THE COMING ELECTIONS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7926, 18 July 1887, Page 4

THE COMING ELECTIONS.

MR J. C. BUCKLAND AT PALMEESTON.

Mr J. C. BucUland, M.H.K., ono of the candidates for the Waihemo Beat, addressed a crowded meeting of electors in the hall at Palmerston on Thursday eveniug. The meeting, although large, was exceedingly quiet and orderly, and the speaker was well received. Mr J. Arkle occupied the chair. Mr Buckland said he was pleased to see such a large and representative meeting, because hifelt the time had come for the electors to taku into their own hands matters which up to the present they had deputed to other people. H« need hardly explain the circumstances under which, by the new arrangement of electorates, two members in that locality had been brought mto the same field, and h« very much regretted having to oppose Mr John H'Kenzie—a man with whom he was on most friendly terms. But when he explained his views thoy would see that he had no choice, and that tha contest was forced upon him as a stern duty. He only hoped that those whom he had now to meet would regard him with as much friendliness as the electors of Waikouaiti had done, especially that part of Waikouaiti which he was sorry to say was now covered from the electorate. Before speaking upon the particular action of tho Government he should like to place before them THE HEAL ISSUE. The Stout - Vogel Ministry, after three years of office, had been told that they were not carrying out the wishes of the House, and they replied tnat they did not believe the House represented the opinion of the people, and appealed over the head of Parliament to the constituencies. The issue the electors had to settle was, therefore, whether they were in favour of the Stout-Vogel Government, its policy and administration. There might be false issues raised, but the real one was whether the btout-Vogel Ministry were to continue in ollico. Before dealing with their policy he would consider the circumstances under which they took office. It was at a period of political rest. The retorms bir George Grey had advocated had stirred people for the time, but they had all passed into law, and in the next Administration excitement, as was always the case, was followed oy rest. All he ueud say about the Atkinson Ministry was that they had grown out of favour, not by auy evil deed, but rather owing to the feeling (in which he iiad shared) that justice had lut been doiiu to this part of the culouy. During all this time tho civil [service uad lieeu growing, and there was a centralising tendency about the Government which he considered objectionable. The StoutVogel Government than took office under circumstances which were most favourable. There was no great abstract question to the fore, and they recognised the fact, and on every occasion referred to themselves as a government of administration. Iv his Financial Statement of 1884 Sir Julius Vogel said that the finances of the colony were not in a condition of embarrassment, and that they were elastic and buoyant enough to satisfy the most exacting financier I his expression "exacting financier" sounded the key-note to the whole action of the Government. Thoy had endeavoured by financing and borrowing, and by any means but facing the questions of the day, to carry on affairs; and Sir Julius Vogel, when he used that expression, had no doubt in his mind's eye the purpose of taking possession of the sinking fund. The speaker, it must bo borne in miud, dealt with the action of the Government as one strongly on the Opposition aide, and they would hear the other view of tho question from Mr M'Keuzie. The latter had been haud-aml-glove with the Ministry—their confidential adviser,—,i m l he might be considered almost as powerful as one of the Government, Sir Robert Stout at the last general election had spoken some noble words and made it great .MANX' MOaiISKS, and he (Mr Buckkiul) wished to show in how many cases these had been absolutely broken. One promise was retrenchment in every department of tho public servici;, and especially in tha matter of borrowed money. But on every occasion he could call to mind the Government had resisted any effort made in the House to cut down expenses. He instanced Captain

Husiiull's motion, which was resisted to the last gasp, and Sir Robert Stout was even understood 1.0 say that lm would resign. However, the others would not, but they went about the I colony complaining of it systematically afterwards. When the last loair bill was before tlics House, too, they tried again and again to reinstate two political railways upon the schedule. Again.one of their promises -was thereform of the Upper House, yet the (irst t.bing the Government I did was to create IV new members, at a cost to the country of about X's.'sf)On year; and worse still, they passed the Honorarium and Parliamentary Privileges Bill,by which they absolutely entitled the members to 200guineasa jear. Till then any sum had been voted as the Estimates came down, but now they were by law entitled to this amount, and when the question of reducing the honorarium came up there would consequently be a dilliculty. We had also undertaken to pay £2700 per annum towards tho government of New Guinea—a country from which it might suit Queensland planters to get their black labour, but in which we had no interest He believed in the interests of party the Government should bo allowed great latitude • but were tho Ministry to do certain things for tho purpose of SKCIJItINIi SUPPORT in tho House which a private member would bo ashamed of ? He was bound to say that in tho way of rewards the Government had done far more than they were justified in doing, and ho thought a man should not bo allowed to take advantage of his position to make money which he could not otherwise make. Ho could show mauy instances in which this had been done and tho matter should be seriously considered.—(Applauso.) Reference was seldom made to this in members' speeches. It seemed to bo a sort of opinion that it should not be talked about; but he said that a large number of members, apart from advantages to their districts, had received pay or reward in a manner which was simply indecent. The appointments made by the Government in every department of the puhlic service had been very largely made the reward of political support in the House. To such an extent had this been done s-.s regarded the waste land boards, that he thought the time had come when these boards should be swept away. He was not alluding to Mr to Kenzie, because he recognised that he hail acted on the board in a most straißhttorward manner and had earned respectbut there were others of which this'could not be Kind, and if wo looked nt the travelliuif expenses and other money spent it would be found we paid dearly for any advantage wo got from these boards. He might dwell more on the

