ELECTORAL.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 657, 4 November 1899, Page 4

ELECTORAL.

MR B. McNAB AT GOP.E.

Mr Eobert MoNab, M.H.E., addressed a meeting of Slataura electors at Gore on Thursday evening. There, was a large attendance. The Mayor (Mr D. McFarlane) occupied the chair, and suitably introduced the speaker. Mr McNab, who was cordially received, said ho was there to ask for their support, and as against the other candidate for Parliamentary honors, occupied the position of having to give his views on the legislation of last session. The other candidate not bnvingns yet represented them, it was, of course, not necessary for him to go into these matters excepting so far as he might wish to express views on any legislation passed. But he (the speaker) would not be doing himself or his hearers justice if he omitted to ro into these matters. The last session of Parliament was always a poor one, and one. of the evils consequent on the present system of triennial parliaments was that in the first session new members were gaining experience, and in the third they were speaking to their constituents, only the second session being devoted to doing a little work. So it happened that although THE SESSION JOST CLOSFD extended over four months, only some six weeks' solid work was done. This result' they must expect so long as short parliaments were the rule, and so far as he was concerned, if he had any say in the matter, he would suppoita five years' parliament, when they might reasonably expect three years' good, sound work, in plac.e of one year, as at present. However, in spite of this, a good deal of legislation had been passed, and he would say a few words iii connection with Borne more impottant measures which had become law. An important amendment had been made in the Government Advances to Settlers Act of 1894, which originally applied to agricultural lands only, and had been extended to embrace suburban lands as well. It would be necessary to explain the working of the system so far in order to satisfy them that the departure was a proper one, as in practice it was recognised that there was more risk in advancing money on suburban than on agricultural lands. They should therefore be satisfied that every care had been taken in working the department, and few, if any, losses made. During the first year in which the Act had been in operation I £429,000 bad been lent by the department ; next ytar £1,036,000, and the following year, to March 31, 1898, a million and a-half; and yet the report supplied to Parliament disclosed the fact that all instalments of principal and interest due to March 31, 1898, had been collected' in full, and a later report to September 30, 1898, disclosed only £4 16s outstanding by three people. This, they must' remember meant the payment of 5 per cent, interest, and also 1 per cent, repayment of principal. Not one single penny remained overdue on all the 'hundreds of thousands advanced to March 31, 1898, and only the small amount mentioned to the 30th September of the same year. He had had a good deal to do with companies and private individuals lending money, and he ventured to say they could not find the one nor the other dealing in advances of, say, £100,000 or £200,000, showing anything like such a result. At Fortrose during the by-election campaign, he had been challenged that an individual in that district had borrowed £50 and then left the district, bis holding falling into the hands of the Government, but told his questioners that perhaps the Government knew all about the man and from inquiries since made he found that not only was all interest due (including this amount) paid, but for twelve months later not one penny was due on any account in the Department, that account included. And these payments were not made from any sinking fund account; they all came from the pockets of the borrowers. Yet it had been stated that the Department bad been worked as a fraud. He wished to point out that when the ■ interest on loans was repaid a small portion of the principal was also returned, which gradually reduced the outstanding mortage. Of the £1,600,000 advanced up to 31st March, 1899, £203,751 had been repaid, in addition to the interest charges. These figures showed that the working of the system was eminently satisfactory, and warranted the extension of its scope to suburban lands. Another feature introduced was the reduction of a-half per cent, for punctual payments, which he thought provided a fair measure of relief, because very substantial reductions had been made in outside rates of interest, which from 6 per cent, in 1894 had been reduced to from 5 per cent, to 5J per cent. The Government money would now cost 4J per cent. He had board it said that the Government Advances to Settlers Act was not responsible for this reduction, and' that in the Australian colonies lower rates prevailed. But from inquiries he had made he found that with the exception of large sums of money lent on first-class freehold security it was impossible to get the money cheaper, and in regard to leaseholders (excepting in the largest sums and for the best securities) money could rjot be obtained at anything like the Government rate prevailing here, and that even before the reduction to 4J per cenf. was made. Provision had also been made that where