Parliament Out of Session.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5296, 28 April 1885, Page 4

Parliament Out of Session.

MR W. F. PEARSON AT EAST OXFORD. Mr W. F. Pearaon, M.H.R. for Ashley, addressed a meeting of his constituents at the Town Hall, Eaßt Oxford, laat night. There waa a fairly good attendance. Mr E. H. Parish was voted to the chair, and briefly introduced the speaker, remarking that he wished the people of Oxford would take more interest in politics, so that they inighi have a better chance of getting the grievances which they complained of redressed. Mr Pearson, who was r reived with applause, Baid that at tin- .•resent time wars and rumours of wars loaded to draw the attention of the public from questions of home policy, lie did not think that people should allow their attention to be altogether drawn away from their own affairs by such matters, for often Governments took advantage of times of war excitement to carry measures which would not otherwise be paused. DEFENCE. He thought that the energetic action of the Government in placing the ports of the Colony in a state of' defence should meet with the approval of all members of Parliament. It would at all events meet with his, for ho considered that it was greatly to the credit of the Government that they .had approached the question of defence in ho stilt' imanlike a spirit, and had placed the Culony in a position to defend itself against any hostile cruiser. The ladiea of Oxford, he believed, had expressed alarm lest their sons and broth- •■:.•* should be called out in the militi". to face the Eussianß, and he would lii-v to reassure them by saying that he did :iot think an Oxford contingent would bi: required to fight, as there was not much probability that the Russians would attempt to land on our shores ; the most they would do would bo to send cruisers to attack the ports. THE LAST SESSION! Before reviewing his action during the last session of Parliament, he wished to recall to the recollection of his hearers tho fact that he had been returned as a perfectly independent member. He wished thin to be clearly understood, as it would have an important bearing on some of the statements he was atiout to make. At the time of the last general election political matters were in such a chaotic state that it was bimply impossible for any candidate to pledge himself to any party. When the newly elected members went to Wellington the Atkinson Government, finding that they had not a majority in the Houso of representatives, resigned. Mr Stout then forinod a Ministry, which, to the surprise of their supporters, of whom he was one, was turned out by a large majority. Tho Atkinson-Wakefield-Govern-ment followed, and existed for thirty-six hours. During the period of confusion which tl.en ensued, ho v>r ie of the Canterbury members who tn> > bring about .a coalition between Sir Ji.. 13 Yogel and Mojor Atkinson. This had been , almost arranged, when, at a caucus, Mr John j Holmos drow the attention of the Vogelite x embera to the fact that before joining Maj :>r itkinson they would have to consult Sir JiiliuH Yogel. This w:.3done. Sir Julius Yogel •expivEseil himself opposed to the proposal, and, therefore, it was main' • owing to the autir'n of Mr Holmes thnt Ui.j present Govov ■1 1 Hint wen 1 in power. M•• Holmes prevuilel the coalition from boing brought About, and he (Mr Pearson) was glad that ho had dono so. for there was now a practical, liberal Government at the head of affairs, a Governm it, which, he believed, had tho canfidencL of. the-. Co Lilly, and ho wns certain, hn.fi that of Canterbury. l>foro referring to the policy of tho Government, he would like t > make a few remarks about its .personnel. Of Sir Julius Yogel lfttle need be said, except that he was looked upon as tho cleverest and uio.st brilliant politician in New Zealand at tlic

present time. Sir Julius had two very able colleagues in Messrs Stout and Ballance. Some people took exception to the peculiar opinions of Mr Stout, but he was a man of brond and liberal views, and earnestly desirous of bringing in legislation which would be for the good of the people of New Zealand. Mr Ballance, as Native Minister, was a worthy successor of Mr Bryce, and seemed to have removed that feeling of distrust with which the Maoris had hitherto regarded Europeans. As Minister of Lands, his po!iey, which did not differ very greatly from that of Mr Eolleston, was a liberal one. He did not think siny jvrouter proof could be given of that than Mr Ballance's desire to establish village settlements where workmen could find a home, which they could improve when not otherwise employed. The first question of policy brought down by the Government was in their financial statement, oue of the chief points of which was the provision for raising a loan of one and a-half millions, which had been rendered necessary by the fact that a portion of Major Atkinson's three million loan had been spent in works other than those for which the loan had been raised. For instance, the amount allocated for the Hurunui- Bluff line, had been spent in the maintenance of the line from Christchurch to the Waikari. The Atkinson Government was not to be blamed for this, as the expenditure was absolutely necessary. The new loan had not yet been raised, all that the present Government had done being to float the third million of the loan of 1882. Sir Julius VogeFa bold step of abolishing the Sinking Fund had saved the Colony J>244,000 a year, and had enabled the Property tax to be reduced by one-half. There had been some measures of the Government which he could not support, and among them the District Eailways Purchase and Leasing Bill. These railways had been constructed by private Companies in various parts of the Colony, and owing to some defect in the legislation