a motion was carried by Mr Pearson against the Government, declaring the present method unjust, and affirming the desirability of including all property of whatever character. Of course, we do not feel the full \ force of the taxation just now, but with our annual deficits and our increasing expenditure, one of two things must take place. The subsidies which are at present given to boroughs will be withdrawn, or a substantial increase made to our direct taxation. I do not think that the country will stand any such increase, and am afraid the subsidies will follow in the wake of our land fund; and when that is done the incidence of the charitable aid rate will have to be changed. REPRESENTATION BILL. One of the most lamentable sights of last session was that of the division on the Representation Bill, and a most humiliating one for the Premier. A measure to which the colony was pledged was drawn up and introduced by Government, and yet when it went to a division it was defeated by the votes of half the Government itself and the Government majority. I, for one, give the Premier, Sir Robert Stout, ciedit for honesty of purpose in introducing the Bill, and think he was under the impression that the second reading at least would have been carried last session. Be that as it may, however, we have to face the question now, and there is sure to be a long and severe struggle over it. Although not agreeing with the measure introduced by the Premier in its entirety, I cordially approve of a good deal of it, and one of the best parts is that of the modus operandi for fixing the boundaries of each independent Boards electoral district. It would be almost impossible to do so in the H»use composed as we are. To fashion all the electorates on a population basis pure and simple, however, I do not hold with at all, even with the allowance of the margin of 500 in towns, and 1000 in country. For my own part I would be glad to si e the whole of New Zealand mapped out into five or six large provinces, and each of the province* to return on the Hare system, or some modification thereof, its quota to the Colonial Legislature. The change would be a healthy one. and the unseemly scramble for public works would be, in a great measure, checked, while works of a colonial character, calculated to return a fair percentage ami promote the settlement of the country, would be taken vigorously in band, and carried to completion, without being, as they are now, mixed up with political jobs, and have to drag their weary length along through the still more weary years. This innovation, however, I doubt the colony is not prepared to make. That we should have larger electorates is pretty generally admitted, and last year, when the opposition agreed to support the Premier's measure, I stipulated that facilities should be given me to move the reduction of the members of the House to 75 or 80. A great many meml>ers agreed with this, and I believe that the reduction would have a beneficial effect on the per-ionelle and legislation of the House. Excluding Maoris, there are at present 91 members in the Assembly, and as the population of the colony in March last was 573,480, that gives one member to every 6,302 persons, while I think that you will agree with me, that one member to every 8000 on an average would be quite sufficient. I have said, however, that I do not hold with a population basis pure and simple, for the large towns would then preponderate in our legislation much more than they even now do. There must,of necessity, be allowed lo the country districts—and especially sparsely settled ones—a considerable per centage, for the male population. The bread-winners, the taxpayers—form a great per centage of the population in the country districts than the town. We have one member to every 1437 electors, or one member to every 3335 males ; so that if the present number of the House remain nlaltered, or even iu somewhat decreased, whether the representation be based on population, electors or adult males, the Wakatipu electorate will not be much altered, as it comes up fully to the standard which ever way you take it. With regard to FT7RTUER LOANS, we must have a little more borrowing, but the money must be carefully laid out, simply with a view to bringing present abnost useless public works to a reproductive point. I think that the black cloud of depression is lilting, and sincerely hope to be able to congratulate yon on the fact the next time we meet together. In the meantime I shall do my best in the matter, and also study your interests as far as they are compatible with the welfare of the colony as a whole. (The speaker here sat down amid great applause.) The Chairman invited any person wishing to ask Mr Fergus any questions to come forward and do so. After a pause —no one asking a question, Mr C C. Boyes said he took great pleasure in proposing a hearty vote of thanks and renewed confidence in Mr T Fergus as member for the Wakatipu Jistrict. Seconded by Mr J. S. Dewar, and carried unanimously, amid renewed cheers. Mr Fergus thanked the assemblage most heartily for the kindly manner in which they had received him, and the % ote was the more flattering on account of his having, for some time past, been sitting in the cold shades of the Opposition, which prevented him from getting so many loaves and fishes for the constituency as he would have liked. A vote of thanks to the chair brought the proceedings to a close. MR FERGUS AT ARROWTOWN. There was a large attendance of Arrow residents at the Athemeum Hall on Wednesday eveningMr G. Hellar (Mayor) presiding, and in his introductory speech complimented the member on his action in connection with the Hospitals Amendment Act. Mr Fergus, who was received with applause, gave an eloquent address touching his political views on various leading subjects. A number of questions were also asked and satisfactorily replied to. Amongst other views expressed, he said that he was not in favor of the sale of our railways to private parties or syndicates; that he was a freetrader ; that he preferred opening up the roads to new goldfields rather than in spending much money as aids towards prospecting, and he thought that what money was expended in that direction, should be placed at the disposal of local boards; he believed the old system of nominee licensing committees was better than the present elective one. The burning question of the evening, however, was the rabbit nuisance, and the hardships and injustice that owu"rs had to evidence—more especial reference being made to circumstances connected with the recent rabbit cases heard at Queenstown. A most successful meeting was concluded by hearty votes of thanks and confidence in onr respected member, Mr T. Fergus.