MR. F. J. MOSS AT PARNELL HALL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9189, 19 October 1888, Page 6

MR. F. J. MOSS AT PARNELL HALL.

__—■ «■ '—— Mb. 1 F. : J. Moss, M.HR. for Parnell, addressed a meeting of his constituents at the Public Hall last night. There was a fair attendance, and on the motion of Captain McKenzie, : seconded by - Mr.' Caleb Wood, Mr. Andrew Bell was called to the chair. ',/'*' The Chairman, in his opening remarks, accused the Ministry ': of ;, being the .; main cause of the present state of the country, when the • bone and sinew of the colony was leaving it by thousands, and this he feared would continue. >: His 1 only hope was that they would return from Victoria saturated with the ideas which had made that colony so wonderfully prosperous, and infuse'new life and vigour into New Zealand. ' Mr. Moss, who was received with applause, said he would have addressed ; them at an earlier period, but when he returned i from Wellington ho was thoroughly wearied, 'and he thought they were no doubt tired of the proceedings of the session.; Then he; thought he would; wait until the Point Resolution inquiry was ended. Now he met. them/ clear of this business to give a : short. 1 / summary of the events of last .session, and his ideas as to how the country : was to be,extricated from its present difficulties. He spoke to them as a member of the ;/. Opposition, to which ; he had allied himself as the Protectionist side of the House. They found themselves. in a very awkward .position. ' Sir Harry Atkinson had a large support from the Freetraders, but they suddenly , found that he .proposed a. large ■} taxation under the , plea .of pro-1 tection. The Opposition did not like that, J for there was little protection in the present tariff, and it v;as entirely drawn "up for revenue purposes. It would have been very; easy for them 'z to have tripped/ up the Government and turned ■-..; them out; but they came ; to ' the ; conclusion that they would support the Government and carry the Protective' tariff, and, he thought in doing so ; ,the Opposition acted with considerable patriotism. They could; have turned the Government ; out, but they considered their first duty was to carry out what / was for the good , of the country, and they should bear that in mind when they heard the Opposition spoken of as obstructionists. The financial statement was made and created a great deal of illfeeling. They . (the . Opposition); had i to; swallow their'own /feelings; ■ It was not a protective tariff, but ; incidentally ■■ it afforded protection. He need riot trouble them with;the party' questions which arose, but he would tell them the position. ; There was a deficit of £128,603 from the previous year, and the Premier told them that there would be a deficit this year of £56,000. He proposed ; to increase the Customs: duties I by £207,000 and /take £70,000 from 1 the | insurance fund, and ~ put ; it into revenue. , That they kicked against. ■ The ! Premier's argument was / that , the : counj try was responsible ; for . this money, and' had a/ right;to use it, bub; this part of, I the ■';,; scheme -was ,abandoned, / but the I £207,000 remained. He : proposed out of this, £60,000 for school buildings and £64,000 as subsidies to local bodies if the tariff was carried. V Then £58,000 was to be carried to the deficit, i leaving a surplus of £28,000. The Opposition found it difficult to know what to do; whether to do away with the *. subsidies or ■■' Protection, or to swallow the tariff, ' and they had \ to do the latter. Then the next question of retrenchment— a very peculiar one. They ' were told f that,;, £230,000 was to ; be saved by retrenchment,/and, Government asked them to support them in carrying i% into effect. ~; In Auckland it seemed to be the feelingto cut down everything and everyone, but he could bell them that there : was not a man in the Assembly who could give an idea of what this ; retrenchment consisted/. There was a : Retrenchment Committee appointed; and one of the members of that committee, Mr. Hutchison, said that so far as he could see it only "amounted to £33,000. He (Mr. Moss) put a question on the order paper asking if the Estimates of the former year were included, he was told yes, that £60,000 was included. - Then there "was an item, £28,000 rates on Crown lands which the Government would no longer give to local bodies, 1 but that he held was not re- : trenchment; although it / might be readjustment. Then £10,000 was said to.be saved on ' electoral matters, but they must remember that there were two sessions last year, and that would not occur again. Then