a considerable amount of the principal had been paid, the mortgagor could change the loan from the original to the reduced amount as it stood in the books of the Department. Mr McNab proceeded to explain that by an amendment of the Act, provision had been made for i securing scrutineers for the licensing polls, who could examine into the conduct of eleotions, and wont on to mention that a Pacific Cable Authorisation Bill had been passed, which would bring us into closer touch with the United States and Canada. . New Zealand's share of the scheme was one-ninth, and in a few years time, when thecable was laid down, rates for cables would be reduced to something under 2s a word. This was important to our commercial men, who were doing a large and increasing business with the States, the imports during the last seven or eight years having increased by 120 per cent., while our trade had also made substantial progress. Another innovation was the amendment with regard to insurance of workers against accidents, providing that where employers and employees joined together to secure a policy covering the time the workmen were not engaged in their employment, as well as the time they were actively engaged, the arrangement cou!d be taken before a Stipendiary Magistrate and adjusted. He thought this would get over the previous difficulty, and would work well. Provision had also been made for remedying the past inadequate payment of jurors, who in future would receive 8s a day for their services. Following upon the recommendation made by the Commissioner, a Police Provident Fund scheme bad been inaugurated, under which a deduction of various percentages, according to age, would be made from the wages of the men, and this subsidised from various sources would provide a pension or payment to those officers compelled to leave the Service. Men had been kept in the Service until beyond an efficient ago, owing to no such system being provided. In this, connection he paid a high tribute to Commissioner Tunbridge, and predicted that under his rule the force would become as competent as any to be found anywhere. THE PUBLIC WORKS POLICY. He was often asked to explain why it was necessary to borrow when the Government showed a surplus each year. The question was a reasonable one, and he would try to answer it. As he had told a Gore audience before, the rules which governed a country's finance were just the same as those governing the conduct ol a private firm or a joint stock company. An example of this was brought forcibly to his mind recently in connection with, the Southland Frozen Meat Co. They would remember the company in question had made a profit of £5000 for the first six months of the year, which was satisfactory. He received notice of this in due course, and a few days later another letter came along, which, he imagined, contained the cheque for his dividend. It proved, however, to be a call of £1 per share. The reason for this wa; that though the Company had made this large profit, they were at the same time incurring a larger expenditure (some £8000) in providiug cool stores at Matauva and adding to their refrigerating plant, in order that they should not again suffer through the non-arrival of steamers, owing to such accidents as had befallen the Perthshire and Waikato. Owing to these mishaps the farmers' sheep could not be killed, exporters were unable to keep their engagements, etc , and the directors were faced with the problem of possibly having to close down again next year, or borrowing, and by carrying out the works mentioned, making the company's position position secure. They did wisely — exactly as the Government were doing— by going on the money market. Yet ■

these directors, from what he knew of them, would say the Government, placed in exactly the same position as they were, was not carrying on a sound system of finance, though that system was identically the same as they themselves were pursuing. The Freezing Company had a surplus of £5000, part of which they would, no doubt, spend on the new works, borrowing the balance ; the Government had a surplus ■of £450,000, had transferred £400,000 to the Public Workß fund, and were borrowing £1,000,000 to expend on new works — to provide additional storage— -(Laughter)., The speaker proceeded to quote the figures comprising this " storage,'' and maintained that what they were doing was sound business on right lines. He instanced the London and North Western Hailway Company as an example. This company when it started had no assets and no liabilities. Nowits liabilities ran into a r hundred millions or more, and yet it was the' wealthiest corporation in the Empire. So long as business or trade increased at a greater rate than could be met out of its own profits, a company must go on borrowing, and in this respect a colony must be guided in like manner to a company, and while it was progressing, by leaps and bounds, and was unable to nieet its wants out of its surplus, so long would it bo necessary for the colony to borrow, and when that borrowing stopped the colony would be in the position that it was going, on at so slow a pace that its wants were so few they could be met out of taxation. He thought the time would be far distant, unless all expenditure were confined to the settled districts, and no money expended in opening up the