CHRONIC EXTRAVAGANCE which had afllicted the Government, but he was v not fond of carping at men's actions, and would " pass on to more congenial matter. One thine he would ask them to consider of which Sir • X Stout had made great use, viz., his assertion ~ that he had reduced tho Estimates of. this veer , by £150,000. He said at the same time that 1 there was an increase in the amount of interest on borrowed money of £100,000; so although lie f rirnnnn'! *i f f t!mate<l expenditure by I 1 iIoO.OOO he could only claim a saving of £-10 000 f because there was this inflated interest. Now , if there was any truth in those figures, how was 1 "A* nnn ■ ye™, the Gov ""inient asked for L £75,000 increased property tax, £108 000 int creased returns from railways, about £10 000 , from other sources, at the same time proposing (o throw a large burden on local bodies by dis--1 continuing subsidies to some extent, and an increased customs return of £180,000—in nil : £400,000? Why on earth was this? It was perfectly unintelligible, and he could only : account for it by saying that wo had not got to ■ the bottom of affairs, that the Government were ; able to keep back information, and that large 1 *l"lv- wbe TTO char Setl al«™t which they said , nothing How little sympathy there was on ' tho part of tho Government for those who had to pay could be seen from the assertion in one Financial Statement that the people were well able to provide additional revenue And another quotation from the same Statement was as follows:-" After all that has been said about New Zealand, it is in my opinion expedient to show that we can make our revenue meet toe expenditure" This was from the '• exacting financier " who had thwarted every effort at retrenchment, who depended upon borrowing and juggling, ami who, with a. deficit of £200,000, proposed to increase the taxation of tbo couutry by £400,000. When these remarks came from such a source, we reached what the speaker called the hoight of unblushing impudence. In 188-1 our indebtedness was 2.9-V millions; it was now over 34 millions—a very good increase in the time. And we had at present to pay £2,000,000 a year, or about £5500 a 'day in interest—an expenditure which there was no means of retrenching without breaking faith He was totally opposed to any borrowing which was to go on committing us to such terrible indebtedness. When the borrowing policy began it was recognised that with the population we then had we were not likely to be able to pay the interest, and part of the scheme was to introduce people here. But the unfortunate position 1 to-day was that our population was not increasing, except by natural increase, aud our action tended to frighten people away. So wa had not got the good that was expected when the scheme was inaugurated, and he said that unless steps were taken by which our population would be increased we should bo unable to bear the strain of our present indebtedness.—(Applause ) They would wonder now ■

