CAPTAIN RUSSELL AT INTERCARGILL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2205, 4 June 1896, Page 23

CAPTAIN RUSSELL AT INTERCARGILL.

(fir Ova. Special Reporter.) Inveeca.t*gill, June 1. Captain Russell arrived by the express train from Dunedin this afternoon aud was met at the station by Mr J. G. Watson, chairman of his Reception Committee, Messrs J. W. Kelly, M.H.R., W. Soandrett, and others, who introduced him to a large concourse of citizens and admirers, many of whom had come from the country (o meet bira and hear him apeak. More than could possibly geb standing room assembled at an early hour at the Theatre to hear his address. The concessions made by the Railway department in issuing winter show excursion tickets a Bay earlier than first intended from country stations brought a large number oT visitors into town this evening, who all found their, way to the political meeting, iucludicg a large proportion of ladks. A large number of representative citizens occupied seats on the platform. The Mayor (Mr J. Sinclair) was in the chair. Captain Russell on rising was greeted with long and continued applause. He commenced by saying that any dffbultiei be bad surmounted to get there that night to address the | meeting were more than compensated for bj the handsome reception he h&d received. He had been cautioned not to try and take the Invercargill people in, and to not try any humbug with them, for they were well up in politics, and took great interest in them, and would quickly detect any miestatetnents if he made them. This he would be careful to avoid ; but ouch wordg and expressions as ! the Premier and Colonial Treasurer bad used in some of their addresses were unworthy of anyone who had aspired to the position of a Minister of the Crown. No doubt there were many there that night who thought they were supporting the same men who put themselves at the head of the great Liberal party sir years ago, bub this was not the case. Mr Ballauce had gone, and so had Sir P. Buckley, Mr Reeves (who really was a Liberal), Sir W. B. Perceval, and Mr Montgomery, and m>w they had a sab of men at the head of affairs to whom they did not give their support then or even three years ago, and- now TRUE LIBERALISM HAD CEASED TO BH in their present Government. They were mistaken if they' thought; they were governing themselves. True Liberalism had gone to the winds, and they had now ia place of it Seddonism pure and simple. The men and women of New Zealand had now ceased to have any power in the government of their country, and they had got to this wretched state of things that now more than half of their members of Parliament had given their pledge to support one man and do whatsoever he chose to bid them.' Many members were inveigled into giving written promises to BKniswrs, not knowing «&%t ttnaj were really

doing. Here he would like to say for the!* member that, though he had not voted almvyrf on the same side with him (Captain Russell)) he had always, he was sure, been, loyal to his convictions and always voted conscientiously, for doing which ho had been treated with scant; courtesy and often with extreme rudeness by the' Government. When the Government wer4 elected they told the eleotors that they would restore pro:perity. destroy monopolies, be friends to the working man, and bring aboub general prosperity if they were kept in powetf. Well, they had had at all times such a majority th»b they could do anything they pleased.— (Interruptions, and a "Voice r "Is New Zealand prosperous ?"j Captain Russell : I tell you id is nob, and will prove $his to you presently. 16 is owing to want of principle and the pandering to the friends of Ministers and their party which has brought aboub this wretched state of affairs in New Zealand. I would ask you, ts work now more plentiful, wages higher, -or people more constantly in employment, or the country more prosperous than before this Government took office ? The reverse id the case, I assure you, and yob they have had more power than any Government before them ever had. They have orei 50 members of Parliament as subservient followers,- who did whatever they were told to ' do. We have, as an Opposition, been weak— not in intellect, but in number. Do nob imagine the Opposition have struggled so hard against; the autocricy of the Premier for any saltish purposes. I assure you the Government have descended from the virtues which are common to most democrat"), and have assumed the vulgar way of demagogue and set class against clsss, harassed almost everybody, threatened capital, used the unemployed as political stalking horses, &o. They have shown no policy whatever, except, to