MAJOR ATKINSON AT DUNEDIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 7001, 25 April 1884, Page 5

MAJOR ATKINSON AT D UNEDIN.

[by telegraph;—tbess association, J . Dunebis, Thursday. The Hon. Major ; Atkinson addressed a crowded meeting in Queen's Theatre tonight. It was the largest meeting seen in Dunedin for a long time. The Mayor was in the chair, and the Hon. Mr. Eolleaton was among those on the platform. There were many interruptions" and a good deal of amusement. ..; . - - Major Atkinson said he came before them a dispirited man. It had been said that the Government were a Government of Centralism, and that he was the chief apostle of it; and Mr. Montgomery more than once had-professed to have just found ont that he (the speaker) was a " hollow financial sham."— This was. enough to make hinv dispirited. But Mr. Montgomery might find out that in spite of, hie hollownesß he could stand a good deal, ol knocking about. He would talk plainly. to the audience, for they did not want him. to. cry "Peace, peace !" when there was no peace. There would be persons who disagreed with his conclusion, but after the meeting he would be happy to answer questions. THE EXPKNDITORE OF THE GOVERNMENT. The people of Dunedin had been surprised a good deal abont the proposed constitutional change of Government, and had been' told that the present Government was one of extravagance, and that they ipent large sums in the North Island while they neglected the South. Ho wonld begin by directing their' attention to the expenditure of money raised on loan under the Immigration and Public Works Act since 1870.. The sum borrowed had been 191 millions, and he wonld tell, them how that sum had been spent. ' Up to March 31st, 1883, they had spent two millions on immigration, and in his opinion if they bad' spent more in that way, they .would not now have to complain -of so much depression. They had spent about 17 millions on public works generally on these items: Railways, 10£ millions; roads, 2 millions ; public buildings (including schools) £1,200,000; land purchase, £925,000; works on goldflelds, £56,000; telegraph extension, £460,000. Of the total sum, they had spent £6,900,000 in the North Island,, and £10,350,000. in the South. Now, taking the mean population in both Islands, the proportion should have been £6,550,000 in the North Island, and £10,7.00,000 in the South'. This.omitted all consideration of the Maori population, so that, on a population basis, the North"had got about £300,000 more than its fair share out of a total of 17± millions. ■ How could expenditure be more evenly distributed, and this had to be considered : the great object of Public Works policy was the construction of a main trunk line of railway from Auckland to the Bluff. In the South the benefit of a main trunk had been enjoyed, but in the North they had to put up with a, diojointed system of railways. The whole' thing should be looked at from the point of view of a soheme gone into for the benefit of the whole colony. They had heard a great deal about wasteful expenditure, and the expenditure was alleged I to be open to classification of productive and unproductive. Well, he had calculated the whole thing carefully, and he found that the total amount spent in what could in any way be called "political" railways, was between 3 and 4 per cent, of the total sum expended. Surely a proportion of waste like . that, was excusable waste. All business men would allow that so small a waste reflected great credit on the people and Government of New Zealand. There had been spent £2,000,000 on roacts, but that was not a wasteful expenditure!, for roads were a. necessary feeder to the railway system; Mr. Montgomery said, and he could scarcely have believed that he would have committed himeelf to so inaccurate a statement, that Sir J. Vogel had stated he had expended one and a-half millions in buying support for his scheme. Sir J. Vogel never'said such a thing. Sir J. Vogel had proposed to borrow ten millions, eight of which should go for railways, and what he did say was, that the provinces, finding the General could get money so much cheaper than ~they~.could, had put so much presasure on him that he had been forced to extend the scope of his scheme to that extent; and,'under the circumstances, he did not know that that-was blameable. fie assorted that; an impartial examination would establish the fact that every penny of the expenditure'on the railways and roads of the colony out of borrowed money had been a wise and proper expenditure, and he would show them one or two of the indirect advantages from the Public Works scheme. Last year on the railways of the colony they had carried forty-five and a-half millions of tons of goods a distance of one million miles. The oheapeat possible cost of moving those goods by cart would bave been two and a-quarter millions. The actual cost by rail was a little over half a-million. Iu such indirect advantages, alone.. the whole of the interest paid on the public debt of the colony was more thau covered. They had carried on the railways of the colony last year fortytwo millions of passengers the same distance, whose carriage if moved by coach would have been well over two millions, whereas by railway it was a little over half a-million. Then it had been further stated that the Government were a corrupt Government. Before he (Major Atkinson) took office there had been ten millions out of the total of twenty millions borrowed, and the amount that he was responsible for borrowing or for recommending to be burrowed, was less than six and a-half millions, and of that two millions were not yet raised, so that less than four and a-half millions was the amount ho was responsible for. Now, Mr. Montgomery's friends, while they had been in office, which was about a third of his term, had asked authority to borrow seven and a-half millions, and this sum had actually been raised. These were the facts. They had been accused of making largejexpenditure on public buildings,- half of tho sum on this head had gone for school buildings, which they could not do without, and if .the whole expenditure on pnbiio buildings were taken in detail he was prepared to justify it, juet as he was prepared to justify that on harbours and lighthouses, telegraph extension, etc. Tho money had been expended in a thoroughly reasonable manner. The people of Dunedin were told that large sums were to be spent on public buildings in Wellington, and on this point the speaker went into details. They were being told that the Government were squandering their inheritance in the North, and it was right they should know tho faots. THE DEPRES3ION, Now he would speak about the present depression. Hβ had been accused of saying at Hawora that : there was no depression. This was a mistake, which arose through an unfortunate condensation of his remark?. He had said there was no depression in the colony which should make us doubt the financial soundness of the colony, or that affected the spending powers of the peopio to any appreciable extent; and he was prepared to maintain this opinion against all comers. He was not one of those who would go about [ groaning and whining, that the whole social condition of the colony, was very bad. He believed in the colony and its resourcee, and in the stout' hearts and stamina of its people, who in a few years would think of the present

