THE HERALD OF REFORM.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 78, 27 January 1872, Page 8

THE HERALD OF REFORM.

TO THE EDITOE OF THE CanTEBBUBY 'PeESS.' Sie — The recent avowal and defence in public, by Mr. W. A. Murray (member of the House of Eepresentativoß for the Bruce distriot, Otago), of a thorough opposition to " the extravagant and reckless policy of the present Government," and the unanimous sanction and approval which that gentleman's proceedings have received, not only from the electors of the chief portion of that important district, but also from both branches of the public press there, deserve, I submit, more han a passing notice. The population of the district of Bruce, in all, contains a large proportion of agricultural producers, and also a largo number of gold miners, and of the various hangers on to the latter industry. But it was in the heart of the agricultural portions of the district that Mr. Murray, on the 4th instant, addressed a numerous and attentive audience, at the Volunteers' Hall, in the township of Milton, Tokomairiro, the Mayor, Mr. Goodall, being in the chair. The Bruce Standard tells us " the audience was remarkably attentive," and both that paper and the Bruce Herald describe it as " a meeting remarkable for good order and unanimity of feeling." The latter paper, which appears to be the chief paper in the district, on the 10th instant published a leading article in review of the meeting, expressing the most earnest approval of Mr. Murray's denunciation of the Vogel-M'Lean Q-overnment, and of the resolution come to by the meeting. Mr. Murray is, I believe, the first member who lias addressed his constituents since the prorogation j and he deserves more than a mere local recognition of the manliness and independence with •which he has thus led the way. He did not join the small band of Opposition members, partly organized under Mr. Stafford, until after the most careful aud deliberate inquiry into the principles on which it was formed j and then gave his earnest, industrious, and undeviating support, by both speech and vote, to the only principle upon which that minority were thoroughly united — namely, that of large and general retrenohment throughout all departments of Govefnment, together with a strict adherence to the practice of keeping ordinary expenditure within ordinary revenue. His Bpeech at Milton is a clear, outspoken review of the principal features and results of the session. He truly describes the measures for lending money to Wellington on insufficient security as gross jobs, perpetrated by Wellington votes, which were banded together throughout the session in support through thick and thin of the Vogel administration. He refers to part of the security as " land underneath the water forming the hurbour of Wellington, that would cost more to reclaim than it would sell for." He sums up the whole of these trausactions thus: — "A valueless security would thus alone remain to the colony." He described the Payment to Provinces Act as "to expend £100,000 of borrowed money in a very unfair manner, and that with money which they must themselves repay, aud to make them the pensioners and dependants of the Colonial Executive. To please tho provincial authorities in the House, one-half the money was to be placed at the disposal of Superintendents, to squander about their capitals instead of opening up the country by roads and bridges." On the Civil Service Amendment Act, Mr. Murray said : " The free and independent members of the House perceived that the liabilities under which the colony was being involved under the Civil Service Act, were . rapidly increasing, and that soon the whole revenue itself would be insufficient to meet the demand. The civil servants wore a great power, and it was no use in shutting our eyes to tho fact ; their name was legion, and their influence over the Government, through private individuals, both in and out of parliament, was mobt baueiul. It was they who always got up the cry that if Stafford got in, there would be war with the Maoris. The fact is that Stafford is not liked by the civil servants because he was a strict disciplinarian, and made them do their work. Steps were taken by some members of the Opposition to check tins growing evil, and to repeal the Act, respecting, of course, existing engagements. These steps were attended with success despite the opposition of the G-overnment." On the Stamp Duties Aot, Mr. Murray said, "Although he had opposed the measure, he oould not say that he regretted its passing, for he believed it would turn out to be one of the most useful measures that had been passed. Direct taxation, to the extent of £50,1)00 or dBIOO,OOO, would have a far more tangible effect than ten millions of promises to pay, if not in raising money, yot in stirring up a spirit of inquiry in the people as to what was being done ■with it — a resolution to put a stop to the wasteful extravagance that is going on — a spirit of determination not to be