MR IVESS AT THE TOWN HALL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1248, 8 May 1884, Page 2

MR IVESS AT THE TOWN HALL.

Mr Joseph Ivess, M. H. B. for Wakanui, addressed a well attended meeting in the Town Hall last evening, the chair being occupied by his Worship the Mayor. The Chairman in opening the proceedings said he was pleased to see so large a gathering, as it showed that an intelligent interest in political matters was taken in the district. He need not say anything of Mr Ivess, who was so well known ot them, nor was there need for him to bespeak a patient hearing for the member for Wakanui.

Mr Ivess said that he had purposely delayed meeting his constituents till this late period, because so few important questions had been discussed during the last session of Parliament, which he considered had been one of the most barren ever known in New Zealand. Lately, however, a greater interest had been shown in political matters, and there could be no doubt we were on the eve of great constitutional changes. The Opposition and Ministerial parlies had declaradjtheir respective polic es, and the representatives of the people could declare which aide they would fallow. Referring to the work of last session, Mr Ivess said that it would be remembered that Major Atkinson, to the great surprise of most people, reversed his tactics of the previous session and within a few days of the opening of Parliament stated what measures the Government intended to bring forward. The Financial Statement, too, was delivered unusually early, within three weeks of the commencement of the session. This might seem strange to them, but he (Mr Ivess) considered the reason of this action was that the Government had a strong majority at their bask, while in the first session they were not bo independent. He considered that those members who did not keep their promises were criminally responsible, and he could assure them that every pledge he had made at the time of his election had bean faithfully kept. He would now briefly review the work of last session, but would not detain them Ion?. There were 137 public Bills introduced, and of these 78 were dropped or otherwise disposed of. The House sat in all 432 hours, giving an average of 4J hours to each member. Ot the Bills introduced and passed, perhaps tho most important was tho new Bankruptcy Act, which was a great improvement upon the old Debtors and Creditors Act. The Official Assignees were appointed to take the place of trustees iu bankruptcy, but he thought the Government had made a muddle in their selection of men to All these positions. As an instance of thin he might refer to the appointment of Mr James Ashcroft, who had been editor of tike Otago Daily Times, and had made himself a martyr in connection with dummyism in that province. No sooner was that gentlsman elected to the office than he-appointed as solicitor Mr Dick, the son of the present Colonial Secretary. Then there was the property Tax Bill, which gave the Government power to put jl in the £ on that tsx. .-He had opposed that Bill, which was carried by a majority of 10, because Jw was of opinion that there was no need for further taxation, as the financial difficulties could be met by judicious retvouclf.uent on the put qf thcCf)vernmeijt. When th§ EstittjjiU.# ,

