MR SEDDON IN MELBOURNE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 3095, 27 February 1897, Page 2

MR SEDDON IN MELBOURNE.

On February 16 the Hon. JR. J. Seddou was entertained at dinner at Melbourne by the members of the Labor Party, the Trades Hall Council, and the Eight Hours Anniversary Committee. Mr Trenwith, M.L.A., occupied the chair. Mr Seddon, who was very warmly received on rising to respond to the toast of his health, Baid that one very important result of the legislation which had been oarriod out during the six yeais the Government of which he was now head bad been in power had been a surplus of revenue over expenditure eveiy year, varying from £50,000 to £500,000 per annum. The figures of the Financial Statement which he would have to lay before Parliament on his return to the colony had been submitted to him before he left New Zealand, and he was able to state that there would this year be increases in the revenue as compared with the previous year of £IOO,OOO from railways, £IOO,OOO from Customs, £IOO,OOO from the Poßt Office and Telegraph Department, and £50,000 from the operation of the land tax. These statements went to show that what had been called experimental legislation had benefited not only the laboring claises but also the commercial and every other cles3 in the community. Following iu the footsteps of his late lamented chief, Mr Ballanoe, he considered it his first duty to look after the interests of the working classes, for in their prosperity the progress of the whole of the rest of the community was bound up. He would particularly urge the colonies of Australia to adopt similar measures to those which had been put in force iu New Zealand for the exclusion of pauper labor. He could not see upon what principle the colonies should be expected to allow themselves to be made the dumping ground for the pauper labor of other lands. Paupers should be made a charge upon the people of those countries where they became paupers, far those countries had received the benefit of their labor while they were able or willing to work. A deteriortion of the health of the population must accrue if persons suffering from chest complaints, for instance, were to be admitted without any check. They might get benefit from the milder climate, and a partial recovery would take place, which would enable them ta marry aud hand down their weakened constitutions to their offspring. The legislation which dealt with such persons was not experimental, for there was a law in operation in Great Britain which compelled the captain of a ship who landed a passenger not fit to labor to give a guarantoe that that person would not become a charge upon the people of Great Britain, The compulsory conciliation and arbitration measure which was in force in New Zealand had prevented at least four Btrikea from taking place which would have involved a loss of £1,000,000 to the community. That Act simply extended the principle which all the colonies believed in when applied to commercial disputes, namely, that they should be referred to the Supreme Court. It extended that priuciple to disputes between capital and labor, and its operation had been most successful. He would urge the Labor Party to ally itself with the advanced Liberal Party in every community for the purpose of carrying measures in which it concurred. It had been owing to such an alliance that advanced legislation had been passed in New Zealand. The party should not demand all it wanted at once, but should take what it could get from any party in power—their motto, in fact, should be measures, not men. It had given him great pleasure to be present, and he thanked them heartily for the compliment they had paid him, and for the opportunity afforded of enunoiating his views.