MR FISH AT SOUTH DUNEDIN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9906, 27 November 1893, Page 4

MR FISH AT SOUTH DUNEDIN.

Mr H. S. Fish, jun, one of the candidates for the representation of the City of Dunedin in Parliament, met the electors in Naumann*s Hall, South Dunedin, on Saturday night. The building was filled to its utmost holding capacity, and a large proportion of ladies were amongst the audience. There was considerable interruption and uproar at times during the proceedings, but the candidate was able to finish his speech before resuming his seat. Mr H. M. Henderson (mayor of South Dunedin) occupied the chair, and asked that the same treatment might be accorded Mr Fish as was extended to the other candidates who had spoken in that hall—namely, a fair and impartial hearing.

Mr Fish, who was received with mingled demonstrations of approval and disapprobation, said that three years ago he appeared before them, not upon that platform but upon another in the city of Dunedin, to appeal to them for their suffrages —(A Voice : "As a Labour member of Parliament" ; and cries of " Chuck him out," and interruption.) He was there to address them, and if they did not give him a fair hearing he would at ouce leave the stage. Three years ago he laid down certain principles which would guide him during the Parliament he sought to be elected to. He was there that night to say without the .slightest fear of contradiction that with regard to all the principles he had enunciated three years ago he had fulfilled his pledges.—(" Hear, hear," "No n,°4l and,. uproar) Some of them might say "Why have you not uniformly supported.! the present Government ?" To that his answer was that the Government, not he, had departed from the principles upon which they had assumed office. Let them consider for a moment what it was the present Government promised to the people of this colony when they assumed office. First they promised reduction of expenditure and 'strict economy; second, they promised that they would carry out a tapering-off policy in the expenditure of money on public works; third, that they wohld pursue a non-borrowing policy - fourth, that they would make a change in the incidence of taxation—from the property tax to silt nd *w 'I^° me taXi both bein S Progressive; filth, that they would introduce and carry remedial legislation; and, sixth, carry out liberal land legislation, so that the unearned increment arising from the land would go into the pockets of the people instead of into the pockets of individuals. Now, let them inquire seriatim whether they had fulfilled those promises or not. His answer was unmistakably that they had not done so/and he would proceed to prove the propositions he made In the latter part of the session of 1890—the* last session of the old Parliament, when the Atkinson Government was in power—himself and other leading members of the Opposition party determined to make a vigorous onslaught upon the Estimates of that Government. They sat up night after night and in- caucus day after day m order to see how and in what manner those Estimates could be reduced. They cut here and carved there, and the result was, at ,-, c??. *hat the-v made a saving of something like £45,000 to £48,000. The first thing that gave him a surprise, and he might say a shock,with regard to the present Government was that •U S?' ? r °Per sessioa of the new Parliament in 1891 he found, when he came to discuss the Estimates, that in every item in those Estimates the highly paid officials were replaced in the same position they were in before they cut them down the previous session, and in nß_° ther cases sala«es were raised 10,15, 20, and m some cases 25 per cent. That was the first thing that caused him surprise, and he felt.humiliated that he should have been such an ass as to have assisted the Government, the Liberal party-the Opposition then—in cutting down the Estimates, only to find when they got into power that they placed them in the same position as before, and in some cases actually increased them. Then with regard to the policy of tapering off in the expenditure of money on public works. Now,, in the last year ot oflice of the Atkinson Government they had ■ brought the expenditure on public works down to £334,257. The present" Government in the nlno^n* of office Bpeat no les* a sum than £392,000, or £59,000 in excess of that spent in the previous year by the Atkinson Government In the second year of their office they spent the > sum of £472,951, or a sum of £128,694 in excess ot the last year of the Atkinson Government. Now, during the present financial year ending on the 31st of March next, they proposed to spend no less a sum than £693,068, or a sum in excess of the last year of the Atkinson • Government of £358,811. And this was done by a tapermg-off Government! He was only trying to point out to them that the Government had ijot kept, their promises. Let them note for the sake of example the large sum proposed to be expended during the present year, no less than £693,000. Now, why should there be this sudden jump in the third year of the expenditure of the Government and just before they were going to the polls ? The obvious inference to be drawn from the fact he had just alluded to was that the Government were going to expend this money, or promise to spend ifc, in order to buy political support at the poUs.