■ought down they were opposed by Mr ‘-t rilliam Swanson, a strong supporter of te Government, who moved that they be .duced by L 50.000; but Major Atkin- . >n refused to accept this, and made the . tat er a party question. The Treasurer, i spite of the indignant remonstrances of it John Hall, would not alter a figure of tie Estimates, and after a spirited debate e gained a victory, thinks to the wrnw ..-r; lajority who supported him. How the iolonial Treasurer, assisted by Seed, ras taking up the question of Civil Serice reform, and he (Mr Ivess) argued hat if retrenchment was necessary now t was equ dly necessary last session. Che •' nannerin which the Estimates were forced ihrough the House showed how a block role could be used. Another measure of great importance was the Land Bill brought in by Mr Rolteston, the object of which was to place the pastoral lauds of the colony under the leasing system, and to do away with the purchasing clause introduced by the Legislative Council in the Act of the previous year. Having been always opposed to the leasing system, he (the speaker) had voted against that Bill. He believed that the substitution of leasehold for freehold tenure and the continual tinkering in connection with our land laws was damaging to the interests of settlement. ' The Bill of Mr Rolleaton they would remember was carried in the Lower Houae by the easting vote of Mr Hamlin, the Chairman of Committees, and was lost in the Council by the casting vote of the Speaker. The present Ministry could not be said to have administered the lands of the colony satisfactorily, as over 21,000 acres ef the unalienable reserves had been sold to r friends of those.in power. Mr Ivess then went into statistics ta’.en from tho Crown Lands Guide for the of showing . that. New,Zealandcontaiuad 64,000,000 acres. Of this there had been sold 14.000. 16,000,000 belonged to the Maoris, or Europeans who had purchased from them, so that there still remained for disposal 34,000,000 acres. It was said that 9,000,000 acres of this are worthless, showing that there are 25,000,000 acres of good land available for settlement. From a recent return he had gathered that the 14,000,000 acres which have been sold were thus held : 40,000 people held 3,024,766 acres, valued at L 7 per acre, or ' L 20,000,000 ; 2,871 people held 2,796,000 acres,' valued'at L 6 per acre, or L 16,003,000; 260 held 7.000. acres, valued at 38s 6d per acre, or L 13,334,181. Of the 40,000 who held the three millions and odd acres, 20,000 held from 1 and under 50 acres, and the other 20,000 held from 60 to 600 acres. From this he signed that it was the smaller holders who sustained the taxation of the colony. If those who held from 600 to 10,000 acres were compelled lo cultivate their lands the same as the smaller farmers our exports would be greatly increased, our population would multiply, and our taxation diminish. He bad always advocated a progressive land tax, which had been a plank in his platform at the time of his election, and he had never wavered in his opinion. Great mischief was wrought by the absentee class, who lived in luxury at Home from the receipts of rents drawn from the colony. If they came to New Zealand and worked their land they would be heartily welcomed, but Government should make them understand that when a mm bought a piece of land he could not do what he liked with it. He hoped . those present would not think he was advocating communistic doctrines, bat he was clearly of opinion that these absentee proprietors should contribute to the revenue, and he would use his best endeavors to get such land laws passed as would induce a better class of settlers to Immigrate to the colony. If this were done there would be no necessity to go to the English market for loans to support them. This brought him to the question of borrowing. The public and private debt of the colony amounted to L 6 ),000,000, and to pay the interest on this sum required LB,OOO, which meant the labor of 32,006 ' ' men every day in the year except Sunday. That the chief burden of this tax fell upon the producing classes there could 1 be no doubt. The manner in which the money obta nod from these loans was expended was a disgrace to the ' colony. Mr Wynn-Williams had told the electors of Heathcote that he was an independent m mbor, and that ha was opposed to borrowing. Yet be had gone into the lobby with the Colonial Treasurer on the four million loan question, although he had previously spoken against it. This was to him (the speaker) a paradox, but perhaps the Heathcote people could understand it better. Mr Ivess then quoted statistics to show that the public debt of New Zealand was greater than that any of . the Australian colonies, ihe respective amounts were:—Victoria, L22,105,202J... New South Wales, L 18,721,216 ; Queensland, L 13,125,350; South Australia, L 12,472,600; Western Australia,L6U-,000; Tasmania, L 2,050,600; New Zealand, L 30.235,711, less sinking fundL2,462,496. However, there was a silver lining te this < dark cloud, far the producing power of New Zealand was proportionately far . greater than that of the other colonies, - as would be seen from the following figures : —ln 1882 che total produce of ; wheat in Australia was 20,645,618bu5he15," whereas in New Zealand above 10,270,291 bushels were grown in that year. The produce of oats and barley in favor of Australia was 26,768,376 bushels, and New Zetland produced no ie s than 21,528,182 bushels, which was only about one-fifth less than the whole of the other colonies put together. In the matter of sheep we were ahead o| every colony but. . New South Wales. He gave them these statistics to show'that with good government there was a chance of extricating ourselves from out present embarrassing position. He was strongly opposed to any further borrowing, at any rate for the present. The incomplete lines of railway in the colony must be finished, or otherwise settlement would be seriously retarded, but the money for these works should be found from some ether source besides loan. Major Atkinson had staled that of the L 17,000,000 borrowed the North Island had only received L 300.000 more than it was entitled to, taking the European population on a basis for calculation. The Treasurer, however, had neglected to tell them what was the proportion of interest on that L 17,000,000 paid by each island. A return furnished on the motion of Mr Macandrew showed that the revenue contributed by the North and South Islands for the year ending 31st March, 1882, was as follows:—North, L 928,276 j South, Ll,sl9,462—making a difference, in our favor of L 591,187. The loan, if expended in proportion to revenue, should have been North Island, L 5,969,893 ; South island, L 11,180,093. The expenditure for the North was L 7,017,638, and the South L 10,122,348. The population of the North Island on the 31st December, 1881, was 197,720 J while that of the to population the North had received lof the loan the excess of L 1,057,973, while s—the Middle Island had under proportion no less than L 1,067,746. As a proof of the inconsistency of some members in recording their votes on the loan; he might refer to Mr Smith’s motion for the distribution of L 6.000 among (he public! libraries of the colony Large sums were voted for nonproductive works, add yet when the smalt amount he had mentioned was asked for the ‘ •improvement of the people, it v4s opposed in some quattorA : He had vote 1 tot cue grim., hh wie glad to say thac our Ooiiuty Ijbranq; hyf benefited by it The Question of decentralisation had been! dietUsseq considerably of late, and- it WWUd oer» taihly be a nn-minent plank In tip Opposition 1 platLru) duiug the oomin| ■ - J ' ' ~~ M