I - WHAT HE PROPOSED. Ho wa» not a leader in the House, although be had formed strong ties and had been long i enough in the House to gain a great deal of inI £ )rm, aH°'\ ,T weuty year 3 a s°he i)ointed °ut the drift of that great civil service and pension system; ho hud always felt strongly on the i question, and he now said that the root of all the trouble was that large, unwieldy House at Wellington. We should have larger districts, aud theu men would be sent who would sink small considerations. He had moved that the blank in the Representation Bill should be filled with 50, and made out the best case he could for it, but Mr Barron begged him to withdraw this, as it was thought if they inserted 60 they might carry it. This he did, but 60 was altered to 71, and iater on the Government reinstated 01. He asked them to demand from their member a pledge that he would make some effort to get this number largely reducod. He himself would make the promise with pleasure and he was sure the other candidates would. The next thing was the price to be paid for service. Ho did not think £210 at all too much for men who left their busiuuss for three months at great sacrifice; but he recognised the necessity for retrenchment, and would therefore try to make the honorarium £150. This should be done next Parliament, if only to show that public men were willing to make some sacrifice when called upon. He also advocated tho withdrawal of members^ free railway passes, and that members travelling on public business should pay their fare and send in a voucher for the amount. Tlio Maori members were a great, expense. There were two highly-paid interpreters in the Lower aud one in the Upper House. This was anomalous altogether. There might be, perhaps, two Native members for the North Island, but there were plenty of men to send who could speak English and would be quite as capable of looking after Native interests. Of course he would reduce the number of Ministers. They did not serve the purpose nor do so much work as people thought. Tho real work was done in the departments. One purpose of Ministers was to be a sort of buffer between the public and the civil servants. This had grown to be recognisedand were it not for this, half of the civil service might perhaps be sent packing. It had seemed to him from the moment he went into the House that the first consideration with Ministers was to retain their seats. The salaries should be made much lower, 50 that high-spirited men would perhaps go in, and not hesitate to throw up office rather than sacrifice principles To the Premier he would give £1000, and to the others half their present salary. The Ministerial residences, which seemed to entail great expense, should be sold, except that occupied by the Premier. One plea for these allowances was that Ministers had to entertain, but he did not think the taxpayers wanted in these times to spend money in entertaining civil servants in Wellington whom they had never seen or were likely to see. (Hear ) He also advocated making the Governor's -salary £3000, with perhaps £2500 for incidentals, and not allowing it to reach anything like the figure it had got to now. There was an immense amount of time, too, thrown away in allowing private members to practiie lawmaking—time that cost the colony £30 an hour. What he had said of the Legislative ' branch applied to all the others. There might be an immense saving in the Defence department. No less than £350,000 had I been spent in the last three years to fortify four harbours. We had scarred hillsides, ; dragged cannon up to inaccessible places, and most practical men said we might as well have popguns. As they were there, a few skilled men only should be kept on of the permanent force, and the responsibility for defence thrown on the volunteers. He himself was an old volunteer and had smelt powder and heard bullets, and ducked to thorn—though he got out of that after a time—and he should be quite willing to truiit the defence to the volunteers. The defence expenditure had, unfortunately, been greatly nrgumented by the fact of our happening during the scare to have a military Governor. The administration of justice was another thing that was needlessly expensive, especially criminal prosecutions. He attended a case at a recent session of the Supreme Court in which two men were charged with embezzlement. Both pleaded guilty, and there was no jury ; yet for conducting theso oases— in which there was nothing to conduct—he was given to understand that the Crown prosecutor received 154gs. It was the duty of the Minister of Justice to look into matters of this kind. A return laid on the table of the House showed that the cost of education was something like half a million ormore,and there was room for the pruning knife here. He had desired to leave education as the last thing and cut down other votes first, but at the same time'h was quite possible that some retrenchment might be effected in this. In connection with this subject there was brought up as a side issue the question ol' the Bible hi schools. Ho held a strong opinion upon this, viz., that the introduction of tho Bible into schools was that wedgo which would eventually split up our education syctesi. It would directly ba followed by f'aoii, and directly after that each denomination would have iiis own schools, aud the system would go by tho board. Ke tried to live as a straightforward, earnest believer in the good old Bible, but even if the education system were not at' stake, for the sake of the Bool: itself he would not introduce it aud compel the men who Rcied as schoolmasters throughout tile colony ! to read it. Because, although one or two in 20 might handle the Book as it should be handled, it would be found that a great number would make it a laughing stock, and the boys in most instances, Instead of reverencing it, would corae

