Political Address.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 5032, 13 June 1889, Page 2

Political Address.

MR W. J. STEWARD AT GIEN-ITI,

Mr Steward addicted his constituents at the Mechanics’ Institute, Glen-itl, last evening. There was a fair attendance, considering the very scattered nature of the district, and Mr Eyfe was elected to preside. He briefly introduced Mr Steward, to whom ho (Mr Fyfe) was sure that they would give an attentive hearing. Mr Steward at the outset congratulated his hearers on the improved position of affairs since they last met; the cloud of depression had lifted and shown its silver lining. This was duo to a variety of causes, among them being the improved values of staple productions ; and one of the secondary causes was the determination of the colony to live within its means, which had renewed confidence both at home and abroad. The colony had determined to put a stop to borrowing, and the Government were pledged to raise no further loan, certainly till 1891. That it was lime to bring the borrowing policy to a close was evident from the fact that the public debt now amounted, including the two millions raised last year, to 37a millions, meaning an annual out-going for interest of If millions. The improvement of the colony’s credit at Home through the determination to cease from borrowing was evidenced by the rise in the quota lions for Now Zealand stocks. The two million loan was floated at a discount of 2} per cent. —(netting, after deducting floatage expenses, £95 per £IOO debenture); whereas at the present date New Zealand 4 per cents are quoted at £lO6, or a premium of £6, an advance of not less than per cent. That a policy of general retrenchment had become necessary was also clear from the fact that the deficit for the two years ending March, 1888, was stated to be £528,000, so that the colony had been going to the bud at the rate of £264,000 a year, and this notwithstanding that many items were being charged to loan that ought to have been defrayed out of revenue, such as the cost of school buildings, and subsidies to (ho local bodies, 'these charges (£60,000 for school bindings and £64,000 for subsidies) the treasurer properly proposed to place upon the consolidated fund. A dd to these figures the past annual deficit and the £BO,OOO for interest on the last loan, a gross total of £468,000 represented the discrepancy between revenue and expenditure. To restore the balance the late Government proposed large reductions in expenditure and an increase of taxation, and Sir H. Atkinson, who opposed Sir Julius Vogel's budget proposals, practically adopted them when, upon his accession to office, he set about the same duty. Be carried on the work of retrenchment which had been begun by his predecessors, and like them asked for an increased Custom’s tariff on protectionist lines. The Treasurer made out this result—reductions in expenditure £233,000, additional duties £207,000, primage duty £58,000; total £493,000-making up the leeway and providing a balance of £30,000 to the good. It was true the primage duty was to bo devoted to clearing off part of the two previous year’s deficits, but notwithstanding that, the Treasurer calculated on having a surplus of £37,000 on lust year’s operations, through savings made and in progress. It had been asserted that be would be able to do still bettor, and show a surplus of £77,000. So much the belter; but whether the surplus was real or only apparent could only be known when t he accounts for the year were furnished in detail, and it was seen whether all the liabilities of the year had been duly mot. Unquestionably, however', real progress had been made in the work of retrenchment, the policy both of the prerent and the previous government, of the House and of the country. Neither party could claim special credit either in this matter or iu the matter of the adoption of a higher customs tariff. The tariff indeed could not have been carried without the help of the Opposition. If the country approved, as it seemed to do, of the financial policy of last session, it had to thank the Opposition more than the Government party for giving effect to that policy. Besides the elements in the tariff of a protectionist nature there were some purely revenue items such as the increased duty on tea, the duty on cotton goods, rice, etc. He had objected to the two former, and urged that an equal amount could bo better raised by an increased beer duty and a tax on private carriages. He, however, and others accepted the duties proposed, or the subsides to local bodies would have been suddenly cut off. The tax on rice was approved as a ready way of making the Chinese contribute towards the revenue. It was too soon yet to see the full effect of the tariff in its protectionist aspect, but there were signs that it had done good, by calling into existence new industries, and by preventing the collapse of others already established. At the same time, the pressure of the Custems