MR ROLLESTON AT RICCARTON.

Otago Witness, Issue 2356, 20 April 1899, Page 24

MR ROLLESTON AT RICCART ON.

CHRISTCHURGH, April 16. The Hon. W. • Rolleston, M.H.R. for Riccarton, addressed his constituents last evening, and spoke virtually as the mouthpiece of the Opposition. About 100 were present, and although he had an attentive hearing, the meeting was somewhat lifeless, there being little or no enthusiasm. Mr Rolleston prefaced his remarks by re-_ ferring to his recent accident, which had kept him from moving about the constituency, and took exception to the newspaper paragraphs which described him as getting old and decrepid. He said he felt younger than ten years ago, and announced his intention of contesting the seat at the general election. He was glad to say that che country at the present time was in a most satisfactory condition; in fact, it had never been better, and there were fewer unemployed than at any previous time. But, although the Government took the credit, they had nothing to thank them for, as the prosperity was entirely due to the energy and enterprise of the people, and he was surprised to- see the claptrap talked by the Premier on the subject in the long speeches he was making all over the colony. The success was in -great measure due to the expansion of the frozen meat industry, which now gave an income of one and a "half million per annum, and to the progress of the dairy industry, which now represented an output of £600,000 per annum. "Neither of these industries. was made by the Government, but owed their ,position to the industry of farmers. The fact was the people were moving on the Government, and not the Government moving on the people. The gold industry had progressed through the introductioa of Englisli.capital. Cheap money was also a great factor in the success. Mr Seddon attributed the cheap money to the Advances to Settlers Act, hut this was not a fact, as money was cheaper in Australia. The Government had merits in moving on the dairy industry, and in following? up the land policy enunciated by .predecessors. In reference to the opening of Parliament, there were certain forms which had their roots deep down in the past. Many were good and others were more honoured ia the breach than in their observance. The debate on the Address-in-Reply. had -usefulness, and for not wishing to - interfere, with these forms he had been described as an old Tory; but did not know whether he was or not. Speaking of what he described as paralysis of parliamentary government, he said the Opposition, by its fighting qualities, had done a great deal of good. It had challenged the proposals of the Government in order to see what good was in them, and ,it was a sound guarantee of good legislation that the Opposition should take the action it did. He 1 had always been a fighting man, and felt-that, the' part" he had taken had- assisted to prevent- mischievous legislation. Mr Seddon's" idea of his ■ position - was hot satisfactory. - He. • was' .''always racing about the .country in trains and steamers a*t the expense of the people. He' -was not as particular as he should be in •what he said, and not careful of facts. He went on .the principle that if you give a lie 24 hours' start it is pretty hard to catch it, and,repeated statements which he knew to be wrong until he actually believed •them. For. instance, Mr Seddon said the private wealth of the country had increased £250 a head, which he knew was all bosh. He said value of land had increased by 27 millions, while his own documents showed it to be only 16 millions. He claimed to have settled the question of freights with the Tyser Company, but in this figures were against him. Mr Seddon had spoken of the Opposition as having a breeches-pocket policy ; out the Opposition, when travelling, liad to put their hands into their own pockets, not into other people's. The speaker was so disgusted that he had given up looking Into the statements of the Premier, having found them quite unreliable. The Premier claimed that higher wages were the rule under his policy, while- he knew that under the co-operative system wages were as low as Is 6d per day. Mr Seddon had charged the Government of 1887 with housing^their people in sheds which they would not put cattle and sheep into. The ficts were that none of the Administration at'that time were stockowners. The Pre--nier was fond of abusing those who were elected by the people, but his utterances could only be described as twaddle and bosh. It sickened him to read the Premier's speeches,- for the manner in which he distorted facts was appalling. Mr Seddon claimed . credit .for setting \ip the Police Commission', while its appointment was due to the persistence of Mr T. E. Taylor. The policy of the Opposition had been to check maladministration and prevent jobs, and had been the means of keeping Ministers off Syndicates. They would have done more, but the Premier's powers and persuasive eloquence had got men elected to the House on personal pledges to support him, and having done so, he made every question one of want of confidence and compelled them to support him. Thus was New Zealand being manipulated for party purposes, and the Premier was becoming an autocrat. Mr Hall-Jones bowed to him; Mr Thompson stooped to him ; and even Mr Cadman allowed him to take the reins of his department. By his manipulation Hansard had become a record of wha.t was not said in the House; committees had become the mere tools of the Premier; important bills were kept back till the expiring hours of Parliament —a notable instance being that of the Industrial Arbitration Bill, brought down too late to be properly digested. Committees were dominated by the Premier, and out of 92 petitions referred to the N to Z Committee he had taken care that no recommendations were returned in 64. The returns placed before the House werd not worth" the paper they were written on. A return of £1700 for the Premier* .Tub'lee expenses was allowed to be kid on the*" table without being signed by any authorised officer, and when the TteparfcmentaLreturas came up it was found chat the salary of one of "the Premier's aecretariee had been charged to the £ost

