THE MEMBER FOR WAIRERAPA.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5048, 11 June 1895, Page 2

THE MEMBER FOR WAIRERAPA.

Mu. BUCHANAN, M.H.R., AT CARTERTON. The Lyceum Hall, Carterton, was V well-filled in every part, last evening, many being unable- to find seating accommodation, when Mr W. C. Buchanan, M.H.H., addressed bis constituents. Mr G. W. Deller, Mayor of Carterton, was'voted-to the Chair, and , expressed pleasure at seeing such a large gathering, including so many , ladies. He asked that their member be accorded a fair hearing, Mr Buchanan, who was received , | with applause, said he had always , received a kind and patient hearing in the Wairarapa, and felt sure he I should receive the same that even- , ing. He now wished to thank tho electors for the honor of again , electing him for the fifth time, in | spite of the prejudices raised against * _ him at last election. The verdict of j the polls proved that itwas admitted j he had done his beet as a settler awl* j a representative for their j The present Government were returned by a large majority at last 3 election, and it now remained to be seen what they had done. The j Labour Bureau and the Co-operative a Works wore to be the salvation of \ working-men, and in Mr Seddon's I own words, "New Zealand was to be 8 a working-man's Paradise!" These B promises had been cruelly falsified. :) Never was such hardship and destie tution, he was sorry to say, as now e existed. If the Borough of Carterton had not levied a Poor Rate, they v would have to find a very large sum t this year for Charitable Aid, the I galling part being that the largest part was spent mainly in Wellington. s The amount required had.been trebled ,| since last year, and who were they , to thank for this t INIQUITOUS STATU OK THINGS ? JkV. II The fault lay with a Liberal Government— tho Stout-Yogel adt ministration, undor whose policy the ii present Charitable Aid laws had e been passed. They could not blame s the present Government for the ;- depression in the prices of produce, ■s but he did blame the Government h for the harassing legislation which .. had seriously interfered with labor, e Last session, the first of the present a Parliament, 101 bills were passed, it The session was remarkable for t- many things, amongst others tho I- freat amount of work thrown upon the small handful of Oppositionists n who fought for what they believed d to bo right, and to shape the lcgise lation into something like useful tl form. But they were overwhelmed at every turn, The Shop Hours' o Act, which had been fraught with c trouble everywhere had been passed. 5, Auckland had selected Saturday, d and the shopkeepers wished to alter le the day as they found it did not ie work, but the Government would not permit it. Gisborne, Greytown aifdd| other places bad suffered, and tin?*

lawyers had reaped a harvest. In Greytown fines and costs under tho Act, had amounted to £GO by this nieddliiigand muddling with people's businesses. The ludicrous points too, that were raised with refcrenco to the Act were terriblo; whether a tomato was fruit or vegetable, tho selling of a bottle of lemonade, tho assistance of a, man's wife mid other absurdities. -When they got politicians like the present Jiixisrat OF uiiOi;, who thought he could set the whole world right, let alone this little corner, without going through any practical part of the thing himself, were such absurdities to be wondered at ? The Factories Act, too, had proved harassing to all concerned. An employer recently asked him how he could think manufacturers could tolerate such legislation, ami. staled that his business had bocomjfr such a misery that ho rather be out of it altogether. Coni trary and opposite reading of tho , Act by Magistrates and Inspectors, . were again a source of annoyance. Matters which could not bo termed a sin became a crime, and peoplo ; were taught to despiso the law by 1 tho harassing convictions under \ these measures. The late Mr | Ballanco had said that the burstingup tax would be tho grossest injus- ■ lice to tho Colony. In the United ; Slates lately the legislatuio had ; passed a law to tax its citizens unequally, and in the .Supreme Court—the interpreter of the legislatere of America-had decided that under the constitution the law could not be enforced, but that all individuals must be taxed on tho same basis. The legislature of New Zealand had decided that all men were not equal, that i • FRUGALITY A.VH I'ERSEJEHAXCE ' V** were to be taxed, and what wonder witli such a stale of things that depression existed and labor was scarce, At tho last election the Government had unblushingly used special trains, and the telegraph wires; had held out bribes and promises of billets to persons to get them to retire from election contests. Colonel Eraser had been installed us Sergeant-at-Arms, contrary to law, because ho bad retired from a contest. The Premier had been appealed to, but no satisfaction could be obtained from him, The law was being rode over openly, rough-shod. Could they expect anything but political corruption with such a state of things ? The present Government had exercised political patronage in other ways, and instead of the Speaker appointing the officers of the House, as had been dono for the last twenty years, the Government had taken this upon themselves. Amongst the new messengers were found no less than four hotelskeepers. Again, the Chief Messenger™ had been dismissed for doing his duty, in preventing a member entering the House in prohibited hours, and a Captain in an American sense-imported from Victoria, an "undesirable immigrant," and a connection of tho Premier's, had been appointed to the office. 'The famous Fox correspondence was another matter against which public opinion had been compelled to protest. Tho railways, too, had been tampered with. No doubt they had all heard of the famous "Black List," and a large number of dismissals would have taken place had not tho Premier been compelled to back down. The American svstem .of the Party in power appointing and also dismissing Government i servants was creeping in. The English law laid down that only incompetence or misconduct would bo sufficient causo to dismiss a Civil servant, but iu America the Party in power acted on the principle of TUE SPOILS 10 THE VICTORS. It kid with tho people to say of these systems New' Zealand to adopt. (Applause.) Referring to the.paymenl of £2,000 on the Horo- . whenua Block, he would'ask what