taxation, £4 per head of the population, was far too heavy, and ought to be reduced at the earliest moment practicable, by reducing the duties on tea, sugar, cottons, and other articles we could not manufacture for ourselves. The direct taxation also required revision. Instead of the property tax, he would like to see u progressive income tax and a laud tax, in both eases with an untaxablo minimum. The tax should bo graduated to ensure “ equality of sacrifice.” In the ease of the income tax this might work out thus : Suppose the untaxable minimum—the exemption—wore £2OO, and (hat the tax on tho first taxable £IOO were 3d in tho £, with Id increase for each additional £IOO, this ratio of increase stopping at £IOOO a year —it must stop somewhere. All incomes over £IOOO, up to £SOOO, paying 5 per cent; nil above £SOOO, up to £IO,OOO, ?-£ per cent;

and above £IO,OOO, 10 per cent; then the amounts payable would bo as follows: —

Under such a scheme a man with £SOO a year would pay four times as much as a man with £3OO a year ; a man with £IOOO four times as much as a man with £500; a man with £2ooo)noarly 31- times as much as a man with £ 1 000; the man with £20,030 nearly three limes as much as the msn with £10,000; after which the difference in ratio would gradually cease, as it must cease somewhere. A glance at the table will show that a scheme of this kind was infinitely fairer than an even all-round rate cf taxation. If there were also a land tax, however, such an income lax must only apply to incomes from other sources than the land. No one in his senses would propose to tax both the land and the income derived from it. For the purposes of the land tax the land would need to be classified, and the tax so adjusted that it should fall on cultivatablo laud only, and that a certain acreage —two or three hundred acres, or whatever might be decided upon—should escape the tax, so that the working farmer should be free of land tax, only the area in excess of such acreage held by one owner being subject to tho tax. And the tax should be on the value of the taxable area. A higher rate—at least double—should be imposed upon laud that was not cultivated or improved, the object of the tax being to ensure the good lands being turned to tho best possible account. He did not contemplate a confiscatory, “bursting-up” tax, but merely one that would tend to put an end to tbo great national evil of immense blocks being allowed to lie comparatively idle and unproductive. Such an kcome and land tax, supplemented by a remnant of property tax, which should not fall upon stock-in-trade, implements, or live stock, but would reach certain kinds of wealth that must escape both an income and land tax, would present a fair scheme of fixation under which every person would contribute in proportion to his means to the necessities of tho State, and under would be escaped the evils of the present property-tax—the taxing of unproductive property, and the discourage' ment of improvements. In his opinion, ono of the greatest shortcomings of the present Premier was that he failed to see the necessity for some such policy, and if a reform in that direction was to be obtained it must be from other hands than his. Mr Steward next made some reference to the legislation of last session, and claimed for it that if it was not voluminous in amount some of it was of a useful character. He specially referred to the Native land Acts, Chiceso Bestriction, and the Land Act Amendment Acts. With respect to the last-named Act, Mr Steward related the steps he took to procure a more useful dealing with the runs recently re-let in Canterbury in respect to tho classification of the lands. The result of the classification was that 115,500 acres of Class IF. (pastoral land suited for sub division into small run?) and 98,000 acres of Glass 111. (lands adapted.in part for agriculture-the commissioners decided that when one-tenth of any block was suitable for agriculture they would place it under Class 111 ) —these areas had been withheld from re lease, and when the present leases expire in May 1890, the land will be open to the public, with a choice of terms —purchase for cash, purchase on deferred payments, or under the perpetu .d or agricultural lease systems. He had been in frequent communication with tho Minister of Lands during the recess, and hud his assurance that full and ample publicity would bo given prior to these lands being thrown open for appliction, and he had also the further assurance that the Minister would exercise his powers and have the lauds classified and the price of the poorer qualities reduced to any figure not less than 10s per acre. There would thin in May next be thrown open to purchase or lease in Canterbury about a quarter of a million acres of land, at cash prices ranging from 10s, or at rentals equal to 5 per cent on the cash price. During the past two years there had been gained two points which he had long urged in tho interest of settlement, the option to