country and providing roads, bridges and railways for the development of the colony's resources, before they would be able to get along without borrowing. Many nsked why the Government did not apply the surpluses towards reducing taxation, and make tho railways, etc., out of borrowed money. JSe was' against suoh a policy as that, contending that by investing the sinking funds, instead of hoarding, they were,- by increasing production, securing ihe largest amount of interest. BAH.WAY CONSTRUCTION. He was opposed to the system of confining railway expenditure to the main trunk lines of the colony. There was a desire in several part 3of the colony to cut down railway expenditure, except for the completion of these trunk lines. He admitted that these lines were of more or less importance, but thought , that, when completed, it would be many yeare ■ before they would return 3 percent, on cost of construction. —(Mr W. F. Inder: What about the Otago Central?) — Mr McNab: It never justified its construction untirthe dredging industry began to btf developed. I hope that with the expansion of dredging it will pay 3 per cent., and if it does that it will do tremendous work. Continuing, Mr McNab said that by a policy of constructing short lengths of railway, large districts would be benefitted. During the session extensions of the Orepuki-Waiau, Seaward Bush, and Catlins river lines had been authorised, all of which he thought would prove beneficial. He condemned the previous policy of allowing settlement to po on in the forest lands and following it up by railways after the valuable timber had been cut down and wasted, as a mistake. He instanced the case of the railway northwards from Mastertoh, whioh passed through land that once, had forest upon it to which the Seaward Bush was nothing, but practically all the timber was destroyed, the royally upon which, if it had , been properly used, would have paid for the construction of the line. He hoped to see the day when the Seaward Bush line would be run through the forest lands to Catlins. If the forests there were used the line would pay even without settlement. Instead of the general demand being for the main trunk lines to be pushed on, the question should be asked whether any particular line would pay interest on the cost of construction. If it would, let it be gone on with ; if not, let it be abandoned in the meantime in .favor of other and more pressing works. THE TRANSVAAL. His vote on the subject of sending a New Zealand contingent, he had heard, had been a subject of pain to a great many of his friends and the subject of delirious delight to his opponents. Well, he had voted against a contingent being sent, and would explain the position he took up. At the time the question of sending the New Zealand contingent to South Africa cropped up in the House, Britain and the Transvaal were at peace. He held (and he had read up the matter carefully as he had friends in the Transvaal) that sending a contingent of our volunteers was a mistake. He did not think that Britain had sufficient grounds at that time for. declaring war.— (Laughter). They might laugh ; he was not ashamed of his views, and would explain his attitude on the question. He thought that Britain was not in a position that she should deolare war. — (A voice: She didn't declare war).— That was true; Britain did not only not declare war but he believed the British leaders did not desire war. — (A voice : Yes they did). — He bad a great deal of confidence in the leaders of Britain, and considered that if they thought war inevitable they would have had the army corps at the Cape months before. He believed at that time that the Transvaal question would be .settled without recourse to arms, and in this view he *was supported by Ml- Cecil Rhodes and Mr Dicey. Under these circumstances he (the speaker) did not think Parliament should pass a resolution to send troops, seeing that wo only had volunteers whose pressing duty was to protect their own country. Mr MoNab quoted portions of his ? peech on the subject from 'Hansard.'statingthalatthat time he neld that it was not the dutyof the House to press the Imperial Parliament to declare war — war which he deemed was not of defence, but for tho extension of the Empire. Since then, however, the 3oers had declared war, and there was no questirn as to whether Britain was right or wrong in the matter. He believed that at the time the New Zealand Parliament resolved to send troops the British Government oxpected the trouble to be settled without war. But the Boers had provoked war, and if the question of sending a New Zealand contingent had arisen after the declaiation of war it would have been agreed to without a dissenting voice. SCOBIE DEMOLISHED. Bef erring to that gentleman's speech in Gore last June, Mr McNab said he admired Mr Seobie Mackenzie as a platform orator — (A voice: I should think so.)