MR BRYCE AT WAVERLEY.

Patea Mail, Volume XI, Issue 21, 1 June 1885, Page 2

MR BRYCE AT WAVERLEY.

Mr Bryce met his constituents in the Town Hall, Wavorley, on Saturday evening for the purpose of giving his political views on the present Government of the colony. He had a large and attentive audience and was frequently applauded during the address. He attacked the policy of the present Government all round, and failed to discover anything very good in their administration past, present, or future. His explanation of the policy hills of the Government was crisp and interesting, and his attack on the financial expedients of the Government, though not new, was coached in much plainer language than is usual, while the late eminently successful “Bryce” native policy was again very clearly outlined in one sentence used in speaking on this subject, “ no amount of palaver can ever take the place of firmly and honestly enforcing the law.” Mr Bryce is not so hopeful: of a rapid return to prosperity as is Major Atkinson, but like him looks to the necessity of an economical Government being in power before such an end is possible. His summing up was terse and to the purpose, when be said the present Government had lived politically on exciting expectations impossible of achievement, and they would die politically of the disappointed hopes they had created. We give a resume of the address below. Mr F. P. Fookes proposed and Mr Thomson seconded, That Mr Bridge lake the chair.

Mr Bridge said there was no occasion for him to make any prefartory remarks as Mr Bryce was well known to all present. He had therefore much pleasure in introducing him. Mr Btyce said the Inst time he had the honour of addressing them in that hall it was as a Minister of the Crown; he had now to addiess them as a member of Her Majesty’s Opposition. They must remem ter that on meeting the House after the lust general election the Atkinson Government bad resigned without taking a vote of the House. This was done because they found they did not possess the confidence of the House. Mr Thomson, when he addressed a meeting at Otago, made a statement that the fact of the Atkinson Government having resigned without bringing the motion before the House, was proof that they should have resigned the previous session. But it does not follow that because the Atkinson Government resigned after the election that they were too weak the previous session. What was substantiady the present Government then took office, Stout, Vogel, Ballance, and Richardson, and yet this Government was defeated by o larger majority than ever any Ministry had been defeated before, though it was practically the same Government that was now in office. Mr Thomson had moved the resolution which defeated this Government, ami he (Mr T) tried to form a government but failed, and Sir George Grey tried and failed, and then Major Atkinson formed a Government, and his Government was also defeated by a majority of eight ; and then Mr Stout formed a Government, and virtually said to the House: You must take us or chaos. The Government took every means to secure a tenancy, and loudly declared that DREADFUL DISCLOSURES were going to be made, and these disclosures were of so important a nature that nothing but physical force would remove them,the Government,from those benches, hut when these exposures came to be made, they all shimmered into moonshine. Then they introduced, for the purpose of further securing their position, what they called

POLICY BILLS. The District Railway Bill, East and West Coast Railway Construction Bill, Westport Colliery, and Greymouth Harbour Bills, which had the direct interest of members and the direct interest of members friends this Government gave the House to understand that these hills must stand or fall ns a whole, the result of which was, that if yon felt interested in one you must vote for all or imperil the one you were interested in, such a huge piece of log rolling had never been known in the Colony "before, and that was saying a great deal. These Policy Bills, really formed the work of the Session. I am here to-uight to touch on the more salent points of these hills. The DISTRICT RAIL-WAY BILL.

Authorises tho Government to lease or purchase District Railways. Now these District Railways has been formed by large speculating companies, and curiously enough these railways had been both a success and a failures. They had been a success inasmuch as this object for which they were formed had been attained as their formation had added largely to tho value of the estates through which they passed, but as going concerns they were found not to day all. When these companies main objects bad been obtained, the companies come to Government and say take these railways off our hands. This was what the District Railways Bill was brought in to secure. He did not say but what these railways may have to be taken over by the colony. It is quite possible they may, but if so, it should be on terms favourable to the colony. The hill as it was introduced was not fair to the colony. Arbitrators were to be appointed to value them, but it was understood that the value was not to be the present value, but the value at cost price with arrears of rates superaddecl. These company railways had, of course, to get the vote of the ratepayers, but the shareholders and ratepayers were almost the same people. The Agricultural Company of Otago had a large quantity of land wnich it wanted to sell at a profit, for which purpose it got a district railway pul through it, but it had first to get the vote of the ratepayers—the shareholders and ratepayers are all one. The land of tho company was greatly increased in value by the construction of the railway and as the land is sold, the company now wish to get rid of the railway and want the colony to purchase it, ,