• session. Ur Montgomery *o resol. tioni on ;• tM» subject were defeated last ySir by a ,■ ’ majority of 10, but sines th(*t time the people had bestirred themselves and the evil of centralising every fnnction of go* ' Vernment in Wellington was being generally recognised. .No one was more anxious to preserve the consolidation of the colony than himself, but the time bad arrived when some alteration of the present system should be carefully considered. The promises given at the time of abolition had been shamefully broken. The local bodies were promised £ for £ as to endowment from the land fund, for rates,.but the Government had subsequently considerably reduced that guarantee. Ilad it not been for these - pledges abolition would never ha ve taken places. Tbe question of the evening was no doubt tb.e recent increase in tbe railway tariff, which had created a great stir in Canterbury and Otago. Mujor Atkinson said that the railways must provide interest on the cost of their construction, - and if they did sot ha (the speaker) considered it was in consequence of gross mismanagement of the department, ‘J he * tariff had been raised st a most inopportune time, and the settlers in Canterbury had suffered heavy loss. - It was certainly never intended to place the power of taxing in the hands of the Government, - t ■ yet this was' what had been done by the raising of the railway rates. In 1882 steps bad been taken to get tbe grain tariff reduced, and certain members had taken to themselves special credit for having brought this about.' He could assure them that he had taken the matter in band before it was brought before the House, and had waited upon Mr Isaac Wilson concerning a motion, and that . . gentleman had asked for 24 hours to consider whether he would bring in a motion. He would read them the motion of the member for Eaiapoi, which was as follows :—“ That, in the opinion of this House, encouragement should be given to local productions for export or otherwise, by a readjustment of the rates of railway might. Tfast,it appears to this House that the freight to agricultural produce is too high, and that the railway tariff should he readjusted, with a view to a substantial reduction, before next grain season.” This was carried, and now the Govern-

aent had ravened the decision of Parliament and nisei the tariff to an extent

which was most unfair to Canterbury and

' Otago. From a return recently published - he found that the grain carried by all the railways in the colon} for the year ending March 31, 1883, amounted to 367,428 tons, of which the Canterbury and Otago .railways carried 343,398 tons, leaving only 24,030 carried by all other railways in the colony. Another return laid before the House last year showed that the railways of Otago and Canterbury, after pay- - - < ing expenses, yielded L 4 8s 7d per cent '!/ for interest on cost of construction, as ' against L2 Is 7d for the rest of the railways of the colony. From these figures ■ it .would be seen that, after calculating fire per cent on the cost of making our nilways, the loss sustained in the working of the Otago and Canterbury lines was ‘l/41,3>9, and £>122,000 on those of the net of the colony. We had no objection to oar railways paying a fair rate of inter. '• eat on the cost ul construction, but we " strongly objected to being bled for the c-benefit of the North Island. The action of the Government had created a bitter ' feeling, and it was evidently the policy of '*■ ‘the Premier to play off the North against ■ the South, but he (Mr Ivess) did not think this would meet with much support.

