ELECTION ADDRESSES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4774, 14 October 1893, Page 6

ELECTION ADDRESSES.

The Premier at Feilding, , [Per Pbess Association.! ' FEILDING, Oct. 13. There waa a large assemblage of both sexes ia tho Assembly Booms this evening ta hear an address on the political questions o£ the day by the Premier. The Mayor, Mr E. Goodbeheere, was in the chair, and introduced the speaker. On rising Mr Seddon waa greeted with applau?e. He said it gave him great pleasure to comply with au invitation to speak here. Ifc waa the duty of the Ministers to meet the people face to face. H<j had always admired the iate member for Bangitikei, Mr M' Arthur, but it waß only right that thera snould be a differenca of opinion, so long aa they received fair play. They did not always get fair play at the hands of the Press, and the only way to counteract that was to meet the people; Some pressmen thought they were the only men who could save the Colony. Any rightthinking person must come to the conclusion that the policy of this Gpvernment was to make the Colony prosperous.,; 16 was said that the Liberals were the means of driving away capital, but the people j decided that the state of affairs could not be much worse ■ than it waa previous to this Government'] coming into power. People were leaving the Colony as fast aa they could get away. Fourteen thousand persons left these shores between 1887 and 1890. In 1888 sine thousand went away, and this disastrous result was killing prosperity and causing depression. The previous Ministry said, " Let them go, and they will bring others back with them." What a thing to Bay. It reminded him of the "Little 80-peep" nuraery rhyme. The states- ] men or Government that permitted that should not be allowed to have power, and the people did righ^ in sending them abonfc their business. They had the shocking example of the Old Country, and this state of affairs should not be allowed to exisfc in a new country Kko Hew Zealand. When tine Liberal Party came into power it promised to stop it, and had dope so. The Property tax was most iniquitous; the more a man improved his land the more -he bad to pay, and this was a taxation on thrift. The Liberals said, they would remove the Property tax and substitute a Land and Income tax, which they had done successfully. To Bhow how xaisleadinjt certain statements made by Sir H.. Atkinson were, he said- that on a Land tax basis therateable value was 430,000,000, ■which, at Id, Would .'prbduoe' £125,000.. Thia was equal to the amount* received by the Property tax. The total value of land owned in the Colony other than by the Crown, Natives and local bodies amounted to JE92,871,166, amongst 91,501 owners; the unimproved value was .£54,427,175, and the value, of improvements £37,933,991, total £122,225,029, including improvements. Before the Liberals came into power the people said it was impossible to do .away with the Property tax, under which a poor man had to pay more. He would say, hang on to the Land tax, as it waß their salvation. The farmers were not bo dull, and were beginning to realise that they had to pay less under the Land tax ; than under previous Governments. Land settlement was at a standstill, but the Liberal Government had settled upon the land two. to one by their predecessors. At the present time land could not be got fast enough to satisfy the demand, and the salvation of the Colony depended upon the settlement of the land. The policy of : '.'..' THB CONSERVATIVES was to hold on toall that they had. Hard miruM had been applied to the Government. He himself had been termed one of the seven devils of socialism. He . was no Socialist, but found the country in a depressed state, and had helped to remove it and elevate the people. When the Government asked for the money for road purposes, it was acoueed of sly borrowing, but that was not so. It had done moie. in road-making than any previous Government, as well as in land settlement. Thanks to the Natives, and the timber in the North Island, the Conservatives had been prevented from gsabbiug the lands, as in the South Islaiid. Thirty-three