GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 3262, 20 October 1897, Page 3

GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Tuesdav, October 19. The House resumed at 2.30 p.m, PRIVILEGE. The House consumed tho greater part oi the afternoon in the discussion of a question of privilege raised by the member for Wakatipu.

COMMITTEES. , Jf . The Right Hon R. J. SEDDDNmoved that a Standing Orders Committo be appointed ; three to be a quorum : the committee to consist of Mr Speaker, Mr Brown, Mr Fisher, Mr Fraser, Mr Gu nness, Mr Holland, Mr Lewis, Captain Russell, Hon Major steward and tbo mover. . ... Captain RU. c B f ‘VLL asked tho Premier if be would bo prepared to allow the Opposition to appoint its nominees to select committees ( That was the principle they intended to contend for. , . Mr ROLLESTON asked tho Premier what coarse he pronosed to take in retocence to committees generally ? The PREMIER said “ Sufficient for the day was the evil thereof.” Ho did not intend to deal with other committees for the present. Ho had made a selection in this case, and ho was not prepared to alter it. The committee as constituted was agreed to. Tho Bills and Local Bills Committees were setup v, ihout opposition. Captain RUSSELL pointed out when the question of the appointment of a Classification Committee came up that thoro wore seven Opposition members placed on this committee and only three Government members to do work which anv clerk who had never been near Parliament before could do. Mr ALLEN withdrew hia name from tho committee.

Tho debate on the subject was adjourned on tho motion of tho MINISTER of LANDo. DEBATE ON THE BUDGET. Captain RUSSELL said tho Financial Statement, so called, was a cross between an official hand book and a tourists* guide, but, like so many mongrels, it had tho virtues of neither. It was padded with all sorts of information of a sketchy and abstract nature. Tho hon. gentleman somewhat imitated Sir Julius Vogel, who invited them to trade with the teeming millions of tho Arafura Sea. There was scarcely a fact, and there was no definite policy in the Statement. There was a largo borrowing policy disclosed. The Public Works Statement would bo the real Financial Statement. The tables of figures disagreed with tho text by which they wero set off. He denied that there vaa a “ buoyant revenue and a healthy exchequer,” as stated in tho Budget. We hid never had a buoyant revenue in New Zealand, because of the constant increase of tho public debt. The estimates of the year showed a decrease in revenue. productions of the colony, with rare exceptions, had not increased during tho year, and the imports had decreased. Last year the total revenue was ,£1,725,798, and tho total estimated revenue this year was £4,723,400. Surely this was not a sign of buoyancy. Tho public debt was increasing, and they were told ic was still to be increased. They wero told that tho railways were likely to produce .£35,302 loss this year than they did last>oar. The Estimates were concocted to cajole the public outside.’ But with increased debt, increased expenditure and a dimmishment of'revenue, export and population, surely tho vaunted “ buoyancy ” cf the Statement was not borne out. Ho quoted figures to show that there had been a fallingoff in the population The principle under which our surpluses were made was misleading to a very great degree. People would imagine that there was a true surplus. A surplus could not bo made from carrying on accounts from year to year. The surplus of £354,280 this year was nearly throe times as much as it should bo. It was made up by carrying .£215,558 over from the previous year. If hon members would turn to the last Statement they would find that this sum of .£215,558 was carried over from tho previous year. The surplus of thisyear was made up by carrying over different sums from 18J4-95, when £30.024 was brought forward as a surplus. 'lbis Financial Statement a part of tho unvarying system of deception practised on the people from tho Ministerial benches. Tho Customs duties this last year had been under-estimated by £143,972, whereas when Mr Ward brought down his tariff proposals he said it would only mean an increase of £IO,OOO. 1 his year it was estimated that there would bo an increase of £31,028. Added together it all meant that every person in the colony was being taxed 10s per head through the Customs. The Treasurer said that there was only £913,768 which was unproductive. What then did they require to collect such a large amount from Customs duties for ? The railway earnings last year were £510,392, and this year it was estimated that only £465,000 would be earned. If figures could be relied on the earnings from the railways would be less than in 1892. A great deal of loss had been caused by the special trains run by Ministers for e’ectioneering purposes. Moneys had been taken from the earnings of.the railways to swell bogus surpluses. Hence £200,000 was now required to provide material necessary for tho carrying on of the railways. The railways would never bo properly managed until they reverted to nonpolitical control. There bad been wasteful expenditure on tho capital account of the railways for years past, and this would be increased by tbo introduction of tho Pintsch light. There was no policy laid down in the Budget. They wore helplessly drifting abmt to find what was in the Premier's mind. Certainly no system of finance had been disclosed. Ho deprecated the breaking of the railway gauge, and was glad the Minister o! Railways was opposed to any scheme of the kind. There was an idea abroad that light railways were built in Tasmania for £2OOO a mile. He could assure them that this could not bo done either thoro or here. There was a marvellous vagueness about tho old ago pension proposals. It was a good kite to fly for popularity, but no details had been supplied. Any scheme of the kind in the form of charity must tend to pauperise the people. Some beneficial scheme might be brought about by cooperating with the friendly societies in some way and subsidising them. - • Tho MINISTER of PUBLIC WORKS said the hon gentleman’s speech evidenced the satisfaction of the Opposition over the Statement. Tbo Opposition had expected large borrow ing proposals, and wore disappointed. It was one of the beat and most stateaman-liko Statements ever placed before the House. Disappointed in finding nothing to condemn, the Opposition had determined to make fun of or mildly criticise the Statement. The Statement was an official handbook, and was a guide to the people of the whole colony of a policy of sound finance. Tho hon member who had just sat^down had said that the revenue was not increasing. The Minister quoted figures to show that there had been largo increases in revenue in nearly every department; The Leader of the Opposition had attributed the increase of revenue to increase l of Customs duties. Mr Hall-Jonos quoted figures to show that in a large number of cases where the duty had not been increased at all there had been large increases of revenue. The reason why the estimate of revenue from the railways was slightly loss than last year was principally because of the floods in Hawke’s Ray and drought in the South. He dented that there had been a falling-off in population, and quoted figures to show that, there-had not been anything of the kind. It was the practice in every colony to carry forward surpluses from year to year. This was done in the hon gentleman’n time, the only difference being that ho never had a real surplus to carry forward, Mr Scobie Mackenzie had attacked the Government in Dunedin aud Mr Monk at Waitemata for borrowing. He referred those hon gentlemen to the loan table in the Budget which showed, the amounts spent in reproductive and non-productive works, and declared that it was, in itself a complete reply. The whole of the amounts by the Premier and his predecessors, with tho exception of £913,703 spent on reads and bridges, goldfields and miscellaneous votes was reproductive. He said magnificent results had been shown by the railways under political control, i It would not be fair to debit revenue with the damage caused by the recent floods. The railway loan was required for extensions necessitated by the universal expansion of the trade. 'They hvd a scheme of finance in the Financial Statement, and this would be eu when the Public Works Statement was brought down. The latter Statement would be brought down well before the close of the session. The work of construction of light linos would not be entered upon without very great thought and very great consideration. They should wait till the result of the experiments in Tasmania, where two-feet lines were being tried, was made -known, before entering upon a systera of light-lino railways. If tho members of the House had passed the old ago pensions scheme last year it would bo in active operation now. The snni of £120,000 had boon set aside in the Statement for old age pensions. The friendly societies wo old very much resent State interference with anything but their finances, .Ho appealed to the House to take the tunity which would shortly be offered of passing the Old Age Pension Bill. The bulk .•of the money under tho Advances to Settlers Act was going out in sums of from £IOO to £4OO, and not to large capitalists, as had been predicted. Referring to the forestry question, ho said they could not protect their standing timber unless tbo House was prepared to. spend certain sums of money on roads and light railways In order to bring the timber to market. -