advance the interests of Ministers and thnir frieuds, and no nwu can now hope to get office, or even fair treatment, unless ha is prepared to bend the knee to every Minister and pick up the crumbs from their tables. Such is the abate of things done by your Government in the name of demooraoy. God forbid that demooraoy should come to such a state as this. The history of last session was a queer one. When we met the Hcuro was more like a debating society than anything else. There was a strong Government party and weak Opposition, but no business was put before us because THE COLONIAL TBBASOKER was torayelliug round the world to advance his own private bwinei-s and personal pleasure, but pretending he was dome some good for the colony.— (Cries of "No.' 1 ) Well, I would like to know what good he did for the colony.— (A Voice: "What about tha £3,000,000 loan f") We will come to that presently. Well, _ besides floating » one and a-half million loan, the Colonial Treasurer had negotiated two abortive treaties, to ridiculous aud impossible that Parliament would not debate them, and if carried out would have been most injurious to the colonyone with Canada and the other with South Australia, the latter to the exclusion of New South Walei, with whom we were doing profifc- | able business. The raising of the one and n-nVlf trillion loan, somebody had said, waß a remarkable success. Ho (Captain Russell) saw nothing remarkable about it except the remarks made by the Colonial Treasurer iv England about it. They of tho Opposition had been accused of fouling their own nest and being pessimistic and such l'ke in their viaws, besause they pointed out that the Colonial Treasurer had made a statement in New Zealand utterly at variance with another he had made to a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce in London. As » farmer himself he well remembered the circumstance when the Colonial Treaaucer collected the land tax eorae months before it was due and in the middle of winter, when farmers were generally short of spare cash, because the Treasurer wanted it to pay the English creditors their interest. But when in England, tbiuking that his remarks made in the New Zealand Parlm- „, mant might do the cause he had in hand harm, he addressed the people iv London as follows : (Here Captain Russell read »n extract from the British Australasian). — (A Voico : "He floated the loan, all the game.") Yes ; «nd he (Captain Russell) had heard another gentleman say it did nob matter how he got the money so long as he got it ; but ha said that if* did matter, and he should never wish for support from any person who thought they should tell the British moneylender one story when they wanted to borrow, and the New Zealand Uxpayer a different one when they wanted to raise taxes. Such a course, he said, was a most) contemptible way of lcokiDg at the subjoob. If there was anything s»id which wm contrary to fact in England about our finances it would do more to hurb New Zealand than any honest criticism.— (A Voice : " Tummy rot.") Well, he Connidered any person who conld approve of the Colonial Treasurer's conduct over this matter must have a very low fonse of publio morality. The hon. gentleman then re*d extracts from the Premier's speech iv Parliament upholding the Treaiurer's demands for collecting the land tax before its due date, and went on to say : I believe, gentleman, for years now we have been systematically hoodwinked and deceived aboub our public finance, and tint there ore not half-a-dozen in Parliament who know what the true financial state of the colony is. And if anything went wrong, I ask, who would «uffer ? Is it tbe Parliament or your Ministers? No it is you, the taxpayers of tho colony, aud unless you watch the finances of the colony more atlen-' tively wS" shall drift us we have been drifting, aud further taxation will be imposed upon yoQ, because you have Ministers in power who do not care twopefice what becomes of the coloDy so long as they can retain office. THE PBEMIEB lately in a speech in Nelion, with his invariable inaccuracy, stated that I said the policy of the Government had frightened capital out of New Zealand. I deny ever having said so. What I have said is that the policy of the Government is such that ib has prevented the embarking of capital in proper securities, aud capitalists bad, therefore, locked up their meneys in savings banks, &<j., rather than invest in land and local industries. Bub the Premier says money is plentiful, and can be borrowed in the colony ab 5 per cent. If .Mr Seddon says this it the case of course ib must be true. But why then charge 6 psr cent, on advances to settlers. The