SPEECH BY HON. J. A. MILLAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13485, 11 May 1907, Page 6

SPEECH BY HON. J. A. MILLAR.

FINANCES OF THE COLONY.

DEFENCE OF THE LAND BILL.

LABOUR LEGISLATION.

TRADE RECIPROCITY and LOCAL -' . : INDUSTRY. :- ■' *

The Hon. J. A. Millar, Minister for Labour and Marine, addressed a public meeting at the ; Royal Albert Hall, Albert-street,: last evening. The Mayor (Mr. A. M. Myers) presided, and there was a good attendance. Seats on the platform were occupied by the Hon. ; Jas. McGowan, Minister for Mines and Justice; the Hons. T. Thompson, W. J. Beehari, M.L.C.'s, Messrs. F. E. Baume, C. ,H. Poole, M. H.R. 's. Messrs. W. Coleman ] G. Higgins, P. M. Mackay, F. Fitt, J. K. Kneen, T. Harle Giles, J. Patterson,' Dr. Stopford, Dr. King, and others. '' 'The Mayor, in opening'. the proceedings, said when the new Cabinet was formed the acceptance of the portfolios of Labour and Marine by-Mr. Millar met with a consensus of approval in the colony. (Applause.) He was known as- a 'stalwart champion of labour, and it was known »that he had always dealt fairly and impartially with any matter that ; came before him. (Applause.) This was the first occasion on which Mr. Millar had addressed a public audience in Auckland; but his reputation was such that it was unnecessary , to , bespeak for him a fair hearing.' (Applause.)

The Minister, who was received with loud applause, referred to the work of the late Mr; Seddon, and went on to say there were those going about the country who said the great Liberal party would now become broken up. . He took a different view. (Applause.) Was it one man alone who , had educated the people of this colony? Was it that the principles that had sunk so deeply into the hearts, of the people were to be suddenly forgotten because the leader of the party was gone? Let them study whether, the party was entitled to a continuance of confidence. (Applause., Could anyone say that the colony was not progressing and prosperous ?•■":. He would not put the : responsibility .for this to the credit of the. Government, for the energy of the people was responsible, but if the people had not got the opportunity . that had been given them by the legislation of the Liberal party they never would have progressed. (ApplauseJ -The country had now had 15 years' experience of the Liberal legislation, and what was experimental at its inception had now proved so. beneficial,that people came from all parts of the world to study the social and economic conditions of this country. (Applause.) The Government had been opposed oh most of the J cardinal points of that legislation. Which was best, } the mother or the step-i mother? The Liberal party had been the mother of this*legislation," and the Opposition now wanted to tell the people that as a stepmother it would be a great deal better than the mother. (Laughter and applause.) He did not think the Opposition would get any chance of that sort. (Laughter.) The Liberal party had got its own children there, and they .were coming to maturity, and it would take someone veiy ? strong indeed to turn them out. (Applause.

