THE PREMIER AT DUNEDIN.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1415, 7 November 1885, Page 3

THE PREMIER AT DUNEDIN.

(Concluded). We hsve accomplished a great doal this year. We have got ths HOBHTAIS AND CHABITABLH INBTIIUTIONB ACT pasied. A bill the sama in form was introduced by Sir John Hall in 1879, but he was unable to get. it paissd. The Grey Go> vernment prepared a similar bill, but were unable to pass it through. Now, in one respect no doubt, our aot throws a greater burden on the loeal bodies than they have hitherto borne, but the money has to come from somewhere, and if you do not pay it direotly through looal rates, you pay it indirectly in another way. And we have done this: In all our looal government bills there has been > a steady tendency towards decentralisation ; we have put tbe whole of the districts Of the Colony on an equal footing. Previous to the Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Bill they were not. For example, while yon were getting pound for pound for the Bene TOlent Institution, some districts were getting the whole of the charitable aid paid by the Government. The Government attempted to administer the hospitals and charitable aid, but where never able to do so properly. We have put all that on the loesl bodies; we have decentralised and given all power to the looal bodies. In all the other local government bills there is the same thing. So you will see that we have carried out looal reform on the lines I laid down last year. I say that is the only way you can proceed to oarry out local government reform. Of course, one oan easily take up an ideal system of looal government. If you take up a very able little book, written by two members of Parliament and another gentleman, called " Looal Administration," you will see that this system of looal Government in England is not yet settled. I< was supposed to be the first question in 1882 that the reformed Parlisment was to take up and they have not accomplished it yet. On the contrary, the book says that " there has been created not a eytsem but chaos —a chaos of areata obaoß of eleo fcions, a ohaos of authorities, a chaos of rates, a ehros of returns. This ehaos c»nnot be accurately depicted," &o. The authors say that looal administration needs oily to be of two kinds, and they have laid down i he exact lines that I laid down wien speaking in the drillshed last year. This book was written and published this yetr. It points out what will be the system in England, but I believe that itwillaiao have to be the lystem in New Zealand. Sou will see, therefore, that with regard to the question of local government we have done a great deal. We have decentralised many things, but I do not think that we have decentralised enough yet. There are dozens of things that ought to be taken out of the hands of the General Government and oast on looal bodies. There is one thing we have got repealed, and that is the Roads and Bridges Construction Aot. What is the meaning of that Act P It contained two provisions mainly. One was that for making new roads and bridges, three-fourths of the money had to be given by the General Government, and the remaining one-fourth by the looal bodies. But the demands under that provision were becoming alarming. Do you know what amount was demanded this

year? The turns demanded actually amounted to £500,000, No colony ooulci stand that. We were paying more for roads and bridges than Colonies that hare doable our population. Then we al»o lent money to the dietriot bodies, who repaid 9 per oent. ! per year, including intereit and linking fund. Sow we have got rid of that. Id i» true that we proposed a eyetem of subsidies for 25 yean, and that the looal bodies should borrow on these subsidies We hoped by that system of local flu nje that the G neral Government finance would not be xdxei up, and that the General Government nee-i not borrow for local bodies. Some members said that this was a borrowing bill. P*rbap« it was a borrowing bill, but the Bonds and Bridges Construction Aot was also a borrowing aor. We had to go into the London market to pay off liabilities incurred under the Iliads and Bridges Construction Act. The difference in the borrowing was this: that instead of the General Government borrowing the money we left the looal

bodies to borrow it. Now, I admit that the subsidy system laid down in our bill is not much to the settled districts and too littlo to j the new dißtriots which have large works that must be performed. In that reipeot it needß alteration, and no doubt we shall attempt next year to lay down a different system. My opinion is this: That we Bhall have to give lar«e borrowing powers to the Counties and Road Boards, the same as to Municipalities. Baoh looal body ought to feel this—that it has itself to look to to oarry on its own functions. You cannot expectthat the General Government are going to borrow money and hand it over to the looal bodies to be spent just as the latter pleaße. If that is what we are to do we can never have any system of stable finanoe in this Oolony. I have a great many notes here about the various bills that were passed. From the way that some people talk you might think that the Parliament has done nothing but talk ; but I think there has been a pretty big bill-book for one session. I have not time to deal with all these measures; but let me refer to a subject which has oreated a great deal of attention throughout the oolony, and that is THB DBPBEBBION. In coming down in the train from Christohuron the other day I was, of courso, think, ing of the subjects I should speak on. t took up a paper—the Otago Daily Times—and the first thing which caught my eye was the r&oing fixtures. I found that there Fere actually 23 raoing fixtures for the rest of the year ; and this ie a country that is suffering from depression! Of these 23 fixtures I think eight were in Otago alone; at any rate there were eight in Otago and Southland. What does that mean ? I should say that at each of tkese meetings the money spent amounts to from £2OOO to £3OOO. And you have 23 fixtures amoDg a people who are suffering from depression! I admit that there is depression, and I will tell you how the depression may have arisen. Let me tell you this: If you think that the present depression is as bad as it was in 1869 you are mistaken, as I can show you from figures. During the last nine years our wool product has increased by 50 per cent. In round numbers, we had 54,000,0001b8 of wool exported from the oolony in 1875, whilst in

