MINISTERS AT WINTON. THE HON. J. G. WARD'S ADDRESS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1994, 12 May 1892, Page 17

MINISTERS AT WINTON. THE HON. J. G. WARD'S ADDRESS.

The Hon. J. G. Ward (Postmaster-general) addressed his constituents in the Oddfellows' Hall this evening. The Mayor (Mr J. Wilson) presided, and the Hon. J. Ballance (Premier), the Hon. J. M'Kenzie (Minister for Lands), Messrs J. W. Kelly, J. Mackintosh, and W. Earnshaw, M.H.R's., also occupied seats on the platform. Nearly 300 people were present, including about a score of ladies. The Postmaster-general, who was warmly received, expressed pleasure at meeting his constituents under the altered circumstances of his being a Minister of the Crown. He was there to give them a resume of what he had endeavoured to do as their representative, and to explain to them what the Government had done, what they had attempted to do, what they had undone, and what they proposed in some respects attempting to do in the future. Having sketched out the proposals of the Government indicated .in the Financial Statement, he said that when these were submitted to the .House it was asserted that farmers and settlers would be severely taxed ; that the Government could not get sufficient revenue, and that they would drive capital away from the colony and frighten investors. The way in which capital had been driven from the colony had resulted in an increase in the amount of deposits in the banks in the colony. That was, he thought, a very good answer to those who said capital was being driven away. He would give them an instance of how investors had been frightened. A large landowner in the north, who believed tho taxation proposals would severely injure him, made up his mind not to invest any more