—(Hear; hear, applauso, and dissent.) And they would find that out of this large proposed expenditure, this part of the colony got extremely little, whilst the West Coast and the extreme north of the North Island got the large bulk of the amount. Let them consider for a moment what this Government started with when they took office. In March 1891, or two months after taking office, they had of loan money to the credit of the public works fund £718,000. During the year 1892-3 there was paid into' the fund a further sum of £227,504, and during 1893-4 it was proposed to pay in £257,000 out of revenue and £160,000 out of released sinking funds. These items with others amounted to a total of £1,712,122 since March 1891, and out of this large sum only £450,000 had been contributed out of revenue, £200,000 of which was to be taken out of the last year's revenue. In addition to this enormous sum, they took power last session to make a liability outside of this sum to the extent of £659,940 beyond the balance to the credit of the public works fucd. They had in point of fact by the aid of their majority in Parliament taken power to pledge the finances of the colony to a sum of money nearly equalling three-quarters of a million. And yet all this time, with this large amount of loan money, of practically borrowed money, the Government had been gulling the public by the tale that they have been constructing public works purely out of surplus revenue.—(Uproar.) There never was a greater sham and delusion perpetrated on an unsuspecting public than had been done by the present Government. Again, they were told the Government had followed &, non-borrowing policy. It must be obvious to them all that if during the three years which would be ended on the 31st of March next the Government had not borrowed any money, the net puhlic debt of the colony could not by any possible means have been greater or should be greater than it was at the end of the financial year 1891 when they took office. What did he find? That on the 31st of March 1891 tho net public debt was £37,359,157. Now, on the 31st March 1893—let them bear in mind that was two years, 1891, 1892,1893-it'had increased to the sum of £38,144,070, or an increase of £754,913. So they would observe that in two years this non-borrowing Government increased the public debt of. the colony by three-quarters of a million of money. That was a certainty; and he estimated from figures taken from public documents that at the end of this financial year on the 31st March 1894, the public debt would have increased to £39,923,943, or about £84,000 over a million and a-half of money. So that in three years a non-borrowing Government had increased the net debt of the colony by over a million and a-half of money. Aud yet this again was a non-borrowing Government! This had been done by sly borrowing, by converting their loans, by collaring sinking funds in aid of revenue and spending them on public works and still teUing the public that they were constructing these works out of revenue and nofc out of borrowed money.—(Cheers.) When the House next met in 1894, after the end of the financial year, in all probability and in fact to a certainty, if the Government expended what they proposed to expend and went in debt for what they had got the power to go in debt for, the House would find that it had got to face an empty Treasury, and a debt to pay of nearly a million of money; and the inevitable result of this was—it did not matter what Government was in office—they must go upon the market and borrow ; and this Government had brought things to such a pass by an unnecessarily lavish expenditure of public money in order to placate aud please the constituencies and to get themselves returned at the polls on this occasion, and then from sheer force of necessity compel them to grant them a loan, and they would use that to buy the support of the constituencies again.—(Cheers.) It would have been more to the credit of the Government if they had freely and openly admitted the truth to the public. What public work of auy importance did they find going on in Otago out of all this lavish expenditure ? But if they went to the West Coasfc of this island—to Kumara and Greymouth aud Hokitika—aud up into the far north of the North Island, they would find the sovereigns had been shovelled out in bucketfuls, whilst in Otago they had been left practically starving for the waut of public works. He was not against borrowing moderately himself, for in a young country like this we could not afford to let public works stand still, therefore he would favour moderate borrowing, wifch spending perhaps from £500,000 to £600,000 or £700,000 a year, aud that for a period of three or four years, so as to briug useful works now in progress to such a point as would repay something like interest on the cost of construction. —(Applause.) He would, however, uot vote for a loan, uuder any circumstances, if the present Miuister for Public Works was to have the spending of it.—(A Voice : "You need uot trouble yourself.") Oh, yes, he need ;he could assure them that ou Tuesday next he would find himself at the top of the poll — (Applause.) Iv his opinion surplus revenue should be devoted to the reduction of taxation, and not applied to public works. If this were not dove they were taxing themselves for works for the benefit of posterity, when posterity ought to bear its share of the burden entailed by public expenditure upou permanent works. As to the Otago Central Railway, the amount placed on the i