Premier knows a good deal aboub gold mining and has taken this particular indusbry undec his own wing, and says there are, £2,000,000 ready for investment in this indusbry. This is about the only industry which has nob been harassed by this Government's legislation. I think the position Mr Seddon has taken on the directorate of the Anglo-Germ an Gold Company is an intolerable one. The Premier was, until lately, the Minister for Mines, and boasts he is the greatest gold expert in the colony. When a German comes out to New Zealand to exploit the mining industry for speculators in Germany, and this gentleman was particularly anxious to geb particularly good names on the directorate ; and do you suppose for one single instant that Mr R. J. Seddon, o£ Kumara, alone would have, been seleoted for • director P I aay no ; but Mr R. J. Bcddwu tto

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Premier of Now Zealand, euits him ndmfrabl^ bs a decoy duck to induce people iv Europe to inveab their money in this company. — (Applaueej and a Voices " The Premier Contradicted that a wf'ek ago.") Yea, lam glad to see he has succeeded in making one man believe him. There have been six different amending Sets to the Gold Mining Actsinco this Government have been in power, all of whioh tend to give the Premier increased despotic power ; and this is the man who was going to destroy monopolies ! But instead thereof he has lent himself to one of the biggest money monopolists of the prereut day, and I sincerely bope the miners 6n the West Coast will sinewely appreciate his efforts on their behalf. Yet he Bays he and bis colleagues are overworked, and naked Parliament last session to give him more Ministers. Bub what do we hoc? Notwithstanding the appointment of Sir Patrick Btfokley to ft' judgeship and Mr Reeves to the Agent-generalship, they appointed no fresh ministers. Still, you had the Colonial Treasurer Irving down here among you looking after his own private business when he ought to have been in Wellington looking after tbe business of the country, and Mr Seddon stumping the country talking ancient history sibjut what I was doing rb * boy and ever since. He knows we are goiDg to beat him at the next election— — and so he is snorting at everybody. Though they did not appoint fre*h jHinistsTß they found time to go all over (h>i fcountry attending to their own business and attempting to destroy their opponenta'character*, and to appoint themselves ,to geod fat billets — the Premier to the Realisation Board at a high salary, and to the Anglo German Gold Company, which 1 have already referred to. So yon can see, gentlemen, though they were so much overworked, they knew how I o t k« eire of themselves. A gentleman in the eudirnce •aid it was a good thing THE THREE ftOXLIOK LOAN was raised. That man might have got seme of it. lam flony — if he has had to pay 6 per cent, for it. For every £100 worth of debentures In the loan we got £94 odd, and, therefore, only got £1,400,000. and that only on September 1, whereas we commenced p»ying interest on it on May 1, and the loan cannot be repaid for 50 ye»r«. And with interest perpetually fulling, this does not look like good finance, for under good government this colony will progress and he able to boTtovr at ranch lower rates of interest. Yet I admit some people have benefited br this loan and the advances to settlers lfginhlion ; but as to being good to the colony, that 5s another matter* The Minister for Lands had recently said more vigonr »hould be pnt into the lending board of this department. Tha consequence was that many securities were then taken which had been previously declined. Again I say, if anything goes wrong, it's you who will suffer and not Minister* or Parliament. The resu!t of the first year's working of the Advances to Settlers Act promises to show a very heavy loss. Supposing the cos v b go on to the end of the year at the 6.ime rate as they h&ve^done for the first seven reonfchs ib will total up to £87,000. Even the Lyttelton Times, ■which has supported the Government all* through, admits there will be a loss of £30,000 the first year, and though I hive made this statement on several public platforms, no Minister has ever denied or shown where lam wrong. The Colpnial Treasurer had boasted of the Buoeess of bi* 3 per cent, loan, which was floated s.t £94 8s 9d. Shortly after New South Wtiles floated one at the same rate of interest at over £2 better, *nd shortly after that South Auttralia at £3 better, and gbortly after that Western Australia at £100 16s Bd— or £6 8s batter than ours. Ministers are very fond of saying my criticisms are always wrong. Of