Untitled

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1520, 16 August 1912, Page 6

unlil tho Government parly had had a chance of proving its sincerity in its desire fur reform, he, for, one, would not condemn them.

A BACK-BLOCKS MEMBER. PLEA. FOR ISOLATED SETTLERS. Mr. C. K. WILSON (Tauinaranui) admitted that he was one of tho "political iledglingsr" Mr. Wilford had spokeu about, but he would rather bo a fledgling Chan a degenerate. He discussed tho causes of tlio country's prosperity, and ho attributed most of tho progress to the changed condition of the world's markets in regard to (.he demand for our produce. :We had too much legislation in New Zealand, and too much borrowing. In real icforms the pace needed acceleration. The greatest question before the country was the, land settlement question. Any man worth his name wanted to make his home his own.

Mr. Unwell: They've got to get it first. Mr. Wilson: And we're going to help him to get it. Mr. Russell ventured another interjection a little later.

Mr. Wilson: 1 wish tho member for Avon would leave me alone. I was speaking to a newspaper editor down town the other day, and I said, "Why do yon always write such lies about Hire member for Avon!'" and lie said. "God help him if we told the truth about him!" (Uoroarious laughter.) He went on to draw a vivid picture of the 'let pf the backblocks settlers in his electorate, where people, were isolated by the lack of communication, and cut oft' from nil the benefits of civilisation by the lack of passable roads. People there were also hampered by the monopolistic steamer service on the Wanganui River. This infamous monoply had always been bolstered up by the late Government, and tin agreement had been made by the Government to perpetuate this monopoly for another three years. Ho advocated land- settlement strongly, saying that the Government were out lor settlement. No Government in this Parliament could liold office for six months if it did not grapple with the land problem. The Government were not standing for the big landowner, but for tho small farmer.. He did not think that one-sheep land, which was producing all that it could produce under the control of a largo owner, should even bo acquired for closo settlement, whilo- enormou.-. tracts of Innd were lying idle, producing nothing. He complained of the expenditure of extravagant sums on public buildings iu tho cities,'whilo there were roads in. the back-blocks to be made. The amount spent in big buildings in tlio last few years, some .£700,000, would metal 1000 miles of road in the back country. Most of the back-country roads were such as to make mail coach traffic impossible; the mails were now carried by packhorses. The neglect of the late Liberil Government in the matter of making roads had cost the lives of many men and women, and children in the back country. Another question• affecting the back-blocks was'that of'education. .This country had a. grand system .of education, but it was .for the towns and not for the bock-blocks. The',' children of the back-blocks wero taught in tents during the. cold winter months. Ho'had seen these children sitting np to their ankles in mud—ten, twenty, or thirty of them in a tent—being educated by a Liberal Government! Gentlemen who w-cnt. about -the. towns in patent leather boots could not know anything about these deplorable conditions. This sort of thing would have to cease. The member for Lyttelton had said that education had been mad© free from the primary school right up to the university. Tho, bn'ck-blockers—the real back-blockers —cpiilcl not (jet schools. They had been compelled to put their bands into their pockets and find tho cost of their own schools. Then tho late. Government had had the audacity to refuse to pay rent for the buildings that had been provided. Ono result of the past Native land policy had been to reduce many Maoris to a condition far below that of useful citizenship. He commended the Minister for Finaneo for tlio Budget he had brought in. Mr. Wilson declared that when the Budget was read, tho member for Avon shrank down into his seat and iiad not yet recovered. The member' for Christchurch North' lmd never had such nn uncomfortnbto hour in his life. These men dared hot oppose the .sane, progressive, Liberal proposals contained in the Budget. Its proposals commended themselves to tho people of this country, and would do a great deal to better their condition. The Opposition did not put up a speaker to reply to' Mr. Wilson, and it was left to the occupants of the Government benches to carry on- tho debate.

THE MEMBER FOR MATAURA. A SANE SET OP PROPOSALS. Mr. G. J. ANDERSON (Mataura) said that their friends on the other side had apparently thrown up the sponge; Mr. Isitt: Tell you about that presently. Mr. Anderson discussed the suggestions of the member, for Wangamii concerning labour problems, and he was inclined to believe with tho member for Hutt that the labour unrest now manifest was only a symptom of ".social evolution." He was one of those who believed that it would be a good business proposition for tho State to open a bank to do banking business under ordinary methods to brenlc up the present banking monopoly. The latest Budget gave a fairer statement of the country's position than any Budget 3ve had read, and he had read most of the Budgets for the last 30 years. Members of the Opposition, while compelled to approve of certain portions of the policy announced, had not given the Government credit for disinterestedness. Yet one of the most magnanimous' things that had ever been dono by any Government had been done by this Government in tho appointment of the High Commissioner. The Government was not , being given much credit for magnanimity; they might as well -have continued the old policy of giving offices to their own lriends. He had always been in favour of the graduated land tax, but he vtould have liked to'see the minimum value of holdings to which the tax should apply reduced from .£30,000 to .£25,000 or even When moneys were voted by the House for expenditure on road.;, there was no guarantee, that. they would be spent wisely. If the money so spent had been properly spent, a great deal more good would have been done. The suggestion that local bodies should be subsidised according to their rates was a very good one. There was no necessity, in iiis opinion, to go into any elaborate system for amending the local government law. He favoured.the scheme for tho purchasing of land in advance of railway construction. If it had been adopted it might have prevented many of the blunr ders in choice of routes that had been perpetrated. For instance, he beleived the Caatral Otago line would have been one of the best paying lines in the country if it had been built, along a reasonably good route. Ho was a firm believer in tho freehold tenure, and he was glad to hear that the Government were going to push ahead land settlement. If fo, ho urged that the Government ought to direct their attention to some of the cheap lands in the south, instead of the dearer lands of Canterbury aiwl the North Island. He approved also of the scheme for workers' homes in the -country. Perhaps the Legislative Council ought to be abolished, but in so far as it was an improvement on the old system he approved of the proposal for reform of the Legislative Council. Especially ho approved of the voting being taken by proportional representation. He did not see much hope of reducing the cost of living while the present humanitarian legislation was l>eing maintained. He had enough confidence in (lie Prime Minister to know that the Government would rodnee taxation if possible. Certainly iho Government would never reduce it one year and impose a great deal more next year. He was proud to belong to a Government which had introduced such a sane set of proposals as those embodied in the Budget. The House rose at 10.50 p.m., on the motion of Mr. T. K. Sidey (Dunedin South).