and not only to purchase it at cost price hut also with arrears of rates superadded. This was what he held as unfair to the taxpayer of the colony. He hoped he was one of the last persons in the colony to make personal imputations on the policy of any of his opponents, but, he said, it does not add to one's comfort to find that Sir Julius Vogel is a shareholder and once was chairman of directors, and Mr Stout the solicitor of one of these companies. He did not say there was anything corrupt about the Bill, but he did say that it did not add to one’s comfort to find that the necessary power to make arrangements with the Government on behalf of this company should rest with these members of the Government who were so anxious to get the Bill through. That Bill was strongly debated and opposed in the Lower House, but was eventually passed, but when it went into the Legislative Council it was rejected. The Government, hoivever, were so exceedingly anxious to get the Bill passed that they committed what he considered s most unconstitutional act, though he must do them the justice to say that the Speaker ruled otherwise; they really rc-embodied the Bill by resolutions, and invited the House to pass them, and the House did pass them. Many disliked the Bill, but did not vote against it, because many bills rested on the success of each other. Under THE EAST AND WEST COAST RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION BILL it was proposed to form a huge company or Syndicate to make the railway at a cost of something like £2,000,000 of money. It seems strange that this Government, which professes to be anxious to conserve the lands of the Crown should bring fin a measure to give Ito million of acres of land to a Syndicate. He noticed in Major Atkinson’s speech that he (Major Atkinson) says that he has no particular objection to the Bill, but he does not like the title of so much laud to be alienated from the Crown. This he (Mr Bryce) considered was a very strong objection. He took exception to the statement that the land was bad and rocky. It was certain that it included some valuable coal-fields, and may perhaps tap minerals much more valuable. And another provision was that if the land in the vicinity was not sufficient to pay half the cost of construction, land could be taken elsewhere. This policy he held to be bad in principal and not to be tolerated fora moment, but this was not all for in case the line did not work as well as the company expected, thenthey could take advantage of one of the most outrageous provisions he ever saw in a Bill, for no matter what sort of country the line goes through, if there is not traffic enough to pay expenses for years to come, provision is made for Government taking over the lines and giving the company 35 per cent of the gross earnings of the line, no matter whether the line is paying or not paying. He contended that any Minister who could advocate a thing like that had not the interests of the colony at So ranch for the second policy bills. Now, in addition to the policy bills the FINANCE was to he put straight. The finance, the present Government told them, was terribly wrong, and must be put straight. The finance was terribly wrong and must be put straight, and the way in which this has been done is explained by Mr Thompson. He (Mr T.) shews that authority was taken last session for borrowing money to the extent of £5,536,808, made up as follows : North Island Main Trunk Railway£l,ooo,ooo, loan of 1884 £1,500,000, loan to extent of accrued sinking fund £2,792,808, loan to extent of sinking fund for year £244,000. In addition to this direct borrowing power, the Government has authorised the indirect borrowing for Westport Harbour Board, £500,000, guaranteed debentures for Greymonth Harbour £150,000, other Harbour Boards £750,000, bringing the total amount of borrowing authorised in one session up to £9,436,808, and the whole of this, with the exception of the £1,000,000 for the North Island Main Trunk Railway, was authorised last session. In the House we were all prepared for very great borrowing-, -when mysterions rumours were circulated in the lobby that the philosophers stone was found. After a little while it became apparent that this philosophers stone was to save the colony £244,000 a year, after which it was stated that the financial arrangement really proposed was to seize the sinking fund. I will explain what that means. The new loans of the colony have no sinking fund, but the old loans pay so much per cent per annum in addition to interest towards the repayment of the loan. This amount the colony is bound by-law to J pay out of revenue, and Sir Julius Yogel proposes to save the colonies this payment, and in order to keep faith he will have to continue to pay the Sinking Fund out of revenue, but in order to save the colonies having to pay the amount, be issues debentures for the amount of the saving and adds those debentures to the debt of the colony, I will give you an illustration of this pledging as it appears to me; I join a Building Socieiy, and in order to build - I borrow £IOO, and when I borrow it I agree to give 9 per cent interest, and also 9 per cent Sinking Fund so as to clear off the total liability in from 7 to 9 years. After I have extinguished a portion of the debt a friend tells me he can show me bow to save 9 pounds a year, and tells me to give promissory notes for the 9 per cent Sinking Fund ; pay the 9 per cent interest, and let the promissory notes accumulate to pay off the debt with, and this is what Sir Julius Vogel has done to restore confidence in the Colony. It appears to me that many of us have had too much confidence in the future welfare of the Colony, and have paid far too much for the land both in purchase and rent. Vogel argues that the higher the transfer value of land is the better, but that is not the case from the settlers point of view. The real value of land to the

