PARLIAMENT OUT OF SESSION.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 3455, 24 October 1885, Page 3

PARLIAMENT OUT OF SESSION.

THE PREMIER AT DUNEDIN. (By Tkleojiaph.) Dr/WBDiw, Oct. 23. The Hon. Mr Stout addressed tho electors of Dunedin ICuist m tho old Knox Church this ovening. Tho building was filled, and His Worship the Mayor (MrScoullar) presided. The Hon. W. H. Reynolds and Messrs Scobie Mackenzie, M.H.R., and J. Hradshaw, M.H.R., occupied seats on the platform. The Mnyor, m introducing Mr Stout, remarked that ho was the first Otago representative who had occupied the position of Premier. The peoplo of Otago had always occupied a position m the front rank of trado and commerce, but m politics their members had never hitherto taken a foronioßt position. Tho Hon. Mr Stout, who was cordially received, said ho had tnken tho first opportunity ho had of meeting his constituents. lie hud had some difficulty m determining what subjects he should deal with, as it would bo impossible m ono speech to dcul with the past session and the future intentions of the Government. Ho had therefore determined to deal with the lost session, and then to briefly refer to the futnro intentions of the Government. He reserved for another occasion what he conceived should bo tho policy of any Ministry who had tho confidence of the peoplo of jNew Zealand. He referred to tho chaos and confusion that existed m Wellington before tho present Government took office, early m tho 1881 session. A coalition Government had neccsfarily to bo formed, and a majority of the House determined that the coalition should be formed from tho then Opposition. 11 0 admitted that member* of the Cabinet wore not all agreed iv political feelings or political principioi, but thoy had shown ouflicient unison to prove that thoy wero able to

carry on the government'of thia colony with effect. (Cheers.) He next referred briefly | to the odium cast on the Colonial Treasurer, Biid Baid that certain members of the Opposition who now objected tOsthat lion, gentleman, last year objeoted to' him taking m with him Mr Ballance and the speaker. It appeared to him that with those membera party ties and political principles were_ of littld consequence so long as they were m the cool shades of opposition, and that the^ country could never get along till they were called op to sdJminister its afFaira. (Laughter and applause.) His Government had done what no other Ministry- had dared to do hitherto. . They had boldly come down at the inception of the session with the whole of their policy measures without waiting, m political phraseology, to see " how the cat jumped." Ho now confessed that m the programme they had sketched out, the Government had attempted too much seeing that Parliament was only to be m session three months. The question of taxation had to be dealt with, and they recognised that additional taxation was necessary. Borrowing was being continued and every additional million borrowed meant £40,0 O a year additional taialion because where the money was for reproductive works a timo must elapse before that work could return any interest. Then another thing — the number of children m the colony is continuslly increasing, and that increase meant an additional cost of £4 per head for every child that went into our schools. The educational voto was yearly increasing as our population increased, and as the population increased the demands on tho Government increased. Demands wore being continually made for post-offices, telephone stations and the hundred and one other things that the Government were supposed to look after, and this meant simply an additional expenditure of public money. Then as the industries of the colonies increased, tho imports necessarily decreased. The use of intoxicating liquors had been decreasing — (applause) — and of course as their use diminished there was a loss m theCustoms revenue, and that loss had to be met iv some way. But there wero some people who said [ that while tho Customs revenue had been steadily increasing the Customs taxation had been increasing. In one respect that was true, but m another it was incorrect. Tho Customs revenue had increased, but the amount per head that tho people were called on to pay hnd not increased. In 1870 it was £2 13s 7<3, while now it was £2 Ps 6d per head, a decrease of 7s Id. How did the Government propose to increaso the taxation ? — by distributing the taxation equally all round. Be said that the additional taxation of twopence per pound on tea had been opposed by some members on the ground of sentiment merely j he was not afraid of any vote he gave, and he held that tho toa duty was not an unfair tax. It was a legitimate tax, and would not harm any person m the colony. Any Ministry dealing with the tariff had to look at the fact that there had arisen a number of industries, and any Ministry that neglected [ that neglected its duty. (Cheers.) Industries must be fostered and not injured, and it wa3 on thoße lines thnt the Government had framed their Customs tariff, and any Ministry who had to deal with tho tariff m future would take tho same view of it. Now ho wished to follow the causes which led to the loss of the tariff proposals. There wero some members m the House who called themselves freetraders — he believer! they were m a minority. There were some who called themselves freetraders, but they were not consistent freetraders. The leader of tho Opposition was a declared protectionist, and many of Opposition who followed his lead were declared protectionists, but there wero two or three Oppositionists who were declared freetraders, like Colonel Trimble. A few