mads tbo Government pay this sur in the face of the promises mad ' that nothing should bo done uiiti the titles wero clear ? Tbo reaso . was not difficult to find. Mr Donah Fgfer, an old colonist and a sup poilrof.tbc Opposition had me tbo tbo Promier on a train, and after little conversation had emerged wit ■ altered views. The Premior hai been opposed to buyingthis block fo settlement, but after this (alk wit Mr Eraser, had supported it. It wa a coincidence that in the Court a /Wunganui, it had been admittei * tbat a certain portion of the sun bad found its way into M .Eraser's pocket. The House hat said, you shall pay no more, but the Premier intended in spite of this t( pay another £2,000 from tin unauthorised expenditure account t but an injunction had been issued and served upon mombors of (Ik Cabinet, restraining, them from this and really £6OOO had been savec *the Colony. Tiie Governmenl Bad been singing the praises of Cheviot, and had said that the) ■ expected to clear some £40,000 by the and recently a mem- " ber of the Ministry hail stated that all the land was let at a rentalof 5 per cent, on the outlay, which he might toll them, with roads, etc, had been £320,000. But now they found that the rents would not be paid, because tbo settlers could not get it out of the land, and / as it was impossible to take the "BRESKS FItOJI AX HUiiIIiAXDEII," tbe taxpayers of the Colony would bavo to suffer. The Po'mahab Estate was another example of a , policy which would land (.hem into a very undesirable position, before long, if they went on as they were , doing. The Colony now possessed the power of dispossessing one set of sottlers, to place another set on the land, and yet (here were thousands . of acres idle, which might be first dealjjyyitli, before going into this riskjpbnsiness. The Minister of Lands, whose present ill-health they ; all regretted, had been said, by one of his colleagues, the other day, to have put 2,513 people on the land without capital, who would otherwise be starving. It was all a piece of nonsense, putting people on hind with very limited capital, and a few years ago, this very Minister of Lands had admitted that it was impossible to settle people on 4 the land without capital. Why, the Cheviot settlers were not even able to pay for their sheep. It was utterly wrong of any Government to mislead men and lead them to believe they could fence, clear and stock land WITHOUT CAPITA!,. He knew of nothing sadder than to see a man, after years of toil, forced to give up a piece of land, because he could no louger carry a load he bad taken up through over-sanguine-ness or the promises of others. If these settlers could not pay their rental tke taxpayers would have to no Government could enforce payment of arrears if it hoped to stand a day. The present Government bad preached tbe gospel of non-borrowing and self-reliance at last election, a gos- ' pel left by the late Mr Ballance, who had said that the capitalist must be identified with the laborer by residence, to fulfil the duties of a colonist. What were they doing ? Displacing the capital of men who had been residing amongst them to take absentee capital at a higher , interest, and this was what MrWard was doing in London. (Hear, hear.) i Mr Ward had said the cry of the • Atkinson Government had been : "Borrow, borrow, borrow! Tax, ' tax, tax!" and the Liberal Government had set its face against this. ' But what had become of this policy? ! -. He contended that the Government , hadbetrayed their promises as foully j as Judns, and borrowing had 'been i in for many pur- ' poses. ' MR EARXSIIAW, \ of Dunedin, speaking the other day, i told his constituents that the borrow- ! 'ing policy was a plunging policy, ' and the Tariff Committee, led on by Mr Ward, had put on an impost ' which was a disgrace to any Liberal , Government. This was the criticism j of a man who had been obliged to i abandon the Government because it \ , had departed from its pledges, and 1 he heartily agreed with Mr Earn- ' sbaw in his remarks. (Applause). All knew the difficulty of managing ' such a commercial business as lending money on land, and losses were \ bound to be incurred which the tax- i payer would have to pay on these 1 -" raised," not borrowed mil- 1 lions. He believed in cheap ( money, having always been a ' borrower and not a lender, and ' wouujjo quite prepared to support 1 any $1 business scheme to obtain ] cheap money. But under the socalled cheap money scheme, they \ 'were asked to pay from one to one- '. and a-half per cent, more than that ' asked in New South Wales. The ' Australian Colonies had the command of cheaper money than they had in New Zealand, • WITHOUT GOVEIIX.MEXT IXTEIiFEKEXCE ' . at all. The Colonial Treasurer of ( New Zealand, they found going, hat c in hand, to the London Chamber of i Commerce, one of the bodies of men ' defined by tho late Mr Ballance, as Political Societies formed to favour their own ends. Well might the Government be termed one of shams | "and delusions. When Mr Ward left t New Zealand, the securities of i New Zealand were at a lower f price than in the previous July, i If MrWard had been enabled to ' advance New Zealand's credit, ? how was it that many Australian ' stocks were higher than New Zea- c landjfldcompared with them New i IZealJra bad really gone back in its t position. He should be glad to give 1 Mr Ward all possible ciedit, for he I was sure he had done his best, but ) hewassorrytosec Mr Ward bad ' J • told tho London Chamber of Com- ' merce that New Zealand had spent J £15,000,000 on railways which now f - t rcct, as only on two occasions had a tbe return reached £3, and was v often less, It was astonishing alio > to find Mr Ward stating that tho c Maori war loan had been recouped ut sjr the sale of Nativo Lands. Again ] with regard to '••' ■ THE SURPLUS . t figures showed clearly and without { doubt tbat Mr Ward bad stated that t there was a surplus of £27o,ooomore C than actually existed, Ho was sure s all would feel grieved at this misre- }' presentation. Mr Ward had told the { \ London Chamber of Commerce that ! ; tho Colony had £3,000,000 of secur- t ; itieson which money could be raised l for certain purposes, Even the New I Zealand Tim would not beliove I that Mr Ward could have made such l ' a'Hjfefl. but the nowswasnow t; coafiFlned from London, In 1891 the n ut public debt of the Colony bad been ? £37,359,500, and since increased at J at the rate of about half a million a year. Were the people in a position ii