’ What was wanted was the establishment of a non-political board of management, " so that the railways might be worked on purely commercial respect New South Wales formed a contrast to New Zealand. The cost of the railways in the former colony was - 1/13,304,640. The total public debt is L 18,721,219. The annual interest amounts to 1837,138. '1 he net profits accruing from the working of their railways amount to L 787,294, leaving only L 49,836 to bp taken from the'consolidated fund to pay their interest on loans. The railway tariff in New South Wales was lower than ours, and the Colonial Treasurer might do ' worse, than send somebody there to study the system in that colony, as our own .' railway management needed improvement. Unleu the tariff were speedily revised be ventured to say the receipts would show a falling off, instead of the increase that was anticipated. There could be no doubt that the colony was passing through a . season of serious depression, aud it behoved os to consider what was the cause

of this. He was of opinion it was due / 'to (1) The cessation of the conatrucion " of pablio works, which h*s been the means of throwing a lot of superfluous labor on the market. (2) The heavy drain upon

our resources to provide interest on the ' gigantic, debt of-the colony. (S) The cost - of maintaining an overgrown Civil Feryice. (4) The great depression in the " money market, caused by the Banks - withdrawing from the colony a co t'd ■- able amount of funds, which had pre- " Viously been at the disposal of their ous- ■ tomere for advances and discounts.' Mr Ivess gave figures to show that from 1878 to 1880 the discounts at the Banks hid

. been reduced from L 7,000,000 to 1*4,500,000, and the overdrafts from f ‘ XT,COO,€OO to L 6,5 'O,OOO. This sudden had naturally caused the ; failure of many firms, and hence the da- - - preesion. Since 1880 the Banks have f. \ considerably increased their advances, i' 1 ". and- they stand now L 1,000,000 above *' what they did in 1878, being L16,000,0C 3, ft" bat the discounts were only L 4,500,000, ; as against L7,000,€00, but the overdrafts inoreaaed" to L 10,500,000. When that vast tracts of country in s,j'j ibis young colony were waiting for the it was plain that some remedy befound for the existing- depresMajor Atkinson was no doubt right down the cause to the fall in wool, speculation in mining generally, but when he M that the remedy w<s in onr own l(tbo speaker) considered that S^ffM^|^See'--wse; fate's! man: standing on the > water. The had assumed that the IfflifflXßW'ta'ken by" the wage earning class Bnga Bank had been invested ,'but it was to be feared it to obtain the necessaries of |H|mnOi’ to the remedy, she:’'' (the, frould snpport the retrenchment Holmes. The reduced,' BMttlahol ished, the hon o- ‘ of lfcbe»*«ilJpper made tholamwgsmatibn ;the Government * had’not tortokee'^tapd; upon. IKIIIIIIibM OVi TTrr ~ L House* hai -which of ineapablea, 1»e eleotive.' Mr to the fedora* BIMBMpHra had said kt the wbuldnot bs toft' >Tbe people of this be lasged on ■MelS®»®Blßh?** l»oS' time when rtgsrdedstbis colony H^^MlrßlSSWTftf r <f flrfrtfri(f ijcfodii'bvbht the I '**jr u — the ' ,ito the whole be MMBMMHMmHBBB question, would during-the . ipwfc oi £|>r. ■ '> ,

