THE GENERAL ELECTION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5993, 30 July 1887, Page 2

THE GENERAL ELECTION.

MR O'CALLAGHAN AT

PREBBLETON.

On July 27, Mr O'Callaghan addressed the electors of Lincoln at the Prebbleton Town Hall. There wag a crowded attendance. Mr Hazlehurst, Chairman of the local School Committee, waa chosen to preside. The Chairman briefly introduced the candidate, for whom he bespoke a fair and attentive hearing.

Mr O'Callaghan, who on rising was received with loud applauae, spoke to the f olio wing effect : — When last elected ho had teen spoken of aa unworthy of the electors' confidence, and he now asked if he had committed any act that had caused him to forfeit the confidence then placed in him. He felt that he had done his best to represent the district efficiently, and to be in accordance with the wishes of his constituents. (Applause.) He hoped that the present elections would be conducted without any ill-will being engendered. (Applause.) He had been asked to contest the Akaroa district, but had doclined to shift his constituency so so long as it retained the name of Lincoln. (Applause.) He would, were he to forfeit the confidence of his friends, wait for years rather than Beck fresh fields and pastures new. (Applause.) The district aa now altered looked, on the map, like the jawbone of an ass. (Laughter.) He was not disposed to let the work of the Electoral Commissioners pass without comment. Canterbury had lost two members and 350 electors, and the districts of Coleridge and Wakanui had been wiped out. Otago should have lo3t one electorate, and Canterbury only one instead of two seats. It was a matter of regret to him that a Political Reform Association had been formed in Christohiiroh for another purpose than ' advocating only retrenchment and fair taxation. That Association sought, in addition, to oust the present ■ Ministry, to cripple education and local manufactures, and to disunite Canterbury. (Applause.) The policy of the Government was the polioy of the Canterbury party, and he felt himself responsible for it as much as any other member. (Applause.) Sir Julius Yogel had been blamed for speaking, three years ago, of New Zealand as a prosperous country and able to pay taxation. Sir Julius had now grasped the position of the Colony, and saw the necessity for retrenchment. The speech of Sir Julius the other night was that of a statesman and lie (Mr O'Callaghan) recommended all to read and well consider it. (Applause.) RETRENCHMENT. No member had advocated retrenchment more than he (Mr O'Callaghan) had done. But there were two matters in which he did not believe in retrenchment; those wore education and defence. (Applause.) The expenditure on ' defence was an insnranoe premium. Mr Rolleston had made a great mistake in saying that a saving of £50,000 could be made in the defence expenditure. That gentleman had forgotten that the larger portion of the expenditure on defence was for the police ; that out of the £182,000 voted, £100,000 went to the police, whose pay was much less than that of the police in Victoria and Queensland. Then there was a sum of £44,000 for the Volunteers, and £34,000 for the defence of harbours and a permanent militia. He (Mr O'Callaghan) was opposed to any reduotion being made in the vote for education, which he looked upon aB an insurance premium for the future of New Zealand. (Applauae.) The only way to secure retrenchment was to support the present Ministry, who had saved £150,000 this year. The money hitherto sav«d on nonrecurrent votes had been expended on other matters, but not bo this year. In addition to the saying already made, Sir Robert Stout promised a further reduction of! £100,000; and retrenchment in the Civil Service would make further reductions. On the other side, what retrenchment had there ever been P The most that Mr