robbed or trampled upon with impunity." On the Customs Tariff Bill, Mr. Murray calls it " one that, with the exception of the duties on malt and hops, and on rice to catch the Chinese, ■was simply a transparent sham. If they could compete with grain in London against the world, it was absurd to suppose that they could not compete in their own markets. As regarded revenue, the grain duties would bo valueless ; as regarded protection, it was not needed ; but it might have tho good effect of arousing tho people to the doings of a G-overnment, which, to meet a course of reckless extravagance, was not above taxing the bread of the people. It ceitainly caught the votes of Canterbury members, by simply deluding them." Mr. Murray should have said some Canterbury members. In the courage to oppose protective duties on tho raw material of bread, whon speaking to a ppecially agricultural population, he maiiiully follows the course of Mr. Stevens last year, when he boldly defended the doctrine of free trade, as a candidate for the Sehvyn district; aud when Mr. Beeves, tho protectionist "Besident Minister for the Middle Island," only beat him by 102 votes to 101, the winning voto being of doubtful validity. There were then only 244 electors on

the roll of that district. The ballot has encouraged those who formerly abstained from qualifying, in order to keep themselves free from bribery .or intimidation, to become electors ; so that now there are 492 on the roll, or more than double the former number. I cannot help believing that the additional voters are chiefly of those to whom the question of a dear or cheap loaf is more important than the artificial bolstering up of unskilful or careless farmers, and greedy millers, corn-factors, and bakers. In that case, if the Minister for the Lyttelton Times had not been absolved by the mischievously exceptional clause of the Disqualification Act of 1866 from resigning his seat on accepting paid office, and going back to his improved constituency for their approval of his conduct, I much doubt whether he would now be a member of tho House of Eepresentatives. Mr. Murray allows the Immigration and Public Works Ainendniflnt Act to have " some good features, if honestly carriod out ; while other proposals were so transparently open to become engines of corruption, that they scarcely knew whether to be amused at the ingenuousness, or astounded at the audacity of the Government in making them. * * * As for the notorious Board of Works, it was simply a bare-faced proposal to secure support." The object of it, "and its appointments was for the purpose of catchin" votes, and he believed that this bunch of carrots had been dangled before the noses of at least fifteen or sixteen members. * * There could be no disputing the fact that it was only the patronage at the disposal of tho Government in connection with the lavish expenditure that was going on, and still to go on iv connection with the spendings of the loans, that enabled the present Government to hold their seats." He denounced the proposed expenditure of £350,000 on a railway from Wellington to Masterton, as " simply a gigantic attempt to bolster up the Empire <Jity at the expense of the colony;" aud described " the rugged and preoipitous hills through which it passed, the long desolate valley called the Hutt, and its terminus at three or four houses, which compose the great town of Masterton. He summed up tho whole proposed expenditure of colonial loans in the Province of Wellington alone as " £666,000, a 6um actually to be spent now, and twice that prospectively, on a province which could not raise £9,000 to repay tho funds of the Savings Bunk, which it had used ;" and the only security as " 296,000 acres of land which wa3 bought for the province of Wellington last year for £18,000 out of colonial funds." In Bumming up the general finanoial position of the colony, Mr. Murray makes out " that by next session the debts of the colony will have amounted up to not less than £13,275,000. But this was not all, for, according to Mr. Sewell," in his speech after retiring from the Vo<*elM'Lean Ministry, " they would require to borrow more to carry on tho costly nativo policy of the Government, as the money for that purpose would be all spent, and only £1,230,000 of the Vogel loan is left for the railways ; the provincial expenditure would exceed income by £212,525." Mr. Murray adds that "for the last two years tho colony had been going to tho bad at the rate of a quarter of a million per annum." This year he reckons the colonial excess of expenditure over revenue at £167,000 ; which, added to the above colonial excess, makes a total of £379,500. Moreover, " this large excess did not include the charges for the recent large loans, for which provision would have to be made next session, and which, with interest on the loans authorized during the past session, would swell the amount by nearly a quarter of a million more — an amount to bo met by increased taxation, or by adopting the