settler is what yon can make out of it, and no more. If you merely regard it as a borrowing power, or a counter for a financial game, the higher value you can put on land the better; but so soon as you do that, so soon you get a fictitious value, and on unsound position. Debentures have been issued to the extent of £247,700 for the purpose of raising money for the Consolidated Fund in order to pay the Sinking Fund out of it, and this is bow the finance is conducted to enable the colony to advance by the leaps and hounds that Sir Julius Yogel promised us it would do. The Government, having put the finances stisight in this remarkable manner, purpose putting local government straight. Stout’s form of local government would be to almost restore Provincialism, but as Sir Julius Yogel was one of the main instigators of the abolishment of provinces, Mr Stout was not likely to have his way in this matter. When Mr Stout went to Dunedin and spoke there everybody expected be would explain the Government views of local government. Well, Mr Stout went to Dunedin, and made the weakest speech he had ever made, but not a word was Slid about local government. This so surprised everybody, that Sir Julius Vogel was invited to go down and address the electors, he went down, and told them a great deal about local government, he told them a scheme very little different from the present one, in described the present form of vernment, with a few very minor alterations, and told them the government were going to bring this in as a new measure, the whole colony were on the tip toe of expectation, to see how he proposed to make good his promises to local boards of giving them an assured income, yon will remember that Sir Julius Yogel, when in the House, spoke very strongly of local bodies all having substantial endowments. Now the assured incomes spoken of are not very much assured, as it consis'od of giving subsidies on a sliding scale, and there was not very much assured income in allowing the Assembly to vote an income just when and how it felt inclined ; of all _ guarantees this was the most uncertain. The Roads and Bridges Construction Act was perhaps faulty, but still it provides means for local bodies to get money to open up their districts under a certain system and was a fairly liberal measure as roads, either main or others, could be constructed under it, and if that was repealed and nothing better put in its place the new system would be worse than the present and would end in complete disappointment. I noticed that the Premier took exception to the enormous sura of £200,000 being spent on roads, and said he was thoroughly horrified at the idea. I take it that in the repeal of the Roads and Bridges Construction Act the Government will not be acting in sympathy with the settlers. It seemed that their one idea was the imposition of a Land Tax. His opinion was that land is already taxed to its full extent and any idea of further taxation in that direction will end in failure. It is said that power is to he given to

NATIVE COMMITTEES to investigate title to land. Now, to expect natives to investigate and determine titles to land is the merest folly, and to deal with native lands before the title is determined must lead to trouble. It is the most grievous wrong to the colony to go on making the Cen'ral Kailway with no prospect of a definite settlement and largely increasing the value of land for native owners who are not liable to any taxation. Although I am a North Island man, I say most emphatically that not a sod of that railway should have been turned until satisfactory arrangements had been made as to the title of the lands through which it had to run. I took the liberty of pointing out to the committee, and also in the House that the construction of this railway ought not to be gone on with until this had been done. With respect to the native commitles, it is, I believe, intended to give them greatly extended power, and to grant them, minor courts of law. This is a very old idea, but one he did not think would work; it had failed befere when the Maoris were ranch more numerous, and he was of opinion it would utterly break down now, and would also he thought cause a great deal of mischief, and ultimately lead to great discontent and ’ trouble. He considered the best hope of snccess would lie in giving them the same laws and responsibility, including Land Tax, as any other British subjects. He now came to a subject he would like to have passed over, but be thought if he did not allude to it it would be conspicious by its absence. He referred to the

PRESENT IRRITATION n n the West Coast. He did not attach much importance to it if it were properly dealt with; if Government were at all firm, there was nothing to fear. He would advise Government (ii he might have that privilege) to simply enforce the law just the same with them as with Em-openns. If that is fairly and firmly done, all will be well, bnt no amonnt of palaver will ever take the of enforcing the law. He was making his address as brief as possible, but he must f just say a few words on the position of

COLONIAL FINANCE but he would not bother them with figures. He was sorry ho could not take so hopefnl a view as Major Atkinson does. If yon consider that the colony has to pay away year after year between 3 and 4 millions you will see what a draw this must be on a limited population. He wa sorry to say he observed a greater tendency in the men of to-day to fly financial kites than dig colonial potatoes; and unless that disposition tabes a turn for the better, we cannot help feeling that the colony is in a serions position, and if prosperity is again to be secured, a different plan must bo adopted than that which has been pursued by the present Government which has committed the great fault of exciting expectations which were in eyery way

impossible of achievf mert; politically it had lived on that, and politically it will die of the disappointed hopes it had created. In answer to Mr Thompson, Mr Bryce, said there was no doubt that the police were bound to apprehend a native for stealing, but there was a modification of punishment in certain cases. In answer to Mr Peat, Mr Bryce replied that a Magistrate was properly competent to dismiss a case, but to apply to Government for instructions would be improper. On the motion of Mr Symcs, a vote of confidence was carried unanimously.