SPEECH BY MAJOR ATKINSON. He Criticises tbe Government and Their Measures. Hawera, Friday.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 104, 30 May 1885, Page 5

SPEECH BY MAJOR ATKINSON. He Criticises tbe Government and Their Measures. Hawera, Friday.

Major Atkinson addressed his constituents here this evening. He said it was his business to criticise the actions of" the Government, but he did not believe in harrasing a Government simply for the sake of harassing them. The Government, how ever, according to the speech of the Colonial Treasurer at Christchurch, rested thoir claims to confidence on their own merits, not on the demerits of their predecessors, and he, therefore, had to criticise acts which had been done, and measures which he understood it was proposed to present to Parliament, and to point out where the Government had failed, and where it was likely to fail. First he had to refer to federation, with respect to which subject there was now a bill before the Imperial Parliament. The people of the colony had not yet mastered this subject, nor had many members of the House, and public opinion had yet to be formed and expressed. The question was, were we to remain part of a great nation with the people of England and the Australian colonies, or did we desire to have separate existence apart from them ? He desired the former —that we should become part of a great Empire. The adoption of the Federation Enabling Bill, recommended by the Intercolonial Conference, would be a step in that direction—a small step, perhaps, but an important one. Such a confederation as that of Canada was, no doubt, impossible, but we wanted, and could have, a body which would speak the will of the Australasian colonies in matters of Australasian interest. Ho saw no practical likelihood of the Federal Council doing anything which was calculated to injure any colony. There was not sufficient divergence of interest between the colonies. At present they ran the risk of the Imperial Parliament legislating against the intorest of a colony, but that was not advanced as a reason for separating from the mother country, and there was no reason for assuming that the Federal Council would do so. A member who represented any constituency in the House of Representatives was only one of 94, but it was not assumed that the other 93 would legislate against the interest of the district he represented. There was no danger which counterbalanced the advantages of federation . He understood that the Government would not recommend the New Zealand Legislature to accept the bill unless it were provided that the action of the Federal Council should have no effect in the colony unless it had been first approved by the Legislature of the colony; but federation of that kind would be useless, and if that condition were to be insisted on, federation had better be discarded.

The Expenditure on Defence. As to defence, he was only partially informed as to the reasons the Government had for the action they had taken in proceeding with the defence of the colony, and therefore he could not say whether he approved of everything that had been done. It seemed certain a short time ago that war would take place, and therefore the Government were justified in expending public money without the authority of Parliament, but they must show Parliament that there was a necessity for such expenditure. There was no doubt that the colonies must be defended, and holding that opinion, the late Government had obtained the services of Major Cautley, and it was because of the action of the late Government that the present Government had been able at once to proceed with the defences, which were approved by Major Cautley, and by so eminent an engineer as the Governor. The Government might certainly have taken a vote last year for defence, but he was not going to blame them for that, and when the question was considered in Parliament, he should simply judge their action by that standard. "Had I been placed in such an emergency as the Government, what would I have been justified in doing ?" He was not prepared, for party purposes, to blame them for doing that which most probably he should have had to do himself. He thought the Government were wise in proceeding to carry out plans approved by Major Cautley and the Government, but whether they were justified "in spending £200,000 without the authority of Parliament, and calling out the Militia, ho should be ablo to *say when he had considered the reaeons which had induced the Government to do it. He did not believe that the colony or any colony should start a navy of its own, and if it were true that the Government had sent Home to obtain a cruiser, he entirely dissented from their action. The proper method would be for the colonies to contribute so much towards the maintenance of the Imperial navy, conditionally on their being protected by the British navy. He eulogised the action of the New South Wales Government in sending troops to aid the mother country in the recent crisis, and agreed that under the circumstances New Zealand was not called upon to do the same.

The Samoan Question. As to the Government proposal to send the Colonial Secretary to Samoa, no doubt that had been greatly ridiculed ; but if he was correctly informed, it was merely the intention of the Government to send a high official to Samoa to inquire if the people there desired annexation under Sir George Grey's Act. He did not think the action of the Government unreasonable from the Government point of view. Whether it would be advisable for New Zealand to accept the responsibility of governing Samoa was a matter he need not go into, for neithor the Imperial Government, Germany, or the United States would permit New Zealand to take possession of those islands.