tho selector if taking up land under any system known to the law, and the fixing of the price or rental at something like the value of the land. There remained ono other point to be gained, that it should not be necessary to want 45 days before land can bo taken up, and then to undergo the chances of a ballot, but that all Crown Lands available might be taken at any time on the principle "first come first served.” This could bo easily done in the case of surveyed lands, and in unsurveyed lands the only difficulty coidd be got over by laying off the road lines, and requiring settlers to select with frontages to those, in blocks of certain depth proportionate to the frontage. The Tauranga County Council was moving in this direction, and ho hoped the movement would be successful. He was sure there was a general feeling of disappointment when the commissioners announced that there was not more than a quarter of a million acres of Crown Lands in Canterbury suitable either for agriculture or small pastoral holdings, This, however, being the case it emphasized the necessity for doing something to ensure that the large blocks now in the Lands of private owners should bo turned to better account than in many instances they are now. Mr Steward then went on to tho question of educational reserves, comprising 1,300,000 acres, and described his efforts to get a Bill passed last session to ensure these reserves being administered in the interest of settlement, his effoits being, however, for the time frustrated. During the recess he had not lost sight cf the subject, and in view of the fact that a number of leases were to fall in last J month and in November next, he had a voluminous correspondence with tho School Com-, missioners and the Christchurch College Board, most of which had been published in the Herald. From that correspondence it would have been seen that both bodies had agreed to sub-divide into smaller holdings a number of the reserves. Many of tbo reserves were admirably adapted for village or labour settlements, and it was a thousand pities that in such cases they could not be so utilised. He still j thought tho .suggestion ho made to tho Premier last session a feasible one : that power should be given tho Government to resume such reserves for the purpose indicated, upon giving to the body owning tho reserve land of equivalent value elsewhere. Even were this j power given and acted upon, however, the necessities of the enso would not be met, as there are many localities where such settlements are badly needed, and where there is neither Grown land nor endowment reserve av.dlable. In such cases there remained only the course of re-purchase by the Crown from private owners. This course was proposed in Sir George Grey’s Land for Settlements Bill, and in a resolution of which he (Mr Steward) gave notice, proposing to make provision for such purchases out of unallotted loan money, The Bill failed to pass, and the resolution never came up for discussion. He therefore arranged a deputation to the Government, representing a meeting of members of both sides of the House, the outcome of which was that the Government proposed a vote of £IO,OOO for the purpose. This was parried in Committee of Supply, but tho House by a narrow majority of two refused to confirm tho resolution. He sincerely hoped the Government would successfully renew the proposal this year. No step could be taken which would bo more beneficial alike to the labourers and tho employers of labour in tho country districts. Mr Steward next turned to tho subject cf Hospitals and Charitable Aid, and alluded to tho three Bills introduced by private members last session, as proofs th«t the present Act works anything but smoothly. No ono of these Bills was carried, but the Government promised to themselves bring in an amending Bill this year, and it would have been seen from recent

official utterances, and "authorised” information in the papers, that their promise was to be kept. It was to be hoped the measure would be of such a nature as to remove many causes of complaint, and the many injuries caused by the present law. Last session, for the seventh session in succession, he had tried to amend the law relating to the election of school committees and for the fifth time carried a Bill through the Lower House, —to be for tho fifth time thrown out by the Upper House; which ho could not help thinking ought to give way now. The present state of things was a wretched muddle. Hardly any two authorities agreed as to what was meant by the word “ householder,” and invalid elections and failures to elect were frequent. His Bill provided a clear definition of “ householder,” rendered failure to elect a committee impossible, secured prior nomination of candidates, and repealed the cumulative vote. All these things had been approved by the Otago School Conference and he intended (as the Government did not intend to do anything) to reintroduce his Bill, and he hoped this . time to see it become