Untitled

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1616, 22 July 1887, Page 2

The Government talked of refreachtnent He had told them of tho ao'lon the Opposition had taken m insisting on the' Government edopting a more prudent course than that proposed during the last three years, but the Government now talked aa If they were the apostles of re trenchment. lletronohment indeed: How about the three thouaands pounds which hid been paid m contravention of the law to a person — who was now working m the Government interest m the North Island— for negotiating the purchase of Native lands on commission, and how about £1900 -which had been paid to the wife of a member on behalf of land purchases. Take the expanditare grotesquely advertised m Hansard on account of Mr Lundon and settlement m the north; take the return asked for by Mr Barron Bhowlag the steady growth of expenditure. There oonld ba no doubt that Ministers were grossly extravagant as far as regarded travelling expenses, one minute alone having drawn £900 on Recount of travelling expenses during one year Then there was great extravagance m regard to Ministerial residences, House allowances; etc. He would make a comparison. In 1881, when the Government, of which he was a member, was m power, the totil amount expended oa Ministers waß £10,516, but during the last two yearß it had been £14,710 Take the increase m the Legislative) Council at a time when economy was required, would anyone contend that the fresh appointments made by the present Government wen necessary ? In 1811 this body had cost £4927, but m 1885 this amount had risen to £6631. As regarded Defence there was m 1881, when there was considerable internal trouble, expended on this department, £141,000 from the Consolidated Fund, but this amount had now risen to £182,000, besides £25,000 out of loan on account of harbor defence. This wa* an item whict the country ought carefully to consider. Was it not an enormous amount for i community like this to expend for insurance by way of defence To turn to the Native Department : His colleague, Mi Dryce, had reduced the cost of this deyartment to very near the £7000, permanently appropriated on tha Civil list. In the time of bir Donald McLean, when the Native offica was ats height there waß only expended £1100 m excess of the Civil list. The expenditure is now £3000 m excess of: the Civil list. Mr Rolleston here referred to the fact that Mr Bichardson had taken credit for surveys having been reduced m cost, but this he said wss to be attributed to the fact that either work which needed doing was not boing done, or survey charges had been transferred to other departments. He now came to what he thought was THE OMMAX, Notwithstanding that a quarter of a million had been taken from the Sinking Fund to pay out of loan what had previously been paid out of revenue, and notwithstanding that a windfall of £104,000 bad been discovered by the Sinking Fund Commissioners, there had i been a falling off m customs of £124,000, m stamps of £16,000, and m railways of £167,000. Yet tho Government claimed that they were making savings. If any I of thoae ip the meeting ha 4 rea4 a remarkably clear speech of Mr Mpntgorn. cry— who, nnfortuuately, had to retire from political life— they would have learnt what those saving* were. In moßt cases they consisted of non-expenditure. There was m regard to education, where a saving of £16,000 was claimed, This was on account of children who had not qualified for capitation, and was simply a caie of non-expenditura Another itom was £6000 on account of rewards for disooveries of goldfields. No goldfields had been discovered and, of coarse, nothing was paid; but it was not fair to call tUas amount a saving. In %ho estimatbs thia year Government said that they were making a saving of £150,000. To a large this olaiin was a sham, because a great deal of the alleged saving was nonreourrent expenditure. Therff was tho item of 36QQQ for th.fi MIW p{ ifea

Hinemoa thin would. not occar every year ; £11,000 on account of census was an expenditure inouwed only every four Fears, and £10,000, Indian and Colonial Exhibition; wonld not come again Not only was a great deal of claimed by the Gevernmentno real saving, bin he thonght the state of the finances of the colony wohH turn out far worse than was made to appear, when a large amount of expenditure, which did not appear on the Estimates had to be made. There was the ; amount for the Imperial Institute, the contribution arranged with Admiral Tryon m reference to the Australasian squad* ron, and the amount required to re-instate the postoffice at Wellington, which, he trusted, would not come out of loan The Government proposed to meet the de^ ficiency thus.'