MR .J. TROUNSON, LIBERAL!

Northern Advocate, 25 November 1893, Page 7

MR .J. TROUNSON, LIBERAL !

{From The Gttmdiggers' Weekly.) As we surmised in last issue, the gumdiggers of Dargaville, or at least those represented by the Gumdiggors' Executive Committee, of which .Fitzgerald is Chairman, hnvo been cleverly entrapped. They are going to support Trounson, who they say is a Liberal ! ! While ho has condemned in no measured terms the Government policy and measures, and is advertised in the " Herald " as the nominee of the Auckland National Association: an Association formed for the purpose of annihilating the Seddon Liberal Government, the only Government that ever took any interest in the gumdigger: passed the Truck Act for him and this year appointed a Royal Commission to enquire into the gum industry.

Capital has been made by the opponents of the Government out of two of the Commissioners recommending a tax on gum : a proposal which tlie uovernmeht never lißd dny in Itention of levying. All the Government ever thought of doing was to impose a license on guindiggers so as to assure to diggers certain prescribed legal privileges similar. to fhoae held by gdld ininersj and (2) part of the license fee was to be set aside for an old age pension fund. Till the present Government came into power, nothing was done to' ameliorate the condition of the gumdigger. The Mitchelson - Atkinson Government ignored the very existence of the gumdigger, who was left a prey to the vultures that held every gumfield in their clutches. The Seddon Government entered into the grievances of the gumdiggers with vigour, passing the Truck Act and preventing any gum lands from being sold or leased. And next session, the Government intend introducing other laws with a view of (1) regulating the gum trade so as to preserve a standard value for giiin, (2) providing settlement land contiguous to gumfields for diggers, and (3) establishing an old age pension fund out of licenses. To prevent these things being done, the National Association; and its nominees, Mr Trouuson, Mr Mitchelson and the rest are moving heaven and earth to oust the Seddon Government from office. And the gumdigger is blandly invited to support Mr Trounson. The National Association which is running Mr Trounson, issued their manifesto last week as follows : — National Association of New Zealand (Auckland Section)— General Election, 1893.—Important Advice to Members and Friends tff the Association : — The Council of the National Association of New Zealand (Auckland Section), after carefully considering tho public pronouncements and the known antecedents of the candidates for Parliament, has unanimously decided to recommend members and friends of the Association to record their votes as follows : — FOE CITY OF AUCKLAND. Mr Charles Edward Button Mr William Crowther. As to the third vote, the Couucil finds that all the other City candidates are more or less out of harmony with the principles cf the Association. The Council regrets that it is not able to support Mr Edward Withy's candidature on account of his well-known views on the single-tax theory. OTHER CONSTITUENCIES. For other constituencies of the Auckland Provincial District the Council urges members and friends of the Association to vote for, and to use their best efforts to secure the return of the following candidates : — PABNEtL. Mr William Shepherd Allen. KDEN. Mr Edwin Mitchelsou. WAITEMATA. Mr Richard Monk. BAY OF ISLANDS. Mr James Trounson. MANTJKAU. Mr William Francis Buckland. FRANKLIN. Mr William Ferguscn Massey. WAIPA. Mr Frederick William Lang. AVAIKATO. Mr Isaac Coates-. BAY OF PLENTY. Colonel Henry Burton. On this programme g-umdiggers will I notice that Trounson and Mitchelson are in the same boat. This Association not only seeks to replace Mr Houston with Mr Trounson, but also wants to knock out Jackson Palmer for Monk. If then the gum-, diggers lend themselves to this plan, they well deserve to forfeit the friendship of the Seddon Government. But we believe tlie gumdiggers are fully alive to their own interests, and that when they read the telegram from the Premier published elsewhere, they will to a man rally round the Liberal Banner and vote for Houston. This pronouncement made by \ the Premier commits the Government to a distinct programme in favour of the gumdigger. He indicates that legislation will be brought in to (1) liegulate the Gum trade. (2) To ameliorate the condition of gumdiggers. (3) And to provide land for the gumdiggers. This is the programme we have advocated, and if the gumdiggers support it by returning Houston, they will make their political weight felt for the first time in the history of our politics. As this official pronouncement will be placod in the hands of every gumdigger I before the day of the poll, we have no doubt but that Houston will completely smother his other opponents. The Auckland Star of Saturday last, i in reviewing the work accomplished by the present Government, says : — " Three years ago, the Agricultural industry was crushed down by the most destructive tav that it was in tho power of man's imagination to conceive. It because penal for tho farmer even to repair his fences or add to his barns Every lamb his ewes dropped brought down upon him a fresh extortion from the tax collector. TJie professional man in the city, earning £1,000 or £2,n<)<) a-year. was emancipated from direct taxation, while the struggling farmer in the country whose property and stock worth, say, £2,000 altogether from which by [ dint of hard work lie managed to wring [ a baro subsistanco, was obliged to pay £6 5/ it year in property tax, besides Customs duties on everything his family consumed. No wonder the heart of tho struggling settler, handicapped, by low prices, was taken out. him. The country was almost without hope. People were leaving its shores by thousands. Its credit wub bad abroad, and was I not improved by the dismal predictions of prophets of evil like Mr Monk and the Skinflint Committee of the Housd, who seemed to think that things could be remedind by a few cheese-paring economies, everyone of which aggravated the prevailing distress, while the beak of a governmental cormorant, with no more bowels of compassion than a Turkish Pasha who had obtained a Levantine tax-