Rolleston could boast of was a reduction of £10,000. Tho only reduotion was when Sir John Hall got another member to bring in a ten per cent reduction. But the amount thus reduced was, in a few years, again put on, and even on the salaries of officials who were the highest paid. The Government should have taken that opportunity to reduce tho expenditure, but they took care to put back the 10 per cent even on to their own salaries. (Applause.) Then, again, the Atkinson Government refused to accept the proposal of Mr Swanson to make a reduction of £50,000. , THE NEW PARTY. All the talk about new men coming in to manage the Government "on business principles" was nonsense. No new men could come in without making themselves the laughing stock of Major Atkinson and Sir Julius Yogel, and of the country. (Disapprobation.) At all events he wished the new men joy of their task. (Applause.) Major Atkinson had introduced a new man in Mr Mitchelson, who put on the notorious grain tax. Another new man was Mr Hurßthouse, who would raise £80,000 out of the grain tariff. There was a third new man, Mr Wakefield, about whom he (Mr O'Callaghan) need make no remark, as all present knew his past political history and what to expect from him. (Applause.) TAXATION. On the question of taxation, he could assure the electors tHat he would do all he could to keep it at its lowest pomt — (applause) — but he would be unworthy of their confidence if he said that retrenohment without extra taxation could make the accounts of the Colony balance. The only thing that could be done was to make the burden as light as possible. Roughly speaking, the revenue was — Prom the Customs, .£1,285,000; from the Pro-perty-tar, £311,000,- from the stamp duties, the railways, the beer duty, &c, £2,286,000 ; making a total of £3,882,000 as the ordinary revenue of the country. We had to pay as interest on the loans £1,643,000, an amount equal to the receipts from the Customs and the Property-tax. Then there was for permanent appropriation £260,000, making a total of £1,900,000. For services rendered to the Colony — railways, post offices, telegraphs, &c. — there was an expenditure of £2,106,000. Then there was a deficit left from Major Atkinson in 1881 of £150,000 and from last year of £92,000. The grand total was £4,159,000, whioh left a debit balance of £277,000. They must remember that as population increased, the cost of education must increase. It must be clear that more money was required to meet the deficit. The Government made proposals, and the Opposition made proposals, and the electors Bhould decide which of these they preferred. The Opposition and the Chambers of Commerce proponed a tax on tea and sugar, a very tempting proposal, by which somewhere about £100,000 could be raised. The next proposal was that of Mr Hursthouse, to raise £80,000 out of the farms of Canterbury and Otago. Another propssal was to do away with the exemption in the Property-tax, or to reduce it to £200. Not one of the Ministerial supporters advocated these. The Government proposed to raise revenue through a Property-tax on a graduated scale on incomes over £2500. They did not, however, attempt to xaia» the tax above Id, as settled in 1879, no matter how large the income. Since the year 1882, he (Mr O'Callaghan) had advocated a progressive Propertytax, according to a man's wealth ; for he had always contended that the bulk of accumulated wealth Bhould bear the principal portion of the taxation of the country. (Applause.) He could not, therefore object to the Government's proposal o£ a graduated Property-tax, though ho did not say that this was the proper time for making the alteration. It must be remembered that the amount raised from the Customs was less by £230,000 than it was five yearß ago. He did not say that thi3 was any argument for levying a higher amount of Customs. When Sir