--ADDITIONAL TAXATION. B/ means of the Property Tax £75.000, by means of Ouatoms £186,000. Besides this they proposed that £75,000 whloh hadbaen paid to loojl bodies should be dtaoontinuad and that the looal bodies should have to reiiort to increasing their taxes to ralve this amonnt now paid oat of ■ the Consolidated Fond. A progressive property tax was proposed. Propertia ap to £25000 would still have the £500 exemption and pay 316ths of a peany ai now ; but all properties abov« £2500 In value would be subject to no exemption and wonld pay a tax of a penny In the £. He asked them if the Opposition did hot do rightly In or j acting to these proposals of the Government and in '^withholding Its consent to further taxation till all possible retrenchment had been made. It now rested with the electors to say what . should be done. Unless they sent men to Parliament thoroughly determined that retrenchment should be effeoted they would not get it. Retrenchment was a difficult thing to bring about. ; It was all very well to preaoh economy m the abstract, but It wns entirely different . thing, when it cams to be practised, BBrKBNOHMBNTi " - He wouH now briefly state where ha thought retenohmentahonld beeffdottd. * The should begin at the top of the tree. If the Governor'B salary were reduoed it wonld be an earnest of reduotioas lower down, Be thought £5000 would be a quite sufficient salary for the Governor (load applause). Ministers' salaries should '■ be reduced and their perquisites allowances and residences done away with; v jßlx •*••■■-■ ok sev an thousand pounds might ihW fte ' saved here. Coming to the Legislature ho was quite satisfied that the expenses were far m exceaa of what they ought to be, and unfit they <we?e cut down the Legislature would not go m for cutting downright round. Ministers shouldsetthe example of retrenchment, and members,, should also show" that they were prepfred > iomake Baorifices. The honorarium "wW^ m excess of whit it ought to be, £160 waa qnite sufficient for,tbe Lower Houoe and £100 for the Upper Honsa. The Govern- ■>. maot of which hs was a member brought '■'* m a Bill to reduoo the houorarlnm of the Uppor House, but it was thrown oat. It - had been said that this Government bad not economised ; they had brought m measures m the direction of economy from timo to time, bat their efforts had since been reversed. He would give them an example. His colleagoe, Mr Bryce, had found m the Police Department an undue prooortion of highly salaried offioera to the number of men. Mr Bryce put the department on a bettor basis. He reduced a number of the officers m rank and salary, but his Government had not been long out of office before the present one gave their rank back to those who had been reduced, and subsequently their pay. To revert to this subject, thera were other expenditures which might be postponed. SS« «£?**' D «P«ta>ent, which, cost k ±,10,000 a year, was at the present time ■ premature, and gave no commenaurato T advantage for tee amount expended on it. = ''■' THE PUBLIC DBBT, V : y : : The Publio Debt was £37,304,622, and - the Private Debt £52,186,702, or a toial A of £90,000,000. The interest, on the Public Debt waa £1,764,000, which took the whole of the Property Tax, Customs revenue, and two or three other items of revenue, which, if necessary, he could giv« them, to meet.. [A. Voice : Give us them then.] Mr Rolleston said the itema were as follows .-—Customs, £1,285,765 • Property Tax, £310,897; beer duty.' £53 494 ; registration fees, £37,034 ; feoa under Marine Department, £13,071 • miscellaneous, £44,233 ; total, £1,744,493, beins: the interest requiring to be paid as he bad before stated, £1,764,793. In round numbers the colony had to meet interest at Home on the Public and P. rivata Debt to the amount of 4£ millions. Of coarse we did not send cash, it was dona m exports Four and s half millions of our six millions worth of exports were required to pay interest at Home . Those figures should make them ponder seriously. The interest amotinteVf to £3 7b 8d per every man, woman, and child m the colony, and the indebtedness to £62 14s 6d. He would ask them what would any individual do with two-thirds of whose income was repuired to; pay interest ? The first thing he would do .would be to stop borrowing to ourtail every sixpence of aoriPcesMfry expenditure and to increase his prodno. tips, by whioh term he meant that from a farmer's point of view the man would make two blades of grin grow where formerly there was only one; he would raise mor« wool, more grain, Improve his method of cultivation. Let them see wh»t the Government wereaolng. Did they propose to stop borrow, ing. They had the answer m Sir R. Stout's speech, In which he said two jiillions more were wanted to carry on the Otago Central to lake Wanaka and to construoa the Helensville Rtflway. A. more glaring bid for the support