law. Again also he brought forward his Bill to provide for triennial instead of annual elections of licensing committees, a change which would save the local governing bodies of the colony £20,000 in each triennial period, and would also work advantageously in other respects. The second reading was carried by a substantial majority, but the bdl was wrecked iu committee by the insertion (for the purpose of wrecking it) of a clause to provide for female franchise iu such elections. Personally he was in favour of female suffrage in this matter, but ho was satisfied that a private member could not carry it in the present House, under the present Standing Orders. The proposal for triennial elections was not so bitterly opposed, and he intended to make another attempt to secure it. A Bill authorising grants of land to certain halfcastes in the Waimate district, as well as in other districts, was passed last year, but owing to the long time the claims of these people had waited for settlement, no less than five of the grantees had died. The next of kin could be entitled to succession orders, but the provision for making of these was very unsatisfactory, courts being held only at long intervals, and often at long distances from the residences of the claimants. It was very desirable (and he had urged this upon tho Government) that resident magistrates, sitting with a native assessor, should be empowered to adjudicate upon such matters. A little local Bill providing for the closing of certain unused road lines in ono of the Waimate High School reserves, completed the list of matters of special local interest, Mr Steward next referred .to a few public Bills which were dropped in ono House or the other. The first mentioned was the Fair Bent Bill, which went too far for the Conservative branch of the Legislature. He hoped the Government would not abandon the attempt altogether, but again endeavour to carry such a Bill, if it be one of narrow scope. He had, however, seen no reference to such an intention in ministerial speeches, and regretted to notice the omission. Mr Pyke’s Otago Central Bailway Bill lie had supported, believing that the same principles which had been applied to the Mid'and railway might also be fairly applied to the Otago interior line. He had always voted for Bir G. Grey’s Law Practitioners Bill. Mr Samuel’s Divorce Bill might have gone too far, but there were eases which required an amendment of tho existing law. Mr Downio Stewart’s Bill, to provide for payment of only half pension to colonial pensioners who reside and spend their pensions abroad deserved to succeed, as also did Mr Joyce's “ Bill,” which might bo entitled, “A Bill to prevent the largo majority of shopkeepers being tyrannised over by the minority.” Beferring to occurrences during the recess, Mr Steward said there was no doubt that the intention of Parliament, and the desire of tho country, was that on entirely new departure should bo , taken, when the Bailway Board Bill was passed; that the chief commissioner should be a man of large railway experience, obtained from England or elsewhere; that there should be a commercial representative on the.board; and that Mr Maxwell should certainly not be tho representative on the board of the old order of things. It was most unsatisfactory that the Government should have appointed Mr McKerrow, or any other officer in the service of tho colony, until it was clearly proved that the man Parliament wanted—an expert from Home—could not be obtained. In view of the rush of applicants for a similar post in a sister colony, it would require very pointed evidence to convince him that such was tho case. If the Government had been content with less of the “old leaven,” and had appointed a " commercial ” representative instead of Mr Maxwell, there would have been loss ground for objection than there was. Altogether tho Government had certainly failed to keep faith with the House and the country, whatever might be the result of their, experiment. Ho fully believed that the railways could’be worked better than they had been in the past, but so far some of tho changes made by the commissioners were anything but an improvement. For instance the newly revised time-table badly needed revision, as the interests of the country districts had been largely sacrificed to the convenience of a small minority of throiigh-passengers. He also thought Judge Ward had been shabbily treated in being passed over in the new appointment to the Supreme Court Bench; not that he had a word to say against the gentleman who was appointed, Passing on to the work of next session, the programme so far as it had been sketched out gave promise of some useful work. There was tho administration of hospitals and charitable aid to be placed on a better footing, and tho bankruptcy laws to be reconsidered. As regards tho latter he was by no means sanguine that anything very profitable would be done, as it seemed well nigh impossible for any legislature to pass a satisfactory