public companies in New Zealand owned 2,078,788 acres, valued at £4,020,320. Of these, seven companies held ~ 1,389,664 | acres, valued at £2,811,639. Two hundred and thirty-three persons owned between 10,000 and 50,000 acres, valued at £11,944,683. Thirty persons owned over 50,000 acres each, valued at £5,712,915. < Thirty-aeven persona owned between 100,000 and 200,000 acres, valued at £4,952,568. Eleven persons owned 200,000 acres, valued at £4,835,562. Forty-eight peraons owned 9,000,000 acres, valued at £122,000,000. There Was no reason why a fair Bhare of taxation should not be placed on the large owners. If they would insist on keeping the land they must not throw the burden on the people. He instanced the case of a person or Company owning 200,000 acres, of the unimproved value of £2,655,678, and with improvements £5,538,049, that would pay under the graduated tax £18,708, against; which the estate should, and probably did, yield 5 per cent, or £275,000,* which would leave a net income of £256,000. There was no confiscation about this. If the Government wanted land for settlement it should be allowed to take it with proper safeguards. In some districts ifc was more necessary to settle land than, to construct roads and bridges. No man's land should be touched who had not more than 1000 acres left. This applied only to those parta of the Colony where land was locked up. This brought him to the question of the Legislative Council. The Councillors were not in touoh with the people, but represented a certain olaas. The Lands for Settlement Bill had been sent there a second time, but thrown out. The Bill contained provisions for freehold and eternal lease at four per cent, and where was the confiscation? They had now one of the finest land laws in the known world, and , they must insist on the rights of the people. There were only, previous to the appointment of the last twelve Councillors, four or five Government supporters in the Legislative Council out Qt forty members. Now the Council rejected Government measures by twelve or - fifteen. It was unjust to allow things to stand, as at present, and the progress made by the people should not be stopped. Mr Seddon then read a list of Bills rejected by the Council. In the Old Country, Labour and Capital were at each other's throats. He did not believe in strikes, and he hoped they would never have another in this Colony. They should have Courts of Arbitration, treat Btrikes and those who caused them aa wrong-doers, and punish them accordingly. The strikers should be compelled to arbitrate. The bylaw prohibiting Salvation Army bands from playing in the streets was an infringement of the rights of the people, and suoh a by-law should not be allowed to exist- A Bill had been sent to the Legislative Council to repeal the regulation in question, >ut was scoffed at. He would ask the people to support him to prevent the Council repeating this. The Eailway Bill wa3 touched upon, and the speaker said there were £15,000,000 of public mohey'in the railways, and it did not reflect credit on a democracy to allow Buch an important asset to be placed beyond the control of the people. All the departments except this one were under the control of the Government. Seven hundred and thirty-two thousand pounds had been appropriated to the railways, and not a man in the Hous9 knew how it was to be spent. In thiß department there was an increase in the expenditure, while in all others there had been a reduction. Laat year one hundred and twenty-eight men and one foreman had been retired from the railways, yet the expenditure was not reduced. A list of railway servants on leave of absence on half and full pay was read by Mr Seddon to bear out his statement that the department waß mismanaged. There was also much discontent because the promotions were unjust, young men being put in responsible' positions over their seniors. The Government would not engage the Commissioners for another year next January when their engagements, terminate. They, or some others, might be appointed till Parliament could meet. This, &9 thought, was the coasfcjtoutiojaftl practice.