of .North and Sooth had never been -made. It came as a mockery from the lips of one who had given the watchword taperiog-off, ' He would like to «»y with regard to the Otaso Central Railway that It was use* less till it was through to the StrathTaicrl plain. It w *a nearly there now and when it was there it might stop for along time to coma* The Helensville Railway miglit stnnd over indefinitely. He hoped that tho people would not ooa«ent to the lmpoaltion of another burden of £80,000 a year on aoooont of these works. Did the Government propose to ourtail the expenditure. Yes : as he had said before they had had a tort of* deathbed ropentanoe and intimated that they oonld retrenoh to the oxtont of £100 000 but aa he had also previously said the. people wanted more than that. It usemed to him. that the PROPOSALS O* THE OjVHRNMBNT Were utterly untenable, The colony «ss sugaring under the weight of taxation and the inoubus cf borrowing, and the Government proponed to tax farther by means of the Customs and Property tax. i ?Lo W0 tOM i hat the Oo «t°aw duties m 1883 were as heavy a 3 those proposed ! -that is hat they would raise as larg« a iqm. Ih*t is all very well bqt the people are not able tq bear it as well now as they werh then. oocht to coneider aerlously In regard to %he«» proposed customs duties. These would fall heaviest on bread-winners «nd fathers ofrwmlios. Each workman would have to contribute from £8 to £12 towards the increase* This was how the pill was to ba glided. They were to be told that a system of protection wonld foster into lira industries that wonld give thorn employment but ha hoped they would not be gulled beoauee' of their wlvas and famlfles, wouXd feel tbe dntUft with greater weight than any othei class m tbe oommunJty. Ho maintained that if any oouotry were inleceattrd ia keeping ap a polioy of Freetrado it was oura, aituated as it was In the midst of islands. He quoted tho definitions of poUtwi {QonoinjgtQ of thf principles. q|

Freetrade, and he stated that Sir Robert Stout had himself a few yoara ago, said In memorable words that " the system of protection was a system of robbery by the arm of the law." They might depend npon it, that any Government tbat used taxation for any other purpose than revenue would land them la endleit difficulties. He had not time to go into the question at length, but he warned them against artificially foroing Industries, aao* asked them to read Henry George's remarks, m regard to what such a state of affairs had done for America. Pauperism was growing at a gigantio rate, | that completely dwarfed the want and misery existing m the Old World. la Philadelphia there were 50,003 pc pie out of employment. The system of proteotion had destroyed the American Mercantile Marine, and called into being ad appallingly gigantic pauperism. Mr Roilettou then referred to the question of Faimade, with which , h« said he had no sympathy; It wvionly another phaie of the gelfighmga that developed at every torn of protection. H« spoke of our trade with the Australian colonies. He said that we exported to New South Wales over £800,000, and to Victoria, which was more protected, £600,000. Goald then be any policy more suicidal than preventing a free interchange of commodities with these colonies? He asked them to look at what happened In 1885. The Government, to please a few people on the Weit Coast .imposed a doty ef 2s on coal. The next morning 2s 6 i was put on every ton of coal ooneumed ia the colony, and the worst of this sort of thing Is that the extra prloe Is a long time In being taken off. Althongh this duty on coal was soon abolished it waa a long time before the inoreased cost of the caal was reduced ; perhaps the extra cost might not all have been taken off yet Tbat was a great evil of protection. It did not pot into the public chest;, what it took ont of tbe people's pockets. There was another way m which this ooal question affeo'ed them. If they shut off Hew Sc n -h Waftfal ooal then veeieis taking produce from here to that colony would hare no baokfrelght of coal, and ebargca would m consequence be raised. It was ptrfecfc nouses sa to talk as had been* done during the past few days of creating a local market for wheat Our prices wera determined by those of the Old Country, and we were not goipg ; within a reasonable period to have such a' population as would make us independent of outside markets. During the last few days he had- been asking a number cf paople what they wanted protected. One, a farmer, wanted a duty on grain when he (Mr RollestoD) pointed out that it would be just as reasonable to Impose a tax on imported batter, became there waa practically none, A tradesman wanted reapers and binders protected, but he (Mr Bolleston) fancied tbe farmers did not want that. With regard to machinery, of