relating thereto, the Companies had considerable difficulty in floating their debentures, and the promoters strongly desired the Government to take the lines over. The Government accordingly proposed to take over the whole of these lines at their cost price. This was not a fair proposal. There was one line — the Ashburton Forks — which was paying 3J per cent, and might very well be taken over at cost price, but others like the Duntroon and the Waimate lines had been simply made by landowners to improve the value* of their lands, and when that had been accomplished, and tho lines were not paying, the Colony was asked to take them over. One of the great arguments in favour of the proposal was that it would relieve the ratepayers, who were liable to pay the rates imposed by the companies. How absurd this argument was, was proved by the fact that the ratepayers were, in most eases, the very landowners whose property had been increased in value by the lines. The rates imposed but not paid, in regard to the Waimea railway were divided as follows : — New Zealand Agricultural Company, J53003 ; one landowner, £325 ; another. .£132 ; 200 ratepayers from £1 to 3s 4d each. It was to the credit of the Upper House that they rejected the Bill, though there was a strong party in the Lower House interested in these railways. One of the principal Bills introduced during the session was that to enable a syndicate to construct the East and West Coast Railway. He was not quite certain that a syndicate would be able to raise tho money jußtnow, especially considering the present warlike fueling at Home. If not, it would be one of the first duties of the Government to provide for the construction of the line themselves. (Applause.) He would prefer the Government t<> make it, because he considered it was a bad thing to allow a company to get such a large monopoly of land as this company would get, though he was prepared to admit that, in the present instance, the end justified the means. There was certainly not much hind on this sid<) of the ranges, but, as Captain Eu9sell, one of the West Coast Eailway Commission had told him, around Lake Brunner there was bush land valuable enough to pay for the cost of the line. He (Mr Pearson) had deemed it his duty to bring under the notice of the promoters the fact that there was a very good route on this side of the Waimakariri, but having done this much, he thought the question 6f the route should be left to the engineers, and that no political influences should be allowed to interfere with it. (Hear, hear.) THE SOrTlt SEA ISLAND TRADE. He had always felt that it waa a great mistake that the Colony did not take up the question of securing the trade of the South Sea Islands when it was introduced by Sir Julius Yogel thirteen or fourteen years ago. This trade would not only benefit Auckland, but the whole Colony, for even now the products of Canterbury were shipped to the islands through the hands of Auckland merchants. When living in Auckland he saw that a tremendous trade was being done with these islands. He had supported Sir Julius Vogel's Bill dealing with the subject last session. It was, however, too late now, for New Zealand had been forestalled by Germany and Sydney, though still a share of the trade might be secured. WEST COAST .HARBOURS. The bold policy of the Government in regard to the Weßt Coast harbours had rather gtartled some persons, but he thought that most people would agree that the opening of those harbours, and of the vast coalfields of the Coast would be a very good thing for the Colony. People here had been sending .£200,000 a year to Australia for coal, when they had better coal in their own country, but the day was not far distant when, through the opening of these harbours, New Zealand would bum nothing but her own coal. LOCAL INDUSTRIES. In these time 3 of depression people were beginning to turn their attention to the opening up of new industries, so as to keep within the country the money now sent out of it. The depression did good in one way ; it caused people to think and try to find new channels of industry. He thought that the present Government were earnestly endeavouring to develope and promote local manufactures. He would refer to one item only, that of cement, to show the saving that might be effected. Hundreds of thousauds of pounds were sent away annually for cement, and yet there was no reason, &o far as he could see, why it should not be made in the Colony. He was glad to see that an attempt was being made to manufacture it with material from Oxford. Although a free-trader, he thought that, in a young country like this, it was the duty of the Government to foster local manufactures, and he would support any measure brought down for that purpose. (Applause.) LOCAL GOVERNMENT. Government had not given much indication of their proposals for the future. One of the principal was that dealing with local government. His experience in connection with public bodies had made him of the opinion that there was now plenty of machinery in New Zealand for local government. What was wanted was the lubricating oil, the money. This want, however, was more felt in other parts of the Colony than in Canterbury, where the bodies had had the benefit of a large land fund. So fay as, he understood, the Government proposed to place larger duties in the hands of local bodies, more especially in the way of management of hospitals and charitable aid, and the supervision of the police. He did not see much objection to the first two being locally managed, but he did not think that tho efficiency of tho police would be incnviHcd by local management. He rememberi;<! fchat in the old days, when the police force V/as managed by the various Provincial authorities, its expense was far greater than at present, while it was not, •'l3 a whole, nearly so efficient. It was rumoured, that the Government intended to return to something like the old system of subsidising local bodies. He | hripKl this wns not true, for it would not )■(} a success. If £ for £ were paid on the money raised in the various districts, tl\i; rich ones, which had their roads and bridges finished, would receive more than the thinly settled onea, where new 1 roads and bridges were needed for opening up the- country, and where, consequently, , a ij-iat-^r expenditure wag necessary. The