' v - THE FINANCIAL POSITION.,. : •/' Last year the colony had the largest revenue it ever had, over B£. millions. This was a. very ; considerable sum for a small i handful of people. There were those who said, I "Why don't you spend it more ' freely than you do?" That was where they 'made the mistake. Because things prosperous to-day it was not policy to commence to live in riotous fashion. :;. (Applause.) If ; the country were to go in and spend the money, and go in for a big borrowing policy for public works, there would be ' a great | population attracted here to y the public j works, and as-; soon as work ceased these ! men 'would be [dumped, down here without !any.' work to/do. ; What the [ Government , wanted to do was by steady, progress ; to open, up the country, arid thereby find em- • ployment'for New Zealand's own people and i those who came voluntarily to these shores. (Applause.) Prudence was a J thing that was absolutely necessary, in the > finances : of the colony to-day. as much as ever./ (Ap- [ plause.) !, The Government had surplus I of £717,000 .after taking from the - consolidated revenue £775,000 for the Public Works Fund,/ which made, in round figures, over li : millions surplus over the expenditure necessary, for the upkeep of this colony. (Loud applause.) The prosperity had been general through all branches, and he thought his audience would agree that the Government . was justified . in going on steadily, /watching the whole of the expenditure, while, at the same time developing, the country. / (Applause.) /: THE PUBLIC WORKS POLICY. The Government was sometimes twitted over the public works policy. He was going to say to an Auckland audience exactly what he would say to a Dunedin audience. The Government had' announced that the public works policy was going to be confined to £1,000,000 of borrowed money per annum, and any surplus from Consolidated Fund would go to the Public Works Fund, and the Government intended to [complete railway lines already started before starting any more. (Loud applause.) / He' dwelt at length on the Government's policy in this connection, .and said the Main Trunk I 'would be completed by 12 months next I Christmas. (Applause.) The Government intended to do what it thought right; it' did not care whether' it was criticised I fairly. or unfairly, and it would riot deviate j ,one bit from what it considered the right | thing to be done. (Applause.) .■ THE LABOUR DEPARTMENT. 'One of the Departments over which he had control, the Labour Department, was, to his mind, the most important of all(applause)— the reason that the interests of nearly two-thirds of the population were entrusted to it; and, while the Government had been criticised in regard to the administration of that Department, anyone who had watched the history of the Department would admit it had! justified its existence. (Applause.) It had carefully looked after the interests of the factory workers, of those engaged in pastoral pursuits, and. of the shop assistants; and when he told them there were 70,000 workers in the factories of the colony,; it would be seen that the Department had no light job. (Applause.) In addition to that, it had to look after the enforcement of awards of the Arbitration Court. In 1895, when the Department was established, there were 4109 factories in, the colony, employing £9,879 workers?; and in 1906, at the end! of 10 years, there were 9881 factories, employing 70,403 workers, an increase of 5772 factories and 40,524 workers. (Applause.) This was a very good recoixl, showing that year by.year the colony was gradually doing more and more for itself; and to assist this movement was a policy he hoped to, pursue until . the country came to that stage when ; all the machinery would be made in the colony. (Applause.) Then came something he didn't approve of, but it was inevitable at present. During last year women and ' boys numbering 6902 worked 180.953 hours' overtime, and 3922 men worked 275,007 hours, an average for women and boys of 26 hours and for men 70 hours, clearly showing that notwithstanding the big increase in factories the machinery was not able to overtake the work without overtime. There was a most com- ■ plete system , of recording accidents. . In 1905 only 529 out of 70,403 workers met with accidents, or one in every 134. The employers' unions now numbered 113, with 3276 members, and . workers' unions 261, with 29,869 members. Then the Labour • Department had been finding work for the unemployed, and the men assisted djuring last year / numbered 1427 : married." 5966 single, with a total of 4387 dependents. On private work 2718 men were employed and oh* Government work 4675, making .a total since the inception of. the. Department in

1391 of 21,840 married men, 30,637 single, and 89,018 dependents. The number found grivate work was 18,507, and those found overnment work numbered! 33,970. Figures like these -justified the creation of the Department, and showed that anyone wanting work had generally been able to find something if he communicated with the Labour Department. (Applause.) . THE ARBITRATION ACT. An amendment of the Arbitration Act wasa necessity." The delays that had taken place— through any fault of the Court, but through the fault of-the system— caused a great deal of, friction, which must be removed. When a dispute arose, it must be settled as' soon, as possible, as the longer it was hanging oyer; the greater the friction became. It had been said that the Arbitration Court had been of, no use to the workers, as the increase in the price of wages had been swallowed up by the increased cost of living.;, '■; \He admitted that there was a great deal of force in this contention, but would anybody say that if the wage's had not been increased j the working man would have been any better off? If his wages had not been raised, how could he have paid the increased cost of living? The rise in the prices of our products had been brought about by increases in the Old Country, and it would have taken place if the rate of wages had not been i increased.. Minor amendments, he said, would also be required in the Factories. Shops and Offices, and the Shipping and Seamen Acts. ■ "■' THE LAND QUESTION. Referring to the Land Bill, he said that a deliberate attempt had been made to make the people of the colony believe that the Government were attacking the . freehold. As a matter of fact, however, they were not proposing to touch a single acre of freehold, with the exception of the man who owned; over £50,000 worth. The guiding principles of the Bill were: (1) The endowments, (2) the abolition ;of the 999 years' lease, and (3) the limitation of the large estates. They had ; already sold £77,000,000 worth of freehold, whilst the Crown lands leased totalled . 17,000,000 acres, the area still undealt with being about six million acres. As trustees of the people, the Government • knew that they had a good thing in these Crown lands, and they were not going to part with them. He spoke of the" present expenditure on education, .:• old age pensions, and charitable ■ aid,, and said that if a check came to the colony's prosperity, the first thing to be attacked, as on a previous occasion, would, no doubt; be the expenditure on education. .'The Government, however, intended . by ; means of the endowments to prevent any attack being made on education, which was all that a great many people got from the State. The Government proposed to set aside the 17,000,000 acres, and use the revenue in assisting the purposes mentioned. As the lands increased in value, so would the revenue be augmented. Unless the State held on to these lands, ; the only other way of obtaining the revenue "would be by means of a land or income tax, for it was very certain that ' the people of New Zealand were not going \ to, continue to pay the present • amount collected through "; the tariff. During „ the past ten years the Government had bought 985,000 Nacres of land :at a cost °of £4,400,000. It would not be a wise policy to go on doing that, and at the same time i sell land which the State already held Speaking of the leasehold system, he said that if. that system - had not been adopted, not one-third •- of the pre- i sent , settlers :i, would '- have"'<; been on j the land. . (Hear, hear.) If people want- ! eel, freehold there was any amount to be had ! on all sides of them. The native lands, under the policy .adopted by the Government, would also be available under the optional system. Why should the Government be told that they should part with their land when they could do so much better with it? Mr. Massey. had said: that by giving a 66 years' lease the State would not obtain any benefit, from the v unearned increment until the end of that time, but if they' sold the land, as Mr. Massey, wanted them to do, they would be getting.nothing further at all from the land, even. at the end 0f.66 years. It'was better for the Government in expending public money to enhance the value .of their own lands than the land of other people. If they sold the land their children might in 50 years time have to buy. it back at . ten :< times the price • that ■ they woulS now receive for ¥ it. ,;. Coming to the : 999 years' lease, he 1 said that that had. always been a thorn :in their side, as -it was practically alienating the lands of the colony for a; thousand years. With the proposed 66 years' renewable lease the land would be secured to the holder and his family for 132 years, afterwhich the family, if they still wished to retain it, would; have equal chances with others of securing it for a further term. ■".'■■.

