MR. MACANDREW AT PORT CHALMERS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 6273, 20 May 1881, Page 3

MR. MACANDREW AT PORT CHALMERS.

(dotted press association.) Dunedin, May 19. Mr. Macandrew met about 200 electors of Port Chalmers in the Foresters' Hall this evening. The Mayor, Mr. Innis, was voted, to the chair. Mr. Macandrew said his object in calling the electors together was not that he had anything new to say, but rather that they might talk seriously over public affairs. Last session of Parliament although distinguished by the usual amount of talking it had not been conducive to public interests. Its action had been very much retrogressive. The imposition of a most objectionable tax was one of the results of the session. The depriving of local bodies of the 20 per cent, of the land fund previously secured to them by law, was another abandonment of the railway the policy initiated, and all but unanimously approved in the session of 1878. The third fracture was the stoppage of assisted immigration, and the fourth the return to the system of local roads and bridges being constructed by direct appropriations of a Colonial Parliament with all the favoritism and logrolling which must inevitably follow. Set off against all this there was the great policy of retrenchment. There was little er no attempt at retrenchment as brought down by the Government. It had been forced on them by the House. He feared that after all it would be found that retrenchment had been a great cry and little wool. Of all the absurd things under the sun the New Zealand Legislature was one of the worst. It was like a thousand horse power steam engine under full pressure of steam driving a sewing machine. Probably the Grey Government had effected as much real retrenchment during their short term of office as had been done since, only they did not make so much fuss about it. Had they been fallowed sufficient time they would jjava eSected much larger reductions by

simplifying the administration. He should set his face against any additional taxation for mere purposes of governing the country; New Zealand finance was most wonderful as an example of how ignorance of the people might be imposed upon for party purposes. He adverted at length to the assertion of the Colonial Treasurer’s that he (Mr. Macandrew) had before leaving office committed the colony to liabilities exceeding three millions in the shape of outstanding contracts, while in reality the whole amount did not exceed half a million. In alluding to the comparison which Major Atkinson had made between the expenditure under the late and present Governments, he said the one was stated to be £109,000 a week, the other £BO,OOO, thus seeking it to be inferred that the present Government had economised to the tune of £1,508,000 a year—a statement which was too absurd to comment upon now. With the exception of the Taranaki Harbor Board, none of the local bodies had received any of the land fund, and therefore no fair comparison could be made between the expenditure of the two Governments. Putting out of the question the reduced expenditure on public works, the Grey Government had expended a million and a half leas than were expended during the two years immediately preceding their term of office. The reduced amount in his time was owing to ocmmercial depression, which led the Government to take in sail and look out for squalls. Where, he asked, were the ignorant and unfounded charges of recklessness which had been so persistently hurled against him by the Ministerial Press throughout the colony ? He had no pretension to statesmanship, like Major Atkinson, but he had common sense sufficient to tell him that it would have been the height of madness to have lurched the colony to the extent which, for party purposes, had been so pertinaciously alleged, with a commercial crisis staring them in the face, and the uncertainty as to how it might affect the successful floating of the intended loan. The Grey Government would have deserved to be consigned to political perdition had they been guilty of the reckless conduct ascribed to them—conduct which could only be compared to that of the Colonial Treasurer, when, like Nero fiddling while Rome was burning, he delivered himself of that memorable budget speech on the 14th October, 1879, in which he told so much more than truth. Fortunately for the Five Million Loan, it was fixed up before that speech was circulated in England, otherwise not a penny of the loan would have been floated, excepting at an enormous loss. The bad odor in which New Zealand and its securities' were held for a time shortly afterwards was to be attributed to the pledge given by the Bank of England when the former loan was raised. Had the late Government remained in office till the loan had been placed in the market, there would have been no necessity for sacrificing it, as the Premier was taking precautions to have more than one string to his bow, whereby public credit would have been maintained in case of need on advantageous terms. Mr. McLean had said much of the financial trouble was due to the absurd over-estimate the late Government made of the land revenue, which had been estimated at two millions for 1878, when the fact was the estimate was 1,229,677—a1ight difference not worth talking about by such accurate men as Mr. McLean and Major Atkinson. In consequence of unforeseen complications on the West Coast several hundred thousand pounds had been anticipated from the sale of the confiscated land. It turned out a myth, and, consequently, the Treasurer’s estimate was in excess of the receipts by £300,000 —a deficiency which might have been tided over without resource to additional taxation. It might fairly be said if this view was correct it involved reflections which were anything but complimentary to the present Government. It was said of several Ministers, individually practical, that the effect of repealing the clauses in the Act of 1877 securing the 20 per cent, land fund to local bodies was to deprive the Southern provinces, especially Otago and Canterbury, of an enormous sum, which was otherwise available for local works. In the case of Otago alone it meant from two to three millions. They did the best according to their lights, but unfortunately for the country their lights were very dim. Taking them collectively the situation had been none of their making any more than it was of their immediate predecessors’, although such could not be said ultimately. The Grey Government had been freely charged with having first deprived the provinces of the land fund, while the fact was that was the whole object of Abolition, although the Abolition Government was not honest enough to take it openly and above board. They took possession of the whole in a roundabout way by means of that peculiar manipulation which has long distinguished colonial finance. In reality it was Major Atkinson and his supporters who first secured the land revenue, and who now again grabbed the whole. The abandonment of the railway policy of 1878 was a false step, as it embraced the construction ia both islands of important railways, involving a probable expenditure of six millions, spread over seven years. Of this sum it was proposed to provide a million and a half out of the last loan, four and a half millions out of the sale of Crown lands to be placed in the market, as railways made sufficient progress to render them advantageously saleable at enhanced value. They implied an unbroken line from Wellington to Auckland, which would do more to enrich the North Island and settle native difficulties than all legislation and Royal Commissions were ever likely to accomplish. As regarded the South Island they involved an enormous development of its productive resources. Among them were the East and West Coasts and Otago Central Railways, which although they at the time commended themselves to the mind of the Legislature had since been stigmatised by weak brethren as wild and visionary. All he coaid say was had the late Government continued in office until now everyone of the lines sanctioned in 1878 would at this moment be in active progress. He predicted that most of them would live to see the works ia question an accomplished fact unless the people of New Zealand were unworthy of the high destiny within their reach. He explained the mode by which it was intended to carry out the proposals of 1878. Efforts were now being made to carry on some of the proposed lines by means of joint stock companies. He did not think anything practical would come out of this for years to come. The people were only deceiving themselves it they expected otherwise, even if the companies were to succeed— the Government were making lines, in point of fact, that was, if they were to guarantee the interest on the cost, or make grants of laud. It was not to the public interest to construct lines in this way, for if made by companies, it implied the employment of foreign capita], involving a further drain on the colony by way of interest. If it was by foreign capital, the Government was in a better position to acquire such on, favorable terms than any company. In his opinion, our public railways ought to be made by the State without the aid of foreign gold. Looking at the enormous sum now sent out of the country in respect of foreign loans, he should hesitate. Could be done if we only divested ourselves of the cobwebs of so-called political economy. The stoppage of assisted immigration was another blunder. He looked on immigration as the life-blood of a new countay, provided the immigrants adapted themselves to the colony and its circumstances. He desired to see a steady stream of immgration confined exclusively to friends of people in the colony. The immigrants to understand that they must take their chance of the labor market. Certainly New Zealand was capable of supporting millions of people in comfort and happiness, and the greater the number settled in the colony the more employment would there be for all. It was impossible therefore agreeing to any increase of this drain for any purpose whatever. They were now sending to England every day in the week upwards £4OOO to pay interest. On the question of borrowing, he bad no objection to borrowing to any extent for reproductive purposes, provided the interest was not sent out of the colony. This to predict the result of the next session of Parliament, but he knew what they might ex* pect it to be. The first railway policy of 1878 ought to be carried out in its entirety. The property tax should be repealed and nothing put in its place. Free immigration should be resumed on the principle he had indicated. The cost of education should be greatly reduced by allowing minimum school age to six or (seven years. He, had always been opposed to the education policy of the Abolition Government, believing it to be a mistake to apply one cast iron rule to the whole colony. In Otago they bad previously to 1877 a national system, which worked well and was provided for by fees and endowments from the rental of the primary education reserves in Otago, which the much despised Provincial authorities had the foresight to make, realised £20,000 which had gone into the general pot. In Auckland the denominational system then prevailed, and though he thought the national