Office department while he was in England. The civil service - was subject to the personal control of Ministers, and Tammanyism " was becoming rampant. The Wrigg case was the standing scandal of the day, but the N to Z Committee managed*! to shelve it, and no evidence ever came before the public, the committee being baulked in reporting to Parliament, and the matter was hushed up till next session. Then there was the Allman scandal, which at present he did not know much about beyond the fact that the Premier had accused the Grand Jury in that case of political bias, which was quite unjustified. If Mr Seddon were allowed he would make | short work of anything that stood in the way of his ambition. He endeavoured to shelve the report of the Police Commission by proposing to refer it to the Public Accounts Committee, and prevented a division being taken on the amendment to remove the service from political control. There was room for great improvement in the management of the railways, and the Minister was wrong in declining to make the reductions in the frozen meat freights. There was much to be done in connection with education, and the Premier had placed the question of technical education in a manner nop creditable to him. The present system of education was good, but further legislation was required to keep it abreast of the times, as they were not giving the youth of the country an opportunity to further their own interests. He was not favourable to removing the duties from the necessaries of life and making up the loss by reducing the £500 exemption under the' land tax. The incidence of taxation "should fall equally on all concerned. The present land tax proposals in several particulars were a dirtincfc violation of this principle, and the proposed exemption was one of these, as a person would have to acquire property before he could participate in it. If they were going on, with a vigorous public works policy there was little chance of a reduction in the customs tariff. The old-age pensions required £250,000 to £300.000 per annum, and the money bad to be found out of consolidated revenue to compensate owners of stock destroyed by the Government. The Premier said he had £230,000 set aside for old-age pensions, but the statement was misleading, for the speaker knew of no such sum. He sympathised with smsill settlers who had the' burden of customs taxes and local government charges on ' their shoulders, and was not prepared for a change" of the fiscal policy to increase their burdens. Public works should be locally financed by means of -loans to local bodies. It was not right that £300,000 should be taken from the customs and used on roads and bridges. Last year the money spent on public works \in the country came ±o 5s 6d per -head, while in the Premier's own district of West land it was £3 10s. 1 The colony had been steadily borrowing at the'j rate of a million a year for colonial works, while very • little actual work had been done. But he did not see how this could •be stopped. • A good deal had been lost by the construction of portions of railways and bridges which we're rotten before trains ran over- them. The money should be spent in continuing the trunk lines, not only from Auckland to Wellington. The manner in -which the ■ money had been frittered away in the last 10 years was not creditable to the Administration. The remedy was to put. the money borrowed for set purposes in the hands of such a body as the sinking fund commissioners. The Main Trunk lino to Auckland had been stopped, the Otago Central crawled aloncr slowly, while that from Christchurch to Blenheim, which he had advocated in 186 a, had not yet been begun. It had always been hjs opinion that the third line should be made in conjunction with the resumption of land along the route with a settlement clause, and he presented this idea to the Government, which had often appropriated bits of his polic} r . Mr M'Kenzio had his heart in the .work of land legislation, and had carried it out to the best of his ability, but there was still room for improvement in his department. Legislation for putting people on the land -should be safeguarded against speculation. Two hundred thousand acres o! land had been acquired for close settlement, and tho rentals, which gave 5 per cent, on the outlay, were satisfactory. The speaker had advocated a policy of resumption 12 years before Mr M'Kenzie's bill was introduced .into Parliament. Such a policy was sounder than the purchase of Native lands, and by putting people on tho land they would create a key to national happiness. The initiation of taking lands should be in tie hands of Parliament, and the prices should be fixed in open court. The Cheviot and Arowhenua .settlements were a credit to Mr M'Kenzie, and Starborough was a good purchase ; but other blocks in the same district ought to be procured. He preferred the perpetual lease with a revision in rents to the lease in perpetuity. The money accruing from the sale of land should go into a land purchase fund. Although a good deal was said as to the preference for freehold tenure, it was evident from the quantity of land taken up that the public were not averse to the leasehold principle, but the freehold tenure must not entirely disappear. It was nonsense fo say the Opposition were going in for the aggregation of property. All liberal land measures emanated from those now dubbed Conservatives. Ho did not believe Mr Seddon was a Liberal. The Legislative Council had been demoralised by the Government cramming it. It was Mr Seddon's plaything, and he did not mean either to destroy it or to reform it. The speaker thought it required reforming on the lines of the Canadian Upper Chamber, and should exist as a check on hasty legislation. In reviewing the legislation of last session, he said the Stock and Slaughtering Bills came down too late to be properly discussed. The Dairy Industry Bill, which he thought well considered, also came down late. The Immigration Bill of Mr E. G. Wright was an exceedingly good measure. He did not think the Old-age Pension Act satisfactory, and if the principle was accepted the only logical solution was universality. The present act was niggardly and pauperising, and allowed many to get *. pension, who were not entitled tr>

it. With regard to labour legislation, the Government should be placed on the same footing as other employers. Concluding, he said the progress of the country was not to be interfered with by any party which might come into power. With the present franchise people would not allow a stand-still policy: When the party with which he was associated came into powerit would deal with the interests of the colony with less political bias than the present Administration. He had faith in the future, but at present popular government was in danger from the autocracy of one man, and the first thing to do was to turn Mr Seddon out of power. They must put in men who could rule but who dare not lie. Ministers must be servants and not the masters of the, people. A vote of thanks and confidence was carried.