members from each side of the House had met ! together, and called themselves a great freotrade caucus. How did they act ? They came to the Government and asset! if Government wero willing to modify their tariff. They considered the request and he agreed to modify it m some respects, but the freetraders among the Opposition pnrtr would have no modification. This was < seen m the House. For the solo purpose of ' injuring and defeating the Government, those I who were avowed protectionists, had voted j against the tariff. This was not a new trick. I The leader of the Opposition had played it m l£7B. Tho ffrey Government "introduced certain tasation proposals, and one of these was tho beer duty. The leader of the Opposition objected to this tax very strenuously, though had he remained m office m 1877 ho would have proposed tho very same tax himself. (Laughter and applau'e.) He (Mr Stout) ventured to affirm that if the Government were defeated next, year and went out, the succeeding Government would have to introduce an amended Customs tariff, and it would bo on ' the lines of tho ono they voted against last session. As to the depression grain had gone down, wool had gone down, and tho frozen meat industry had not come up to expectations, and this colony had suffered as all the rest of the world had suffered, and m those districts where there had only been two or three industries the depression had been intensified Reference wna next made to tho Land Bill and tho Native Land Bill. The Land Bill dealt with individual rights as well as with general interests. He recognised that tho land was the property of tho State, and he further recognised this, that the land should only be parted with by the State to encourage tho production of things necessary for humanity. Hitherto the farmer had been crippled by mortgaging, but there could be no mortgaging under this system of tenuro. Then tho perpetual leasehold had secured a stable finance. They had elaborated a village settlement scheme ; up to fifty acres of land could be granted under this perpetual system. Those who had enquired as to what he had done with reference to the nationalisation of the land need only look at the Land Bill. It had given the country the perpetual lease system to a far greater extent than he ever expected, but the measure gave more than that— it gave tho Government power to set aside pastoral lamls unfitted for agriculture for small gracing runs. Ho regretted the excision of the McKenzie clause, which limited tho holding of any one run to 20,000 sheep. So far as the Land Act went, ho held that no more liberal law bad ever been passed by any Legislature m the world, and his election promises with regard to the land system ho had been able to carry out. Lot him say this : The country was indebted, the House was indebted, nnd the country was indobted to Mr Rolleoton for the great assistance he had given m carrying this measure. (Applause.) Ihat gentleman took no end of trouble to get tho Bill pasted, apart from ' party lines, and he felb suro that when the history of this land legislation c»mo to be written tho historian would not forgot the important part, the good part, that Mr Rollcston had played m tho House of Representatives. Tho homestead system had also been introduced. Ho confessed ho did not think so much of this homestead system as some people did. It might cnablo people to pioncor settlement m outlying districts, but ho did not think it would succeed where there was settlement close by. Coming to tho Nativo Land Bill, ho defended Mr Ballance's " one policeman " policy, and said tho natives recognised that they wero being treated righteously, and had eomo to lovo tho Europeans. Tho son of Te Whiti had been Been coming into Court seeking for justice. Tlmt could never have happened before Notwithstanding tho defence scare, notwithstanding the creation of tho Jpermanont artillery force, Government had been able to reduce the Armed Oonstubulary from 850 to 400 men, and thoy hoped to bo able to still further reduco thorn, (iloar.^ The tribes and haput which had hitherto been discontented wore now looking on us with a favorable cyo. Tho reason that Government had been unablo to pass their Native Land Disposition Bill was' because this poople m tho South Island had not taken time to consider what the nativo land question moan», and the consequence was that instead of a liberal settlement of the lands, they had passed into tho hands of landsharks living m tho North Island. Tho Bill provided m tho first instance for the title to the lands being ascertained, nnd thon for tho lands boing sold openly that tho wholo public of Now Zealand bo put on an equal footing, and nativo lands not allowed to go into the hands of land rings. The Native Land Bill bad been thelved, but Govern- j

i ment intended to try again to get it passed, and he hoped that all those who wished to see justice done to the Maoris and Europeans wjuld support (hem, and no longer look upon the matter us a North Island question, but as a colonial question. As to the Public Works policy, ho had been opposed to it m that it allowed considerable moneys to be spent on roads and bridges instead of on railways which would have been reproductive. Of tho £21,830,324 which had been spent under the Public Works system tho Continuous Ministry had spent eleven millions, the Grey Ministry during its two years of office threo millions, and the Atkinson Ministry had spent during its five years of office seven millions, whilo the present Ministry had spent m seven months £655,510. Tho Atkinson Government, for the five months they hud held office during 1884-5, had spent £781,217, or £126,000 more than the present Government had spent m seven months. So much for the extravagance of which they had heard. And now he meant to deal with tho East and West Coast Railway. Somo peoplo seemed to imagine that this line had been heard of m tho House for the first time this session. Why the Nelson Cobden railway was proposod to be made m 1868, before the Public Works policy was initiated. As tho work had to be constructed as a colonial undertaking, bethought it would be cheaper for the colony to construct it under somo guarantee svetem, a3 had bepn proposed. The colony would m timo have to make this line, and not, so far as the colony was concerned, under such favorable terms. (Hear.) He believed that tho line woidd pay 1 per cent. The Government had merely asked tho House to appoint a Committee to consider tho principle, and the House hadacted most ungenerously m declin ing to do so. Why, there was no man, no matter how humble a citizen, who petitioned Parliament but was granted an enquiry at onco. Waß it fair to deny the people of Canterbury and Nelson an inquiry ? (" No" and cheers.) Those representatives from Otago who by their action m this matter had stopped that union between Canterbury and Otago which so many wished to see would live to regret it, and he was glad to Biiy that ho was not ono. So far as Captain Russell's motion went it would not affect the district of Otago so much ns it would affect Auckland and Wellington, and tho adoption of that motion might mean tho raising of tho North Island Trunk loan for renewal purposes. Unfortunately whilo largo reductions had been made m the railways voto, the roads and bridges vote had passed almost intact. The District Kuilways Purchasing Bill was next alluded to, and the purchases made under its provisions defe>dcu. A pledge he had made was that he would see that as much iron work should be manufactured iv the colony as possible, and this pledge had been carried out. (Hear.) Personally, he believed m a land tax, but a majority J of the members of the House did not agree with him. As tho nearest approach thereto his Government proposed the exemption from taxation of agricultural machinery, but m that Tospect they had been unable to get the Assembly to agree with them. They had, however, passed laws giving encouragoment to the fish and forests industries, and to tho mining industry. Tho question of cheap money was also dealt with, and they proposed m that respect a Mortgage Debentures Bill, which would enable companies to borrow money m England, and they thought the moro money they got the cheaper it would become. As to education, if the syllabus he proposed were carried out, children would be trained not to look to a clerkship as the highest thing m life, but to look to scieutifio pursuits. He regretted that more had not been done with respect to the South Sea Islands. Something had been done m the wayof local government. Parliament had passed the Hospitals and Charitable Aid Bill, tho Cemeteries Bill, tho Counties Bill, aud tho Local Finance Bill, and the adoption of these measures meant the carrying out of local reform and decentralising. Then the obnoxious Roads and Bridges Construction Act had been repealed. He wished to refer to a subject which had caused a great deal of attention m the country — the Bubjeot of depression. In a newspaper the other day he noticed that there wero yet twentythree racing fixtures to be held this season, and this was m a country of depression. He would undertake to say that not one of these meetings spent less than £2000 or £3000, and if tho depression could rid the colony of these racing fixtures it would be a good thing. (Laughter.) no admitted that there was a depression, and would state how it had arisen, but if the peoplo thought that tho depression was now as bad as it. was m 1809, they were mistaken. During the lust nine years our wool production had increased by 50 per cent m round numbers. In 1875 wo exported 5-1- 000,000 pounds of wool, as against 81,000,000 pounds m 188-1, yet the money obtained m 1881 was less than the amount obtained for the much smaller quantity m 1875. That was to cay, tho wool fetched 50 per cent less last year than it did m 1875, and while wool had gone down wheat had gone down, frozen meat had gone down, — and with a falling off m tho price of all our staple products, it was not surprising that the depression hud deepened. But tho depression hero was not as bad as m other countries. Thoso who remembered Ihe hard times m 186!) ought not to bo depressed because there were hard times now. Depressions morod m cycles, and what they had to consider was how tho depression was to be got rid of. Ho beliisved that our staples would rise m value, and that tho creation of the village system would provide against future depressions. In the past one of tho curses of this colony had been tho anxiety of farmers to got largo settlements of land. The speakor briefly deult with immigration, and referred to the oritics of tho Government. With respect to the luttcr he denied that there had been any criticism of their administration. Jhcre might havo been peraonul dislikes to individual mombers of the Ministry, and objections might have been urged to their measures, but so far as their administration was concerned it had been subjected to less criticism than any othor Government had had to submit to. Ho touched briefly on the conversion of losn scheme. In doing so, ho gave every credit to Hir Dillon Hell for his able management of the Agent-Generalship. At the conclusion of his speech Mr Stout was warmly cheered. A few questions wero asked, and then a vote of thanks was carried.