course, cv«rjcne is liable to fall into error, bat you matt remember we have the greatest difficulty to set returns. The Premier bas eaid from his .place in Parliament that they will not give ths Opposition information because they will usa it •gainst the Government. Is that not proof that they have something to conceal P And I reiterate again and again that the position of the colony is not a satisfactory one, notwithstanding all that has been said by the Treasurer to the contrary, and that they were a non-borrowing Government, and that the rata of interest had net increased, and the whole country was prosperous. Every one of these statements is misleading and inaccurate. Wfcen Sir Harry Atkinson brought down his last Financial Statement THE TOTAt INDEBTEDNESS of the colony was £37,287,51-8, and the set indebtedness £36,323,218. Now the net public indebtedness as stated in the Blue Books of the colony for 1895 was £39,635,032— 5h0wing an increase of .the public indebtedness of £3,311,218. Notwithstanding this the Government clxim to be a con-borrowing Government. The public indebtedness last year increased £2000 per day, yet the Colonial Treasurer will tall yon in a few dayi the public debt * bas not inoreased, -or he may perhaps now h»ve cbongea bis tone. The obher day Mr HallJones said there wss a reduction in the interest of £169,000, but as be had only been in office a Bhort time he would have to say what someone Blae told bim. In giving evidence before the Public Accounts Committee Mr Hey woo a said (and he was in the best position to judge) - that if the accounts were kept as in 1890 they would ebow that we pay £81,149 more interest in 1895 than we did in 1890 and Ms evidence is the best that can be 'bad. The sp«aker next referred to the fact that those two important sources of revenue— the railways fend customs — were showing a decided fallingoff. As regatta the former, tbe mileage had been increased, and yet they bad the fact before them that the income was showing a perceptible decline. On the other band, the cost for working expenses hud likewise increased. These facts went to prove that there was eomethrag. radically wrong with their mode of finance; The tariff had been altered, and additional taxation imposed, mostly on the articles of evecy-day lif«. All that time the Government posed before the public as the people's Government, and that they were actuated ' purely by_ motives befriending the people. — | (Applause.) Tha Treasurer, being otherwise engaged — presumably attending to private affairs in the Home country — a Tariff Commission was appointed, at a heavy cost to the colony. As a resuUr of its labours a number of TARIFF THOPOSATS were brought down. Some of these were moat absurd ; indeed, one of them was called the j II mutton bird" tariff, maßmuch as that it proposed to impose a tax on that useful article of domestic consumption. — (Laughter.) Well, it was simply laughed out of court. Other equally absurd propoB&lB followed, but they each in their turn met the same fate. What was eventually agreed to was as he had paid, a duty on articles of every-day consumption. Fruit, for example, was one of these items. Then there were suoh articles in the list as boots and ehoto, and be might tell them that as regards the former that but for the vigilance of members oa his side of the House as much as 100" per cent, would have been imposed. Patent medicines were alto selected for increased imposition. Per* lonally speaking, be did sot believe in these

r j m^m'mmu ■■ I^wI^»^W^WIMWIIIWtWMIIJMW»iIi» ■ ■■ ■ WcHcinea, but it was a well ascertained fact Uiat a very large body of the p ;ople used them. They were ljioreased to 40 per cont. duty. Then they had some of the staple pur<-uita or" the eolouy brought under the operations of this increased taxation. Agricultural machinery and dairy utensils, &c. were amongft tho number, and » rate of 6 per cent, had been imposed* Traction engines had been increased to the same rate, and other articles requisite for .agricultural and pant oral purposes, euch as tarpaulins, had been increased even more largely. In its operations this new tariff had been a perfect muddle. He was credibly informed that there wero at least 2000 different interpretations put upon it.— (Laughter ) The very de'oription of goods nnder the slightest possible alteration of circumstances c.mo under different headings, and as such were subject to quite different rates of imposition. , Bo much was that the ca«e that importers were at a loss what to do, and wero left altogether in a fog at to what they wore really doing, A state of matters like that must, it was unneceiaary for him to tell them, create serious loss and trouble in the .prosecution of oommeroe. The real faot was it was not a cu > o'"ully considered, nor by auy means well devised, scheme. It was simply a leap io. the dark for no obher purpose than than of bolstering up a bogus surplus. That wan all they aimed at.