SPEECH BY MR. MASSEY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1680, 11 May 1904, Page 80 (Supplement)

SPEECH BY MR. MASSEY.

THE COLONIES FINANCES. . CHRISTCHURCH, May 2. Mr W. F. Massey, leader of, the Opposition, delivered his first address in Canterbury at Kaiapoi to-night to an audience of about three hundred persons. His speech, was mainly on the lines of t thbse delivered .by him,, in. the South. Replying' to newspaper criticisms of his southern, speeches, Mr Massey said that he'had no objection 'criticism, and es 7 pecially adverse criticism.' It had been stated that the Opposition was opposed to the interests of labour, but this was not the case. Some of the best Labour members in Parliament had been on the Opposition benches. He xiiight ‘ nlehtion such men as Mr John Hutcheson, Mr Joseph Kelly, and Mr W. Earnshaw. The chairman of the Labour Bills Committee had stated that he had never had better help than from Sir William, Russell. Personally he, had frequently - expressed his , opinion in v favour of organised labour. 1 The Opposition had just as much anxiety to help labour as any member on the Government benches.

Mr Massey said it had been stated that he had expressed the opinion that .as the result of his. Southern tour’ the Government would be "hurled from the benches.” He had said no such thing, nor had he hoped for such a result. During the time the Government had been in office it had been singularly fortunate, the country being prosperous and pioney plentiful. Now, however, the outlook was not nearly so good as a few years ago.,. It would have been observed that the .Chancellor of the Imperial Exchequer had recently stated that the wave of prosperity, had spent itself. This would undoubtedly affect us here, and by wan - of foresight the Government liad exhausted the credit, of the colony, and it would shortly be found . difficult to carry o 1 the public works. He 'would see the Premier reap the consequences of his policy. References had been made to a remark of his made in 1899 that the producers ought to be represented according to their numbers, and it had been pointed out that no change had been, made in the representation in this connection. The reason of this was that the long sessions prevented business men entering Parliament. The business of the country was slowly but surely passing into the hands of professional politicians, and a Parliament thus constituted would always be an extravagant one. -He looked forward to an ideal Parliament, where all classes would be represented, each with one of its own class. The speaker went on to say that he did not want to see depression, nor did he expect soon to see again the depression which existed from 1887 and for a few years onwards. The new industries of this colony would save it from that, but if the colony was going to-suffer from tightness of the chest, it was because the Government had not made provision for lean years.

Regarding the land tenure question he denied that the Opposition objected to tbe leasehold tenure. If a settler was satisfied with his leasehold, let him enjoy it; but give him tbe privilege to make it a freehold if he so desired. The aggrandisement of estates would not result from the freehold being granted to Cr>wn tenants. He considered no settler should be allowed to acquire more than ,600 acres of first-class land or 2000 acres of second-class. He admitted that much could be said in favour of the lease in perpetuity, but lie must point out that the land thus held did not return one shilling of land tax. It it • were freehold there would be several thousand pounds of land tax collected. The Government had proposed legislation to set up a commission to raise or lower the rents of Crown tenants. If such a Bill had passed, the lease in perpetuity would have been valuers. The Annan settlement had been cut into sections of 1189 acres to 6366 in extent, and he questioned the wisdom of borrowing money to turn large slieep runs into a few smaller ones. Crown tenants should be allowed to invest their savings in the lard, and thereby reduce their rent, and on the acquirement of the land as a freehold the unearned increment should be equally divided between the settler -and the State.

Touching upon financial matters, Mr Massey pointed out that between March, 1900, and March, 1903. the public debt had increased by <£6,550,000, equal to ,£3 18s per head. The increase for the past year had not yet been made known,but be ventured to predict it would exceed <£2,000,000. Regarding tlm claim that the borrowing of the past two years had not been done out of i.he country, the short-dated debentures had certainly been taken up in the colony, but they were to a large extent payable in Australia and England, having been brought here and handed over to persons in those countries. He did not favour the cessation. of borrowing while public works were uncompleted. . With, regard to the surplus, Mr Massey said he believed there honestly was a surplus, bu*, not so large as stated, the big amount being made up by charging to, the Public works Fund amounts which should have been credited to the Consolidated Fund.