■ to hold ]|; „, contempt.—(Applause,) There 1 was uo question that the education would not ! lie education of the heart, anil if they .lid not get that ut home they certainly would not get it at school. J.'o say that children could !>e taught I.v l>e religious by reading a portion of the Bible, lie considered stull1 and nonsense. Wfi had seen Ik remnant of a great nation taught to read the Bible: he meant the Maoris. There was probably not a man present who had half the know edge of the Bible of the average Maori ol the North Island; but it was all lip learning and they had gone home to their pahs and confused ,t into the most ridiculous worship imaginable. Much the same thing would result irom introducing the Bible alone into schools, and lor the sake of the Book itself and „ ollr ~a ilcalion tom h(J would rather lose his seat than support such a proposal, iiie Forest department was the next item for retrenchment. The Government had established State forests and given billets to commissioners and others, and it was by this notion that the speaker had first realised their intentions. He would wipe the whole thing right out. As regarded the proposal to allow the commissioners to borrow money on the credit of the colony, this, of course, had been promptly struck out by the House, but the fact remained that the Government wanted to do it, and it showed what a retrenching Government would do. The Mines department was next. Up to a certain point pimers had been the most self-reliant class in the- colony, facing their difficulties manfully and rivalling each other in constructing water races, &c. But the Government must step in, and by their action in spending money on the goldfiolds do their best to pauperise the miners. The sooner this uas stopped the better. In some instances the Government money being spent was £30 to every £l raised by local rating, and this was very serious indeed. The work could easily be taken over by another department, and no Minister of Mines was wanted at all. The •hrect mail service was also unnecessary, and settlers in the country certainly got no benefit fronnt. The effect of having these magnificent vessels was that they combined to keep a monopoly in everything, boycotted other lines, and that the present low price of our produce in London was made worse by our having to pay extra cost of carriage. The speaker next proceeded to attack the civil service expenditure, saying that ho would make no alteration as to the necessary oOicials who did a fair day's work for a fair day's wage, and whom we could not do without, but that there was ample room for cutting down among the 200 men who got from £400 to £1200 per annum. A large number were, m his opinion, utterly unnecessary, and he would go for a wholesale amalgamation of offices. He referred to the proposal in tho Financial Statement to make a graduated reduction which should be of a temporary character as an indication that the Government were not in earnest in the matter, and characterised Mr Ballance's Protectionist utterances at Wanganui as meaning ruin and disgrace to the country within quite a measurable period. He had next on his notes a list headed TIED HERRINGS which the Government, finding themselves going °'lfc °f favour, had tried to draw across the scent. Mr Ballance proposed first that the judges of the Supreme Court should bo brought under the heel of Parliament. If there was one thing more than another a democracy prized, it was the independence of the judges; yet this infatuated man thought to earn some popularity by bringing down such a proposal as this. Then j the Treasurer came down with his Woman's Suffrage Bill ;-he who had just f aid it was no time for introducing questions by abstract policy. There were two other red herrings to which he wished to refer. The Premier said the real question was not retrenchment, tut the popular cry of bursting up the big estates, hence the Land Acquisition Bill; and another question he advanced was a graduated property tax. For three years the Premier had never brought forward the question of land acquisition, and he had opposed it when auyone else did. If he (Mr Buckland) showed them by Sir Robert Stout's own words that he never believed in it, they would see it was now only put forward to divert them from the real question and bamboozle them. He did not blame Sir Robert Stout for trying this, because he was a lawyer—(laughter),—anil it was quite right for him ; but he should find fault with the electors if they were so led away. The question was discussed in the session oi' ISB6, and Sir Robert Stout said:—" l'hsfc, I would ask tho House not to ha led away with the idea that we have no good land available in the colony, and that unless this proposal is carried out there will be no farms for anybody. We have at the lowest computation, excluding Native lands at least 25 million acres of good land left in this colony still belonging to the State. There are, 1 believe, eight or nine million acres of Native lauds also suitable for settlement; so that there are at least 33 to 35 million acres still left suitable for settlement." And again :—" To come down with a bill like this, and lead people to think you are going to have n great rush of agricultural settlement, is simply deluding the people." No Government, he said, could go on buying land without being led into corruption, and he continued:—"lf you have the people of the colony imagining that its public men and officers are acting wrongfully, you are inflicting a blow upon the democracy from which it will never recover." Let them compare this with clause 168 of " The Land Act 1885," and it would be found that this power now existed ihe other proposal Sir R. Stout made was for a graduated property tax. The speaker held that the people had a perfect right to put on such a tax if they chose, but they must consider whether it would do more harm than good Speaking of this question in 1885, Sir R. Stout pointed out all the evils that arose from any property tax at all; and if these were great in an ordinary tax, they would be much greater in a graduated tax. Sir Julius Vogel had said on this pomt :—" The impairment of the value of property might bring to .-urn nine-tenths of the colonists—all, in fact, who do not carry their means in a stocking ova money box"; aud Sir K. Stout had pointed out that the tax must eventually fall on tho consumer. It therefore seemed to the speaker an unwise thing to put it on at this time. In

CONCLUSION he again summarised tife policy of the Government, which had been nothing else but to live on borrowed money, spending it in such a way as to keep themselves in office, and our conduct for years had been such as to frighten away any desirable settlers who might otherwise have been glad to avail themselves of the advantages we might offer. We had had a warning in the deficiency of ISB4, when the Government took office, and instead of facing our position we siezed the sinking fund, and by lhat and other methods tided over affairs, but did not take the warning like men. We now had another warning in a £200,000 deficiency, and if instead of accepting it we carried on the policy of the last three years, there could be only one termination: the disgrace aud ruiu of this fine country.—(Applause.) A number of questions, referring principally to matters which had been already dealt with, were asked, and it was then moved by Mr-J. Gilmoee and seconded by Mr D. Gufi'ie— " That a vote of thanks aud confidence be accorded Mr Buckland, and that in the opinion of the meeting ho is a fit and proper person to represent that constituency." This was carried without amendment, aud the proceedings terminated with the usual vote of thanks to the chairman.