.: " THE PRINCIPAL OBJECTION." -The principal objection' to the Bill after all—although a veil was. drawn across it— was, he said, the proposed: limit of a man's holding to £50,000 in yatye. }:> He was surprised that the small farmer could hot see how he was being, made use of in this connection by the man with the large estates. The colony's prosperity depended on close settlement, and when they had only a limited area of good laricl available it was only right that the man who had got over £50,000 Worth of land should assist in the work of close settlement, ample time being given ffim to, dispose of the excess . area as freehold. The opponents of the Bill did not like the limitation clause, and they said' that .whilst they agreed to limitation it should be done by means of the graduated land tax. The Government did ;. not care whether the limitation was brought about by the land tax or by the method now proposed.' One thing, however, certain, and that was if the land tax was to be the means adopted it would not be the kind of tax advocated by Mr. Massey, who, whilst favouring a graduated land tax over the limit of £50,000, said that it f should not be of such a character as to make a man get rid of his land. If it did not cause a man to get rid of the land what would be the use of it? If they wanted the graduated land tax they could have it, but it would be such that it would not pay a man to hold on to the area in excess of the proposed limit. (A voice:,'"The limit is too high.") He knew that it was tod eat, but the Government did not desire to do anything of a revolutionary nature. The time would come would admit it without beating about the bushwhen the £50,000 limit would be reduced. In 50 years' time there would be very few men "in the colony with £50,000 worth of land, but they had no desire at present to go beyond the length proposed, which would give sufficient land for settlement for the present. It had been urged that the existing Crown tenants should have the right to acquire the freehold of their leases. ' This "sounded all right until they analysed the position. When the land was taken up the present holders, and all who went into the ballot, knew that it was to be obtained on the lease in perpetuity system only. If they were now going to alter the system of tenure should the present tenants be the only people entitled to acquire -the freehold "of this land? There were 22,000 Crown tenants in the colony, and was it to be said that they were the only people who should have the freehold? No; if the land was going to be sold it would be sold by auction and the surplus'value would go into the Treasury. (Applause.)

• » NATIVE, LANDS. The people of Auckland were not so much troubled about j land tenures as they were in regard to the native lands. After travelling round it had become evident to him that there was no chance of this district going ahead unless these native lands were .opened up, and opened up very rapidly. (Hear, hear, and applause.) The Government had come to the conclusion, owing to the delays that had been taking place, that if it intended to get anything done during the life of the, present generation it must get to work. He went on to explain the scope of the Native Land Commission, and the procedure the Government proposed to go upon when it had the land handed over. It expected to deal with half-a-million acres this year, which would be opened on the optional system. - , LOCAL INDUSTRY.'... There were several industries in this colony, that required a little nursing. He was one who believed in New Zealand for the New Zealanders. He believed in finding work for the New Zealand people before the people outside the colony. (Applause.) It was nonsense to talk about immigration if, there was no work for the arrivals, and for those who were coming - to working age in the

