THE PREMIER'S NAPIER SPEECH.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10263, 22 January 1895, Page 7

THE PREMIER'S NAPIER SPEECH.

The Preiniei;, in the cpurse of his speech at Napier last Friday night, said (we learn from the report in the Hawko'6 Bay Herald) that I the opposition to the Native Lands Acquisition i Act came from land-grabbers and FakehaMaoris, who had fattened ou the old state of things. The Government had r.ow £250,000 a year to spend on Native Unrig, and a great part of that would be spent in Hawfeys Bay, where, though the Natives held larza tracts of lacd, they left it unutilised, and lived in a state of degradation. The Government was determined to raise them from that state of degradation and, at the same time, to settle their lands. Ths Natives could, he explained, either sell to the Governmsnt direct, or through the Government under the operation of the land laws of ths colony. He beUevad that within 12 months, when (ihe Maoris understood the new law, they would take advantage of it very largely, that the Hawke'3 Buy L/lud Board, which now had j alinosi; nothing to da, would bs busy, that there j ■would be land for all applicants, instead of cumbers applying' for evary section, as was now the pase, and that those who had opposed the act would ba convinced of its bsneficial operations. He claimed that at the last general election the people had unmistakable expressed their wish that local rating should fee on the unimproved valaa of land, yet the legislative Council, in j defiance of this expression of opinion, had a secoud time thrown out a bill to effect that object. However, the objectors were merely making a rod for their own backs. The measure introduced last session was a permissive one, the local bodies being left to adopt it or not. But if the Council proved obdurate ths Governmsnt, with the peoplo at their back, would force through a compulsory measur?. Ho could not understand why a prineipla which was adopted and universally conceded to be wise in the exemption o? improvements under the land tax sfcguld be objected to in connection with local rating. The present syotera, he urged, favoured the speculator, who hsld land until it was enhanced in value by tao improvements of snrroundicg owners, and then sold and pocketed the profits. A &a bad 10Q acres, worth I £100, and spent £200 on improvements, had to I pay more than the man with 500 acres adjoining, who lefS his land idle. It had been ascertained that the average; value of improved land as compared with unimproved was about double. Consequently the speculator only paid half aa much in rates as ths wnrking occupier who improved his laad. Speculation was thus encouraged and bsuoficial occupation discouraged. A man who had unimproved land valued at £150 now paid in county and road board rates, at fd in the £1 for each, 18s'a year, while the man with an eqnal area, who improved it and made it worth £440, would pay £2 15a in rates. Under the proposad sy&tam the rating would ba about eqnal. Replying to the charge that the Government h&d insde no progress in acquiring Native lands, he stiid s. return compiled showed that they had ou ths 31st March 1891 acquired 774,000 acres. They weru empowered by the Estimates to acquire another 300,000 acres, so that riuriug the time tee Liberal Government had been in power they hsd acquired 1,074,000 acres, as compared with 78,000 purchased by the Atkinson Government from 1887 to 1890. Coming to the ehenp money schema be characterised the newspaper critics as childish. The neheino was the silver lining to a cloud which had hung ove,r the colony for years. Inst3!\d of the people being obliged to depend on getting the money from loan companies at a high rate of interest they got it from the Government ab a reasonable one. The system vras sanctioned by the people at the last election when it was stigmatised as only an election cry, now the Conservative preas said it had never been before the people. The fight was not over yet, as their critics were so exasperated thut they ware endeavouring to injure the credit of the colony. They called toe cheap money scheme a huge borrowing coaceiu, asked " Where is it going to end ? " ami predicted a crash, but where was the crash going to come from. Surely if private speculators could obtain loans and maks a 4 per cent, profit on local security the Government should be able io get them ou the came security and let the settlers have the advantage. Referring to Mr Ward'n visit to England, ha said be had always thought New Zealand was a free country. If a Minister was to be prevented from goinfj Home in the interests of tho colony on the savico cf his colleagues to do important business for the colony, and to bs asked to resign because he intended to do so, ail he could say was thai Nsw Zealand would bs a very good place to live out of. When Sir ,I', M'llwraitb., Sir G, Uibbs. and. Mi Reid,-

Premiers of the other colonicft, went Home tla papers rather BuppirW thin opposed thorn. Kir <Vorce Dibbs bad got knighthood by going Home. He did not know if his coileagua would, bull ho hoped not. Mr Ward's work would fall on tlie-shouldor* of his collftauaes. and if they didn't complain who should? They had re-, cc-iferl an offer from Meserri Haddarfi, Parker, sod Co. in respect to au alternative mail servica iikely to prosily benefit Kew Zealand. They wanted Ke.w Zealand to be made a pott of call. i'itat was hanging in the balance, and there vrere many conflicting interests, so it T/a3 thought that a Mininter with such good repute afe Home and abroad as Mr Ward possessed would be the very man to conduct the whole business. He objected to the Government beinc; imked to make sandwich men of themselves and bear on th"ir back statements as to their policy. Sir W. Perceval had done good work iv the past, and they had no fault to find with him, but it was :/elt that Mr Ward's presence would fortify him in the negotiations. They had accepted the rfipoaeibility; they were not time-servers, and il''lJariiameut were not satisfied with what they I had dims they coald get others to lake their I tilacss.