MR CAMCROSS AT MOSGIEL

Otago Witness, Issue 1862, 29 July 1887, Page 16

MR CAMCROSS AT MOSGIEL

Mr W. Carncross, one of the candidates for the Taieri seat, addressed a crowded meeting of the electors in the Volunteer Hall t Mosgiel, on Saturday evening. Mr Charters occupied the chair, and briefly introduced the speaker. Af tec commenting on the speech of the late member the speaker proceeded to deal with the leading questions of the day.

HETEENCHMENT had been made almost the party cry of this election, but was there ever an election when it was not so? He himself believed there was plenty of scope for savings, but he did not call it retrenchment to cease our public .works, plunging the working population into distress, or to leave our unfinished railway lines to rot as the Otago Central had done under the North Island management. Any reduction in salaries, too, must begin at the highest in the land, and economy could also he effected by the amalgamation of offices in the civil service. Decentralisation was another method by which we might fairly economise and get rid of the present roundabout system of supplying local requirements. As to borrowing, he simply said that it would be madness to stop it immediately. It would mean throwing hundreds of men out of employment. We must finish our public works now in hand, but enter into no fresh works of magnitude yet awhile.— (Applause.) He told them plainly that he would not be in favour of a large immediate reduction in the number of members. The representation of the cities might, he believed, be cut down, but the true way to reduce members was to enlarge the powers of local governing bodies and remove the parochial business at present transacted in Parliament. As long as votes for bridges and sludge channels were to bo obtained in the House, the country districts must look after and see that they wuowell represented.

THE LAND QUESTION would always be of vast importance in this country, and he was glad to say that we had at present liberal land laws. Land, he held, occupied a different position to any other form of property. It belonged to the people, and should be as free to them as the air, the sunshine, and the rain that fell from heaven. But notwithstanding these views he would not be a party to any scheme for the confiscation of land without compensation. The State, he thoueht, should maintain control over that land which it now possessed, its principal object being to check the operations of speculators who had no intention of spending a halfpenny upon the land they acquired, but simply held it till the roads and railways constructed enabled them to sell it at 1000 per cent, profit. But for the operations of these speculators it would be possible now for working men to obtain a few acres close to cities without having to pay extortionate prices. Mr Scobie Mackenzie had said we must return to cash sales ; but this, in the speaker's opinion, was the expedient of a spendthrift who would mortgage the future for the sake of an immediate return. He instanced the Presbyterian Church of Otago and the Dunedin Corporation as showing the advantage of retaining land and profiting by its increased value. He now came to the question of

LAND SETTLEMENT, and he thought we might obtain an excellent lesson with regard to this matter from the Chinese, who had no private property in land, as all the land in China belonged to the State. Village settlement such as was now before the country he looked upon simply as an experiment. Ho admitted that at a first glance it did appear as if there were a considerable amount of "mollycoddling" about it. At the same time it should be borne in mind that if the village settlement scheme eventually silenced the cry of the unemployed, and rendered them independent of the charity they received on relief works at 4s 6d a day, then the £82,000 for that scheme was about the best spent money we had heard of in New Zealand for many a day.— (Hear,' hear.) He would now refer to the question of

TAXING ABSENTEES.

This was a matter which appeared to have been almost, if not entirely, overlooked by many of the candidates who were before the public. Absentee landholders he looked upon as a positive curse to the country. There were very many foreign landholders who held property in New Zealand, and their number was always increasing. Now ho held that no injustice would be done if to-morrow legislation were brought forward with the intension of doubling the property tax so far as those landholders were concerned. But so long as the people returned to Parliament men who were large landholders there was no hope of legislation in the direction he had mentioned. — (Hear, hear.) He wished now to say a word or two about