usual custom of providing for it out of borrowed money, or giving a billot for it, and like tho Highland laird, ' thank God that that is paid.' Was it surprising then that Mr, Sewell resigned his seat in tho Ministry, and sacrificed his salary of not less than £1,200 a year, because his warnings were unheeded and his counsels disregarded, and who thus washed his hands clear of a course which would bring the country to disaster, if not ruin; or that Messrs. Stafford and Hall sliould have declined to join the Ministry? Neither was it surprising that Mr. Waterhouse, a Wellington gentleman who succeeded Mr. Sewell, should have resigned his seat in six weeks ; and that now, after trying all i-espectable members of the House, they had only succeeded in securing Mr. Oraond, who was in the pay of the Government, and Mr. Eeeves, the editor of the Lyttelton Times, who had proved himself a blind and devoted supporter ; nor was it to be wondered at that Ministers should wish to get rid of the control of Parliument for eighteen months, and of the Comp-troller-General altogether; that officer, in the faithful discharge of his duties, incurring the displeasure of tho Treasurer by the exposure of some curious money transactions." Mr. Murray next makes out, and, I believe, correctly, that under the items appropriation, native defence, militia, &c, land and money by Acts, aud railways, the North Island gets the expenditure of £2,309,000 ; while under the only equivalent items of militia, volunteers, and railways, the Middle Island gets but £959,000, or little more than two-fifths as much as the North. He deduces therefrom the following important conclusions and illustrations :—: — "It was not therefore surprising why the Northern members should support the Government, whose policy seemed to bo setting province against province, and class against class. The runholdera, having si grateful recollection of how Mr. Vogel served their class in Otago, and bearing in mind, moreover, the statement made by Mr. Stafford at Timaru, that the squatters should not be permitted to lock up the country against colonization, it was not difficult to account for their support to the present Government. Since Mr. Vogel hud succeeded in becoming a member of the Central Government, he had entirely changed his opinions. He was seeking to destroy all the best features of Provincialism, and seemed to have but the one object of concentrating all power in one centre, and in the person of ono

man, and that man was himself. Mr. Murray said that he had been repeatedly urged by persons supposed to be the mouthpieces of the Government, that it would be better for himself and his distriot if he would leave the Opposition. For himself, he cared not nor wanted anything but it was an unpleasant and invidious alternative that he should either compromise his principles or sacrifice the interests of his constituents — but inagna est veritas et prcevalebit, and their cause, though late, would yet prevail ; and if they had done little political good, they had prevented much political mischief. He was glad to believe that a great change had taken place in tho views and opiuious of many members during the last week or two of tho session, and it only required public opinion to be thoroughly aroused and expressed to exercise a great influence for good in the future. One member who had been a supporter of the Government, and whom he might term one of the fathers of tho House, told him, a few days before the breaking up of Parliament, that he was thoroughly disgusted and alarmed at the course being pursued by the Government, which could only lead, if continued, to the most baneful consequences. A return had been ordered and laid upon the table, but which did not appear yet to be printed, showing the number of persons in receipt of salaries, not including defence and Maoris, and as near as he could recollect the number was somewhere about 1,900, and the return occupied about twenty-nine pages of foolscap. The policy of the Opposition was essentially different from that of the present Ministry. It was that of encouraging population to settle in the country, to bring the expenditure of the colony within its income, and a more cautious and prudent outlay on public works. ******** it was evident to him the present Government did not care for the settlement of the country, and the venom of the runholders and their friends was poured out upon Mr. Stafford on account of his speecli at Timaru, where ho stated, as his views on this question, that runholders wore bound to givo up possession to the settlement of population. Stafford's policy was to live within our income — not to increase taxation, but to reduce expenditure. * * * * The whole tone of tho Assembly had become so totally demoralised, and membors had become &o thoroughly disgusted that it wa9 deemed more advisable that the session should be brought to a close, and that the several constituencies should be appealed to with a view of bringing the weight of