Julius brought down his Tariff all knew that each item would have to be voted on by the House. Those who spoke of this matter took oare to avoid mentioning

this, though, in all probability, many items would not have passed. (Applause.) The extreme of Freetrade and the extreme of Protection were bad. Even in England the extreme of Freetrade was bad. The axiom of buying in the cheapest and selling in the dearest market would not hold good in a Colony like New Zealand, where it meant that we should send Home all our products at any price that we could get, and import from other countries, leaving to them the profits of manufacturing. Were the Anglo-Saxons of New Zealand to be content to be mere producers of raw material and let others reap the profits of manufacturing, while our own population was starving for want of employment ? Were we to send Home £3,000,000 worth of wool and to import £130,000 worth of carpets, &c, per annum ? Were we to import £230,000 worth. . of saddlery, harness, &c, while we sent Home .£190,000 worth, of skins, &c. ? Were we to import £42,000 worth of candles while exporting, or rather giving away for nothing, large quantities of tallow P Were we to send away £43,000 a year for furniture? or £12,000 for preserved milk, while having innumerable cows ? Were we to continue sending Home £2000 for linseed oil, or £8000 for starch, or £9000 for fresh fruits, jams, pickles, &c, while we had around us a, teeming soil, and gardens able to produce some of the finest fruits in the world ? (Applause.) In Auckland, where severe tests had been made, cement of the best quality was manufactured ; yet £72,000 was sent Home annually for cement. Would it not be | well to encourage the manufacture of cement here ? And so it was with preserved fish, hosiery, &c. In fact, we sent Home £1,000,000 a year for articles the raw materials for whioh we produced, and which could easily be manufactured here. (Applause.) Even though a slight increase of duties on these things might raise the price for a short time, soon they would >ecome as cheap as they now were. The history of Victoria proved this. The argument that Protection taxed the consumer was gocd, if good at all, for only a short time. (Applauae.) He had met a gentleman who in Victoria had paid £5 10s for a Buit of clothes that could not be obtained for that price even in England. (Applause.) He was very certain that every country should adopt the system of Fair Trade suitable to its own circumstances. For New Zealand, sugar, tea, &c, should be as f reo as possible, while there should be a graduated scale for luxuries. (Applause.) As the necessity became less, the duty should be less, and protective duties should be levied so as to encourage native industries and find employment for those now, unfortunately, very much in need of work, f Applause.) It should be remembered that of late years many had not found employment even at harvest time. Anything that would tend to give employment should be supported by persons who had the welfare of the Colony at heart. (Applauae.) That men should claim that Freetrade was perfection in itself was absurd. New South Wales had been held up as an example, but Mr Dibbs had j ust said there, he believed in Protection. New South Wales had put on the necessaries of life — cheese, bacon, and svgar — duties of 2d on the first and second and Id on the last, even though she professed to be Freetrade in principle. (Applause.) LAND. On the question of land settlement he was in a position to speak. He objected to the simplification of the land laws advocated by the Reform Association, for it only meant doing away with all systems other than freehold tenure. He had no objection to freehold, except that they had frequently stopped settlement. The Reformers would, if they could, put their foot down on Mr Ballance's village settlements, » which he (Mr O'Callaghan) considered the best system ever introduced into New Zealand. It had been objected that Mr Ballance had expended £62,000 more than the House had authorised. But if the members did not know what was being done, they ought to have done so. He had encouraged Mr Ballance in his action, and must take some of the responsibility. The £62,000 would be distributed over five years, and meant that an advance was being made for settlers, who otherwise would be hanging about the towns and becoming a nuisance. The amount was being invested for the benefit of the Colony. (Applause.) If one man failed when he got hiß fifty acres and spent his grant, could not a better man be put on the land, and become a valuable settler f If onetwentieth of them failed the success of the rest woxild be a good thing. (Applause.) So much was he impressed with the value of the system that he had persuaded a number of his constituents to settle in Hokianga. Some 20 had thus got a block of magnificent land, and he looked forward to these being a happier settlement of men, who otherwise would have been wandering over the Colony in search of employment. Unfortunately in Canterbury there was no good land. He considered it useless to put men on bad land. Would not every one present be glad to take 50 acres of the land around them and settle themselves upon it P He did not advocate the Acquisition of Lands Bill as at present proposed, because he did not think it necessary. Land could be got at a reasonable rate without compulsion. If the Land Board in each district would examine the lands under offer, and recommended the Government to purchase, provided the House approved, and without corruption and jobbery, it would be a very good thing, and would put many in a fair way of gaining a living. (Applause.) EDUCATION. He would say a few words on the attempts made to reduce the education vote. Of the proposals in this direction one was that the school age should be raised to seven years. He had sufficient knowledge of the country to know that this would shut up all the small country schools. Another proposal was to cut off the fifth and sixth standards. This he was very much opposed to. It was Hke taking half-a-crown from one pocket and putting it into another, for it meant taxing parents to pay for their childrens' education. (Applause.) An education less than the sixth standard he said was not good enough. The proposal would not interfere with wealthy men, but would deprive poor men of the opportunity of getting a thorough education for their children. That would really be effect of the proposal. (Applause.) A third proposal waa the reduction of the capitation grant. In 1882 he had proposed an increase of ss. It was then £3 15s. At that time ho had seen that the schoolmasters were the only men to whom the 10 per cent had nob been returned. He had been successful in obtaining that. Was it likely that he would endeavour to reduce the capitation grant, as had been said after the last election? The only reduction practicable was in the management of the education system. In some parts of the Colony they would be better without Boards of Education, and this was true of the West Coast especially, where the Inspectors could have done the work better. The Canterbury Board was a good one, and he did not wish to say a word againßt it. (Applause.) RAILWAY MANAGEMENT. Some present had no doubt read Mr Richardson's speech delivered at Kaiapoi. There they would see how, many of the charges against the railway management were groundless. He (Mr O'Callaghan) was far from saying that the management was perfect, and he thought there should be a non-political Board of Management. He intended to hang on till he obtained it. Mr Richardson had said that though 250 miles extra had been opened during the last few years, the Department expended only £9000 to work them, that meant a saving, of £136 per mile. The original cost had been £536, and it waa reduced now to £400. That was a remarkable proof of the reform that Mr Richardson had brought about. (Applause.) Then Mr Richardson had been charged with keeping on the grain rates, but the fact wa3 that these were now less than ever. They were lower in every particular now than in 1884. (Applause.) A very important reform in the railway management would be to reduce the passenger fares. (Applause.) Two years ago; and time after time in the House, he had