— (Applause.) He would tell them frankly that personally he was a Freetrader.- (Applause, and flight diaseut.) Ha could not for tho life of him see how Protection could be any permanent benefit to a colon; l<ke New Zealand. That, however, was simply hia private opinion. — (Applause ) It was this great Liberal party, who boasted so much and talked so loudly about its devotion to the people and for the people, by whom the taxation of the people was imposed. That was the strange part of the business. Oa the other hand, it was mrmbers on his side of the House who straggled against such imposition. In that way he claimed that bio party Jb*d shown much mora true regard to the true interests of the people than tbe Government, who made it a loud boast that they did io. — (Applause.) RegardIng

LAND FOB SETTLEMENT, he admitted m*.ay persons had benffi'xjd by tbe^arr*iigcmeuis made, but. on Iha other hand, very m'anj had suffered thereby. What he mainly complained of was the false^ representations made by Ministers in connection therewith. They said their land policy had bsen an unqualified sucoess, whereas all the other land policies had been more or less of a failure. Now that was not the oaae. The man whose land policy had demo by far the mosb good towards the settlement of the colony on a sound and satisfactory footing was a nun who, he regretted to say, was not now in Parliament. He referred to the Hon. Mr Eolleston. Unless cettJement was promoted on a footing beneficial to the individual himself ib never could be made. settlement beneficial to the colony. He knew very litt'e about settlement in these parts. Wbat he did know did not lead him to believe that it was much more satisfactory than the settlement with which he was bast acquainted — viz , the settlement of the North Island. They were told by the Minister for Lands over thousands of settlements had been effected. When they esme to deduct forfeitures, &o. the faot remained that the actual number did not exceed 344. Keeping bask the real facts of tbe caie in that way was most improper, and tended altogether to a misconception of the true facts of the case. The worst thing they could do for settlement was to place men upon the land without capital. It was disastrous to the individu&l, and most detrimental to the colony. They lost their time and labour, as alto what little means they might be npsseased of. He might state, en passant, thwhe strongly objected to the ballot system. He thought it radically wrong and tended to dummyism.— (Applause.) The first thing to be done in approaching the solution of this question WA3 to di>m ; S3 from their minds the idea that labour and capital were in any way antagonistic That was a fallacy which tho Government had done its very best to promulgate amongst the masses. He would provide for farms of-amall size, such as would mert the demands of a very moderate class of settlement, but at the Bame time he would be carefal to provide for the requiiements of a higher class of settlement, and by that mean?, he contended, the smaller class cf settlers would be much more satisfactorily provided for. Tbe moneyed men would provide much-needed employment to the others, and iv that way they would be enabled to earn a living and at the same time improve their own holdings,

THE PUBTJtO WORKS POLICY of last year was next alluded to. The method of dealing with it was altogether novel. Prior thereto the practice was to vote money under the policy in detail. Members were allowed to canvass and discuss each item, and call for euch explanations as they might deem requisite. Last year 'the mode of procedure wss completely changed. , An arrangement was mads that one day in the week was to be devoted to the Government going into Committee of Supply, and by that moans they wore eoabled to get tho money voted withoutdebato. In that way Dearly three-quarcero of a million of money was voted without; an opportunity being afforded of discussing the measures under which the expenditure was proposed. Members on his side of the Home demurred, but it was of no use. Ministers insisted on the votes being passed without discussion. Against such summary procedure they strongly protested, but it was of no avail. The vote was passed through Cinnmittee at one sitting extending from 7 30 p m. till 3 o'clock next morning. When they fouod themselves dealt with in that way his side of