! Bjstem the more efficient _ where different communities were satisfied the arrangement should not have been disturbed, but he would be disposed to let the matter rest. In the meantime provision ought to be made whereby a fair proportion of the secondary education endowments should be devoted to the purpose of providing technical education ; for though he did not undervalue Greek and Latin, he believed, in the circumstances of the colony, the means of acquiring practical knowledge of manufactures and agriculture would be more beneficial. There should be a radical reform in the constitution and practice of the Supreme Court, so that the cost of obtaining justice between man and man might be diminished. He again strongly advocated the institution of direct communication with Europe, and regretted that party spirit should have influenced members of Parliament to prevent him from laying before a committee of the House some practical proposals from eminent shipbuilders which might have led to the institution of the grandest steam line in the world, and have provided for the export of our surplus products. The readjustment of representation on the basis of population was one of the hardest nuts the Assembly had to crack. The number of representatives should nut be increased. How the question would be settled it was difficult to say. But knowing the complexion of Parliament it was almost hopeless to expect that right would be done. The Assembly should divest itself of the parish business with which it was so incompetent to deal, and transfer it to local bodies as near as may be to what the Provincial Councils were intended to have been. The section of the Act which deprived local bodies of 20 per cent, of the land fund out to be repealed. Mr. Macandrew contradicted Mr. Pulton’s statement regarding the tactics of the Opposition, and stated that, notwithstanding the twaddle of a section of the Press, there never had been a more compact Opposition than that of last session, nor one that confined itself more to its legitimate functions of criticising and watching the actions of the Government. He referred to the fact that within the next few years three million acres of runs would fall in, and said that this was more a question for wise administration than for new legislation. So far as Mr. Pyke’s land leagues could succeed in keeping the administration up to the mark, he thought they were worthy of support and wished them success. After several unimportant questions had been answered, a vote of thanks and confidence was carried unanimously on the motion of Mr. Drysdale.