public opinion to bear upon a Government who had becomo lost to all sense of shame or decency, and whose seats were secured by the rewards for their devotion and their service rendered. " The Chairman remarked that their member had revealed to them a state of things truly alarming, and he thought it was high time the people should do something to protect themselves. In reply to a question by Mr. Marryatt, as to whether he was prepared to propose any course of action to cure the evils he had described, Mr. Murray replied that ho would be in favour of every constitutional means to obtain redress, and thought if every effort was taken to enlighten the public on the gross ovils that existed, and if public'meetings were held regularly and generally and resolutions condemnatory of the policy of tho Government passed to be published by the press, the force of public opinion would become so strong against the Ministry that they would either have to resign or adopt a better and more prudent policy. In reply to another question Mr. Murray safd the opposition, although differing on many minor points, were agreed upon one essential thing, that the present extravagance wus ruining the colony, and must bo stopped." Tho following resolution was then " unanimously passed by acclamation" :—" That this meeting approves of the conduct of Mr. Murray in the Assembly ; and disapproves of the reckless policy of tho present Government." The Bruce Eemld of the 10th instant says tho uuaniniity of this vote " speaks volumes to us, as to the deep, strong feeling which exists regarding the present Government-, and reveals tho quiet, but not leas firm conviction held, that it is absolutely necessary for all true colonists to sink minor differences and join hand in hand to support those who have devoted themselves to the herculean task of endeavouring to sweep out tho augean stable. Mr. Murray had strong opposition when lie stood for election, and we have no doubt would have the same again, if standing for re-election, on what may b3 considered and believed a3 good and sufficient grounds by his opponents, but we think they have shown a wise discretion, on the present occasion, in sinking their opinions regarding differences, which may be considered of a minor character, and throwing all their weight into the scale with those who would seek to rid the State ship of the reckless captain and crew at present in command. Feeling convinced that there is but one universal opinion that a stop should be put to the present extravagance and reckless expenditure, wo will not insult the intelligence of our readers by enumerating evidence to prove the state of things complained of, but proceed to consider what is involved in the single question asked by Mr. Marryatt— What is to bo done?" The writer very ably urges " the people to strengthen the hands of their representatives through the influence of the press, and the influence of public meetings." He cordially invites them to iiao the columns of the Bruce Herald " to express their views upon mutters of public interest," and to hold public meetings. He proceeds : "It is a duty which every intelligent elector owes to Mr. Murray to strengthen his hands, and the hands of those who with him have steadfastly resisted and opposed tho abounding bribery and corruption ; who have striven to put the brake on the stage coach ; and who have earnestly, and not altogether unsuccessfully, endeavoured to awaken their fellow-representatives to tho impending ruin which must necessarily result from allowing the reins of Government to remain in the hands of ono man virtually — a man, judging from his conduct, possessed of neither character nor property, and who, in his political career, has been educating, or rather demoralizing, the character of our representative

institutions by encouraging — by rewards of place and power — those most pernicious of all characters, political place-hunters. We speak not merely of the great evil entailed upon the colony by the enormous unprofitable increase of our. public debt, and necessary increase of taxation ; of tho ruinous and wholesale multiplication of useless and unnecessary offices, but also of tho great moral wrong inflicted on the community by the reckless and grossly injudicious appointment of men to public offices, whose only recommendation can possibly be their having proved themselves willing and submissive tools in the hands of their more able, but equally designing, masters. Witness the appointments reported to have been lately made— Messrs. Haughton, Birch, and Seaton, the former to a" Secretaryship for which ho is totally unfit and unreliable, and who has acted in all matters connected with politics in such a barefaced, Jesuitical manner as to have destroyed, even amongst his friends, all confidence in his honesty ; the two latter to appointments connected with immigration * * * both men as totally unfit for the duties as possibly could be well selected, their habits, training, and knowledge of the requirements