there was an item of £8029, arms and ammunition, but surely they, did not want to be ■ buyingthese perpetually.' Another saving • was- £1000, to be 'saved by .riot; infcrodu :\ ng; ; fish ova, and a- cbu'pleof thousands by not auditing local bodies' accounts ; but those he held were not part of the current expenditure, and should 1 not be taken -into con-, sideration as retrenchment. i He told them that he did not' know what ' the . £237,000 consisted ■ of, and did not think J any one in the House' except the Premier knew.': He" put ;, a notice on the Order / Paper /asking' for a return, but ' the Premier opposed' it,'- and it never came on during' the session. It seemed to him that it was deceiving.the country.' Lord Salisbury, 'a" Conservative leader, /said; there were two ways of governing a countrybamboo and bamboozle this was the latter. "The Financial Statement being thus dealt with,; it left parties very mixed. /The Opposition had .no/ leader,, bub they appointed a committee .; of , seven, of which he was t- one. Then suddenly came Mr., Withy's motion. Mr. Withy did not speak for himself, but : for ; an informal ■; self-appointed committee. When /he / (Mr. -Moss) was spoken to* he asked /them:*if they were prepared to turn out the Government if they did not carry; out the retrenchment asked for; ;;,. but, as most of the committee were Government supporters, they said no; He then told them they might save themselves further trouble. By-and-bye there was a rumour that this committee intended to bring down a motion to reduce the expenditure by £100,000, aridthat the chairman of the •committee had been to see Major Atkinson at his request, and that it had been settled with the Premier that if the words "if -possible" were put in he would accept it, otherwise he would take it as a vote , of want of confidence. By ; inserting, these j words it was made a vote of confidence. The Premier said that if this, was insisted . on . he would: have to touch. the salaries under £150, which he had previously said would nob do. He (Mr. Moss) objected to' this. //lb seemed to him to, be wrong, and it proved to be so, for when Mr. Withy gave notice of his amendment, Sir H. ; Atkinson said , that he felt it would be cruel to make some of the reductions, as they would affect servants who had been in the service fifteen or sixteen years, and were then receiving: very small salaries. - He (Mr. Moss) felt so, too, and would , not be one to .force such economy on' the •' Government. * /But this is where the fat was in the fire: Mr. Withy gave the notice in good faith, actihgfor the committee, when up sprang Mr. Beetham, a strong freetrader, and supporter of the Go-; vernment, and gave notice that he would move to erase the words "if possible" from the motion. The Premier felt that if the Opposition* went with Mr. Beetham this would be carried, but they declined to ; put a V freetrade Ministry in ?■ power, although they felt their position very difficult. Sir /Harry Atkinson also felt the difficulty, and he requested the committee to withdraw Mr. Withy's motion, but the Opposition had nothing to do with that. When Mr. Withy asked leave to withdraw his motion one member objected, so it Was put with the result which they already knew, and/ Mr. Withy had to vote. [A voice: "Ho was the tool of the Ministry."] Then, in regard to the loans. They had beard a great deal of the obstructiveness of the Opposition ; but that was a lie. The greatest obstruction was shown by Government supporters, and he instanced Mr. Fish's action in reference to the Otago Central Railway ; but they played the Government game. They wanted the work delayed. These had been the tactics of all the Conservative Governments of Hall and Atkinson, for they knew if they delayed the work until \ the members . were wearied they could carry what they liked. The i was that the most important thing they had to consider —the Public Works Statement, and the frightful interest they had to pay— forced through committee in one night, and by seven o'clock in the morning votes for £1,153,000 were passed. The Government had so skilfully worked the Estimates that they all went through with a rush, and while such a system lasted they could have no real economy. Mr. Moss quoted from the document published by the Comptroller-General, which gave all receipts and expenditure under various heads since 1840. He found from it that in the

seventeen years between '71 and '88 they had . added to their debt £30,622,398, and on the j other hand they had taxed the people to/ ray" 'interest on debts amounting »'. to,. £20,957,452, nearly every penny of which went out of the colony. Daring that seven-/ teen years they had spent £13,000,000 of land revenue in addition to the borrowed money. Now, in order to show., them', how this £30,000,000 had been;spent : In the first place, £3,500,000 had been spent on roads and bridges; largely in repairing roads and bridges, and making miserable tracks. £526 had been spent to i open up Crown '<. lands prior 'I to sale, ?