— and admired his way of fighting — speaking on the last day, when a man had no chance of a reply. — (Applause.) Mr Soabie Mackenzie hud said that of 6000 or 7000 settlers in the colony in 1878, 4100 were in^Canterbury alone, and had further said that Mr McKerrow in his report for that year stated that these settlers " had turned the Canterbury plains into wheatfields for tho London market." What were tho facts ? It had never been stated in any Government return that there were 4100 settlers placed on the Canterbury plains, and Mr McKen*ow never stated that these " had turned the Canterbury plains into wheat fields for the London market." In 1878 land settlement in Canterbury was different to the system in force to-day. If a man wanted 100 or 150 sections, he put in 100 or 150 applications, and what Mr Scobio Mackenzie had referred to as 4100 settlers was probably the 4100 sections taken up— a vast difference between that and the same number of settlers. Of these sections, one man hud applied for 152, another for 148, another for 113, and so on; 4.118 applications for sections coming from 885 different individuals. It wight be said that Mr Seobie Mackenzie did not at the time know the details of the Canterbury land laws in 1878, honestly (politically honestly) believing that the number.of selections meant number of selectors, and making the | statement in political innocence. If that were so, he should only have made the incorrect statement once. But he made it on August 18 of last year, and on the 24th of the some month the Minister for Lands confuted Mr Seobie Mackenzie's figures, poiuting out the facts as he(tbe speaker) had rendered them. On the same day Mr Scobte Mackenzie got up in his place in the House to make a personal explanation, in reply to what the Minister for Lands had said, but he uttered not a single word in regard to settlement in Canterbury. On August 30th of the same year he (Mr Mackenzie) essajed to explain how he had made the mistake. He (the speaker) did not wish to read Mr Mackenzie's reply, but he would quote from the ' Evening Post ' (the strongest paper on Mr Mackenzie's side in the colony), which charged him with speciously endeavoring to mislead the House and the people of the colony by his land tables. That took place last year — (A voice : And is he. alive ? and laughter). What did Mr Mackenzie do this year ? He came .to Gore and repeated the same statement about settlement in Canterbury— (A voice : Oh ! he's alive yet then, and renewed laughter)— after it had been proved wrong by the Minister for Lands and the ' Evening Post.' — (MiHenderson : He asked you to meet him on

the platform.— Mi- . McNab : 1 . would tackle him and all the Gore ; lawyei6 with him. — Loud laughter and applause.) Continuing, Mr BfqNab said Mr Soobie Mackenzie stated in Gore that his table had roused the Minister for Lands into giving the correct figures, which he (Mr Mackenzie) said he would quote. Instead of using those of the Minister he gave his own false figures. Further than that, Mr McKerrow never, said the settlecs had turned the Canterbury plains to wheat fields for the London market. What he really did' say was that' owing to the facilities of railways, roads and bridges, and the remarkable advances made in agricultural machinery the level grassy plains whioh appeared destined to be merely grazing land for sheep had been turned into- wheat fields for the London markets. When the statement' regarding the 4100 settlers was made in the House last year, it was contradicted, by the' Minister for Lands and shown to be absolutely, incorrect ; when Mr Mackenzie tried -to explain it away the 'Post' said he was deceiving the House and the ciuntry, and when he came to Gore a year later he gave the old false figures, and then defied anyone to prove him wrong. After that would they be surprised to learn that Mr Mackenzie came on to that platform and made a statement ' regarding a bantering private conversation he and the speaker bad in a railway carriage — a ' statement in which there was as much manufactured material as there was in his (Mr Mackenzie's) manufactured table 1 He (the speaker) did not need to go into that statement to show them what was fact and what was false. He would not insult their intelligence by doing so. UPPEK HOUSE HEFOBM. He always supported the existence of a ' second chamber, but believed they (Parliament) had made a mistake, when they legislated to cut down > the life tenure, of «;dffice; -> This year we were:.having;lhe fcrs.fciexp&ferieesV: •of thp expiry of 'the seyen^year teri^bftb'ffiee v ' " of Legislative Councillors.. -The sanWOov- ' eminent • wus in office that appointed ;tWse men, and naturally some of the ten' would be re-appointed. This year the Upper House had failed to perform its proper function:!. Formerly it was a revising ohamber and had tried to do some revising this- year, but bo badly was the work, done that When the bills came down from the Legislative Council no one knew what was meant by them.