Parliament Out of Session.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5605, 29 April 1886, Page 3

Parliament Out of Session.

MR D. M'MTLLAN AT KIRWEE. I J Mr D. M'Millan, M.H.R. for Coleridge, j 1 last night addressed a meeting of the elec- j tore of Kirwee, in the local hall. j Mr James Gough, vice-President of the j Courtenay Agricultural and Pastoral Asso- ; 1 ciation, wbb voted to the chair, and briefly i 1 introduced the speaker. I t I Mr M'Millan addressed the meeting to j < j the following effect : — Since he had had the j i | honour of representing the Coleridge elec- j 1 | torate he had made it a practice to address j 1 the electors during the receßs, but he in- j i variably left it to near the approach of the ; 1 session. One reason for his doing po was ; £ that when the session wa9 close at hand : 1 ' people had a better idea of what was likely I 1 to engage the attention of the House, and ■ i ' another was that the electors then took a i t i more lively interest in political matters, j 1 | Hitherto he had spoken first in other parts ! « 'of the district, but thought it was no more 1 j than fair that this time he should deliver i his first address at Kirwee. (Applause.) 1 LAST SESSION. j He did not propose to go very minutely in- i s •to what had been done during the last j 1 j session, as thia had been done over and j ' ; over again by the members who had already I l ', spoken. He might Bay, however, it -was aJ < [ remarkable session in many ways. When j ' the session opened thinga appeared to be j l going very well, the Government had a ■ ] strong working majority, and the members ! I expected to get through a great deal of ! | useful legislation. Things went well till ( I the Financial Statement was brought | j down. In that Statement, however, there : ' were such radical changes in the incidence of , ] j taxation as to cause serious alarm among j \ the supporters of the Government. He i ] m ; ght say that he himself had boon much j 1 ! alarmed at the propose increase of the i s Customs tariff. Knowing a3 he did that ! 1 he country wns already taxed as much as t could bear, he had joined with other j members to prevent any increase in the j i ', burdens of the people, and had urged tho < i ; Government to modify their tariff. Some i f • members had very much abused the j i I Government for not resigning upon the re- 1 jection of the tariff, but ho thought they ! i 1 had, so far as that went, acted . i i wisely, though he must blame them j ' j for not accepting the advice of : 1 • their friends and modifying the tariff. J ] He was one of those that asked the Govern- ! ] ment to continue in office, because from the i ] Opposition side there was no chance of a • ] party being formed strong enough to make 1

a Government, nor was there a possibility of a combination of the smaller parties. He might say that the Government felt very sore at the treatment they received in connection with the tariff. He did not know at whose instigation they had arranged the tariff, but certainly it was not by the advice of the majority of their friends. LAND ACT. After the tariff had been disposed of, the House got on very well, and did a lot of useful work. The consolidation of the land lawß alone was worth going to Wellington for. Besides a consolidation of the then existing Actß there were additions of a liberal character. The country was fortunate in having had two successive Ministers of Lands who followed the same policy. At the Bame time he thought the new law was too cumbersome, and might be much simplified. With others, he thought that £2 an acre was too high a price for the lands in Canterbury. An effort had been made to get the minimum price reduced to £1, but the proposal had been lost in Committee by four votes. counties act. Another important Act was the amended Counties Act. Last session he had hoped to see the Counties Act consolidated, but bhere had been no time for this, though a much-needed amended Act had been passed, and he was glad to see that the Premier had promised a Consolidated Act for this year. HOBPITAIj AND CHABITABLE AID. With regard to the Hospital and Charitable Aid Act that was, he believed, the most important measure of the session because it was a new departure. Though imperfect it was a step in the right direction, and he believed amendments of a useful character would be made this session. The great defect was that the representation was not in proportion to the contributions. While the Selwyn County had only two members out of eight, it paid £2436 out of a total of £4502 for the six different Counties, while one Borough which contributed only JE2O 163 9d, had one member. This was a matter requiring adjustment. He had done his best in Committee to have a fairer representation, and had proposed that Boroughs having over 20,000 people, should have three members. Another defect was that contributions were on the rateable value, while representation was on a population basis. He thought that the Property tax value should be the basis of contributions. Then people would pay according to their means. (Applause.) Another matter which was unfair was the proportion between the towns and the country. In a country district perhaps 75 per cent of one's capital was rateable, whereas in towns the principal portion of one's capital was in stores, &g., and not rateable. The fairest way he could see would be to have the contribution half on Property tax value and half on population. Ab it was now, the populous districts profited by the increase of trade caused by the expenditure on charitable aid, &c. He had taken great interest in the Act, and hoped to have something to do with amending it so as to make it fairly workable. OTHER BILLB. Besides what he had mentioned, some eighty-three Bills had been added to the Statute Book, and most of theße were fairly important. Then there had been almost as many rejected Bills. It seemed to him that the country was over-legislated for. One Bill— the Fire and Marine Insurance Companies Act— was brought in and the country members tried to get a clause inserted in favour of the Farmers' Cooperative Associations. The legislation that was attempted would have driven out of the country one Company which had agreed to insure farmers at half previous rates. The Bill got through the Lower House, but in the Upper House was so altered that it would have killed the object in view, and therefore, in the Lower House, it was thrown out by a resolution to agree with the amendments that day six months. BAST AND WEST COAST RAILWAY. Before speaking of what was likely to engage the attention of the coming session, he decided to say a few words about the East and West Coast and Nelson Kailway. (Applause.) He was glad to congratulate Canterbury, Westland, and Nelson that the railway was likely to be made under the Act of 1884. Whatever difference of opinion there might be as to the best way of constructing the railway, all agreed that it ought to be made, and ought to have been made many years ago. (Applause.) The action the Canterbury members had been compelled to take in the matter had been freely criticised. He would say that they had been fully justified in that action through the unfair treatment accorded (,hem by the rest of the members, who were evidently determined not to even enquire into the matter. It was not as if this affected one particular corner, for it affected all the Middle Island except Otago, yet the House refused a Committee to enquire into the subject, and when £150,000 was put on the Estimates for the work there was a perfect howl against it. The Canterbury membeM then said if the funds of the Colony could not afford that amount, then, to be consistent, other votes should suffer in the same way. They had, therefore, determined to get all the districts served alike. NEXT BESBION. With regard to the business likely to occupy the next session, there was the conBolidation of the Counties Act, which, he hoped, would make the Counties work admirably. The most difficult matter in connection with this was the financial question. The subsidies, though an improvement on the Roads and Bridges ConBtruction Act, were not good enough for the carrying on of local government. He had last year given his views to the electors as to what alterations should be made, so he need not repeat them, except to Bay that some more permanent revenue wa9 required than the subsidies. He thought also that any money received from Government was never spent po economically as money taken directly from the ratepayers, who were sure then to see it judiciously spent. RAILWAY MANAGEHENT. There was one matter that affected all in the district very seriously, and that was the railway management. The railway tariff was so absurdly high that it paid to carry goods by road in competition with the railways. It was very hard for the ratepayers to maintain the roads and to make up deficiencies in the railways. Formerly people travelled at a less cost, though better able to pay. It Beemed tohimthat the harder the times, the higher the railay charges were made. He had pointed out to the authorities that traffic was being' lost, and that the tariff Bhould be reduced. In short distances he knew there waß the difficulty as to loading and delivery, but for long distances the tariff should be so low as to prevent people using the roads. (Applause.) The country had been for some years promised a Bailway Board of Management, but he did not ' see any indication of this being done for ! the present. He did not pin his faith too much to a Eailway Board, but thought I anything almost would be an improvement j on the present state of things. Govern- j ment should not wait for the Board's { appointment, however, but should at once j reform the tariff. (Applause.) With re- j gard to future extension of railways, some wished to push on at a faat rate, while others were more cautious. He had never been a keen believer in borrowing, but the lines could not be extended without borrowing, and then only as population extended, so that the taxes should not press individually harder than at present. After the public works werQ completed, the sooner borrowing ceased the better. (Applause.) CUSTOMS AND TAXATION. With regard to the Custoni9 tariff, he trusted there would be no attempt to make an increase, and did not believe the present Parliament was likely to tolerate such an attempt. Instead of increasing, he thought it should rather be reduced, but for revenue purposes luxuries and vices should be taxed pretty stiffly. (Applause.) This being essentially a producing country, the producer should be relieved as much as possible. Facilities should be offered for production and a free market. From experience it was known that a producing population was the mainstay of a country, therefore production should be encouraged.

