SPEECH BY MR. WISE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12211, 5 March 1903, Page 5

SPEECH BY MR. WISE.

' AUSTRALIAN LEGISLATION. FINANCIAL STABILITY. tit Telegraph.—Pres3 Association.—Copyright. . {Received Match 4, '9.57 pin.) ::'.'. ' :/j\ London, ; March 4. Lord's EosEBfiST and Hampden and many bankers and merchants were present on the occasion of an address delivered by Mr. ; Wise, Attor-ney-General of New South Wales, before the Australasian Chamber of Commence. -;- Mr. Wise, in the course, of Ms speech, treated the socialistic legislation of Australasia ;as an experiment that heed not excite alarm, and declared that no country offered greater security to capital than New South Wales, because none offered greater .political and industrial stability. He denied that the cost of old age pensions was excessive, and said that no measure was more likely to enhance the financial stability of the State since it gave the workmen a stake in the country. The industrial arbitration legislation, he declared, worked most effectually for industrial peace and increased the stability of capital by securing industrial continuity and teaching employers and employed that their differences were not irreconcilable. It enormously increased the making of industrial agreements and stopped sweating. He said the • incident of the exclusion of English hatters at Sydney had been exaggerated, but it had proved a splendid advertisement for a new industry. The Exclusion Act was intended to prevent the evils so conspicuous.in the, East End :of London. It was grotesque to assert that the Act was inimical to the advent of the v right class of immigrants. The Customs tax levied upon mail steamers was hot, he said, intended to differentiate against British shipping, but was purely a fiscal measure. He condemned the ludicrous charges against Australian credit. Repudiation was. he declared, unthinkable.- The Australian debt was light compared with Britain's if the cost of railways, waterworks and municipal works was added. Australians, he said, had not. lost any of the . essential honesty which was characteristic of Englishmen. ■ -L