MR.J.F DEAN AT SWITZERS

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 155, 26 January 1871, Page 7

MR.J.F DEAN AT SWITZERS

•^We have received a verbatim report of Mr. J. F. Dean's speech at Switzers on the 1 5th ultimo, but it is so lengthy that we have been under the necessity of abridging it. The principal political questions at present discussed by the public are touched upon by Mr. Dean, and we have only eliminated from his address that portion not bearing so closely upon these questions. The address was delivered by Mr. Dean in the Assembly Room, Switzers, which was densely crowded, and was considered to be the largest public meeting ever held on Switzers. Mr. John Utting occupied the chair. . Mr. Dean, in rising, was received with cheers. He said — Not very long ago I was one in a party of electors in which there was being discussed the men likely to come forward at the ensuing election. Amongst the aspirants was mentioned one who Avas known to be a poor man, depending npon his daily exertions for his livelihood. " Oh !" exclaimed one of the parly, in a half incredulous tone, " it's quite absurd for anyone to go in who is not well to do ; we want a moneyed man as a candidate." Now, gentlemen, if such an expression is likewise an expression of your opinions, I am sorry to say that I cannot hope to have the honour of acting as your representative. lam not what is termed a moneyed man ; though, had I nob the prospect of a sufficiency for my support, it is not probable that I should be here addressing you to-night. But, gentlemen, if I am nola moneyed man, I think that even an enemy dare not venture to say that I am lacking in independence. I imbibed not subserviency with my mother's milk, and I am not so anxious for wealth as to barter away my desuest birth right — my liberty — for a mess of pottage. Personally, I should not have cared so much for coming forward to seek your suffrages had I not felt keenly that there was a need for those who hold opinions such as mine to take an interest in the country's legislation, and had I uot felt that I ought to obtain your .support very generally. The .subject, upon which all must be expected to have formed an opinion, and certainly in which all are interested, is Mr. Vogel's financial scheme. Gentlemen, I may as • well confess at once +hat I look upon it with great alarm. Southland has borrowed,, and has had to take r'allge with Otago ; Wellington knows not how to meet its ordinary charges ; Marlborough bids fair lo follow the road of Southland, and to become re r.Tmext J to Nelson ; the whole country -Ki.-j.beci -feeding i v ox;.* j .-.s r f its inounfe. i'.uu '>jir«r-v ; rig te -^.eht a ,^cgr_r<g^ that w< i J.arc jjit iricubuu of & deotr .■>i»o .- '■ 'i "rushes onl t ?••*;_ ">■ i A< dlty Mioin aii progt-saive-action ; and in the midst of this millstone which bears us down, Mr. Yogel stands up in the house, and declares that he can see no way oufc of our difficulties excepting by borrowing more extensively than ever. The debt of the General Government amounts to £4,300,000, and that of the Provincial Governments to £3,2oo,ooo— that is to say, the debt of New Zealand is seven millions and a-half sterling, and the annual charge upon it. including the sinking fund, is four hundred and seventy-four thousand pounds sterling, or nearly half a million ; and Mr. Yogel proposes that we shall seek to remedy all this by obtaining a loan of other seven millions ; and by incurring a further annual charge — reckoning the interest and sinking fund at GJ per cent. — of £455,000, thus bringing up our permanent annual charge, before one farthing of the ordinary expenses of Government is paid, to about £929,000. The population of New Zealand, according to Mr. Vogel's own estimate, is about 250,000 souls ; the debt at present £7.500,000 ; hence the debt per soul, man, woman, and child, is £30. The permanent charge on this is nearly £2 per head. Mr. Yogel proposes to raise the debt to almost £G0 per head, and the annual charge to almost £4 per head. But, it is only justice" to Mr.

Yogel to say that he confidently looks forward to such an increase in our population and our trade, that instead of the charge being £4 per head, he expects to see it distributed over such a number, that it will fall far below the £2 per head which we have even now to pay as annual interest upon our debt. We are to buy a land estate for the North Island ; we are to have a succession of railways from Invercargill to Nelson, and from Wellington to Auckland ; we are to have metalled roads to every nook and corner of the two islands ; we are, in short, to perform such wonders in the way of progressive development as only the speculative imagination of an Alnasker could conceive. Such is our future, as pictured out by Mr. Vogel — and this glorious prospect is all emanating from this glorious loan of £7,000,000. Gentlemen, we cannot meet our ordinary expenditure without borrowing some £260,000 a year. We are borrowing this year after yeai*, and Mr. Yogel says the only escape from this is to double our liabilities in the hope of driving a brisker trade. Gentlemen I cannot look upon this financial scheme as other than the scheme of a reckless speculator and gambler, and I look with extreme distrust to the actions of a man and of' a Parliament which