In reply to the question ao often pat', What shall we do with our boys P he would say — Put them on the land to become producers. (Applause.) He would not try to make people believe that every one would succeed on the land. His experience on the Land Board showed him that this was not the case, but still he believed that the system of. deferred payment, where the land was good and the farms sufficient in size, had worked well. He much regretted the excessive price asked now. In the Oxford Bush, for instance, £1 an acre would be quite enough. In other Provinces the price was lower, and thus they unfairly competed with Canterbury. And speaking of land settlement, it appeared to him absurd to tax the land, and much more to tax the produce of the land. If any alteration were to be made in the incidence of taxation it should be in the direction of relieving the burdens of the producer. It was absurd to talk of putting people on the lands and then turning them off the land. (Applause.) It must not be supposed that he undervalued local manufactures as a factor towards the prosperity of a country, but manufactures were supported only by the producers. No country was more favourably situated for the development of manufactures than New Zealand from the cheapness of the raw material and its distance from other countries. Care must be taken not to artificially promote industries that were unsuitable, and that could not be carried on at a profit. Friendly relations must be maintained with other countries to prevent retaliation for an excessive tariff for protective purposes being imposed here. Ho had now spoken of some of the most important matters. If he had omitted any that were of interest to the electors, he would be happy to answer any questions. As far as be could see the Government would pull through the coming session, and some useful work would be done. He believed this would be the last session of the present Parliament. Our present Representation Act expired in 1887, so that some change would be necessary in that Act before the next general election. It was, however, impossible to say what might happen. He thanked the meeting for the attention with which they had listened to him, and he regretted that so sad a cause as the loss of a respected neighbour had made the attendance smaller than it otherwise would have been. He would now be happy to answer any questions. (Applause.) IN ANSWER TO QTTEBTIONB, Mr M'Millan said he would support the establishment of Railway Boards, but saw that there were difficulties in the way of these proving a success. In Victoria they had not proved an unmixed good. It was not as if the railways were a company managed by directors, who held a large number of shares. Economical management would not easily be obtained from a Board, the members of which would get their salaries whatever the profit of the railways might be. With regard to cheap money, the House had passed the Mortgage Debentures Bill, of which little advantage had been taken. If the farmer was to have money lent by Government at a cheap rate, why should not the miller ? At first sight the proposal appeared right, but there was difficulty in the way, in the matter of security, &c. He was not in favour of a State Bank of Issue. Mr M'Nab moved a vote of thanks and confidence. Mr G. Bedford seconded the motion, which was carried by acclamation. A vote of thanks to the Chairman closed the meeting.