colony. •' We required our industries to be growing, up side by side with the development of the country, r One thing was certain, something would have to be done in regard to several industries. * This was not a question :; of preference or freetrade;" it was a question of whether New Zealand was going to get the population it could carry, and provide work for. As far as the Government was concerned it would try to: do what it could without affecting injuriously any industry now carried on; and probably when the tariff : revision came: down something in that direction would be found. (Applause.) The tariff would have to be dealt with next session, for there were very .many anomalies existing now, and the main object would be simplification. (Applause.) There must be amendment of the patent laws so that any article patented in the' colony, should be manufactured within the colony.. In the Old Country the same thing had been forced upon the Government. He did not wish to deprive the inventor of anything, but protection could only be afforded so long as there was manufacture within the colony. At present a patent right could be taken out for a few pounds, 'incf then everyone had to pay toll for importing the article. Ho proposed 'that two years I should be allowed patentees in which to start'to make the articles in the colony, and if the articles were not made here, well there would be no infringement of patent or payment of royalty. (Applause.) '•. - , ■■.- TRADE RECIPROCITY. Another question that would be prominent before long was reciprocity. He referred to the Imperial Conference,- and went. on to say New Zealand, could not make a reciprocal tariff if it was going to bring other countries into competition with its own manufacturers. It was not possible, for instance, to have a treaty with Australia that would let in Australian manufacturers in lines that New Zealand manufactured, but if there were things produced there that could riot be produced here, let them come in as freely as possible. (Applause.) Something of this kind would come before Parliament before long." He also referred at some length to the secretariate proposals at the Imperial Conference. - / , NATIONAL DEFENCE. The gradual development of the industries of other countries was a serious menace to the Empire. He showed that British exports were not increasing at anything like the rates of the exports of AmerTca arid Germany, and said it might be thought this would not affect New Zealand, but it would," for as sure as trade went into other channels, the Old Country would never get it back, and unless the Old Country could keep abreast in the commercial race, she could not find the money to maintain the defence .of the Empire. (Applause.) The colonies must assist, but at- the same time the Home Government must meet them, and he trusted something would be' done before long. (Applause.) The country would have to. face an increased contribution to the navy. (Applause.) As a New Zealander, he wanted to feel when he saw the fleet here that it had a right to be here, for. the colony paid for it to be here. (Applause.) The Commonwealth of. Australia was going. to withdraw its £200,000 subsidy, and put it into harbour defence. With the £200,000 from Australia, and the :£40,000 from New Zealand, the expense of. keeping the squadron . out here ; was somewhere nearly met, but now New Zealand "would ; have to pay something more -if it was to have the squadron out in these waters. , (Applause. <He did not know what proposals the 1 Premier would bring out,, but lie questioned "> whether a fleet like that here now would be maintained < 'on the Australian station, because ■ the expense was very great. If Parliament was asked for an ; increase, the people would 4 agree ■ it was only right we should pay a ■fair thing towards the defence of our shores. ./. (Loud applause.) •. '

NORTH V. SOUTH. : ■ Mr. Millar,.' in concluding, said that although he was supposed to bo a Southerner, with very little love for the North, he could assure them that he looked upon the ; whole colony as New Zealand. (Ap- 1 plause.) One island could not be prosperous without it-re-acting upon the other 1 ? island. If they were prosperous m the North, they could no more prevent their ' prosperity being shared by the South, than they could prevent the sun rising. 'In past years, swhilst the South Island « had been! steadily developing, the North had been i held back by the locking-up of the native lauds and other causes. Increased developmeno. must, therefore, now take place in : the Northland they must have' a fair: share of-the expenditure of public money. {Hear, hear.) > He would, point out, however, that during the past five years the Auckland province had had the largest, share of the" expenditure of public money. The figures for' the principal provinces for the five years ended March 31, 1905, were as follows: —Auckland, "£1,856,937; Otago, £1,478,950; Wellington, £1,192,183; Canterbury, £911,278. The ' figures -for the year 1905-06 were not available, but they would increase the balance in favour of Auckland. It would thus bo" seen . that Auckland had had! the largest share of money during, the period mentioned: They "were entitled to the money for the purpose of opening up their district, but when the Government had given them the money, they should give the Government credit for it; (Laughter.) : The cry of North :v. South' was the worst possible thing for the colony, and it should not be fostered, v They did not belong to the North or the. South Island, but to the colony as a whole. ;; was practically only a hop-step-and-jump ! from one- island!. to the other, and there were now in the North Island probably as many people from the South Island as had been born in the Nortli Island itself. , The Government would do its best for the colony as a whole, no matter whether they belonged to the North or the South Island. They would go on developing the colony to the best of their ability, and with the aid of Nature's lavish endowments and the energy of the people would make it the finest little country in the Empire. - (Loud applause.) THANKS AND CONFIDENCE. Dr. King moved the following resolution: "That this meeting heartily thanks the Hon. J. A. Millar for his able and statesmanlike address, and desires to express its entire confidence in the present Administration." Mr. J. Patterson seconded the resolution, which was carried unanimously. •Mr. Millar returned] thanks, and the meeting concluded with the customary compliment to the Mayor for presiding. . .-