< from r which nothing J was refunded to the loan. £2,157,000 had been spent on immigration. All out of loan. ! Then on public buildings, inoluding lighthouses, there bad ;:■ been i expended £2,576,000. He did not say that these works were not requisite, but it was wicked to borrow the money to do them with. He would weary: them if he were to give/all the items—such as £568,000 for telegraphs, £308,000 on maintaining depart-: ments connected with h. public works con-; struction. / £1,134,600 is charged for. expenses of raising the loan, and 2$ millions For deficiency of revenue. They would/have; thought that -;/ a.k reforming - Government i.would v. gain experience from the past, but .he ventured' to - say that - every fault of the Public Works statements for,] | the last 17 : years was exaggerated in the last Public Works • Statement/; ..He would [ tell -them some of the items* • Oat of £1,153,000 only £514,000 is for railways and £300,000 for roads and bridges. That £300,000 was good for at ! least 20 votes in the House, which would f have" been lost if; it was struck out. There was £84,000 for public buildings, including the Auckland Customhouse, a magnificent building, but he regretted that it was built out of loan, but that was a type of what was going oh throughout'■ the colony. Again there was .£20,000 for telegraphs, 'but why borrow money for ; them. There was £21,500 for rates : on' • native •': • lands U; to be distributed amongst local bodies; £20,750 departmental expenditure; including ; £782 paid to two officers who were dismissed, and this was taken out of borrowed money. The whole thing was ' wrong. : Vogel was responsible- ; for a great deal,' but Hall and Atkinson were equally blameable, for they knew it must | end badly, and yet they carried :; on this extravagant system in its worst form. .Were they- going to , put up with this for ever? .It could not be remedied by cutting down salaries. That only reached small men ; and there was no doubt in his mind that this retrenchment cry had been made a political engine, instancing; the ; changes : which had taken place in the railway workshops. He was in favour of retrenchment and of a vast reduction in expenditure; but this .could hot be effected by cutting down, salaries. K:His remedy for this—and he was convinced that the only way to put the country rights-was to take all local .' works % out of / the hands of / the General Assembly.;- Otherwise, they could nob' control g the Assembly. -They :,. were doing what no other, country, did,'and were least fitted for it. , The country was long' and % narrow, and had a ■ number of ; centres, yet they i sent 140 i men <to Wellington •to control i the * whole; colony. v The ;general credit should ; be carefully . preserved by them. They should «have to create local governments sufficiently strong to do •-•> local works, i The General Assembly was : not to be trusted with I the .;. power they now held, for it corrupted the country, and ; New Zealand could never prosper while the Assembly? held the power to" mortgage the credit of the whole colony. (Cheers.) - ./'- In reply to questions, Mr. Moss said he would support an ; export duty on baulk timber. Regarding; the Railway Board and their powers ho ~said;he" believed they had ; very littlejjower, and ';■ its : existence was a farce. When -the Board was appointed the Minister ; said \he would divest himself of •; no responsibility, and it 1 would rest I with him .; whether he/ accepted /■' the; Board's recommendation or not. He thought reducing; the number of / members except they took, away all local works from the Assembly, would be an injury, but if they took these works out of their hands they could reduce the number to 50. , J Captain McKjenzie proposed* a vote of thanks to ; Mr. Moss for his address, and confidence in him as their member. Mr. Calkb Wood seconded the motion. vMn;JtrBY, speaking in support of the motion, said that every man in the railway; employment who had voted for Mr. Moss had got the sack." >. The Chairman said if that was true it was a monstrous state of affairs. • The , motion was then put and carried unanimously. ■ Mr. Moss returned thanks, and proposed the usual vote of thanks to the chairman.