could sanction such madness. This is not statesmanship; it is rather the scheme of an unconscionable jobber. Our merchants may hail it, whose lust of gain blinds their minds to all noblei ends ; needy politicians and place-seek-ers may hail it, who see in it the advent of a general scramble for lucrative appointments ; the runholders may hail it, who estimate the scheme so truly that they see the land must continue to be locked in order to secure the intei-ests of the bondholders or public creditors. All those who desire to fly at a fortune quickly may hail it. All speculative gamblers like Mr. Yogel may hail it — but the poor, who will have to pay the taxes ; the farmer, who cannot fly from his land ; and we, the miners, whose interests are ever mingled between those of the labourer and the agriculturist, we cannot look upon it but as a scheme which to oppose should be our first duty. The German for Yogel is bird, and truly this time the bird has taken a flight beyonci the range of common prudence, if not of common honesty. The Fox Ministry has bid high for the prize, and so far -it has bid successfully. As a simple theorist, I have never believed that it is well for the Provincial Councils to have very extensive legislative powers ; yet, there is one thing which I think the Provincial Council — and the Provincial Council especially, as opposed to the General Assembly — can in all cases act for the best. I think, so long as the General A ssembly controls the powers of the local Councils in the matter of borrowing, that the Land Fund is likelier to be better and more locally spent b} r being under the complete control of the Provincial Council. It is in this point that I hhould disagree with most of the runholders ; for they knew well that any particular district would have very little chance of obtaining land opened for settlement, so long as tho General Government has that alarming word compensation and a loss in the revenue before it, with its accompanying terrors to him who has to plan out the ways and means. This point I consider a vital one, and on this 1 would stand or fall. Our Land Fund should remain amongst us, and be locally spent. As far as I can see, the groat, and, except in special cases, almost the only proper way for the Land Fund to be spent, should be in rendering the land itself of value by forming roads and bridges. This, it appears to me, is the natural object to which such a revenue should be devoted. With a desire for free selection, with a heart-felt determination not to have it without a limit in the area so selected, and with land locked and leaseholders to compensate, what then can we do ? It is quite clear to get the land open we must compensate ; to compensate we require funds ; and to compensate the entire "Hunger- Sf rutiiioluei*s «(at 'Once-ip^im-possible; and simply to have free selection without the grazing rights enjoyed by the original settlers about the Taieii would be a mockery; as also would bo tho offer of a hundred acres to a poor man, if you required him to pay for it immediately on purchase. It will follow, therefore, from these observations, that I am decidedly in favour — (1) Of free selection where practicable ; (2) Of a limited area to be so selected ; (3) Of grazing rights secured for a time in connection with the land purchased ; and (1) Of such a system of deferred payments as will secure — (a) That a man with a moderate capital can become a settler and freeholder ; (b) And that the payment for the land shall not be spread over such a number of years as to induce the farmers to over-crop and exhaust one farm on account of the facilities given for purchasing another. After mature consideration, I have come to the definite conclusion that I will support any measure winch shall provide — (1) That no purchaser in any given block can obtain by direct grant from the Crown more than 820 acres. (2) That a period, not exceeding six years, be allowed for payment to the purchaser of not more than 200 acres. (3) That at least 50,000 acres be included in any -new block declared open for selection. (4) That grazing rights shall be assured to the purchasers until such times as the whole block shall be taken up. But the great stumbling block in the way of all these questions respecting land, is the compensation required. Without any animus against the squatters, I must still have the honesty to express my opinion, both that the compensation they require is excessive and unjust, and that the way in which they obtained the law to fix the scale of compensation was mean and contemptible, and — permit me to say — somewhat tyrannical. They had the •power in their hands, and they unscrupulously used it. I need scarcely say that if by a combination among the newly-returned members I can see my way with tolerable clearness to a practical result, I will support a measure for the repeal of the runholder's land law of 1869-70. For last yeai', in this province of Otago, the annual assessment and rental of runs amounted to between L 50,000 and L 60,000 sterling : the iucome for the same period derived from the miner through directly special taxation, was about L 33,000. The gold duty alone amounted .to L 19,000, .°o that the entire income deri\ed from tho runholders by way of rental for their l»nds, did not double the sum obtained