money in that way, and resolved to sell out* He sold his large area to' another man, f who out it up and re-sold it, realising L3OOO beyond what he paid to the first holder. In addition to making L3OOO on the transaction, the man who purchased' the second time was putting half a dozen more men on the lan*d than there had been under the first holder. The hon. gentleman proceeded to explain - the effect of the land tax, and narrated the view taken by the Government of the occurrences of last session in respect to the Land Bill introduced by Mr M'Kenzie. He quoted the returns of land settlement since the Government took office to show that the Minister for Lands at any rate had done a vast deal to promote the settlement of the country. It was proved clearly by the number of acres sold under the cash system that the Minister for Lands was not averse to the freehold tenure, and it was a remarkable thing that the.porpotual lease system which was so much condemned had been the favourite system under the administration of his hon. friend. He next referred to the reductions in the Native Office, and said this was the first year on record in which the unauthorised vote had not been called upon to assist in carrying on the administratiou of the office. The co-operative \vork3 plan instituted by the Government was then dealt with, after which the speaker explained the working of the labour bureaus .throughout the colony. The bureau system was founded in June 1891 with 200 agencies, and from that time 2400 persons had been ' directed to where they could get work, 1600 had been sent to private employers, and 800 to various public works ; and the labour bureaus could find work to-morrow for 300 "men from private employers. Would 'anyone^ tell him that was not a good thing for the colony ? He believed the bureaus, together with the cooperative works and the settlement of the land, which was being vigorously pushed on, had the most direct and positive effect in stopping the exodus from the colony. He claimed from the innovations introduced by Mr Perceval that the Government had not done an unwise thing in their new departure of appointing , a , young Agent-general. As to the Legislative Council, the Government had no desire that their intentions should be misunderstood. They would be only exercising their proper rights jn adding a certain number of members to the Council to give effect to the feelings of tho country, ,and they need not be surprised if the Government found it necessary to intimate to. the new Governor on his arrival that they desired new blood introduced into tho Upper House. Proceeding next to refer to tho changes in the Postal and Telegraph departments, he instanced the increase of postal notes from LI to L 5 as a great reform which would prove of enormous advantage to people living in remote parts of the country, as postal notes could be exchanged for ordinary money as cash. There was not aLS postal issue outside New Zealand in any civilised country in the world. They had raised, the maximum of money orders from LlO to L2O, not only throughout the colony, bat to Australia and England, and the issue had been increased during the year to 18,812 of the value of L 49.900. Subscriptions to the telephone service throughout the colony had been reduced to a uniform rate of L 5, and though it was anticipated this would result in a loss .of LBOOO to LIO.OOO per annum, at the end of the first year the revenue was only LI7OO behind what it was at the higher rates. The reduction of the European letter rate to 2£d was nexj; referred to, and the speaker mentioned that since it had come into operation the inward letters had increased by 23 per cent., and the outward by 8 per cent. Registration fees had been reduced to 3d, and book and pattern rates by ,50, per cent. ; but, notwithstanding the latter enormous reductions, the revenue for the year was Lll4B more than what it was when the rates were twice as high. Concessions had also been made in the rates on ordinary telegrams, and the effect of the change in the forms the Telegraph department had brought into existence was that the system as nearly approached secrecy in the conveyance of telegrams as it was possible to adopt. The introduction on probation of young women in the telephone service and the classification of officers in the Post and Telegraph department were incidentally referred to, and he claimed that every change ihat had been made by the Administration was in the direction of conferring greater facilities on the public, of improving the position of the service, and of allowing it better to perform the important duties it had so well performed in the past. Though a large number of concessions had been made, the revenue at the end of the year was L 52.686 in actual cash beyond the expenditure ; while, if the department took credit for other services which it performed, the revenue was L 134,328 in excess of the expenditure. The post office had kept pace with settlement, and 48 additional offices were established in the last 12 months ; and we now had what no other country in the world had— namely, one post office to every 520 inhabitants. Tho speaker briefly referred to the Postal Conference held at Sydney and Hobart, and said that if a change in the cable system was going to be made the Government thought it should be in the direction of establishing between New Zealand aud Australia an independent cable of our own, and of takiug the profits. Tho cost would not exceed L 115.000, and the revenue from the existing cablo exceeded L3Q,ooo,per annum, though tho rates charged were excessive to the ordinary mercantile community' and to the press. He explained what had been done concerning the mail service, and, referring to penny postage, said the Government had for very, good reasons deemed it desirable not to bring the system into operation on the Ist April, but when the proposal was carried no specific date was fixed as to when it should come into operation. The Government hud not abandoned the penny postage proposal, but it was deferred in the meantime, and when the Government believed it would be judicious and in the interests of the colony to adopt ponny postage it would be done. With regard to the staff of the postal and telegraph service, ho declared that as a body no more honourable, painstakiug, and energetic class of men existed in this colony or in any other colony. Drunkenness in the service was scarcely known. Serious cases of insubordination had not occurred during the time the department had been under his control, and embezzlement in the service hardly qver occurred. Tho executive administration of the service, also, was very good indeed, and had, a,* far as possible, assisted in affording postal and tele> graph facilities from one end of tho colony to the other. The speaker next referred to tho development of tho dairying and agricultural industries, and in that connection stated'that the Government strongly believed that New Zealand should adopt a reciprocal tariff- 'in natural products with Australia. If that were carried out it would add fresh life to a very important industry in this colony, and would do the colonies on the other side an equal amount of good. In bringing to a close his speech, which occupied nearly two hours in delivery, Mr Ward said that the Government had endeavoured to do what was right and to assist all parts of the colony. He asked the electors not to be misled by some criticisms which were not in every case in accord with facts, but to look at the policy