Estimates for this work for the present year— £45,000—was as much as they could expect; but what had it been the previous year, or the year previous to that again ? They then found the paltry sum of £15,000 aUocated for this work. How came this about, seeing that the Government Were just as able to give a proper amount for this Work iniß9l and in 1892 as they wereinlß93? Howwasit thatin thepreceding years the Otago Central only got a paltry £15,000 or £20,000. It was because the constituency in which the works on that line were being done was represented by the Hon. John M'Kenzie— (Hear, hear, and " Good man")—and the more men the Governmeut could put in that district, conveniently near to voting time, the more support it was expected would be given to the Minister. This was done wholly and solely to buy political support at the polls.—(Hear, hear, applause, and dissent.) He was not in favour of thesystem of co-operative works, for it was not fair to the men or anyone in the community. Under it the men either got too much or too ! little for their work, and it gave "Jacks in office" too much power in the way of the selection of men, and the best men were shunted in order to put on seme political friends of the labour members, who went sneaking about the bureau to get their friends work.—(" Boohoo " and applause. A Voice • "That cannot be proved.") The whole system was fraught with corruption from beginning to end. There was no Way of properly carrying out public works with the money of the people of the colony except by tendering upon the open market, and the Government could always protect the working men by putting in as conditions of the contract the minimum rate of wages, that there should be no sub-letting, and that no man should be allowed to work more than eight hours per day. With such conditions there would result a much fairer distribution of the work, and the arrangement would be better for all parties concerned.—(Applause.) The Minister for Lands at Palmerston said that it was true some men earned 18a a day,, while others only earned 4s or ss, but he said the men who earned 18s worked 12 hours a day. Was that a thing for a member of a Liberal Government to boast of that the eight hours'system had been broken down with the knowledge and consent of the Government ? The fact was that the sooner the coloHy reverted to the. old-fashioned system of doing its public works the better for the working men and for the community generally.—(A Voice -. " Not a bit of it.") They must bear iv mind that it was not possible for the Government to employ all the workers of the colony, and that if the Government paid more than the ordinary rate of wage they could only pay it by taking it out of the pockets of other people.—(Applause.) Any policy that had for its effect an interference with the ordinary and normal state of society at the hands of the Government was fraught with danger to the State, and must end in disaster to all.—(" Oh, oh!" "No! "- "What about the exhibition building?" applause and dissent.) The fourth promise of the Government, to change the incidence of taxation from the property tax to a land and income tax, both being progressive, had been fulfilled, aud towards its fulfilment he had given, his utmost' assistance.' Regarding remedial labour legislation, the Government had passed a Factories Act which was a great boon to the factory workers; but, after all, this and other labour measures passed were measures introduced by the previous Government although not carried into law by them.: This, however, did not detract from the merit of the Government that had passed them,and he was pleased to be able to tell them that he had himself supported the carrying of the legislation to which he had referred.; With regard to the other point, the Minister for Lands had falsified the principles of a lifetime by. giving away the unearned increment of the land in granting what was called the perpetual lease, but which he (Mr Fish) had more appropriately designated the " infernal lease." That was a big blot upon the otherwise stainless escutcheon of the .Minister for Lands.—(A Voice: "How about the pickle bottle?") Never mind the pickle bottle. He was a peaceful man; but he would ask the gentlemen ■ who were round that fool to pitch him out.—(Applause and disturbance.) What besides the measures to which he had referred, and which he admitted were of a beneficial character, had been introduced _of any use to the community ? The Government had brought before the House measure after measure of wh^t he took leave to call a ridiculously" stupid, socialistic, meddlesome, and interfering character, which if they had been passed into law would have made the people curse those who had enacted them.—-(Ap-plause.) The Government had tried their best to set class against class.—("Yes, yes" and "No, no.") >They had tried to teach the labourer that the greatest foe the labourer had got was the man with capital.