which was the Mount Somers railway extension. Alihough this railway was not in the Wakanni district, the matter was one which affected the whole of the County, and he had been invited by the County Council and the Monnt Somers Road Board to do his best to secure the extension being made before the commencement of the gr«in season. In response to this he had waited on the Minister fer Public Works, and that gentleman had promised to take the matter into consideration. However, the member for Ashburton, Mr E. G. Wright, stepped in and asked for a Royal Commission, urging that there were conflicting interests at stake. The Minister turned a somersault, and granted Mr Wiight’s request, and ultimately Mr Bell was appointed to report, but although soma four months had elapsed, the report was not yet published. The delay had caused considerable inconvenience, and at the risk of offending the friend; of the member . for Ashburton lie (the speaker) would say that the one man who had not dune his duty towards his constituents and the colony was Mr E. G. Wright. Royal Commissions had since the time of Sir Julius Vogel cost the colony £30,000, and to appoint a Commission to decide the question of a route for . the Mount Somers railway was sufficient to bring the system into well deserved contempt. During last session be had brought forward a Roads through Private Properties Bill, and carried it through the second reading, but it was unfortunately slaughtered

among the other innocents iu. the close of the session. Then he brought in b:S

Elections Petitions Bill, to meet the case of his former opponent, who had been mulcted in heavy costs, L7C9, through the defects of our electoral la s, and the blunders of a deputy Returning Officer. Major Atk<nson opposed the Bill, but promised to bring in a measure dealing with the question at issue next session. b e (Mr Ivers) declined this, and the Bill was defeated by seven votes, three members of the Government party voting for it, and not a single member of the Opposition against it. He would introduce the Eli again this session. In conclusion, Mr Ivess thanked them for the patient hearing that they had given him. He had done his duty in the past, and he was sure that he had been of some service to the district. He had labored under a disadvantage as he belonged to the Opposition ; but he wished to pay a tribute to Mr Rolleston, who had always given any matter presented to him his earnest consideration. Mr Ivess concluded by saying that he intended to seek their suffrages at the next general election, and would address his constituents again on his return from Wellington. Mr Ivess resumed his seat amidst applause, and on the Mayor intimating that the member was ready to answer any questions that might be put to him, Mr Venables asked if Mr Ivess knew that the Government spent L4OO for conveying Southern members to their homes. Would he have any objection tj travel by an ordinary instead of a special train!

Mr Ivess was -aware the Government had provided a special train, but he him--rlf bad objected on principle to avail himself of it, aud had returned home by the ordinary train. Mr A. Orr wished to know if the result of the Mount Somers Railway Commissim had yet been published ?! Mr Ivess said that although four months had elapsed since Mr Bell’s visit, and although Mr Mitchelson had promised a decision within a faw weeks, nothing had been heard of the report. He presumed the Government intended to keep it secret until Parliament met. Mr H. Friedlander t-sked if it was not usual for reports of Royal Commissions to be laid on the table of the House prior to their publication ? Mr Ivesa replied in the affirmative, hut he had understood an exception would be made in this particular case.

Mr 6. Gates asked if Mr Ivess would he be in favor of reducing the number of members of the Lower House ?

Mr Ivess thought that the present num her of rep esentative* was excessive.

Fifty would be sufficient to do the work, and it would lessen the cost of Government.

Mr G. W. Andrews naked if Mr Ivess would be in favor of the honorarium being reduced to a guinea a day. Mr Ivess thought a guinea a day too low, as it would limit the representatives to one class. He considered the expenses necessarily incurred would not be mot by a guinea a day. Should the honorarium be reduced to that amount, however, he would be quite willing to submit. Everybody knew that L2OO was not a sufficient consideration to a business man who had to leave bis home during the session. In answer to other questions, Mr Ivess said—That ho was in favor of women having votes on the local option question; that he did not think that New Zealand ivould derive any advantage from a federal union with Australia; and that " tinkettling at Divine services might be left to be dealt with under the Borough By-laws.

On the motion of Mr G. W. Andrews, seconded by Mr A. Orr, a vote of thanks for his address was tendered to Mr Ivess, and a similar compliment having been paid to his Worship the Mayor for presiding, the meeting separated.