l to stand moro taxation! He thought 8 not, and they should not tolerate oi 1 support any set of politicians whe i favored an increase of taxation, and 1 this was what the present Govern- - ment intended doing. The Premier I at Marlon bad stated that the i expenditure on roads and bridges, i under the Public Works Fund had I been £317,000, and this was lower r than for a long time previous. But i they found that in the last year of s Sir H. Atkinson's Ministry £13,000 t less bad been spent, and in the last [ year of Mr Ballancc's Government i it had also been less, Tho Premier ■ had also not alluded to the£lso,ooo I expended on opening up roads on lands for settlement. SEXT SESSION amongst other things they were promised a Pair Kent Bill, the Undesirable Immigrants Bill, and a new edition of the Masters and Apprentices Bill. He should liavo something to say about these, the next time he met them. Ho was not a pessimist. He believed in tho ability of the Country to get through the present crisis,, or even a worse one. He was satisfied, if they put j good men in power, the Country was! able to safely get through, and if j they braced themselves together, j would be able to stem the present j tide of depression.—(Applause.) He [ dill not intend to detain them fur-! tber, but would heartily thank all present, for their attentive hearing,' and would be pleased to attempt to; answer any i|uestions which might; be put. j Mr Buchanan then sat down amidst applause, the Mayor inviting; questions. \ QUESTION'S. j Mr Smith asked what measures j Mr BuehatHii would propose to util- j ise labor 'i j Mr Buchanan said it was the duly; of an Opposition to criticise and not j propound a policy. But lie had no | hesitation in saying that the pioperi settlement of the land and indue-1 ing people with money to conic and! live amongst them would be the best: course to pursue. j Mr Smith: Are you in favour of l women being members of Licensing j Committees r 1 \ llr Buchanan: I hardly think that is a political question. Mr Smith: " Ave you in favor of ladies being members of Education Boards '/" Mr Buchanan: " I should have no objection whatever." Mr Smith: " Are you in favor of ladies being members of Parliament and having" M H.R.'" attached to tlieiv names ?" Mr Buchanan: "No," (applause). Mr W. Booth proposed and Mr T. Moore seconded a hearty vote of thanks to Mr Buchanan for his ] address. j The motion was put and carried, i Mr Buchanan proposing a vote of thanks to the chair.whieh concluded the proceedings. '