the ordinary olaeß, the farmer could get better and cheaper locally manufactured than he oould import, aud it was of no use imposing a duty on such articles as horse-rakes, corn-crushers, etc. Mr Rolleston next alluded to artioles of domestic use, which It was propoced to tax. — Soft goods, calioo, eorafl ur, candles, etc, He said that he thought the real object of all this proposed taxation was that incwaied borrowing might be gone In for and the olony thus led further Into t hi mire, when tbe revenue had been sufficiently increased by the taxation proposed- He thought that Protection was only a cry to gild the pill of furthar taxation ; an appeal to the working •laisei on a false ir gue. IH* 7BOPJBTY TAX. Mr Follestoa next dealt with the Property Tax proposals of the Government whiob were that property ondej £?SGO should have the £500 exemption and pay 33-16 th» of a penny m the & : above £2500 no exemption and a tax of a penny. He did wish to disguise his opinion that this wag a moat mischievout proposal; It wag an appeal to one class as against another. The principle waa a wrong and vicious one. He would tell them the Opinion he had come to after having read the writings of those who bad made a stedy of political economy, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, and other*. The principle laid down was tbat taxation must bear equably after a certain point, the tsrm used being equality of sacrifice on the part of taxpayers, Only that part of a perion's Income not neoessary for obtaining the necessaries of life should be taxed and that was tha reason for the £500 exemption m the Property tax. Bayond that all shou'd bear taxation' •qoally. Any limit to the application of progressive taxation was arbltratry. If they pat on the wealthy a tax double thit of the less wealthy why not treble and quadruple ? It was a dangerous power to place m the hands of aay Government to tax arbitrarily. Another objection was the penalty upon thrift and economy. Sooh a tax was a penalty npon a ' man for having worked harder and saved more than his neighbor, and it was accordingly calculated to discourage thrift. " It was also eminently unfair. Were they to draw a hard and fast line at properties of the value of £2500, and were some 6000 people to be made the subjects of an excessive tax beoame they happened to be on one side of this Hoe 1 Whether they agreed with him or not on the abstraotquestlon, the nutter had also to be considered m it practical aspect. It was eminently inexpedient at the present time. They oould not afford to trifle at the present position of the colony's affairs and they could not afford to take any course likely to prejudice the colony with the outside world and drive •way capital, and. this wm a tendency he was certain the proposed tax would have. Twoqoettlonu Were re' tig much discussed at the pre««nt time, and the Government ware puttiag themselves forward as if they were champions of Lbsral sentiments In regard to them; These were the quattlong of ZDr/OATIQN AKl> THE LAND LAWS. He wished to say that the Government bad no monopoly of liberal sentiments m regard to either. There were men on his aide of the House as strongly Imbued with liberal sentlmentg as on the Government tide, and the dry that had been raised ought not to weigh with the government as against those who opposed them. Was there anyone more determined than 001, Trimblt , Mr Montgomery and himself to aphold the national system of Education and wag there anyone more than himielf who had endeavored to frame land laws dealing fairly with all classes of the community. Tho Land Aot of 1885 was largtly i&e result of his labors. In regard to JSBUGATION. H« did for a moment tuppoie that while •eonomy was ti be carried Into every other branch of the Government service It waa to be exolnded from this Department and he believed that a good deal of economy might be exercised without impairing the efficiency of tho service. Bat he woald be no party whatever to the destruction of the national oystem of Edppatyon, and he wonld rather leave the Ho. pie bet baa tl: ere should auoh a thing pome to pass, He definned the tsrm '* National Education " and went on to deal with the proposals that had been made for reduolog the cost of the system. The first of these was raising the echool age, anJ secondly cutting down the Standards and taking the system of National Kducntion no further than tho Fourth Standard. With regard to the question of age It geemed to him one which guided the general distribution of the EcTooailon Fund. He did not wish to argue tbe question of whether it was better to commence teaching ohildren at the age of six or seven, but he did not believe they coldcut off a sum of £100,000 f rcrn tho TCduoatlou vote and stilt carry on | the system, affording the tame advantage* !