Looal Government. As to looal government, no doubt good local government was the root of prosperity of the country ; but good local government was entirely dependent upon the public spirit and energy of the ratepayers of the country. Unfortunately, the tendency of the ratepayers was this : If they discovered a mud-hole, they ran to their member to stir up the Government to fill up the hole. They were constantly asking the government to do for them what they ought to do for themselves, and no local Government would be satisfactory until the ratepayers had determined to be more independent in the way of doing matters themselves. He did not say that there should be no assistance from the central authority, but the ratepayers must be gob to believe that the duty was upon them of providing the necessary funds, and not upon some outside bedy, The present Government were supported by

men who deiired~tfie restdratidnjoftKeTprp^ vi'nces, * tfoine'whb tprdvm^! clalists, and- others who had! fekeri- piurtife ttie abolition of ■ the,NPtovirices,> but^had; recanted "their faithr^The Government was * not ' only supported \ >by ' these .men, rbut ' raised hopes, in raany^ minds^'that^sach* . desires would, be gratified.- Larger 'bodies . with' extended powers was the ptoase j ,but what did they find, that ; the Government, ' having been a fow* months in^power, and having the opportunity of lookingiinto the matter, said there should be >no restoration of provincialism* , He -learnt < from Sir Julius Vogel's speech ; at Dunedin « that they were not going -« to : abolish , the Roads . Boards, out they were, going to kill them by slow degrees, that they were going to give them inducement to come into county government ; . in other words, the Road Boards were to be deprived of their advantages, and placed under disabilities, in order that the people might prefer county government. What he thus meant was that there was no trust in the ratepayers of the country. The principalon which the late Government always went was that the ratepayers in these matters must work out their own salvation. They must determine what form of local government was the better, and that it was impossible to impose any measure upon this country which would be satisfactory unless it was first worked out by the people themselves. He argued that the unit of local government must be the Road Board, and if any mistake had been made in the past, it was possible that it was made when the Counties Act was passed. What they should have done was to have relied on the Road Board system, but giving the Road Boards power to unite for certain purposes -such as for the jDvrpose of carrying on larger works in their districts; Evidently the Government were going to give local bodies greater facilities for borrowing. Well, greater facilities forborrowing meant greater facilities for taxing ourselves. The only way in which the Government could assist local bodies to borrow was by means of the Roads and Bridges Construction Act. He contended that that had worked well as far as it had gone.

Public Works. As to public works, the late Government were charged with being a great deal too slow, and the present Government were going to push things on with great ra* pidity, in order to make m the country prosperous again. Well, in respect to the Otago Central, the. people are saying that the present Government was even a little worse than the very bad Atkinson Government which had preceded them. He did not find fault with the Government, but he merely wished to point out that their promises in this, as well as in other matters, had not been fulfilled, and could not be fulfilled. Major Atkinson spoke at some length on the question of the North Island railway. Dealing with the question of the route, he considered that in the interest of the colony a mistake had been made, and intimated his intention of doing what he could to get a survey made of a line to connect Taranaki with the central line and to open communication with Auckland, As to the purchase of district railways, when those railways were made, he for one foresaw that the colony must purchase them. The Act which authorised their construction was passed to relieve the Government of pressure, and that they were not expected to pay was shown by the fact of the colony being liable for 2 per cent, interest, and the lands of the district for 5 per cent. He described vhat took place in the House last session with reference* to the question, and said he should be prepared next session to support the purchase of these railways, if the price at which they could be obtained at was the fair market value of the costof theirconstruction at the present time, but he was not prepared to give more than they were worth, nor would he be prepared to return to the ratepayers what they had to pay. As to the East and West Coast Railway Bill, it must be remembered that railway had always formed part of the Public Works schene and it seemed to him that the people in those districts had a perfect right to ask that it should be made, but on the other hand the Government were bound not to proceed with it until the colony was in a position to undertake it. He^adno objection to the Bill passed, except that he did not like to see the title to the Crown lands parted with. As a whole, the Bill was not an unsatisfactory one He" also approved, with some reservation, of what had been done in respect of the Greymouth and Westport harbours, but instead of giving a colonial guarantee as had been done, he would have proposed that the coalfields should have been made the security for the loans. He had foughtagainst the guarantee, but Sir Julius Vogel was too strong for him. Railway management had not improved under the new Government. Mr Richardson had told a deputation that ho could point out 500 faults in the present twiff. Why were they not remedied ? He had more power as a Minister than ho would have as Chairman of a non-polit/cal Board ; that was if the Victorian model were to be followed, for there the Board had no power to alter the tariff. He could not imagine how there could be such a body as a nonpolitical Board. The country would never hand over its railways to a body appointed for life, and if it were appointed for a term, say of five years, there was no doubt that members who wanted to be re-appointed would be very anxious to secure favour in political circles.