of the Government for themselves, to judge it impartially, and to give Ministers a fair trial. He believed that New Zealand had already turned the corner of its difficulties, and if we, individually and collectively, put our shoulders to the wheel and did what we could to promote &ie progress, of the colony the time must soon come when it' would take its place among her Majesty's possessions as one of the most .favoured and best States in the British HHvote of thanks and confidence in Mr Ward, and also of confidence in the Government, broposed by Mr Andrew Kinross, and seconded by Captain Brown, was carried unanimously. THE BANQUET. At the conclusion of the meeting the Post-master-general was entertained at a banquet in the Exchange Hall. The mayor presided, and about 150 persons were present, including the Ministers of the Crown and members of Parliament who attended the meeting in the Oddfellows' Hall, and apologies were received for the absence of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hons. R. Seddon, W. P. Reeves, P. A. Buckley, and A. J. Cadman, Messrs W. Hutchison, W. Hall-Jones and D. Pinkerton, M.H.R's. Local toasts and that of "The Army, Navy, and Volunteers," which Mr T. Paterson proposed and Major Feldwick acknowledged, having beeu honoured, Mr A. MTunnsoN proposed the toast of " The Ministry," who, he declared, must rank high above their predecessors. The Premier, who was received with rounds of cheers, said he felt it his duty, if possible, to be present to do honour to so worthy a colleague as the Postmaster-general, and he expressed pleasure at such a large gathering to mark the just appreciation of the services and political and private character of Mr Ward. He congratulated them on the prosperity which was attending this district, and he thought he could say without egotism, there was more prosperity in all parts of the colony than 12 months ago. If the Government coul I not claim credit for that, no Government could clahn credit for anything. One of the greatest questions of the day was how to protect the public estate against monopoly, against speculation, and against the undue accumulation of areas of land, and how to provide sufficient for the reasonable hopes and aspirations of the young people rising up among them, and his colleague, the Minister for Lands had done something* in practical form to answer that question, and had tried to save the land for the people of New Zealand for the present and for the future. As to the land and income tax, he could not describe it better than Lord Onslow in one of his.[valedictory speeches described it, as falling on the shoulders of those best able to bear it. It gave him pleasure and delight to be in a farming community, and in a meeting composed principally of farmers, for he was told that the farmers of New Zealand were not with the present Government. He thought he could prove that if the farmers were not with the Government they ought to be. The Government had relieved them of the tax on improvements, and had relieved them of the incubus of the property tax, which bore equally ori the industrious and non-industrious. He hoped they, would give fair consideration to the policy of which the Postmaster-general had given details that evening, and say whether it was for. the benefit of the colony or not.— ' (Applause.) - The Minister for Lands, "who also responded to, the toast, predicted that the guest of the evening would occupy a higher position in the Government than he did at the present time, and he said no doubt the time would come when Mr Ward would visit Awarua as Premier of the colony.— (Applause.) After reference to . land administration the speaker observed that for the last two days the Tories had been very jubilant. After 15 months' reverses they had succeeded with a little bit of a victory at Bruce. "He did noti know that he would have referred to that matter at that time, but he understood the Otago Daily Times had sent a special reporter down to see what the members of the Ministry had to say about it, and that being so, he did not see why he should shirk the subject. — (Laughter and applause.) Well, he for one did not grudge the Tories that little bit of a victory. They had been in a very bad state for the last 15 months, and it was only fair they should have their turn. Of course every Government must have their reverses, aud the present Government did not expect to succeed in every little thing, although they did the best they could. A battle of the sort such as they were fighting now could not be won in one campaign, or in two. Let him remind them that when the Duke of Wellington landed in Portugal with the British Army he did not go straight on to Waterloo. Three years passed, three long campaigns were fought ; there were a lot of reverses, a lot of retreats, and all sorts of manoeuvres before the Duke finally settled the question at Waterloo. —(Applause.) Let him say that the Government did not expect to win everything straight ahead without difficulty, without opposition, and without objection. They fully expected that every advantage would be taken by their opponents, and if the Bruce election could be called a Conservative victory it simply meant - that the Government must put their armour in order and try to win tho next battle. But he did not know that even the Conservatives could say that the Bruce election was a victory. The Tories were always very cunning, and used tricks which no Liberals could make use of in the case of an election. — (Laughter.)" The Tory candidate for Bruce did not even come forward as a Tury, for he claimed to be a Liberal ; and if he had como out to the Bruce electors as a straightgoing Tory the speaker believed he would never have secured the seat. A side issue also was brough in, the Tories raising the question that the national system of education was at stake Anyone who knew what he was talking about knew that for the next two years the question could not possibly have any effect at all, b ; ut it was made a stalking horse for the time. He declined to believe that the policy of the Government had been condemned by the settlers of Bruce, and he declined to believe they were prepared to revert to the position of affairs under the Continuous Ministry.

The Chairman proposed the health of the guest of the evening, to which the Hon. . Mr Ward responded felicitously ; and several other toasts were proposed and culy honoured.