CHEAP MONEY FOB FARMERS. He was in favour of a scheme by which money could be borrowed through State agency and lent to farmers at a low rate of interest. There was very little doubt but what he should be told that this was a bid to secure the farmers' votes, but he could assute his hearers that such was not the case. The opinion he held with regard to the matter was simply arrived at after investigation in the proper quarters. He had been assured by some of the most intelligent farmers in the Taieri that if by means of legislation a reduction of merely 1 per cent, were made in the interest they had to pay, an enormous benefit would accrue to the country. The member for the district had told the electors that he could see no reason why there should be exceptional legislation on behalf of the farmers any more than on behalf of other persons. He (Mr Carncross) admitted that that was a perfectly fair and logical position to take up, but he would give his reasons for differing with Mr Fulton. In the first place agriculture was the mainstay of New Zealand, and if our farmers go to ruin, we shall all surely follow. The farmers were the backbone of the country. — (Hear, hear.) Times were admittedly hard with them now, and many of them borrowed money some years ago, when their grain was fetching a high price, and consequently they agreed to pay high rates of interest. Since then, grain had fetched a lower price in the Taieri district than it had done for many years. Under those circumstances it became almost impossible for the farmers to continue the high rates of interest they agreed to pay at the time of effecting their loans. He looked upon the farming interest as being the mainstay of New Zealand, and he hoped that his hearers would not think he was merely talking claptrap. He held that it would be wise and just on the part of our Legislature to assist the farmers ; and it might not be out of place to say that the present Ministry made a slight endeavour to relieve the burdens of small farmers. — (Hear, hear.) In 1885 the present Ministry brought down a Property Assessment Bill making provision for the exemption of the improvements of farmers to the value of £3000. That he thought was a decided attempt to relieve the burdens of the farmers. — (Hear, hear.) When this bill got into committee Major Atkinson moved that the clause relating .to the ex«

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"""TTof agricultural improvements should be I emP" 0 " " fc the division was taken upon I f- U nation 20 voted ia favour of grantiug the I ** £to farmers and 29 against it. The ' on the division list as refusing to firSfc tS 5 exemption was Major Atkinson, and P>s£ further down the name of the » ht £ for the district. - (Hear, hear.) hP asked, did they consider that that vote W 'w by the representative of an agricultural teCO cded by in ecorded in their illter eatß.Certainly")- Well, he (Mr Carn(A V . OI f ifd not.-(Cries of "No," "Yes," and c up") He now came to the question of tbe

BIBLE-IN-SCHOOLB. „,. n hp ,tood for election three years ago he W . h /?w the proper persons to teach tho Bible ■* Twhool children were ministers.-(Hear, J00;^J 00 ;^ I? ministers properly taught the Bible Trh ldren twice, or evenonce a week, it would ? S more to ground them in a true knowledge t A respect for that book and instil religion ■ ♦« ?heir minds than simply reading the Bible » prerv morning before their teacher would f f fries o f "No.") He still held that opinion, "TiL'nsked if any sensible man could" say he £ J5«3 to th/ Bible? Now, although he mi hplieved that ministers were the proper «nIP to teach the Bible, he was quite willing to pt the Bible in our schools with a conscience Cl Tre7andSatethen dealt with tho franchise ,„ * o men and temperance questions. On the W EDUCATION QUESTION , Ray that his views were not changed a t deal since he stood before the electors hp, years a<*o. He believed that a reduction • tho educational expenditure might be effected, !!, t should certainly not be done if it interred with the system of primary education. If ny retrenchment was to be effected it should *in our higher class education. He thought »hP syllabus in our primary schools was far too tJI If instead of filling the minds of child,pn with all the "ologies" and "isms" and Soptiug a system of " cram," a plainer educaSn were given them, they would be better •Za to fight the battle of life when they left kool He would be very loth to touch the Varies of schoolmasters. He believed we hntild have good schoolmasters— men who were !hle to reach the hearts of their pttpils— men who could bring their pupils around them and tad them into the paths of virtue. And no mpn were better able than schoolmasters to do Sat and if they carried out their duties pronprlv they could do as much for their pupils as nY minister of religion, and were worth their wight in gold.-(Hear, hear.) Coming to the Question of encouragement to local industries, c said at once that the question of FREETRADE V. PROTECTION was not before the country at present. We already had partial Protection, and the question was should we continue in this path and give further encouragement to local industries. He decidedly said that he was in favour of doing so. 3y all the arguments of so-called Freetraders, Victoria should now be in abject poverty and New South Wales rolling in wealth. Freetraders seemed to derive their ideas nob from practical experience at all, but from books on political economy. They maintained that if 20 •per cent, duty were clapped on anything we were absolutely bound to pay it in the price of the article. He gays instances to show that the reverse really occurred, quoting the experience of those who had started the manufacture of binding twine, and quoting also the statement of the chairman of directors that the Mosgiel factory could never have been what it is without the 15 per cent. duty. The directors of the factory were now averse to any increase of Protectiou; but would they be if it would have the eifect of raising their prices and increasing their profits? No. They knew competition would become so keen by other factories starting that they would have to immediately reduce prices.— (Applause.) Prohibitory duties were, of course, another thing, and he was not there to advocate them. Freetraders contended that the moment we

