PARLIAMENTARY

West Coast Times, Issue 10338, 30 July 1896, Page 4

PARLIAMENTARY

-]Peb United Press Association.]

Wellington, July 29. THE COUNCIL.

The Council met at 2.30. A sympathetic and appropriate reference was made to the death of Mr Pharazyn and the. Council adjourned till next day as a mark of respect to his memory.

THE HOUSE.

The House met at 2 30. Captain Russell moved his want of con fidence motion, aiready telegraphed. He said he did so mostly in order that the public might know some of the errors of the administration since the great Liberal party had held sway in New Zealand and only in order that the country might know those members who were still loyal to the pi edges given at the hustings. Th - first important act of maladministration on the part of Government was in altering the standing orders of the House am limiting the freedom oE speech, and to this he attributed the decline which had taken place in '.recent years in the debating ab idty of the House. It should also In kncwn that by the autocratic will of the Premier members were not now delegates of their constituencies but were dominated in their speech and action by the head of the Government. The Premier was assuming autocratic power in a maisner that was really dangerous to th« country nnd in support of this contention Capt. luiissell instanced the action of the Government in taking over control of th* Hansard staff and officers of the House, and in appointing an ex-member of the House sergeant-at-arms in violation of tne Disqualification Act. Some time ago "self reliance" was the cry of the Greaf, Liberal Party but now the cry was "to borrow" Some time ago the cry had been ■ *'afree breakfast table", but last session they had adopted a taiiff of protection, w its most drastic form, on the necessaries c i life. Proceeding to discuss the financial aspect of the Government administiation he contended there had been a steady in crease of the public debt of the Colony since the present party had come into office, the amount of increase in 5 years being nearly five millions sterling. He asked how members of the ministry could reconcile their ptatements as to self reliance and non-borrowing with the proposals contained in this year's statement to raise one million. In fact this Government had always been ■ bringing forward schemes to raise money by a borrowing process. He strongly condemned the loan conversions of the Government, some of which amounted to acts of folly whrh were almost criminal. .The seizure of the local bodies sinking funds was a most immoral proceeding, even taking into consideration the fact that . Government may have had sound legal advice on the subject. He discussed this question at some length and contended it wm never contemplated that the country Bhould be charged with the loans to local bodies. The transfer of money from the land transfer assurance fund was another most improper proceediug. That fund had fallen from £89,282 in 1892 to £85,941 in 1896. He had reason to believe there had been no legal calls on this fund and its depletion must be due to a continual bleeding for improper purposes. Capt. Russell went on to, refer to the imperfect way in which .the Tariff Bill of last session had been brought down to the House and said similar incompetency on the part of Ministers characterised other policy measures. Government did not know any thing about the probable effect of their tariff proposals, for instead of a few anomalies being removed, the figures of th< revenue returns showed most berious taxation had been imposed on the people. The inaccuracy of the figures as quoted by the Government when the Bill wa= before the House was either the result of gross ignorance or wilful intention to deceive the public. He complained tba the Customs returns for hwt quarter had ' not yet been placed before Parliament and said the subservience of members to the Premier was so great tha* they allowed him to do as he liked in matters ot furnishing returns asked for. Turuin^ to the question of defence he said our de fences were absolutely useless. The Permanent force contained no scientific officers and gunner* were not competent to work the guns in the forts. For this state of affaire the Premier, who took full control, was responsible. He suggested the Defence Act should be amended so as to give the new Commandant an appointment for 5 years and sole oontrol of the forces. Either the colony should have efficient defence or no de fence at all, for at present the defence* were the laughing slock of officers m other colonies. He regretted he had not time to fully go into the land administration ot the Government but the report just laid on the table shewed that one--fchird of the electors in Wellington pro•srincial district had given up their holdings. Did that shew successful administration? In .conclusion he said that instead of the colony having progressed during the last few years i,t had gpne back solely owiDg to the maladministration of the present Governm«nt. Hon. Mr Seddon said the position was A most extraordinary one. No previous Premier had even been placed in such a position, and he hoped no other one «ver would. Capt. Russell, in his speech, had scarcely touched on his motion. He twitted Russell that he was not the leader of Opposition at all, but that it was a of the tail wagging the dog, to give bis followers an opportunity of delivering their Jbudget speeches. He was blocking the business of the covit.y with a motion to which he scarcely doiguul to refw. There were several owmJ«W W