1884 W 8 exported 81,000,000 Iba. The atraDge thing is that the money we got for the 81,000,0001b8 of wool was actually less than what we got for the 54,000,0001ba ! Thus you see that the wool fetched 50 per cent less than it did in 1875. Of oourse, with wool bo depresied—it has reached a point than which it has never been lower—with wool gone down in prioe, with wheat down in prioe, with frozen meat down in prioe, with the yield of gold lessened, you cannot expect prosperity when we are so dependent on these staples. But don't think the depression here is eo bad as in other oountries. If you go to England, France, Germany, America, or South Australia, you will find the depression far worse than it is here. Mr Gosohen, in his speech published in one of our papers, said: " One of its oharacteristios is that it is common almost to nil the world. It is not oonfined to the

United Kingdom, snd when we look for the causes we must look for them not in those which are tpecial to ourselves, We must not think that by altering this law or that we shall be able to bring back a prosperity that we may be thinking we are losing. Look at all the other trading oountries, and you will see that that depression is universal." In a book that I have brought here, but whioh I am sorry to say I have not time to quote from, Professor Lyon Levi says that from June 1884 down to the time he writes in March 1885;the amount paid to the wageearning classes in England haß been reduced by £2. 500,000. That means that £300,000 less per month has been paid to the wageearning classes, and must mean a large amount of depression. In Franoe about a third of the woollen millo were shut up, and others were working half tima. The same thing happens in Germany, and if you go to South Australia you will find thataotually the people there are worse off than we aro here. Do tot think that we are so badly off. I have gone to the bank for returnß, and let me tell you what they are compared with what they were in 1869. In 1869 the total amount in the Savings Bank of the Colony to the oredit of depositors was only £234,311. Last month there was to the oredit of savings bank depositors in this colony £1,573,500—that is, six times more than in the year I have mentioned. Then, in whole of the other banks in the colony in 1870 there were in deposit at call and deposits at interest only £2,792.351. Now, in the last quarterly return I find that the deposits at eall and at interest amounted to £7,323,416, Now I say that for a small community of 600,000 persons, such large amounts deposited in the banks show a very satisfactory state of affairs. It must also be remembered that in addition to the amounts I have mentioned there are large deposits in other savings banks, large funds invested in building societies, in friendly societies, in life insurance societies, and therefore I do not think this can be called a very poor oommunit'. Then remember also that within the last 10 years our exports have risen from five millions co upwards of seven millions lam alio glad to say that our export of gold has increase! during the last year, and it is still increasing. Therefore I say that those who remember the hard times of 1869 ought not to be downspirited because there are hard times now. Depression moves in oycles, It may be said how is this depression to be got rid of ? I believe that our staples will soon rise in value, and that so will our pro?perity return; but I believe that we ought to provide against these depressions by having the

VILLAGE SBTTLBMBNT SYSTEM extended largely. I believe that one of the ourseo of this colony bai been that we have all been to eager too get too much land, and that if our settlers had been contented with 50 instead of 300 acres of land they and their familea would have been better off today.— (Applause). Let me take for example the large State of New Xork. There are 18,000,000 aoree of land, which are divided into farms of from 10 to 200 acres. And what is the result P They produce a seventh of the hay and butter, and onethired of the oheese produced in the United States. II is true they have a large market and a large city near them, but they have other drawbacks. They have only got six months of farming weather while we have 12 They have six months of winter, and we have not got to stall.feed our oattle as they have. With our soil and olimate why should we think there is no hope for us in the future. That was cot the way the early settlers thought of things in the blue-shirt days. They looked forward with hope, and I say that if we are worthy of our names as colonists, and worthy of the race from which we spring, we will not sit down moping and talking about the depression. But we Kill determine to get lid of the depression in every way we can. There are hundreds of industries connected even with agriculture that we have not yet half developed, such as the production of honey, fruit and all sorts of things. Why we spend hundreds of thousands of pounds imputing fruit whereas we should be exporting it. There are various ways in which we oan yet get rid of this dep-esiion if we have only hope and faith in the future. Now I will deal with the qu stion of IMMIGRATION, whioh has a bearing on this subjeot. So far as immigration is concerned, as you know, we have not encouraged the bringing in of any large number of people into this colony Bat w« have framed sew regulations, which

I hope will be of v-*lue, because thoy are of this clftBB: We propose to enoourege in every poßiibla way the bringing of the smallfarming oI&eb into this Oolony. Wo propose to help them In a nominated way, and if the Agent-General is satisfied that a farmer is possessed of £IOO in eash, and of £SO for every member of his family over 12 years of age, we will pay half their j,ajsage-money. 1 believe in that way we oan get the right stamp of immigrants. Let us consider the area of the Oolony and the few people in it, and the number of industries that may yet be started. It is wonderful to think of what we have done, but it is nothing to what we can yet accomplish CONCLUSION. Now, I need not tell you that I look upon it as oae of the highest honors that I should hold the position that I do, but I tbink of what Bulwer Lytton said: "It requires several years to harden us to the abuses and ingratitude, the wilful misrepresentation, and the gnawing we endure from our contemporaries and our rivals."—(Applause.) Had it not been that all through this politieil struggle which has been going on in Wellington I have had from the eleotors of Dunedin Bust the kindliest letters; had I not believed that I had your support, I would not have held my present position for an hour. Igo further and say this: "Of course the time will oome when I, as a Minister, will have to retire. Ido not think my Government should live too long, but I hope that when that time does come, at all events you, electors of Dunedin East, and those in Dunedin who have known me from the very earliest years, will see that I have honestly striven to do my duty to the Colony and you.