GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

Timaru Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 1236, 5 September 1878, Page 2

GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

[By Teleobaph.l LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. Wellington, Sept. 4. JUBIE3 ACT. The Legislative Council last night introduced a clause m the Juries Act, abolishing the exemptions of Militia officers from servico on special juries, and also a clause exempting Bank Managers from servico. MOTION. Iv the Council to-day, the Hon. Mr Menzies moved for correspondence, cto., m connection with the Otogo High School, and it was agreed to. BILL PASSED. Tho Jurers Act Amendment Bill ■was read a third time and passed. QUESTIONS. In reply to Sir F. D. Bell, tbe Colonial Secretary stated that most likely the despatch from the Governor had been overlooked m the hurry on his Excellency's departure. SECOND HEADINGS. The Wellington City Reserves Bill was read a second time. COMMITTEE. The Council then went into Committee, when the Rabbit Bill, Dangerous Goods Bill, and the Civil Service Bill were considered. The Bret two were reported with amendments, and the third reading fixed for Wednesday next. The Civil Service Bill was reported without amendment, read a third time, and passed. The Committee then" proceeded with the unoppesod clauses of the Harbor Bill.

The 95th clause had been reached at the i idjournroent. at. 5 p.m. v The Council then udjourned to Wednesday, j the 11th inst. t ♦ I Well'noto^, Sept. 3. a HOUSE OF REPKESENTAUVEd. ii The House resumed »t 7.30 p.m. I LAND TAX BILL. C Mr Thomson, continuing his speech, said t he thought that the beer tax wuuld yield a much larger sum than that put down by Ihe Treasurer. He would suggest to tho Treasurer the advsabiliiy of adopt ing the registering machine m general u°o m the American t ritutes, which was an excellent, check upon S barmen, and the quantity of bier or liquor f sol:], and if they charged, as m the United 1 States, the Treasurer misjht easily raise a c revenue of £100,000 annually. Coming back f lo the land tax, lie pointed out that many ! dUtricis not only would not benefit by the I land tax, but were st-riously injured by those ) works. A fair thing to do would be to lay ] the colony out into railway districts, und lei; every district maintain the railway passing through it by making up nny defluiency m its working. Ho would support the secomi ieiding, but would endeavor to make amendments m Committee. Major Atkinson 'proposed to examine the Financial and Public Works Statements, but would first say a few words on the public accounts of the colony. Last year tl\e Premier nnd his supporters continually made charges regarding public accounts, as if there had been gross corruption m keeping them ; and though refuted ut tho time by dint of reiteration a feeling got abroad that eomething very wrong hud been going on, and it hid been eaid that when tlin present Government ma-tered all tin.- drt.iils they would discover what would prevent any of the late Ministry tver laking offioe again. What had happened since ? Why, the present Treasurer accepted all the figures and statements rogarding a surplus and loans that had beenßOt down by hU predecessors. The Premier last year, when accepting the statements of tho provious Governments, said he disapproved of them, and intended to greatly reduce them, and ho could easily save £100,000 easily. Tho lion, gentlemen then quoted from the estimates to show that no absoluto Baying had been tifected as had been promised by the Premier Inst year. Taking the figures of the present Treasurer, he found that instead of saving £100,000, I here had been an excess of expenditure »f £7000, and 'this year they asked for £15,000 more than had been asked for by the previous Government. Admitting that tho present Government wore animated by every desire to economise m departmental expenditure, what a testimony it was to the care of the lute Government that the present onespent£7ooo more than they askod, and this year intended to increase it by another £15.000. Ho wou"'d point out, that, a sum of £73,000 of a balance of tho loan was carried to the public revenue. There was nothing that Sir George Grey denouni-cd so much as carrying from loans to ordinary revenue. Ho dM not object to this, nnd onty pointed it out to show that the late Government were not bo wicked as they were made out to be, He congratulated the Govern aiont on the successful floating of the loan, but the whole credit of it was duo to Sir Julius Yogel. He held that the Govern cnont had not acted rightly m sending Mr Larnach home, i'bere was no excuse for it especially after the outry made when Sir Julius Yogel went Home. Referring to the Inscription of Stock Act which Sir George Grey described as the most impudent proposal ever madein a Legislature, yet he said t hat Sir George Grey arternard:> brought do.'n the same Bill, word lor word, and now it was the very foundation of the Government finance. Every bit of the credit respecting that Act was due to Sir Julius Vugel, and when tho colony had got rid of the glamour thrown over -it by the Premier it would resent the treatment of Sir Juliuß Vogol more than anything else done by the Premier. He considered the estimated |ti. penditura reasonable, but the Treasurer was over-sanguino regarding the Customs revenue. Coming to the proposals of the Government, last year they were told that the financial policy of the Government would be based on a property and income tax. He also referred to the land tax as a part of iho scheme, and an indispensable featuro of tbe latter tux was that no exceptions of any kind were to be made as to the figment called "unearned increment." He then proceeded to show it did not touch unearned increment at all, by iustancing how the tax woold operate on land differently situated. The tar, he considered, was merely a tax upon capital invested m land. Their great object was to get land settled upon, and anything but doing that must retard settlement. 'Jake the hills round Nelson und Marlhorough.and North Auckland, and cay whether it was fair to tax these people the same as the iiulders of land on the Canterbury plains. It would breik down m t".e process of valuation. He did not know whether he would vote for the Bill. He certainly would not vote for tho amendment. He entirely dirapproved of a stock tux, as being partial m its operation, and like the land tax was a tax on industry. Ha strongly objected to tho beer tax because it was the beginning of excise duties, and ub to thinking that they could get forty thousand from the tax by an expenditure m tho cost of collection of £5000, was a delusion. He disapproved of the scheme entirely that was embodied m the three Government Bills, inasmuch as it utterly failed to carry out the promises of the Premier. It allowed all those who lent money on mortgage through their lawyers to go free. What the Government ought to do to avoid this would be to bring m a general prope.ty tax, and he hoped the House would compel the Government to withdraw these sham measures, which were quite unworkable, and bring down a property tax. As to the tariff, lust year the Premier Buid the duty on tea, sugar, and coffee could be shuck off instantly. The Premier was m opposition then, but he held that the reductions made were not wise, and ought not to be made, because, although tho Tresurer estimated a revenue not likely to be realised, lie could only show a surplus of some £50 000, and that before the supplementary estimates passed, and e3peciu:ly when they had to m«ke provision for a further loan. The tax was not felt by anybody, and should not be reduced under the circumstances of the co'ony. If the principles of free trade impelled them to the removal of. the grain duty, then timber should be dealt with m tho same way. A sinjjulur feature of the tariff was that not a single article on which the customs were cheated was toui-hed. They did not perhaps increa?e the tax on working men's boots, but they did on women's and children 1 !?, which was more important. It was cleur the Bills before them bud never recoived proper consideration or been thought out. Of courso it could not be expected when so much stumping was gohig on. As to tho Public Works Statomeut) the country would think much of it, when it was properly examined. Ho utterly refused to believe m the Minister for Publio Works' idea of constructing his railways out of a surplus. It could not be done. Before they started their lines, they should have their surplus ready. Their only way was to construct their railways out of the loans. Another bad feature was that the outlying districts were to be taxed, but notbeßefittedin anyway. They werequite overlooked, because their voting power was weak. They were inadequately represented m tho Home. Then m reference to immigration, the very keystone ot their policy, not a word was said that was not a- serious mistake. Then there was no provision for road districts; (hey were to have no power to borrow or rate themselves, and yet they were expected to make their own roads. Another thing he could not help believing was that the Premier and the Minister for Publio Works contemplated either the restoration of Provincialism, or Separation. The accusation had never been definitely denied by any member of the Ministry. If the Minister for { Works or the Attorney- General would assure I him they abandoned any suoh idea, he would 1