Had the Commissioners been willing to hold a conference, they might have compromised and saved all the bother. He had nothing against them personally, but thought the time had arrived for a change. With regard to the women'a franchise, there had been a lot said and written which had not the slightest foundation. When the late Mr Ballance pledged his word to make the Bill a Government measure, he (Mr Seddon) was bound to redeem that pledge, whioh he did, with, the result that it became law. Had he not wished it to become law, he could have advised the Governor to withhold his signature, and thus delayed j the assent. The clause inserted hy the Legislative Council last session requiring women to go to a Poßt Office was a serious blow at the ballot system, and tlie Government refused to agree to the amendment. There was no thin g said about the Government at the meetings held throughout tho Colony when votes of thanks were accorded to Sir J. Hall, although if it were not for the Government the measure could not have become law. He waa certain that the women would exercise their vote 3 in c. proper and judicious manner. This was the first Colony to adopt a criminal code that a Jußticeof the Peace could easily understand, and it was a most useful hand-book. The Workmen's Wages Lien Bill was a very necessary zneaßura in .the interests of workmen, who will have a first charge on work constructed. The Native legislation was in the interests of settlement, as the large tracts of land locked up impeded progress; and the Land Acquisition Bill was intended to remedy it. A fair price could be Bettled by arbitration. It would have meant that the population would have been doubled had this Bill been passed yeara ago. Seven million aores were unsettled, and two million acres were under the process of law at present. The Liberal Government had done, what previous Governments were afraid to do in rating Native lands. The Natives at first objected, but eventually gave way. The legislative Council did not treat them fairly, in giving the right to local bodies to exempt improvements to land. Beferring to the Liquor Bill, Mr Seddon said that in the Direct Veto Bill introduced by Sir B. Stout there were no safeguards, and it would have caused a revolution. The Government introduced a Bill which was not ao drastic, but waß at the same . time effective, and gave the people, for the first time in the history of the. Colonies, direct control over the traffic, with a reasonable restriction. The people had the power to say that no liquor ahall be sold if a three-fifths majority voted in that direction, and a majority could decide if the number of hotels shall be reduced; There were to be no increases. They must be moderate, and he considered tbat one of the greatest reforms effected was the Liquor Bill of last session. . " It had been stated that the Government gave preference to banks, but it should be remembered that the panic in Australia entailed an immense amount of misery in. Australia. There waß an urgent necessity for the Gpvernment to Btep in when the panic Btarted in Auckland. Ifc acted promptly, and in one night passed a Bill, and the next morning the panic had ceased when it was known that the Government had legalised the bank note issue. There waa some talk about a State Bank, but it did not appear to be generally known that postal notes could be used as a legal tender. Therefore, if anyone paid money into a post office and received postal notes he could use them as money. What the farmers wanted was cheap money more than anything else. Power Bhould be taken to give advances to lessees from the Government, which should lower the rate of interest, and that would be in the interests of the people. The finances of the Colony were never in a sounder condition. They had a surplus of J2283,000 last year, and £773,000 was' available for expenditure on public works this year. The loan conversion commenced in 1884. It waa no new thing, and meant that instead of having to pay 6 per cent, only 4 per cent was to be paid as interest. Tae money liberated by this process waa now doing the same work as that recently borrowed, viz., making roads, whioh waa necessary in the best interests oE the Colony. There should be a reform in the Legislative Council. Land settlement should be compulsory, and the acquistion of Native land must go on. The land should be prepared for the sons ,o£ farmers to Bettle on, and they must take certain landa for settlement trith certain restrictions Economy must be practised and encouraged, including reciprocity with the other Colonies. The State must have experts in the different districts to . educate farmers in various branches. Strife between labour and capital must be prevented. The railways should be brought under the control of the people, who ought to have a representative on the Board of Management. In a Betterment Bill introduced laat Beaaion there was a provision to compel the owners of large estates, whose land had increased in value by new railways, to pay to the Government one half of any loss that might be sustained in working such. The object of the Government was to improve the 'position of the people, to build up and not to pull down. He was a plain-spoken man, and would i announce that the Government candidate I for Eangitikei was Mr J. Stevens, and Mr Piranifor Palmerston. He would oontradict the statement that it was the wish of his chief that] someone other than himself (Mr Seddon) should be at the head of the Government. There was a clear understanding that he should take the lead, and Mr Ballance gave him certain papers previous to his undergoing the Operation. He had been in Parliament since 1879, there having been seventeen sessions since then, and he had always stuck to his party. If this district were true ifc would return a man who would support the Government. Mr Seddon Bat down amidst applause* which waa frequent during his address. Mr T. E. Taylor said he believed that the Government had the sincere thanks and confidence of the people in what jit did and proposed. He moved a vote, of thanks to Mr Seddon for - hia address, j This was seconded by Mr G. Wilkes and oarried unanimously. The customary vota of thanks to the Chairman, on the motion of Mr Seddon, who thanked those present for the reception accorded to him, closed the meeting. . j