ilimited our imports by means of Protection we 'must as a natural consequence limit our exports. I This might apply if our exports consisted of 'manufactured articles, but they consisted instead of raw materials that the older countries must have. Great Britain depended on the reht of the world for her food supply, and could never afford to shut off New Zealand because we put on a protective tariff. It was another favourite statement with Freetraders that Protection meant injury to farmers. But he contended that our present duty of 20s per ton on flour and 9d per cental on grain kept out the grain aud flour from Australia, which could otherwise undersell that of New Zealand, as Victorian flour was admittedly better. He quoted figures to dhow that Victoria was a large exporter of flout and grain, and said if our duty were removed New Zealand farmers would soon wake up to find the local market glutted. They would notice that on this question, although he was a working man's candidate, he had not taken up the usual argument about Protection giving employment to working men, although he might have urged that with considerable truth. Our exports, as they were aware, amounted to something like £6,000,000 ; and in 1885 of that £6,000,000 over £3,000,000 came from wool alone, showing proof almost beyond doubt that our exports were simply raw materials that the ohl country could not do without. — (Hear, hear.)

Manhood suffrage and several personal questions were then dealt with, when the candidate submitted to a round of QUESTIONS.

In reply to Mr Donald Reid, the speaker said he was nob financier enough to say how the scheme for lending cheap money to farmers could be worked. He supported the broad principle, and would leave it to abler men to work out the details.

j Mr Rkid asked whether it was not the candidate's boundeu duty in bringing forward such scheme as this to have considered the means otcarrjingitout. Mr (LvßNcaoss repeated that he advocated the principle, aud when such men as the late James Manandrew had been prepared to support Ifc . ho could not be far wrong. Amidst a great deal of noise and interruption, Mr Reid went on to question the candidate as to the voting to which he had referred j>n a proposal tending to benefit farmers. Did «c mean that all the other members who voted on the same side as Mr Fulton were opposed to we interests of the farmers ?— (Great uproar, and a Voice : "We didn't come to hear Mr Reid.") The Charman said Mr Reid only proposed to as* legitimate questions, and the candidate prolesspd. himself quite prepared to answer them. Mr Rkjd asked whether the Government the speaker held up as such an example <M not forsake this measure as soon as it was outvoted ? Mr Cauncross said if it was outvoted that 'Hey could scarcely help it, he supposed. Mr Reid-. Oh. there was another way. Mr Carncross said Mr Reid, of course, being «7 ° w warrior in politics, would know more bemnd the ropes than he did.— (Laughter.) In Eo J-j 0 tte same q ue stioner, he admitted that £ c dw not approve of the action of the present vove-rnment in giving 2,000,000 acres of pur

land to the Midland railway syndicate. If a clause for Bible-reading in schools was introduced into the Education Act he would support it, even if the result were that the Stout Ministry went out of office.

Mr Reid : Then you would support them only as far as consfcrtent with what you thought your duty?

Mr Oarnceoss said his questioner had put it rightly. He might say that he felt highly gratified that a man of Mr Reid's experience should deem it worth while to question him, and if he bad been unable to reply to some of his questions ib would have been no disgrace for a novice. — (Applause.)

In reply to other questioners the candidate said he was not in favour of denominational education. On the face of it, it seemed fair and'just to give a grant to Roman Catholics, bub if that was done we must give grants directly' to every denomination that chose to start schools. He would point out that it was not the fault of the State if the Catholics kept their children from the schools. He agreed that if any retrenchment was made in education it must be in the secondary system. He did not think an eight-hour labour bill would suit everyone. For instance, he did not think it would suit the farmers. He warmly believed in an agricultural college, and would support such an institution. He believed Sir Robert Stout was the Liberal leader of New Zealand. He would support a Stout Government without Vogel. He was not in favour of the disfrauchisement of civil servants. He was rather of the opinion that we could do without the Upper Chamber altogether.— (Hear, hear.) If we could not abolish it altogether, we might put up with it if the members would do without the honorarium.

At this stage an elector in the body of the hall endeavoured to put a question with reference to Protection, but for some considerable time he was inaudible to the candidate in consequence of the noise made by the audience in their efforts to suppress the questioner.

Mr Carncross eventually said he understood the gentleman to say that 85 chambers of commerce in Germany had declared against Protection. In reply to that he might mention something he had forgotten in hit) speech. They all knew that Manchester was a perfect hotbed of Freeirade. Well, a resolution was brought forward in the chamber of commerce there in favour of Protection, and it was only defeated by a majority of two votes. This showed how the views of Protectionists were gaining ground all over the world ; and those who were not able to see it were not keeping pace with fche times.

Mr J. Spbnce moved and Mr George Gordon seconded a vote of confidence in Mr Carncross as the most fit and proper person to represent the district in Parliament. The motion was carried without amendment.