from the miners for the privilege of groping into the bowels of a few thousand acres of the earth. Let us look at in another aspect. The whole customs revenue for the colony for the past year, amounted to about L 816,000. I estimate the Grold Revenue for the same period to be L 71.364 Hence, it follows, that the revenue from gold alone — a special tax on one class of the community — amounts- to fully oneeleventh . of- the whole ; or, in other words, if you deduct the G-old Eevenue from the rest, the tax on gold will equal one-tenth of the tax on all other articles whatsoever. And this is a levy made upon the produce of manual labour, and has nothing to do with the amounts raised on minors' rights and certificates, and other Court fees. It was said to me by a gentlemen in this district, that a colony was nothing without people — that we wanted a population. Gentlemen, I perfectly agree with that elector's remarks. "We may — indeed wo do — want a population; but, first of all we must endeavour to settle those we have got already, and prepare the way for such as the future may bring to us. But if the bringing iv of immigrants means the bringing in of comparative paupers, for whom we have no sure homo prepared,- then I most assuredly would say we are better without such- a population. It might be an easy matter to send home a quarter of a million of money, and spend it in paying the expenses of the sojourners in the union workhouses there, while they were-pro-vided with homes out hero at our expense ; but we should not secure the greatest happiness to the greatest number by such a course. And yet we want a population. But, gentlemen, as I take it, we do not want a population for the mere sake of reducing the rate of wages ; we do not want a population thab may be landed on these shores amidst such circumstances that the immigrant cannot hope to be able to settle upon hi 3 homestead after three or four years of work under an employer : no ; we want a population, and we want immigrants who meet a labour market where the remuneration shall be enough to enable them by thrift, to save a sufficient sum in three or four years, as'to allow them to have their cherished hopes of independency realised by becoming settlers on their own farms ; and we want such favourable land laws that the thrifty ones, who have thus saved, may bo encouraged and induced to settle on the land for which most colonists yearn so earnestly. Perhaps I see through a glass darkly ; but such mental vision as I have, points towards the opening of the land under easy and cheering terms as being the fundamental basis of obtaining and securing a permanent population. I say, induce immigrants to cnuiG to us by thorough liberality jn our land laws. The first steps towards inducing immigration mii3t be taken among ourselves in the colony. There has been a great cry of late about the Chinese, and I shall perhaps be expected to express my opinion respecting the immigration of theas Celestials. Well, I must frankly admit that I see very little good that the Chinese do to us. They come merely to gather up and take away. They spend little, and they are only an advantage to the merchant and the up-country storekeeper. Their habits are said to be not the most cleanly or decpnt, and the rcry slouch of their gait tells us that there must be a want of something sterling within. And yet John is plodding, and is a fellow-moi'tal ; and though I would discourage his entrance amongst us, and would like to endeavour to make him pay a greater portion of the revenue, yet I cannot prevail upon myself to say that I would place the poll tax of £50 upon him, Avhich one of the candidates in Ofcago has intimated he would try to have levied. This should be a free country ; we are a free people ; dou'.t let the abject fear of competition blind our souls to the ordinary principles of justice and fair play. Discourage John's growth amongst us ; tax him or the articles he consumes, so as to make him share the burden of government ; but let us shame to speak further about a poll tax of £50. Gentlemen, there are, no doubt, many questions upon which. I -have omitted to touch ; but this is not because I wish to avoid an expression of opinion upon any subject. I have nothing to conceal. 1 care not to beat about the bush. We are here, a band of colonists who should strive to make our condition a happy one. We have

the elements of wealth and comfort around us. Let us try to so direct our G-overnment that these elements shall be available to each one who has had the bravery and energy to leave his native land and settle in our midst. Let us not have class legislation — let pro bono publico be a reality amongst us, and no mere form of speech. Above all, let us sink prejudice, and let justice, liberty, and equality be subjects for devout thought, and not for mere empty declamation. Gentlemen, we are in a new country ; let us not emulate in obtaining the .titled distinctions which so serve to separate class from class m the land we have left behind. Do mot allow the remnants of feudalism to creep in amongst us in our new home. \ Allow them to die quietly out in the country wherein they were cradled. Above all, gentlemen, let us vote at this election like men, and after serious though*. Let not the influence of a mere moneyed man lead us ; neither

let frothy declamation carry us away. No ; let sober judgment accompany us to the polling booth, and then we can scratch out and scratch out, and leave the paper Avith a clear conscience, and the satisfaction that, to the best of our belief, we have left the name of the man who understands us, and who will, if need be, even sacrifice for us. Gentlemen, I have yet asked no man for his vote. I offer you my opinions, and it is for you to decide whether these opinions are yours, and whether he who gives expression to them has the requisite ability, and, above all, the necessary honesty, to support and represent them. I shall be happy to answer any questions you may see fit to put to me.

No questions being asked, Mr. John Chamberlain, after a few remarks, proposed, " That Mr. Dean is a lit and proper person to represent the district in the General Assembly."

Seconded by Mr. John Da vies.

The resolution was carried, there being only three hands held up against it.

Mr. Dean proposed a vote of thanks to the chairman, after which the meeting dispersed.