the House refused to take part in the proceedings, but nevertheless the vote was rushed through. That was done by a Government, they would bear in mind, that was never tired of making loud protestations about being the people's Government. — (Applause and laughter.) A more uuconstitational proceeding could not have been devised. In effect it was taking the whole power of the expenditure out of the hands of the people and placing it in tbe bands of the Premier. — (AppV.uß3.) What he claimed on behalf of tbe Opposition was that it and the Government no serious tfinvronce existed. The talk about Liberalisii and Conservatism was nothing more than mere tilk. In a young country like that of New Zetland there was no solid fouoantion for suoh distinctions, and it was merely nude use of for "parly purposes. The administration in relation to the civil service and the appointment/ of Government officers was next alluded to. The officers had been made subordinate to p^rfy purposes, and in a variety o? ways the spoils ln-i g , ne to ihe victors— (applause) ;— old and effi •c t . ffic rs had been made to give way to othaa vrk > hail no claim and perhaps little or no qualification beyond being friends of the present Government.—(Applause.) He counselled them, in c6nci.usion, to be very careful as to the selection of their representatives. That became more necessary than ever in view of the reckless and nnBcrnpulous conduct of the Government. He would lay it down as a general rule for their guidance that they should not select men tos

their publio trust whom they would hesitate to entrust with their private affairs. Unless they were careful to pursue a wise, oaatioua, and prudent policy in the choosing of their members they could nob look tor oautious find prudent administration, and without; suoh administration the affairs of the colony were in a foir way of getting lutD inexbiis^hle muddle. — ( A ppl&use.) On resuming his seat the hon. gentleman said he would ba prepared to answer any question on which they might bo desirous of gaining fuller information. In answer to a question, he said triennial parliaments were flrsti proposed by his party, and hn was not at all likely to be opposed to them, Ho would oppose any prop sal that might be made for r«»luoing the parliamentary period to, say, an annual parliament, and gave as a reason that the first year- of a member's parliamentary term was wasted in doing really nothing, as he did not know what to do. The second year he did effective work, and the third year was taken up talking to the constituencies and that did not mes-n much in the way of actual work. Ha "thought a honorarium at the rate of £240 per annum was too mnoh t& pay membars "for thoir services. In effecting loans with the Government under the Advances to Settlers Act he knew that considerable charges were made. He gave two iustanoeo of partiality in the administration of the loan fund. In one case a propotty valned at £3000 was flr3t promue.l an advance of £1500, but that promise fell through, and no loan waa effected, In the other iustance the loan was at first refused, but subsequently it was not ouly granted, but a cum of £400 more than the amount originally asked for was given. In dealing with the securities alleged by the Treasurer to hava been deposited in London, ho (Captain Russell) omitted to inform them that those securities represented their Post Offica Savings B^nk deposits, life assurance, and other liabilities uudertaken by the Government, In fact the story told by the Treasurer to the London Chamber of Commerce wes merely another device to I bolster up the finances of the colony, fie | the banking legislation, the Government having committed the colony to the extent of | £2,000,000, he was of opinion last session's legislation was wise. At all events he supported it ; | on the theory that of two evils it was the lesier. In the interests of the colony he thought it was batter to do as bad been done than to let the bank go to the wall, in which case the £2,000,000 mu&t of necessity have been lost. H>3 quite believed in the Bight Hours Labour Bill, as also the-compulsory taking of land for settlement purposes. Regarding prohibition, he did not believe in it at all. He never believed in the right of any man to dictate to another what he should and should not drink.— (Great applause.) You had no more right to say to another man what he should drink than to may to him what he should ett or what ho should wear in the way of clothing. — (Renewed applause.) Mr H. Wilson then moved, and Mr J. T. Watson seconded, a hearty vote of thanks to the speaker for his address. Tho motion was carried with acclamation.