Political

Otago Witness, Issue 1383, 1 June 1878, Page 7

Political

MR REID AT OUTRAM.

Mr D. Reid, M.H.R., addressed the electors in the new Masonic Hall, at Outram, on the 22nd. About 75 persons were present. The chair was occupied by Mr Snow, who, in introducing Mr Reid said — referring to Mr Reid's announced intention of retiring from public life — thatf he regarded that step as a calamity, for the Colony was losing the services of one of her most valuable men. She was losing one who was intimately acquainted with the requirements of the Colony. lie had no doubt most of those present knew very well that he (the Chairman) had been one of Mr Reid's stauuehest supporters. His reuaou for doing so was that he had tilwa-ys found Mr Reid sound upon one question — the question of questions, he thought, which affected the future prosperity of New Zealand. He referred to the land question. That was the reason why he supported him closely. He admitted that during the last session there had gathered over Mr Reid's political career a sort of fog, which he couH not understand. He thought Mr Reid had departed from his principles. He had made a mistake, however, and he trusted that Mr Reid would explain away that fog, and if he did so he should only be too happy to still hold the same opinion of him that he had hitherto done. — (Applause.) Mr D. Reid premised his remarks by saying that if anything was likely to un-nerve him, remarks like those that had fallen from the chairman were ; and if he had been afraid of meeting his constituents, certainly the chairman's speech would be very likely to unhinge him altogether. The chairman had been good enough to say that he had always been true to principles until Jast session. He thought it would have been right in the first place that he should have had the first say, and if the chairman was anxious to put questions to him about the fog he had been in since than, his proper position would have been upon the flcor. However his position as chairman ought not to debar him from putting any questions or eliciting anything be was desirous of, and at the proper time he (Mr Reid), would be glad that he should do so. Ho had heard it said that he (Mr Reid) was afraid of meeting his constituents, and on coming into the hall he was told he was going to be pretty seveiely questioned, but the people who told him that did not know that

fear was afraid of him. He had never yet been afraid of anything he had done in a public capacity. The day that he felt afraid of meeting his constituents, and could not give good reasons for what he had done publicly, would inevitably see him out of any public position. — (Applause.) He did not wish to follow that any further. If the Chairman had anything to say he hoped h6 would take advantage of his right as an elector of the district and question him at the conclusion of his address. He then proceeded to refer rapidly to the points touched upon in his Mosgiel address, and then dwelt at some length upon the Education Act. He thought, upon the whole, the people might congratulate themselves that they had secured as good a system of education as we might reasonably expect, or any country could wish to have, assuming that the Governm?nt could provide the funds, which he presumed they must, necessary foi working and equipping the schools and maintaining them in a state of efficiency. The Bill as introduced by the Government, of which ha was a member, proposed a capitation rate. It was a very great mistake to have done away with that. No doubt the cry of free education was very attractive, but people should not imagine our education was free because they had not to pay at the school door. We could have nothing free from the Government in the sense that the people would not have to pay for it. Would it not be better to make the parents of children contribute a small sum which would not be a burden upon anyone. A small capitation tax would be better than an education rate, for this reason, that it would provide a compulsory clause in itself, as it was in the nature of things, that if one paid for an article ho expected to get value in return. The capitation grant originally passed by the late Government would have yielded L 60.000 a year ; as introduced in the Bill from L 25,000 to L 30.000. The cost of