depression aa a mere nothing. He believed ' the people of the colony ■ would rise to ' the occasion . and sweep away the present ', depression. It was quite true that trade ' was bad, and ..why was it bad ? Hβ would tell them why, and he would tell them that : the Government were! facing the difficulty. I They had dared to tell the people of the I i colony that they were borrowing too largely ' and spending too lavishly. The fault pf this ' Government was, not that it was a wasteful ' and extravagant but that it ' was an economical and careful Government. (Hisses and applause, and ' considerable in- 1 terruptions.) ; Yes, that was its. real fault. They had dared to face the position, and to say that for the future so much should not be spent out of loans or out of consolidated revenue. The colony had been spending about two millions a-year out of borrowed money. Then every thing was flourishing, trade increased and traders increased. They had too many traders. Now,.the Government had curtailed borrowing, and certain private monetary institutions had done the same thing, yet their traders had gone on importing quite as much as before. In this way the colony found itself sending away one million, or a million and a-half a year more than it had been doing before, and' so} in a nutshell, here lay. one of the principal causes of this depression. There had been a great fall in wool, and a considerable fall in grain, the colony having/suffered to the extent of £400,000 i>r £500,000 in' regard' to the wool alone. Then there was another thing which perhaps, referred specially to.Duuedin. He was'told, on good authority, that inJDuaedin

a quarter of a million had gone oat of the people's pockets on ' speculations in goldmining. Then lie found that there also the building trade was. much : depressed, bat he thought they might well take a hopeful view. They might go in for promoting local indnstries and thus create wealth. Beferring to the falling, off in the Customs duties he said that the general necessities of life had fallen off from 5 to 10 per cent., while the dtS .y. on tobacco and spirits had only fallen from 2 to 3 per cent, he did not believe any man in the' colony would allow his wife and family to want, and yet indulge in the luxury of smoking and drinking. This he looked upon as con elusive proof that . the . present. depression was only temporary, and if they set themselves to face it with stout hearts it would pass away like a rainy day.' Speaking :of the remedies proposed, he said the first waste kick the Government put of office. That was very easily determined. They had only to say that it shonld be done and so it wonld. If they asked his opinion, he would aay it wonld be' very unwise indeed. . Another remedy proposed was to stop borrowing. This, however, would do no good, but only land them in greater difficulties than they were in at present; : The Government, however, were' opposed to indiscriminate borrowing, and if they had to borrow fnrther they would do it very carefully. •In answer to question, he said that £155,000 was sent home tor interest every year.' The third remedy proposed was an alteration, of the Constitution., fie saw that in Dunedin they had formed what they called a Constitutional Association. What it proposed to do was to decentralise the Government with the view of increasing the powers of the local bodies. Now he claimed to have done more for loeal government than any other man in New Zealand. What was proposed by the persons opposed to him was that there should be so many more centres to exercise the powers which the General Government at present exercised. fie went on to refer to a number of difficulties in the way of such a proposal being carried ont. It seemed to him that a better remedy wonld be to renew their faith in themselves and their country. Turning ont the Government, altering the Constitution, and stopping borrowing, though very heroic plans no doubt, would not answer the purpose. What they would have to do wonld be to work and to economise. .They wanted their capitalists and merchants to look carefully at the Customs returns and see what articles -of manufacture could be produced in the colony. They wanted the people to turn their . attention away from specnlation in mines and land speculation to the more legitimate channel of promoting manufactures in the colony. They would have to make up their minds to see that everything the colony, could produce to advantage shonld not be imported with it. The farmer and runholder would have to I make up their minds to make their lands produce double, and he believed that, with properly skilled labour, that could be done. There were at the present time only thirteen million sheep in the colony, while England had double as many. They also -wanted more people of the right stamp on the I land. They did not want squatters on the land, they wanted settlers. He knew that I the cry for more people was not a popular one. What did they find in a country where immigration was suddenly stopped ? Why they found wages go down, things become dull, and property at a lose. (Cries of " No," and hisses.) ' RAILWAY TARIFF AND CIVIL SERVIO*. The speaker then referred to the increase of the railway tariff. He said Government had agreed to it at the risk of losing support, because they saw it was absolutely necessary to bave an increase. .Referring to the Civil Service, he said the Government had been constantly decreasing the number of officers. -For instance, the constabulary, in 1881, about 1000 strong were now reduced to 476. The Government hed done all they could to settle the land in small blooks, and had succeeded to a wonderful extent, while they had done a great deal to place the taxation evenly on the people. CONCLUSION , . . In conclusion he would say that the prosperity of the colony depended on the people themselves—on tne working classes. They had political power, and it remained for them to use it in a proper manner. They should watch over the iutereits of the great country they wore helping to make. Above all, they should watoh their public men. They should record their vote*, not in accordance with personal motives, bnt in matters of principle. If they did that there should be no fear for the country at all.

A large number of questions were asked, the meeting lasting till twenty minutes to twelve.

Mir. Wilson moved, " That Major Atkinson be granted a vote of thanks for his address." . . -. .. ■

Mr. Rossbotham moved, as an. amendment, " That the speaker be thanked for his address, but that this meeting has no confidence in his administration of the government of New Zealand."

Only half the people present voted, and it was impossible to say which received most support.

The Mayor, amid confusion, declared the motion carried.