collector's monopoly, tore at the very vifals of our country settlers. What the Bullanco-Seddon Government did was to infuse a spirit of hope and confidence in the country. They iicoimitely , gauged the ailment of the patient and jn-pscjrihbil accordingly. With one stroke, xinder the Land and Income Tax Act, they declared that, it should no longer be penal in New Zealand for the fanner to improve his land or add to his {locks and herds. Oil the contrary, they encouraged him to do 9O by proittoting settlement on the land, engaging dairy experts to assist farmers in developing this important industry, and encouraging agricultural aiid pastoral pursuits in a variety of other ways. The relief given to agriculture by the substitution of the land tax for the property tax, may be gathered from the simple fact that the number of graziers sheep farmers and dairymen who paid property tax was 8,611, while those who paid land tax last year were only 4,760, the amounts payable by the farmers were also proportion ately reduced through the exemption of their stock und improvements. Of the total slim of . .±'g32;c)Bl collected from the land tax last year. £73,627 was paid under the graduated tax upon estates exceeding £5,000 in value. This, the present Opposition, according to Sir Kollestoh's published speeches, proposes to repeal, leaving the additional burden to fall upon the small settler. Confidence in the country and reliance on its people, and a determination to administer the affairs of the country in the interests of the many and hot of the few, have been the forces by which these changes have been effected. But there has been another element at work The members of the Cabinet were nearly all practical working men, who had been themselves among the workers. Seddon with pick and shovel on goldfields, and with practical experience as a i ounty Chairman ; Cadmah, as a sawmiller and also as a County Chairmau. These men thoroughly understood tho wants and difficulties of the rural settler. We believe that if the graduated titx is left to do its work for a few years, land monopoly will be effectually ended, without injustice or revolution. But desperate efforts are being made in the present election to return men pledged to | oust the Government, and put Mr ltolleston and the representatives of the great land-owners and land-owning companies in their place. The electors will have themselves entirely to blame if this move-^ ment snecends. They must remember that nothing of all that has been done could have bpen accomplished without the support of a solid phalanx of Liberal representatives. To such men as Mr Houston of the Bay of Islands. Mr R. Thompson of Marsden. und Mr Jackson Palmer of Waitemata, belong a full share of the credit for taking a broad and enlightened view of the situation, and steadyly supporting measures designed to effect the desired reforms. The electors will, we are confident, find it exceedingly difficult to get members with an equal grasp of the situation or more capable of advancing the interests of their districts.