argued for the same rates between there and Christchurch on Wednesday as on Saturday. The result was that the number of passengers by the trains on Wednesday now compare favourably with that on Saturday. He was convinced that if fares were reduced on all days the traffic would be largely increased. He was sure that such reduction would make the railways pay. (Applause.) He would like to refer to the complaints as to the cost of small parcels, but the parcels post shortly to be established would remedy that. THE PRESENT GOVERNMENT. He was a strong supporter of the present Government, not only for what they had done, but also because he had faith in their future administration, (Applause.) For the first time in the history of the Colony they had grappled with the local government and hospital and charitable aid questions. The Government that had had the courage to do that deserved the thanks of the Colony. (Applause.) They had passed the most liberal land law that existed in any part of the world. (Applause.) They had settled on the land 2224 last year, while 850 or 900 was the most settled in any year before. (Applause.) And these were in a position that enabled them to gain a livelihood. (Applause.) For the first time they had tackled Civil Service reform. Major Atkinson had hidden the report on this subject. That report had been paid for by the Colony, was public property, and should have been left to Major Atkinson's successors. (Applause.) The Government had tackled tho reduction of salaries, and had brought down a Bill, one clause of which was to the effect that the salaries should be regulated by the cost of living as compared with the cost Beven or eight years ago. Had that proposal been left in the Bill, he believed a reduction would have been effected without any hardship. Even without that clause the Government had passed an excellent Bill. Another point in the Government's favour was the Bill for the purification of the sale of Mativs lands, in consequence of which the occupation of the Pakeha Maoris had gone. (Applause.) The Government had undertaken the defence of the Colony, and though the cost was heavy it was necessary, and Government deserved credit for grappling with it, especially in a time of depression. Then they had abolished the law of entail. Former Governments had attempted this but had failed. (Applause.) He felt grateful to the Government for passing the First Offenders Probation Act, which saved from falling into the criminal class every young fellow who perhaps, committed a trifling crime. This would be an enormous saving to the Colony, and would prevent many a fine young fellow from being utterly destroyed in life. (Applause.). The classification of criminals had become necessary, but this Act had obviated the enormous expenditure that such classification would have caused. (Applause.) The Government had passed Bills for opening the coal harbours on the West Coast, and had, with a pluck he could never forget, stood by Canterbury during the terrible fight for the Midland Railway. He had been through the thick of that fight, and knew the temptations the Government had resisted. They had never faltered, but had supported by a phalanx of which he was proud to have been a member, carried the Bill through the House. (Applause.) Not alone was gratitude due to the Government for the past, but he had firm faith in the future of the present Government aa the beßt for the Colony. It waa a Government that stood head and shoulders above any Government New Zealand had had for years. (Applause.) If it ever happened that he found it necessary to vote against the Government, he would not do so without giving hi 3 constituents and the Government due notice. (Applause.) PERSONAL. There waa a personal matter to which he would now refer. At the last meeting held in that room a candidate had said that, as Chairman of the Waste Lands Committee, ' he (Mr O'Callaghan) was in receipt of £100 a year. In 1885 it was, on the motion of Mr Rolleston, recommended by a Committee of which he was a member that the Chairman of the Waste Lands Committee Bhould have £100 a year, as those of other Committees had. The House carried this. All the Chairmen were friends of the Government then in existence. On the new Government being formed, he (Mr O'Callaghan) was elected Chairman of the Waste Lands Committee, and in his first speech said he desired no salary. The House voted £100 to the Chairmen of two other Committees, and when & difficulty arose as to his own salary he asked that it should be reduced to £50, the amount paid to the Chairman of the Goldfields Committee. He had served three years, and that was all he had received as Chairman of any Committee, though he had served as Chairroan of other Committees. During all this time the Chairmen of other Committees were getting £100 a year, although one — Colonel Trimble — was not a friend of the Government. He had in the House declined to receive anything, but at the same time declared that the other claims should be similarly treated. (Applause.) To show how anxious he was to put nis hand in the public purse, lie would Bay that he and Mr M'Millan drew £27 a year each for attendance on the Waste Lands Board. Members of the Land Board elsewhere received £120, £142 19s, and so on, for doing the same work. None of these men •were more worthy or better able than Mr M'Millan or himself. (Applause.) Of all the Waste Lands Boards in the Colony, that of Canterbury cost least. The whole cost of the members was under £100, while that of other Boards was as much as £800 a year. CONCLUSION. He concluded by thanking tho meeting for their patient hearing. He hoped he had said nothing to annoy anyone. If he had offended any, he was only too ready to say that he regretted it. He had now only to say that he would go to the poll with, a strong confidence that he would be returned. (Applause.) The reception he had met with in the west part of the electorate was most gratifying. At two meetings he had received votes of confidence, unanimous in one case, and by an overwhelming majority in the other. (Applause.) He would like to see that by his conduct in the House he had gained the confidence of the electors in Prebbleton, the only district where he had been in a minority at the last election. (Applause and disapprobation).