subject of local governinont altogether was one which required the most careful consideration, which, he could assure them, it would receive from him. CHEAP MONEY. Any scheme for supplying cheap money to farmers would receive his hearty support, if the scheme really attained that object. Sir Julius Yogel had submitted the outlines of a scheme, but he could not bind himself either to support it or not until ho had seen it in a more detailed form. He thought that the fact was generally lost sight of that the men who most needed cheap money were the very ones who would not be benefited by the scheme. He meant poor tenant farmers, who had, perhaps, liens on their crops and bills of sale over their furniture. They had no security to offer, and no Government or Company would lend money to them ; yet these were the men whom the Colony should try to help. The scheme proposed would only benefit those men who were practically independent. NORTH ISLAND TRUNK RAILWAY. Ho considered that the ceremony of turning the first sod of the North Island Trunk Railway waa the commencement of a new era in the history of the North Island — the opening of a time in which the , difficulties between the Native and white populations would cease. He had always been a warm supporter of that railway. People in this part of the Colony had no idea of the vast amount of agricultural land it would open up for settlement. It might be said that this did not interest people in this part of the Colony, but he held that every additional settler who came into New Zealand was a benefit to the Colony as a whole. (Applause.) Though he did not agree with all that Sir Julius Yogel proposed, he must say that Sir Julius was a statesman of a class which had been wanted here for a long time, a man who took a broad and liberal minded view of things. He (Mr Pearson) felt assured that in- the future no statesman would succeed in the Colony unless he put aside all petty local feelings, and abstained from trying to get cheap popularity in a particular district by setting one part of the Colony against another. The very fact of New Zealand being so heavily burdened with debt should be a bond of union between the various parts of the Colony. Although he would reserve the right to oppose measures, he would give a general support to the present Government, and he considered that if they were allowed to carry out their progressive policy, the depression which had weighed upon the Colony so long would disappear. (Applause.) LOCAL MATTERS. He would now refer briefly to pne or two local matters. It had been said that he had obtained too much money for his district, but he would challenge any member of the House of Representatives to show more profitable works than those for which he had been instrumental in getting grants of public money. Ho need only allude to one — the Oxford water-race. The Government contribution to the head works was .£3300; but the Government had already received J&oOO for land sold along its course, and had still 40,000 acres open for sale. If it had not been for the race, not a single acre would have been sold. "What was more, bond, fide settlers had been brought on to the land. He thought that the water-race question was one of the most important they had to deal with, for on it depended the successful settlement of the whole of the Canterbury plains. RAILWAY MANAGEMENT. It had been mainly owing to the action of the previous Government in regard to the grain tariff and to their utter indifference to the interests of the agricultural population, that he withdrew his support from them. Ho did so very reluctantly, for he had a great respect for MajorJAtkinson, who was a man who would surely come to the front again in Nesv Zealand politics, though it would be a good thing for him to remain in opposition for two or three years, so that he might get rid of some of his present notions, and also of some of those colleagues who had in reality been an incubus to him in the past. Mainly owing to the action of the Canterbury members the grain rates had been reduced, though they were still higher than they had been before the last Government raised them. He thought, however, that, the Government waa not to blame for not having reduced them further, as the financial outlook was very dark, and the estimates had been based on the high rates. He considered that the railways would never be successfully or economically worked till placed under the control of non- political Boards. (Applause.) The lines should not be compared, as they sometimes were, with those of Victoria. In the latter Colony they all radiated from one centre, and formed one system j whereas in New Zealand they radiated from half-a-dozen centres, and formed so many distinct systems, thus making their management more difficult and expensive. Still there was need for radical reform in the management of New Zealand railways. He would not detain them with any more remarks, but would be happy to answer any questions. (Applause.) No questions being put, Dr Weld moved a vote of confidence in Mr Pearson, and of thanks for his address. The motion wa9 seconded by Mr Cole, and carried unanimously. Mr Pearson briefly acknowledged the compliment, and moved a vote of thanks to the Chairman, after which, the proceedings terminated.