of the country marking them out as such. We have no doubt of the truth of the statement made, not only by Mr. Murray, but by others, that tho Government endeavoured to instil into the minds of tho members, that if they joiued or continued with tho Opposition they did not need to expect anything for either themselves or their constituents. We have not only their evidence, but wo have the fact patent that the most injudicious appointments have been made, by filling questionably necessary offices with men whose only recommendation, we repeat, was' their having been useful aud unscrupulous men. It ia high time that the people should not only make their voices heard, but their power felt, by agitating for reform, and thus ' strengthen the hands of, and encourage strict probity and straightforward honesty to be cultivated by thoßO who represent us in matters political as well as personal. We cannot be silent' on this matter, nor can we charge ourselves'with using language ono whit too strong. It is impossible for us to shut our eyes to the fact that we are tamely permitting heavy pecuniary burdens to be piled up, not only on ourselves, but on. our children, and children's children, in the most reckless abd i unmeaning manner ; and that we are .also permitting a class of men to occupy positions of trust; and power whose principles, practice, arid example are of the most destructive character to all true principles of honour and integrity. Truly, wo are paying dearly the penalty' for our political iudifferentisra. Surely it is high time 'for those especially, that have families and a stake in the country, to be bestirring themselves to take a more active and intelligent interest ia public affairs." ###### E. J.-WakefieliD.

Loa Kollingk— The following sketch oF the manner in which the members of the Pennsylvania Legislature play into one another's hands gives a lively picture of tho corruption' prevailing in that great State. The writer, Colonel Francis Jordan, having been Secretary of the State for the last five years, has had the fullest opportunity for making himself acquainted with every move of the game which he describes : — Our General Assembly (says tho Secretary), as all are aware, consists of thirty-three senators and one hundred members of the House. They convene annually at tho State capital on the first Tuesday of January. Every member on an average brings with him, or has forwarded to him during the session by his constituents or others, from five to forty or more bills. These, as a faithful representative, he is expected to pass. They are miscellaneous in character, and on every conceivable subject, from a law for a township road to the appropriation of millions of the people's money for private interests. But they are all, or nearly all, for personal, private, local, or special objects. * * * They are prepared often by persons without knowledge of the existing laws, or of the most elementary principles of legislation, and are read in place by their titles and referred to the appropriate committees. Ere long they are reported, and in tho routine of legislation placed on what is called the private calendar ; and when it is under consideration every member is expected to look after his own local and private bills. If no objections are made, they all pass as a matter of course ; and if any member undertakes to object to or oppose any private bill not from his own district he is reminded that he is violating' the well-established rule of courtesy in the House, which prohibits any member from interfering with tho local bills of any other member ; and if need be, the offending memberis given to understand that his private bills shall be rejected from; the calendar and defeated, if he persists in the breach of legislative etiquette. This same rule of etiquette also operates largely in committee! * * * * * "Hands off "is both the theory aud the practice, and all suggestions of correction or amendment are successfully resisted by tho local member whose ambition it is to demon' strate his ability to pass his private bills in the exact shape in which ho received them. The result ia that what goes into the legislative hopper comes out again just a 9it went in ; and thus our statute-books are loaded down annually with over 1,300 pages of crude, undigested trash, miscalled legislation, aud which as a whole is unworthy of the name, and a reproach to any civilized community. It ha 3 been suggested by some that those evils might bo cured by a liberal exercise of the veto power. No one knows better than Ido that this cannot bo done ; for I have seen it fairly tried. * * * The Governor has gone as far a 9 ho dared, and effected as much as possible in this way. If he attempted to go any further the members of the Legislature would form combinations against him, and pass the bills over his vetoes by the required, ,two^ thirds ; and, when this was done, he would be as powerless for further restruint as the driver,of a runaway team with his lines broken.