bankruptcy law. Some, despairing of the task'; advocated the repeal of all laws dealing with the subject. Then they were to be asked to amend the law of libel, and probably would be proceeding on safe lines if they followed the recent Imperial legislation on the subject. Again there was to be a proposal for the reform of the Upper House, the Government proposal being that members of that chamber should bo elected by the House of Representatives, and hold their seats for a fixed term • of years, instead of for life. He hoped the Government were in earnest, and would press this measure, which should have his hearty support. The question of the continuance of tho San Francisco mail service was sure to be revived. He considered that service a luxury which could very well be dispensed with, especially when the steamers, instead of developing trade between New Zealand and America were carrying cargoes of Californian wheat to compete with our own produce in tho Sydney market. The most important work in prospect was the Electoral Bill. He did not anticipate that the reduction of members from 91 to 70 would be reversed. He did not see his way to retract his vote on i that question, though ho confessed that there were grounds for doubting Whether there were not disadvantages which outweighed tho advantages anticipated from the change. The disadvantages must become very prominent iu consideiing the new bill. For example the new electorates must contain a population one-fourth greater than the present electorates, and in order to obtain that population tho territorial area of some of them would have to bo nearly, if not quite, doubled. Most of tho electoral districts were now unwieldy enough, and the difficulty of securing suitable candidates must be intensifield by the extension of their area, whilst, also, there would ho loss homogeneity and identity of interest among the various parts of each electorate. He was somewhat in doubt whether it might not be better to group the electorates, dividing the colony into still larger districts, each returning four or five members. On this point he must bo free to exercise his judgment when occasion arose. If single electorates were to bo retained, then the “ quota ” would have to bo re-determined, and tho allowance to the country electorates should bo increased from 18 to 33J per cent; so that 3000 people in a country electorate would be the electoral equivalent of 4000 in a city electorate. Tho Government Bill also proposed to adopt a modification of tho Hare system. Theoretically there was a great deal to bo said for that system ; but it was open to very serious objections, and he was not prepared to accept this novel and complicated system until public opinion hud deeded

in its favour. At present tlio electors were not prepared to accept it, and it would be sufficient for the present to remedy defects in the existing law, and mate provision for the redirision of the colony into the new electoral districts rendered necessary by the reduction made in the number of members to compose the next House. Mr Steward then concluded his address by repeating his congratulation of his hearers upon the prospects of better times which had dawned upon the colony, and expressing a hope that the Legislature might be found equal to guiding its destinies aright, and securing to its people the greatest possible measure of prosperity, security, and happiness. (Applause.) In reply t) the chairman Mr Steward said that he was opposed to the renewal of the San Francisco service. He understood that Mr Creighton was in the colony at present in connection with it, but he (Mr Steward) was not aware of the basis of the proposals for renewal. In his opinion by subsidising the service they were cutting their own throats, for it had actually been shown lately that the San Francisco mail steamers had been carrying grain to compete with that grown iu this colony in one of the best markets New Zealand had. In bis opinion the benefit New Zealand derived from this service was a mere bagatelle. He would vote against a renewal of the San Francisco service. , f Mr T. Fyfe then moved that a cordial' vote of thanks be given to Mr Steward for his addrers, and continued confidence in him as their representative. This was seconded by Mr S. Green, and carried unanimously. In thanking them for the vote, Mr Steward expressed his regret at not being able to come more often among them, and added that should they at any time desire his services ho would at once come among them. He had never yet had a request from Gleniti, the district, in marked contrast to many others in the colony, being an easy one to serve. He concluded bv moving a vote of thanks to the chairman, which being c.rdially agreed to,the meeting closed.

Income. £ 300 1*1 Annual Tax. £ s. d. 15 0 400 2 18 4 500 5 0 0 GOO 7 10 0 700 10 8 4 SCO 13 15 0 900 17 10 0 1.C00 21 13 4 2,000 71 13 4 3,000 121 13 4 5,000 221 13 4 10,000 59G 13 4 20,000 1546 13 4 30,000 2598 13 4 40,000 3596 13 4