In answer to questions

Mb O'Callaghan said that the expenditure by Mr Ballance of the £60,000 had Btopped an expenditure on the unemployed that had reached £30,000 in Auckland, a thing that seemed to be forgotten ; that extravagance had been the rule for some years, but he rejoiced to see all sides now united in favour of retrenchment ; that he was in favour of elective Land Boards ; that there was no chance of a reduction in the number of representatives so long as a community of interest and geographical features were to be secured for each district ; that he had voted for a loan of £3,000,000 under the Atkinson Government, for a £1,500,000 loan afterwards, and for £1,375,000 subsequently; that he had voted for a reduction of £125,000 on the laßt amount; that a man was bound to vote for a loan when he knew that voting againat it would put into of&oe men who would go in for a much larger expenditure ; that he had endeavoured to bring the loans down to the lowest limit, and to stop them altogether if possible; that he had too great faith in the Colony to say that there never should be any further borrowing; that he desired to see the railway extension north of Auckland and the Otago Central completed, but did not think the Colony was in a position to borrow for those works at present 3 that he was in favour of a considerable reduction in the railway tariff ; that he was in favour of a reduction of the honorarium to £150 in the Lower and £100 in the Upper House ; that he was in favour of the Governor's Balary being reduced to £3000, and the costs being cut down by another £3000 this, of course, not to apply to the present Governor.

Mr Alsop proposed that a vote of thanks and confidence be given to Mr O'Callaghan. Mr Anderson seconded the motion

which was greeted with cheers and hootingfi, ani wac carried by a large majority. A vote of thanks to the Chairman closed the business.