Government side of the House who had of late freely criticised the doings bf Government and it was to catch these people that Russell had tabled his motion. He had no doubt, however, that those members would not support this motion. The real reason why this motion had been brought forward was because the Opposition members were absent at the Hutt racecourse when the Finincial Debate collapsed and he the (Premier) was unexpectedly called on to reply. Because Dr. Newman could not speak to full galleries he refuged to go on with the debate in the afternoon and was the cause, therefore, of the collapse of the debate. Russell now round himself forced into a position of bringing forward this motion. It was far better that he should have retired from his position as reader of the Opposition than have made such a tactical blunder as he had done in proposing the motion. Pro ceedmg to reply to Russell's remarks Seddon said he must take the motion seriously and it was the queation whether the country was to return to Government by a select tew, as in past. It was the first time in the history of our Parliament in which transactions of dead Statesmen had been utilised as a subject matter for a no-confidence motion. The motion traversed the administration and legislation of his dead chief and comrade. John Ballauce. and he asked the Opposition party "who were raking up dead ruens bones now ? " The transaction referred to by Russell in which Ballance had converted a £500,000 loan was a most successful one for the colony as it had resulted in a saving of three thousand a year This should be made known in justice to the memory of the dead Leader of the Liberal Party. As to the 1 increase to the public debt Mr Seddon pointed out that the continuous Conservative Party were responsible for no less than £32,666,000 of the national debt of the colony and Russell himself had voiced a loan of twenty millions sterling, which would have been added to the puUic debt. After that he hoped they wouM hear nothing more of this Government having increased the public indebtedness again. The increase in indebtedness of 1893-94 had only resulted in increased taxation of £2000 per annum, a verj paltry amount. Russell raised no objec tion to the objects to which the millior asked for in the Financial Statement was to be devoted. Take the gold-fields for instance. They had been the salvation of the colony and in asking for only £200.000 he was surprised at his own moderation. As to the alleged seizure of the Sinking Fund, Government had acted under legal advice and no objection had been raised by the Auditor-G eueral. As to loan con - versions he quoted figures to show that the Seddon Government had only converted a similar amount to the Atkinson Government of which Russell was a member, and these operations had resulted in considerable saving to the colony. The public works expenditure of the present Government had been much less than that of their predecessors, as against sinking funds that had been taken Government had issued debentures, but Russell had forgotten to give credit for this. This matter had been bronght up last session and why had Russell not taken that op portunity of embodying that act of Government in the no-confidence motion. Russell would have been wiser to have kept the figures he quoted with Tegard to depletion of the land assurance fund to himself, for they showed at the rate the fund was decreasing it would take 84 years to be wiped out. A proposal had been made by Atkinson on one occasion to take hold of that fund at one full swoop, He combatted Russell's contention with regard to the increase of customs duties and said that the customs duties collected in 1892 were £44,094 more than lastjyear and in 1894 they were £45.713 more than last year. Taking into consideration the increase of population between 1892-93 and last year there had been ajdecrease of 2s 6d per head in taxation on the people of the colony through the customs. He hoped Russell would say nothing further on that question. He would be qu'te happy if it was pointed out to him where the duty was pressing unduly on the struggling classes to effect i reduction, but it must be remembered it was incumbent upon Government to maintain a strong finance. With reward to the increases in the custom duties la?i year he pointed out that £40,000 of the increase wasjobtawed from articles whicl, had not been touched by last si.ssionV tariff. On the question of defence he re minded the House that the Atkinson Go vernment had reduced the capitation grant from £3 to 30s. Russell's remarksamounted to a.n advocacy for the pstr. l> lishment of a partially paid defunc force but the people of the colony woulff have none of this ; they preferred to hay the money expended on roads and bridges Rnssell's criticism under this heading habeen most ingenious and he could take himintj back to the Polhill Gully purchase which did not redound to Russell's credi' aaa-a administrator pf the Dc fence Department. The division on this motion would decide whether the Liberal part;. was to continue to govern the country o whether the Conservative party were t-' do so. During the last five years tnw L.b eral party had made great progress ii their legislation and there had not been . single backward movement. Everything was in the interests of the colony am! con- paring New Zealand with other oo! onies in finances and other respects sh was much ahead of them. Dr Newman said with regard to th< collapse of the financial debate he ha. received orders to "sit tight" and he di< go. Referring to Seddon's speech ho sail he had mado no defence whatever of th> Government policy. He bad twitt^, Russeil with attacking fyillance by hit motion but the fact was Seddon himseli hml ivr weeks pat-t buen instituting on-

quiriea re Atkinson, a dead statesman, and had fined Wataon £500 for not giving information be desired in order, to make these attacks. Things had gone from bad to worse during the Seddon Administration and there was not one single department which showed prudent management. It was a preposterous thing that the Premier who was so overworked should be Treasurer of the colony. He considered the present Government was notorious for failures and instanced the penny post, which was one of the greatest planks in the Liberal platform and where was it now. There was a fizzle of the reciprocity treaties and Samoa and Norfolk Island were still unsnnexed, in spite of the expressed intention of Government to extend the N.Z. empire into the Pacific Ocean. Dr Newman 3poke generally in strong condemnation of the whole Government policy. The debate was interrupted by the 5.30 adjournment.

The speakers at the evening setting were Messrs Hogg, Stout, Morrison, Buchanan, and Maslin. The House rose at 1 a.m.

Mr Saunders has given notice to move as an amendment to Capt. Russell'smotion :— That the administration of the Seddon Government has been unsatisfactory and their fiscal policj the reverse of the policy distinctly adopted in the Financial Statement of the Colonial Treasurer on tte eve of the last general election. As that policy was adopted on the hustings by a large majority of members returned to this House and almost unanimously endorsed by the electors of New Zealand no Government could be

justified in reversing it without appeal t<

the constituencies of the colony. That notwithstanding distinct profession of economy, prudence, and self reliance, which had been adopted by Mr Ballance, and which Mr Seddon so distinctly pledged himself to continue, and which

was strongly supported at the last general

elections, no economies have been effected. The cost of administration has been enlarged, costly and unnecessary officials have been multiplied, and the national t'ebt has been increased at a rate exceed ing £1,375,000 a year, a rate which in

proportion to the population of the two countries would exceed an increase in Great Britain of ££72,375,000 a year.