education was now thrown upon' the consolidated revenue, but he thought it would be found that the Government would have to resort to some other means of meeting the burdens. He hoped no tax for education would tp-ke the form of a special educational rate, which had already proved distasteful. He suggested it should take the form of a tax for police protection. It ought to be a property tax, and there was no other service for which property could be so well taxed as for police protection. Great faulc had been found with the method of electing the Education Boards, on the ground of committees that had charge' of many schools having only the same voting power in returning to the Board as committees with a small number of schools in their charge. It was quite possible that that might be a hardship, but he hoped if any alteration was made it would not be in the way of having members elected to the Board for separate entities or constituencies of the district. The members of the Board should consider themselves the representatives of every district, and not the special representatives of any locality. In the latter case narrow views would be represented. Members believing they were elected to advocate the business of a par ticular locality would endeavour to secure it by means of combining with other members, with results that would be exceedingly injurious to the cause of education in our midst. He therefore earnestly hoped that whether it might be decided jto give committees having more than one school votes in proportion to the number of schools they controlled, which was a matter open to discussion, or not, he felt convinced of this, that any provision that tended to lessen the interest of members of the Board in the whole Provincial district would end injuriously to the interests of education in our midst. With regard to taxation, the meeting were doubtless aware that last session the question was raided by a private member. For himself, although the matter had been considered before the Assembly met. He was not anxious to see any further taxation imposed at the present time. He had reason to believe that with the opening of our railways the revenues accruing from them would be sufficient to meet the charges incurred by the Colony for interest and sinking fund, and other financial arrangements would be made, such as the Bill for incorporating stock, which would relieve the Colony of charges for sinking fund, so that he was in hopes the Government would be able to carry on without increasing the taxation of the Colony. It would be a great mistake on the part of the people to be too ready to place in the hands of any Government the power of raising large revenues from themselves. The tendency should rather be to enforce on the Government to the utmost extent the necessity of economy in dealing with the revenues. The people could more profitably expend the money among themselves and far more benefit trade than any Government could do. For those reasons he was very loth to see any inciease of taxation. The question raised last session was whether property should be called upon to bear an increased payment owing to the benefits it had received from the construction of any public works. He felt that owing to the passing of the Abolition Bill and the Counties Bill greater burdens were likely to be thrown upon property, because the Counties could now tax in addition to the Road Boards, and that being so property was likely to be called upon to bear a considerable share ■of the burdens. After considerable discussion the House agreed that the matter should be enquired into, that the necessaries of life should be relieved if possible, and a greater share of thf State's burdens thrown vpon property. Now he observed that the Premier, in di3cusuinsr the question recently, eatirely departed from the motion of the House and from the resolution he himself brought forward. The Premier then argued for a property tax which was to include all property, land, houses, and all accumulated property. Now he was in favour of a land tax specially, and another member of the Government had dealt with the question further very lately. From his (Mr Reid's) point of view, a land tax would be a most unequal and unfair method of meeting the liabilities imposed upon the country. The Premier proposed to classify the land into very poor, inferior, and good, while his colleagues wished to have the land taxed so that; nothing should be paid for improvements. It was to be an acreage tax. That was a pernicious principle of taxation. All political economists laid ifcdown as a rule that taxes should be levied according to the ability of the person taxed to pay, or as near to it as could be. How could that be by means of an acreage tax, more especially by means of nn acreage tax upon lands that were not improved? According to this plan laud at the Taieri near the terminus of the railway, or near Mosgiel or Dunedin, would not be more superior to land at the Upper Waipori, which received no benefit from our public worka. Land of inferior quality near Mosgiel was far more valuable than the very best land at Waipori. Again, a deferred-payment selector with a little capital may have bo far improved his land that he is getting some return from_ it. He contributes no more by this acreage tax than the struggling man who is barely able to improve his land ho a3 to comply with the conditions of the Act. Depend upon it, if they departed from the rule laid down by sound political thinkers upon this question, with the view of inflicting injury upon sny particular class, they would be injuring many classes they never contoov