Sir HOBEET STOUT objeoted to- the inauguration oE the practice of placing the Budget on the table. There was no policy in the Statement that the Public Works Statement could not be brought down until the Budget had been disposed of. The Budget should stats in precise language the financial transactions of the past year and the proposals of finance for the future. He defied any member to say that he oonld gather from the Statement any idea of the finances of the colony. The increase of (taxation from March, 1891, was £322,915. There bad been an increase of beer duty and criminal convictions, The estimates last year wore £312,098 less than the amount which had actually been realised. The table of reproductive land nonproductive loans published in the Budget was bogus. Over a million of money had been expended in public works after 1891, which had been recorded in this table as having been expended before that date. The sum of £670,000 had been lost sight of altogether, and was not on record at all. It was stated that £231,500 had been spent on railways, whereas £1,163,491 bad been spent. Half a million had been spent on roads, which had not been recorded at all. The sum of £729,000 had been put down for local bodies, whereas £178,000 of this was non-reprodno-tivoly spent in reading and bridging Government blocks. lighthouses were put down as non-reprodnetive. whereas they were., highly reproductive The same" with emigration. It was said that £200,000 of the permanent debt bad been paid off- That was true, bat £IOO 000 was taken from Sir Harry Atkinson’s 1891 surplus and £IOO,OOO taken from the sinking fund. Nobody knew what the financial outlook was to he. The Premier had borrowed some ideas about forestry and beet sugar from ,his predecessors in office. He could not see Why creameries should. - have advances any .more''than “any other undertakings,

nor could he see why wo should waste money in the erection of idorave accommodation lor frozen meat in England, He could not see the necessity for supervisory produce agents in England. In the Budget of last year it was stated that old ago pensions would have to bo provi led for out of taxation, but the amount was left blank. This year it was to come out of revenue, and to cost £IOO,OOO, but no provision hod made for it in tho iitarexnent. Referring to the Estimates, he said our Magistrates were scandalously underpaid, ihe most recently apEointvd,tbe Magistrate atMasterton, had had is salary raised £SO, and now had more than all the rest. The PREMIER : Ho h*s bed no increase. Sir ROBERT bTOUT ; That was even worse, considering that the Magistrate in Wo lingtoii, a far more important district, only got £425. Ho hoped the Premier would reduce the amount changed tor his trip Homo to £IOOO, the same as the Premier of Victoria had charged, so that there might be ne invidious discussion about it on the floor of the House. The expenditure on charitable aid was increasing. In 1891 it was £144,867. It had been increasing ever since, and was in 1896-7 £186,037. The local bodies should be allowed to deal witb some phases of charitable aid and old age pensions as well. In lowering the interest in the Savings Bank the Government was punishing the thrifty. What was tho uao of a Government giving pensions and those who wished to provide for themselves in their old age? There was a great deal in the American saying; ‘‘The flag of freedom will never wave over a nation of dead-heads.” Mr MORRISON moved tho adjournment at midnight.—Agreed to.