—("No.") He was there to tell them that there was no greater friend [to labour than capital so long as they could be brought to work homogeneously toether.—(Applause.) He Wanted to ask working men what prospect there was of profitable employment for them if they drove capital out ofthe country.—(Applause, "Oh,"and "Too thin.") They might take his word- for it that anything in the shape of legislation which would unduly frighten capital was the greatest toe they could have.—(Applause and "No") How could tbey live without capital ? In say in « this he was free to admit that capital must pay its fair share of taxation, but they must not by a series of socialistic enactments create a feelin<* of unrest in the minds of those witb capital" because if they did they would do more injury than they imagined.—(Applause.) What was wanted was a Government that would give them a rest—a Government not Conservative; a Government that was Liberal and truly Liberal, not socialistic and not a Government whose chief aim seemed to be to put everybody's hand against the throat of everybody ekebut a Government which would calmly and' wisely guide the-destinies of this young and great nation, a Government that would by wise and beneficent legislation briDg the people into one homely feeling with one another. What had been known in the past as the Conservative party was dead beyond all resuscitation, and what wa. wanted to take its place was not a Socialistic Government but a Government of practical common sense—men who would give the people truly liberal measures, but would not fool them to the top of their bent.—("Oh, oh.") A lot of people did not like that, but they knew it was true.—(Applause.) He was greatly opposed to the present Government, and believed it was necessary in the interests of the colony that they should be ejected from office; but if that were done, in all probability they would have to face' a Government led by Sir Robert Stout. — (Hear hear, aad " No.") He did not thiuk he could possibly follow Sir Robert Stout, and if returned he would have to go as an independent member, and they must be content to trust to his own good sense and judgment.—(Applause and dissent.) On the question of the future control of the railways, he was in favour of the management of the railways by the commissioners, with a Minister having a seat on the board, so as to be able to report to Parliament, but he warned . the railway employes that it would be bad for them if the railways ever again came under political influence with Ministerial control. As to the liquor question he need not tell them that he was opposed to the direct veto, and that he was no prohibitionist, but he was not opposed to reform, and ho b.lieved the new liquor law was a fair compromise and promised a large measure of reform. AVith regard to the Legislative Council, he J thought it would do very well as it was, with this one little reform passed at the earliest moment possible—a law which would.prevent any Government increasing the number of members of that body to more than one-half the number of those in the lower Chamber. If this were done, it would not be in the power of any Government—Conservative, Liberal, or Radical—to unduly swamp that Chamber for the purpose of serving their own political ends; and if the present Government attempted to make any more appointments to that Council whenever the elections were over, they would perform an act which would disgrace them- in the eyes of nine-tenths of the people of this colony.—(Loud cheers.) As to the Lands for for Settlement Bill, had that measure been carried it would have effectually settled a good mauy gentlemen who possessed more than 1000 acres of land. A'l the Minister would have had to do would be to say to these people, "I want that land ; you have got to give it up." In vain* they might say, "We have made beautiful homes for ourselves; our children have been born here, and we shall not give up the homes we have made for ourselves and for them." The Minister would have had the power to take it from them. Now, it would have been a wrong thing to give such a power to any Minister. If land was required for close settlement in the proximity of large centres, then he agreed that the Government should acquire it at a fair price, but ho objected altogether to coercion in a matter of this kind. The Pomahaka purchase was a perfect public scandal.-— (Mr J. F. M. Fhaseu : " I say if is not, and I know;'" and loud cheers.) To pay £210s an acre for land that was leased at sixpence an acre was a scandal. No such purchase should be made by the Minister uutil it was ratified by Parliament. Then the Government had another scheme. They proposed to borrow money at a low rate of interest and to lend it out to farmers. Iv his opinion the Government had no business to go into the loan busiuess at all. But if they did go into it, why should the loaus be confined to farmers? Why not leud money to small traders, to men who had land and buildings on ifc iv a city ? Surely the security was at least as good in the one case as iv the other. The wholo scheme was rot and bosh, and if carried out would end in great disaster to the colony. There was one important matter he wished to touch upon, and tbat was the indebtedness of local bodies. Harbour boards had borrowed £3,276,300, and local bodies £2,537,445, makiDg a total of £5,815,745, at an average interest of 5i per cent. He had no doubt that if the Government weut into the market to borrow money to pay these loaus off they could obtain it at 3-i per cent. If they could lend the local bodies money to pay off their loans by this system of consolidation the Harbour Board of Ofcago would save £116,314 per annum, and to the corporation of Douedin alone it would result in a saving of £25,000 a year. The time had arrived when the. Government should resume control of the harbours of the colony. The Otago Harbour Board could only manage the interest by levying excessive charges, which were doing a great deal of injury to the trade and pro-