be satisfied. H» deprecated the way the Governuient pounced upon the lund fund m ihe I Patea district. He had no proposal to make 1 to the House except m general te rms thnt the 1 House ouiht to insist upon the imposition of I an income tax, even though it was not brought t into force before the end of the next year, i If the Government did nnt keep open the ] country roads they would fail m their duty to t the country. The debate it continuing. . t LAND TAX BILL ] After 10 o'clock last night the debute on , the Land Tax Bill was continued by Mr , Stout m a eppeeh of considerable length. Ho ( said tho present Government were iiccused hy ( h<m. members of having some sinister desire , of bringing about the separation of the colony, anu the reason given for this was that some members of the Government were separa- ' lioniMa. Wa9 the Government which ippointed a special minister for the Middle Island fome years ago accused of being m favor of Separation ? If the present Government hud inn.de any such appointment, as this thero might hare been come foundation for iri:iki"g the cliarsje aguinst them, but because the Government had reduced the expenditureand Government was rid of aDepartmentthiit was us-1e33 they were accused of having a sini-ter defign to separate the colony. He w.-ul I tell th>) Hou«e why the cry of Separation had been raised. The lion, member for New Plymouth was afraid to com« down with h vote of no confidence, and h« told the House there was some sinister design on the parb of the Governmunt. If the hon. member was desirous of keeping them away from Separution, he would at once ce»Be crying out "Separation." He was not a little surprised to hear so much said about tho Agent General by tho hon. member opposite. There was at one tinw no bitterer opponent of the Agent-General than tbe member for New Pljmouth, but thut hon. member had been a convert to Sir Julius. Replying to tho remark ol Major Atkinson m calling tho " unearned increment" a figment, he quoted from Professor Cairns, Mill, und others, to show that there wob an " unearned increment" which ought to *be tuxeJ. Capital invested m land was not m thf> same position as capital m yes! Ed m personal property. Lind should be taxed because of tho benefit it derived from etpe iditure. In no country had land been bo well treated as m New ZeaWnd. The land lax proposed by the Government was far preferable to a tux on personal property, because of tbe tendency of the power not to burst up estates, but to prevent the aggregation of large 0.-tates There were some hon. members who proposed a tax on al 1 property, and an income tax was also proposed. An income tax h;\d always proved to be a failure. What, was to be done with tbose who hhd large blocks of land from which they derived no income ? If there was to bo un income tax and property tax, then per 6ons deriving an income from property would have to pay double taxation. He denied the result would be to change the incidencß of taxation for the'woree instead of better. He defended the beer tax as a fair one. The Government admitted tho Customs tariff could not be revised m ono session. If fault was found with the Government it was because they wore attempting too much. Let their measures be considered on their merits, for he felt sure that when they went to the country the members of the present Government would get credit for bringing forward suoh measures of reform as were at present proposed. They knew some of their measures would be dista«te[ul lo great nnmbers, but that diil not deier them from the performance of what they conridered to be their duty. The Government had made up their minds on these measures, and they would stand or fall by them. The Houso adjourned at 1.25 a.m.