to country districts that it now does. "With regard to reducing Standards the question was to consider whether the result* now aimed al were too high. He referred to Dr Laishley's work on the subjeor, m which comparisons between the vanoos Educational systems of the world were nude, and from which it appeared tSat our Sixth Standard is no higher than the sixth standard m great Britain ; indeed, m some respaots not so high. He asked them if they were prepared so to dimlDiih the oostTof the Education system that their ohildron would be m a. worse position than they would be had they been at Home, He believed la the principle that the State could not neglect the education of the children if it would not faU behind the other nations of the world. Air Roles 1 nn here quoted from several work a inoln 1 g •n American authority, SirLyon Piayfair, Norman Lookyer, and the report of the Oommisiion which recently sat m England to enquire into tba c&usea of the depression. This latter he considered extremely applicable. la it reference w&a made to the supe/lcr teohnioal Education of Continental workmen and the desirableness of provision for .such Education being ra*de m England, He said that be did not think the people of the oalouy, would even under the influence of depression reiolve to do away with their national system of Education. He Ijad no doubt savings could be made but m determining those it would not do to ally themselvea with those inimical to the system, but to work with those who were friendly towards it. The amount that was commonly eet down as being the oost of primary Eduoation was more then coqld be fairly charged towards it. There was £ 10,000 for Industrial schools, a like amount for Native schools and £3000 for the deaf and dumb institution. Tha expenditure on the teaching power was £'290,000. It might bo that -considerable saving might be effect** m regard to the Boards and Ihe way In- which schools were planted up and down tbe oonntry, but it should be the iubjeot of earnest enquiries. Mr Rollesfoa referred to the charge that had been made of the secondary schools costing a great deal of j the taxpayers' money. He "a»fd that of the £58,100 they cost, only £3 703 came out of the public purse, £21,000 of the remainder came from reserves wbioh bad bean set aside for that purpose. Ho was free to confess thnt the position of these secondary ichoola was not all that could be desired, but he could not consent to do away with them. It was their duty to readjust them so that they woald be available to all. He appealed to the people not to cripple the national system of education. It. was anomalous to say that the country could not bear the cost when the drink bill was £300,090, and an enormous amount was spent on luxuries of various kinds. XHB LAND QUESTION. ■ He was of the belief that the existing land law required wise and careful administration, but with a few modifications it was capable of meeting, all the requirements of the settlement of the country. He referred to Mr Ballanca's action m regard to village settlement. He said that much as he sympathised with the intrntion of placing the people. on the land it should be with the authority of Parliament. When Mr Bullance had exceeded his votfl, if. he had come to Parliament and said that ho had done oo believing it to be m the interests of the country no doubt Parliament would have condoned him; but m place of that Mr BallaDce maintained tbat he bad acted with the sanction of Parliament, whereas he had done nothing of the sort. BAIIAVAY MANAGEMENT. Mr Rollesten dealt with the question of railway management at some length. Mr Richardson's. . proposals us to Boards of Advice ho .considered too crude to be accepted by Parliament Ho had considered the matter, and had come to the conclusion that a Board should be established similar to that m Victoria- There it was composed of departmental experts, and nothing could be done unless nuggested by them. He thought if a Board consisting of expert heads of departments, assisted by a Parliamentary Committee appointed the first session of every Parliament were appointed here it would meet tbe case' c : '" CONCLUSION. [". He was very hopeful of the future of ihe colony seeing the movement which was taking place to remedy the evils that had arisen under tbe borrowing polioy of the past. It was necessary to retrenoh from the highest to tbe lowest, iostopborrowlng, andco help oi as far as possible the powc| of production, to make the exports increase, and at no distant period the colony would work round. It had been working round at a remarkably rapid rate during the last few years, had it not been for theoounterbftiancing and crippling effect of the financial polioy. , The production of wool had m a few years Increased .by three million poundß, and nearly a pound more par. sheep was produced; Tbe property assessment had greatly increased, as had also tbe number of acres dndet cultivation. If they were determined that they would have co more flash policies, tke future of the colony was a bright one. He hoped the electors would' exercise wise discretion m tbe ohotce of men to represent them. He did not want them to return him unless they thought he was the best man. He did not want to ro to the House exoopt with the good will and baoklpg of the electors, to enable him to go and attack work of the, most disagreeable sort m the next Parljrment. Mr Rolleston, who had been , listened to attentively throughout, and who had been frequently applauded ducing the delivery of his speech, which ocoupiei about two hours, resumed his seat amidst applause. f . . Several questions were asked and answered. Mr D. H. Brown proposed a vote of thanks which was sedonded by Mr Llll., Mr M. Bruce wished to propose a vote of thanks and confidence, but unmlstakeable signs of disapproval were .made by many of those m the hall. Mr Rolleston expmsed his disinclination to accept a vot6 of confidence as he desired the electors to record that at tbe ballot-box. He had a very good idea of I the feeling there was towards him' m the ball, but he would be sorry for arljf kind'y expression to Interfere with the uleotors reoording their opinions at the ballot-brx The Mayor put the motion In regard to the vote of thanks to tbe meeting. There were a good many cries of'" No/ and the Mayor called fcr a show oF hands'. Only one was held op against' ihe "motion. Mr Rolleaton returned thanks and the customary compliment to the chair brought the meeting to a olose. ....