Sperl X? Z the place' What he Bh°uld do would be to put on a primage duty on all goods, and then every man, woman, and child in the community would bear their fair proportion of the charges which were necessary to control and carry on their harbours He would now say a word or two about" the ticket "—the Pinkerton, Earnshaw, and Hutchison ticket.- (Cheers.) Why should they vote for this ticket ?-(A Voice : "Because they are a moral ticket.") What unity was there between this trinity ? What connecting link was there ?-(Great uproar and interruption) If they could not stand being told what frauds their friends were he could not help it. From their habits neither cf these men was entitled to be a representative of the Temperance League.—(Cries of " Yes !" "No ' " and general uproar.) He thought that men to represent the temperance cause should be themselves abstainers, and it seemed to him the greatest hypocrisy that men who could drink their liquor readily were espousing and championing thedirect veto.—(Applauseand interruption ) Then they had the Women's Franchise League taking up this ticket, but the people on it had only voted for the women's franchise because it was a foregone conclusion that it would be carried. He had opposed it and would dcKsO again because he believed the women did not want it, though now that they had ithe would do nothing to takeitfrom them, and he expected to be returned mainly by the votes of the sensible women of the community. —(Applause and laughter.) Then they had this holy trinity advocating economy.—(lnterruption, during which Mr Fish said that he would leave the meeting if order was not preserved.) Well one of these friends of economy (Mr Earnshaw) wanted the honorarium increased to iSUU and the salaries of Ministers to £1000. His (Mr Fish's) position on the question of education was the same as when last elected, and he had no reason to believe there had been any change in popular feeling since then. He was m favour of Bible-reading in schools with a conscience clause It seemed to him a scandal ~ i_n_ a G?d-f earing community the Bible should be excluded from the common schools.--(The candidate's remarks'on this question were made amidst frequent interruptions and emphatic applause.) In conclusion, he asserted that m all his public career no 6ne could accuee i 1?..? T? aving broken any promise.-("Oh, °f ii_ v.™ 8 Ti IHn S to Sive an 7 m»n a suit of clothes who could show that he had broken a promise, political or private. He had unflinchingly exposed, at great risk to himself, wrong wherever he had found it existing(applause) ;-and as he had done in the past so would he do in the future if elected, and he believed that he should go in at the head of the &(r 0 'n0! "*,Yes'^!" aPPl-e,and

A considerable number of .questions were asked, and in replying to them ■ Mr Fish said that it was untrue he had. violated his conscience on the Midland railway quest-ion so as not to go into the same lobby as Sir Robert Stout. He was in favour of a female visitor to Seacliff being appointed, and to the appointment of a commission of inquiry into the conduct of lunatic asylums. .If returned to Parliament and it was proposed to give a grant ". ™ °f „,? oman Catholic schools —say °l 3uK OI as.£2 per head-lie would support it, but the schools must be subject to inspection by the State school inspectors. He believed that to grant this would remove a grievance and would really strengthen the national system. He denied that other demommations would make a similar demand; the clergy ;might wish to do bo, but the laity would be contented with the present system if Bible-reading were introduced into the schools, but not otherwise He did not hold with any increase being made in the honorarium. £240' was ample for all men. He had voted for the increase to that amount, but if he had to give a vote again hawould not vote for it, becaule the Labour members from this part had failed to satisfy him by their actions. If a vote of his con d have the effect of allowing the use of the w *n schools 'then i* would have his vote. Mr Gabriel Hodges then moved—" That this .meeting thanks Mr Fish for his address, and has tull confidence in him as one of the representatives of the City of Dunedin." Mr Cannon seconded the motion.

The Chairman, after calling for a show of hands, declared the motion to be carried ihere was great uproar upon this announcement being made, and Mr Fish briefly returned thanks amid a great deal of noise and disorder, and the meeting thereupon came to a close.