THE LAND QUESTION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2686, 6 September 1905, Page 15

THE LAND QUESTION.

THE COLONIAL BANK.

The Public Petitions Committee recommended that the investigation asked for by the Colonial Bank shareholders concerning the loss of £355,000 of the shareholders' capital be made. On the. motion that the xeporfc of the committee be referred to the Government for favourable consideration, Mr IIERDMAN pointed out that, according to its; -last balance sheet, the Colonial Bank's' funds amounted to £465,000. - When" liquidation ,was undertaken the liquidation yielded -only £110,000 to the shareholders. -..Where, he asked, had the balance' of the money, gone to ? •' They had aright to- assume one of two things, either "that-, the balance sheet which was published by'the directors-, of >,the Colonial Bank prior to liquidation was untrue and misleading' and a complete misrepresentation, or that the liquidators in vs inding up the 'institution had been guilty of gross and ■ culpable "negligence. He contended that in the interests of public morality it. was clearly the duty of the Government to institute a searching inquiry into the whole matter. Mr SED.DON -said Mr Herdman ought to have stated what occurred' between the Colonial Bank and the Bank of New Zealand, and that would have shown the House how the £400,000 disappeared. He did not hesitate to say that a good deal of the capital of the Colonial Bank disappeared in that arrangement, . which favoured the Bank of New Zealand and vas a serious loss to the Colonial Bank shareholders. He went further, and said that if> i n respect to a large number of the accounts, the director's- of the Bank of New Zealand had been dealing with their own capital tliey would have dealt with it very differently. They were 'liberal in the extreme in dealing with some of 'those accounts. He thought he was right in saying that had the Colonial Bank not made the agreement it did with the Bank of New Zealand, and carried or^ to own business, there would have been no necessity for the invesigation asked for, and this great loss of capital would not have taken place. The Government would look carefully in the whole matter^ but

PROHIBITION DISTRICTS.

A return has teen presented to Parliament, on the motion of Mr Hawkins, giv ing the details of drunkenness and crime dealt with in the several courts in the-" electoral districts of Mataura, Chalmers, Bruce, and Ashburfcon from June 30, 1901 to June 30 1903, and from June 30, 1903, to June 30,' 1805. The figures are as follow, the numbers given in each case referring to 1901-3 and 1903-5 respectively : — Ashburton : Drunkenness, 175 and 43; excessive da-ink-inw (prohibition orders), 48 and ml; common assault, 1 and 8 ; vagrancy, 9 and ml ; theft 24 and 31; selling liquor without a license. 1 and 21 ; breaking and entering-, J and 10; found in sly girotj-shops, ml and 12. Bruee (Milton and Kadtangata) ; Drunkenness. 45 and 31; pi-ohibition orders. 9 and 9; theft, 9 and 12; sly grog-selling, nil and 1; vagrancy, nil and 1. Chalmers: Drunkenness, 323 and 128; prohibition orders, 27 and nil; drunk and disorderly, 4 and 3; assault, 16 and 5; theft, 24 and 4 ; breach of the peace, 19 and 4 Mataura (Goro and Wyndham) : Drunkenness, 127 and 28; theft, 15 and 18; keeping liquor for sale in no-license district, nil and 4; prohibition orders, 37 and 9; selling liquor in no-license district, nil and 19; sly grogselling, nil and 22; vagra-ncy, 3 and 1.

Mr TAYLOR/'gave'.notice- -to f move, when the House' goes into Committee^ of the Whole to consider the' Premier's notice of motion*" on the land < question—" That this House is of opinion that'iio land legislation affecting the lands oft the colony 1 will be satisfactory that does not provide for the cessation of the sale of Crown lands, and is also of opinion that the remnant of the public estate should be created into, a national education endowment." -.