plated. He knew perfectly well that the object of this taxation was to be severe upon a class who held large areas of land. He was not in favour of persons holding vast tracts of country which remained unoccupied, but he was not one who considered it injurious for one man to hold such a large extent of country if it were i rofitably .and productively occupied. The more legitimate way would be to hnpuse a tax upon land where it had been held for a given time over a given area, and not improved, when fit for improvement. Land ought to be like any other property. How was the State to determine how much a man should hold so long as he turned his land to profitable account? Taxation, based upon such a foundation as this proposed acreage tax, would act unjustly and injuriously, and inevitably it could not last long. As for manhood suffrage, he could not say that a very good case for it had been made out, nor was he aware that there was a desire on the part of many not upon the roll to have their names placed there. His experience was that it was difficult to get people to register, but still more^ difficult to get them to vote when they had registered. Although an opponent of manhood suffrage because it had not been a Rieat boon or unmixed blessing to the countries that had adopted it, he scarcely thought it worth all the noise that was being raade about it. Here our system of representation was so mixed. We had the miners' right— which ought to be abolished ; tho lodgers' franchise, and now manhood suffrage was proposed. He believed the agricultural community had been labouring under a disadvantage since the miners' right franchise was introduced, because, he contended, notwithstanding what he had heard and eeen about the superior intelligence of -'the miners, that farm servants and agricultural labourers who were employed in this and similar districts were just as much entitled to get, and as qualified to exercise, the franchise as the great bulk of those who hold miners' rights.— (Applause. With reasonable provision for residence for a length of time, and for the vote being exercised within the district in which the person resides, he would, not be disposed to cavil at sued as extension of the franchise as was proposed, although he was not enamoured of it yet As to equal representative districts, he said, if there was a statesman who could meet identity of interest, give property a fair and reasonable weight, and at the same time provide equal electoral districts, he should be willing that he should be able to carry his measure. He was in favour of retaining the present Constitution of the Legislative Council. Wo might get Lalf a dozen worse, and perhaps not one better ijnder an elective system. His objection to it was that it passed measures too readily. The Abolition Act for instance was passed in indecent haste. In conclusion he said they had a country and Constitution of which they might well be proud. They had a noble inheritance, and wise laws handed down to them ; they had the example not only of men in this country but of their forefathers in the Old Country; they had a noble Bxample to follow, and it behoved them to work this Constitution so as to endeavour to do justice to all in the community, and not to inflict injury upon any class, because any legislation that aimed at doing an injury to a class would recoil on those who attempted it. He had. heard with much sorrow that there was an intention in this^ country to endeavour to do injury to the capitalists, and he warned his hearers not to be led for one moment into the belief that the interest of the working men was in any way different from that of the capitalist. It was true that sometimes the 2apitalist was exacting and severe, but on the other hand the working man was sometimes over-reaching and unscrupulous, and they should net believe because these exceptional cases arose that capital was the enemy of labour. The plea was put forward that the capitalist would have to pay for everything, and the working man would escape from taxation, but that was quite delusive. Capital was sensitive, and if it found it was_ being dealt with unjustly, it would not come into the country, and the working men would suffer immediately. He had to thank the Taieri electors, more especially of this district, for many acts of kindness, of consideration, and it might be of forbearance. He was quite as well aware as any man could be of his own defects and shortcomings. Many times he # might have given persons cause for offence — indeed he was told that his speeches generally had created him opponents. He could assure them that if lie erred at any time it was not through intention, and if he appeared to be hard in his speech it had not been with the desire to offend or to do anything unbecoming in their representative. It was his head, andnot his heart, that had erred. He had acted, he believed, without fear, favour, or affection in all his public conduct. If there was any political feeling he had not carried it into private life, and whether a man had voted for or against him he had always endeavoured in private life to leave political feelings behind him, and as he was about to retire from public life he expected he would receive similar treatment from the electors of the Taieri district.

Several questions were asked, in reply to which Mr Reid said he thought School Committees should be consulted as to the appointment of teachers. It would be wrong to send teachers' certificates to the Committees. The Board would not suggest an improper name. If the Committee did not approve of the name the Committee might suggest one, or the Board suggest another. He bad supported Mr Fox's Local Option Bill all through, because he believed the principle of it to be right, but its advocates, i* they would not agree to compensation, should begin by applying ifcs provisions to new houses, which would involve no compensation. If the Daily Times had been at all fair it would havo printed in parallel columns Sir George Grey's as well as Mr Ormond's concealed and unconnected speeches. Mr Chisholm # moved and Mr Cooper seconded, " That this meeting expresses its deep regret that Mr Reid should see fit to retire from politics, assures him that he still retains the full confidence of the constituency, and expresses the hope that he will, if possiblo, see his way to continue to represent the interests of the Taieri district."

Mr Shand joined in expressing the hope that Mr Reid would reconsider his decision. He was as warm a supporter as ever of Mr Reid, but he thought he was expressing the views of a good many people when he said that they did not believe in his late colleagues in the North Island. — (Applause. ) It wao also moved and seconded — " That Mr Reid be thanked for his address, and that he bo allowed to take the course he thinks iit, seeing that he is not in a pecuniary position to go to the Assembly."

Two persons voted for the amendment, the motion being declared by the chairman to have been carried all but unanimously.

Mr Reid referred to the bad taste shown by the mover of the amendment in referring in the way he did to the sacrifices he had made as a representative. He thanked the meeting for the confidence they had expresced in him, and said he could not give them any hope of his altering his determination.

The proceedings closed shortly before 10 o'clock, with a vote of thanks to the Chairman,