Native Affairs. As to the nativo matters, he did not think there was any fear of an ousbreak. It was possible, but improbable, and this was due mainly to Mr Bryce. Sir Julius Vogel paid Mr Ballance was the best Native Minister the colony had ever had. He hoped it would turn out to be the case, but he Confessed he saw no signs of it at present. He did not consider the Native Minister was doing satisfactorily for the country.' For instance, as to the central railway, the late Government had a requisition" from a native chief in the King Country to place the whole of that country under Eurvey. The surveys were being finished when the present Government came into office, but he understood they had now been stopped, and the only reason he knew was that it was done to encourage what were called native committees tD deal with matters of titles. He ridiculed the idea of any v good following from leaving titles to be dealt with by the native committees. It was preposterous. The natives never could settle such matters. If it was true the surveys had been stopped for this reason a fatal mistake had been committed. He also complained that the land for the railway had been taken before the titles had been ascertained. An exorbitant price would have to be paid for the land, and the colony would suffer, in fact the colony was absolutely and entirely in the hands of the natives. As to the position on the West Coast, he should be glad to see the back of the last A.C., but as far as he could make out, the natives still believed absolutely in Te Whiti.^ They were not following their usual .avocations. They were parading the country, and what it mejant he did not Know. Neith|er;:did the native mind. Te Wbeti never deviated* romthe statement

that the land was to come back, and the natives believed him, and it seemed to him the removal of the A.C. force encouraged this beliof. and was therefore a mistake. Then he came to the question of dealing with the natives, and he understood that the Government had a great bill in preparation, which was understood to have the object of creating a Maori aristocracy in this country by enabling them to lease whatever land they had more than they would require for their own uses. If that were the intention he should certainly be found opposing it. He did not believe in creating Maori landlordism in this country any more than European landlordism. As to the special settlement scheme of the Native Minister, he did not object to it, but he did not think it would be any great boon. He thought that there was danger of getting people upon too small quantities of land. However, if the scheme was shown not to possess those disadvantages, he should rely on it as one more means of inducing the peoplo to settle upon the land. He thought that they should try every experiment in convection with the Crown lands, to see what was the best way of settling them.

Delusive Finance. He objected entirely to the finance of the Government, for this reason, that it was not honest finance, but simply an endeavour to make things pleasant all round, to keep up the fictitious value of land, and to avoid taxation, though it were really necessary. The Colonial Treasurer held he was going to save £300,000 by abolishing the sinking fund, but the saving had consisted, not of ceasing to pay sinking fund, but of paying it out of loan instead of paying out of revenue. All that was secured by this operation would have been done better, though a little slower, by keeping to the inscription under the Consolidated Stocks Act, under which conversion had been proceeding for some considerable time. It had been said that it had not a detrimental effect on the credit of the colony, but he maintained that it had. It was one of those small things just within the letter of the la\v which a man might do once or twice, but be would then suddenly find his credit gone. We had undertaken to do a certain thing, but had not done it. We were said to have a surplus of £20,003 this year, but if, as formerly, this sinking fund had been paid out of revenue, the accounts would have shown a deficit of £200,000. Yet last year, in face of this, the Treasurer did not hesitate to take £150,000 taxation from the shoulders of those best able to bear it. Meantime the cost of education, which was to be reduced, had gone on increasing, and they were told that there was defence to pay for, and that the Government were seriously considering the position.

Local Industries, With regard to local industries, it must be admitted that if the colony was to be prosperous, if the land was to be occupied in small blocks, then there must be provided in some way a home market for oui produce. He referred to the difficult question of the employment of labour, pointing out that all over the colony arose the cry that industries are being worked by boys. As soon as a person had finished his apprenticeship his services were no longer required. This was a serious question, and he called attention to it, because the community as a whole must consider it. No doubt the question of f reo trade arose. He was not going to enter into that question, but he said this, that if to-morrow they were to remove the whole of the Customs duties, supposing the colony could afford to do without the revenue, one half the population would of necessity leave the coloriy. What that argument might be worth was a matter for people to consider, but it Avas as certain as possibie that if the protective duties of 15 and 25 per cent, were to be removed, it meant the closing up of the industries of the colony. That was a matter that needed consideration, and he was certain that the local industries question was one of the greatest problems that was to come up for their consideration. In conclusion, he said he had

No Confldeuce in the Present Government, but his opposition would be the opposition of fair criticism. He would never be a party to useless obstruction, but as soon as he saw that the people of the country were satisfied that 2 and 2 could not be turned into 5, he should do his utmost to eject the present Government from office. In the meantime there was nothing to fear for the colony. A a he had always said, even in the gloomiest times the colony was thoroughly sound, and he ventured to say that if the colonists went on as they had done in the past in the great work of colonising which they had undertaken, they would see the colony made really prosperous. But their would not be progress, as the Treasurer puts it, by " leaps and bounds." It would only be by the labour of our hands and the sweat of our brows. Industry and thrift must take the place of crying to Jove, and then the colonists would be convinced, as they ought to be, that their lives had been cast in pleasant places. Soveral unimportant questions were asked, and then a vote of confidence was carried, there being only two or three dissentients.