- The main Clause of the inefficiency was that there 'were ten members whose term of office was expiring, and the main part of their efforts was to secure their position for. another term. To remedy thnt stßte of matters! he would t:ike the power of appointing Legislative Councillors from the Government and substitute for it some system of election -by the people similar to that for members of the Lower House. He did not care what plan was adopted, hut rather than the present system he would agree to (living Legislators only a ten years' tenure of office, so long, as the appointments were not mnde where they did their work. They heard a lot of nonsense talked about local bodies appointing Legislative Councillors, but he held that they should be elected on a universal suffrage basis, and under some similar system to elections for the Lower Honse. FEDERATION. This was not a' subject of vital importance in the selection of a Parliamentary representative, because before the principles of Federation could be adopted in this colony a vote of the electors of the whole colony would " first have to be taken. All they wanted was their representative to pledge himself to supply the people with all information regarding the subject, and after suitable time had been given to digest that, to give^ the colony the opportunity to decide for or against the proposal. Personally, he was in-favor of . Federation with the Australian colonies, but did not think the electors could give a proper decision upon the matter until they had more information than was at their .disposal at present. One of the reasons why be supported Federation was on account of the. improved facilities for the~ interchange of trade with Australia. Victoria and New South Wales were (except Tasmania) the nearest colonies to us, and they formed a good object lesson of what might be expected by our going for Federation or remaining out of it., Victoria, being a protection colony, .imposed heavy . Customs duties on our products.and was typical of the state of things that .would prevail throughout towards us if we re- > mained out of the Federation.- In New South ' Wales the principles of Freetrade prevailed, and that colony and the port of ' Sydney represented the relation New Zealand would stand in towards Australia if we joined the Federation. The figures of our imports and exports from and to Victoria for the last half year illustrated the position strikingly. During that period we exported to Victoria (under Protection) £173,000 worth of goods, and imported from there £150,000 worth. To New South Wales (under Freetrade) we exported £603,000, and imported £329,000 worth. It cost us therefore £150,000 to get £173,000 worth of hade from Victoria, and only £329,000 to get £603,000 worth from New South Wales. These were significant figures, and might fcrove an object lesson to New Zealand in the question of Federation. Another advantage of Federation was the subsidy of trade routes to other parts of the woild. If we did not federate the same duty would be placed on our goods entering Australia as upon those from America, where production was cheap beyond hope of com- : petition by New Zealand. If we remained out of the Federation we . should be shut out from lucrative markets for our manufactures, and looking at the question in the broad aspect he was of opinion that a state of Federation was the ultimate destiny of the Australasian colonies. — (Applause). QUESTIONS. In reply to questions on licensing matters Mr McNab said he still believed in the right of the people to decide for themselves how many, if any, licenses they should have in any district; that he; believed in the. bare majority to decide local option and a threefifths majority for colonial option ; that four issues should be submitted at the local option polls — viz., extension,. continuance, reduction, or extinction of licenses! to be decided by a simple majority. Personally he did not think a single electorate would go for increase, reduction appeared to be the general desire ; • that previous to 1893 licenses were held from year to year, since then a three years' tenure was practically given, which he considered reasonable. _ Mr J. .T.Meikle.amid considerable interruption, put a number of quest ions regarding his petition to the Government for compensation and other matters, which Mr McNab 'answered. ■ ' ' In answer to Mr Brewer Mr McNab said he did not vote on the Transvaal contingent " question, but paired with Mr .Wason at. the latter's urgent request, he being anxious to attend to some business out ofHown. ' ' Mr Whittingham asked if Mr McNab was in favor of borrowing. He proceeded to state that the present Government went in on the non-borrowing ticket, but had increased the National debt from about 26 millions'to 31 millions. Had there been any change of policy, and did Mr McNab favor borrowing ? Mr McNab said probably the Government had seen the error of its ways. Mr Whittinghiim : "Nuf sed."— (LaughMr Inder asked if Mr McNab had yet made up his mind about the marine scandal. Mr McNab said he thought the Marine Inquiry had established beyond doubt that abuses had taken place, but that the Minister of Marine had no knowledge of the abuses. Those responsible for the abuses had been punished, and ho thought tho finding of the Commission, that tho Minister had no knowledge; of the_ abuses, nor had sanctioned the bogus examination, was correct. Mr Inder aßked if Mr McNab should be • returned, he would move for a return showing how much money had been lent on Government leases, how much of it bad been retained to pay back rents, and how -nany , leases, upon which money was lent, had been forfeited through non-compliance with the -" conditions. ' . ' Mr McNab promised to move for such a return if elected. , COMPLIMENTARY, Mr T. Green moved, Mr 3. Ballintine seconding, a vote of thanks to Mr McNab for his speech and for his valuable services to the electorate, and confidence in him as a representative. This was carried with one dissentient, the proceedings closing with three cheers for Mr McNab, and a vote of thanks to the chairman. «...'■