after the steps that had been taken what, j he asked, could the. Government do. The \ court had dissolved the bank, and the only, thing left was the records, which could I not resuscitate the bank, and the Govern- j I ment was powerless. It would be a waste 1 of time to go through the accounts unless thpy had something tangible to go upon. So far the shareholders had not shown I good grounds for an inquiry. In his i opinion the court had done its duty faithj fully, and he believed the capital disapI peared when the agreement was made between the Bank of New Zealand and the Colonial Bank. If any further representations were made tbey t would be con- ) sidered, but seeing that the subject had been dealt with by the Supremo Court he did not think there was any need for inquiry. Mr TAYLOR pointed out that in a few weeks the books of the Colonial Bank would be destroyed, and every chance of solving the disappearance of the money i would have gone. It was quite conceiv- ■ able that, if the truth could be elicited, j the shareholders would have an action against somebody, and perhaps have some of the money restored to them. Mr WILFORD said "what they wanted to know was whether the £355,000 had been lo&t by the directors or by the liquidators. Mr DCJTHfE moved to add to the report — "Thai;, meanwhile, the House desires the Government to take steps to i prevent the destruction of the Colonial j Bank's books and papers, with a view to ) haying a thorough investigation and in- ■ quiry into the liquidation of the bank before the Ist of November next." j Mr BEDDON said ho objected to the ! Government being asked to prevent the destruction of the books and papers with- j out any evidence being given after the Supremo Court had ordered the destruction oi them. The House should hesitate before it passed a resolution of that sort, and should only do so if it were shown that some reason existed for upsetting j the decision of the Supreme Court. Mr Seddon added that he regarded . the amendment as a deliberate attempt to put the Government in false position. The Department, total vote £46,899 was taken.— Mr MASSEY and others pointed cut that the saalry of the head of this department was £700, while !- one of his subordinates, the chief Customs \ expert, received £.800, and said this was I an anomaly that should not be allowed to continue.— Mr T. MACKENZIE moved that the item " Secretary and Inspector of Customs. £700." be reduced by £2 as an indication to the Government that that official's salary should at least equal that ■of any of his subordinates.— Mr SEDDON said the salary of the expert had been at j that figure for many years. If the salary | of ,the secretary were increased there | would be an' "outcry for an _all-round > mii crease. — Mr Mackenzie's motion was lost ' on the voices. — Mr ELL ' moved to reduce ; the salary of the chief Customs expert, ' £800, by" £150, on the ground that the ! pay was too "great for the work. — Lost by "34 to 15. — The total vote for Customs officers and services was agreed to un- i altered, and the vote for miscellaneous j services was postponed pending presenta- ! tion to the House of the annual report on the Cook and Other Islands. j Marine Department, £54,446. —Mr LAURENSON complained that sufficient^ encouragement was not given to the j acclimatisation of sea Ush. If properly encouraged a great industry was at hand which would be^of great benefit to the colony— Mr -JAMES ALLEN urged that the Government should go thoroughly into the question of giving ample assistance to fish hatcheries, and complained that the hatchery at Portobello was being Ptarved.— The Hon.. Mr HALL-JONES denied that the hatcheries were being starved, and added thab a great deal was done every year in the way of importing ova. — Several . members urged that the Government should systematically and energetically; carry on trawling operations for the purpose of discovering fresh fishing grounds around our" coasts, complaint being made that the work of the department in this direction in the -past was carried- out imperfectly and incompletely. — The total vote passed unaltered. Education Department, £690,479.— Mr KIRKBRIDE urged the necessity of giving children education in agricultural and kindred subjects.— Mr BAUME said the only object of the Education Committee at the present time was to get the Teachers' Superannuation Bill out of the way, and that it had really no time for anything else just now.— Mr SEDDON said he hoped to see a big advance made in this subject next year.— Mr MASSEY spoke in favour of " rural education, and pointed to the strides made by Canada and the United States in that direction. — Mr JAMES ALLEN advocated open-air "instruction to school children.-- In reply to several points raised during the discussion, Mr SEDDON stated that money would be placed on the Estimates this session for training colleges at Auckland and Wellington. If .any board could show that the provision to enable them to bring children to the central schools was not sufficient he would bo prepared to increase the' amount. It was criminal neglect on the part of any board if the children were not taken to school. In regard to education, New Zealand should not, and did not, lag behind, and even compared with America we had not much to learn. It was the duty and pleasure of the Government to place education within the reach of every child in the colony. A motion by Mr T. M. WILFORD that the total vote be reduced by £1 as an indication that the time had arrived when ths Government should undertake the printing and publishing of uniform school books and supply them to parents at ■ cost price, was lost by 26 to 24. — At the vote for Schools, Mr TAYLOR moved a reduction by £1 as indication that the House is of opinion that the cottage home system should b© inaugurated in connection with the treatment of State chil- ! dren.— This was lost by 26 to 23.— Mr TAYLOR moved to reduoe fche..^ote- fer the school for deaf mutes by £1 as a protest against the extravagance in connection with the new buildings at Sumner. — Lost by 32 to 12. — The total vote for the Education Department passed unaltered. j

LAND FOR SETTLEMENTS. Land for settlements has had a curious 1 innings. Jfjrst came the bill for increasing the annual borrowing limit from half a million to three-quarters of a million *, then came two returns, one of which showed th,at about £3,637,000 had been paid fof estates valued at £3,190,000. Apparently, therefore, there was an excess of £442,000. The other return showed that the estates compulsorily acauired J£8Q_0,427 paid on fi valuation gf

£521,000) had contributed £179,000 of ihe said excess. " What about the increase of a quarter of a million again? "' is the natural query consequent. Well, it is certain that these valuations are not infallible, and it is also certain from the returns of the Purchase Department that the resumption policy has paid handoniely. It appears also to be a fair thing that the greater excess under the compulsory system requires us to overhaul the judicial system which, relying on assessors* appointed as partisans, makes itself unjudicial. The plain moral therefrom is that the bill ought bo pass for increasing the area of purchase, while the judicial system is mads really judicial and the valuation system is studied by the light of facts. Verb sap.