MR BUTTON'S ADDRESS TO THE ELECTORS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3203, 4 October 1881, Page 2

MR BUTTON'S ADDRESS TO THE ELECTORS.

The Theatre Royal was well filled last night to hear Mr F. Sutton, M.H.R. His Worship the Maydi? deoupied the , chair, and briefly opened the meeting. Mr Sittton said that, under the peculiar circumstances in which Napier stood in political nutters at the present time, he thought it his duty to explain to, his old constituents bis. actions during tide jiast session. He had foiind himself during the session just past in opposition to the other Hawke's Bay members oftener than during any previous session. Upon all important questions Mr Ormond and he had voted on opposite sides, and he had frequently found himself in opposition to both Mr Ormond and Captain Kussell. It was only due to his constituents that he should give some explanation of this with as little delay as possible. He proposed during his speech to refer principally to the two most important measures of last session— the local government proposals of the Government, and the Representation Bill. The session had been referred to in the press, as a barren one, but he could inform them better upon that point. The cry of "nothing done" was the.usual cry at the end of every session. During last session there were seventy-four acts passed 5 prominent among them were the Chinese Immigrants Bill and the Customs and Excise Bill. The principal object of the latter bill was to relieve many of the necessaries of life from taxation j the only duties imposed had been upon ham, bacon, and jams. The principal object of imposing a duty upon imported hams and bacon was not so much to raise revenue as to prevent the importation of diseased meat, and as cheaper hams and bacon could be produced in ihe colony than imported the duty did not affect the revenue. There were also the Diseased Cattle Bill, the Drainage Bill, the Fencing Bill, the Destitute Children's Bill, the Railway Constructions Bill, the Regulation of Elections Bill, the Representation Bill, the Town Districts Bill, and a host of others. He did not look upon the good done during a session as indicated by the size of the Statute Book. He had known as many as 150 bills passed in a session, many the results of hasty legislation. It had been said that the Government had been so weak that they could not carry their measures. There had always been a weak Government in New Zealand. A weak Government had been the order of the day since the early days of the colony. The present Government had not been so weak as Ministries during previous sessions. The present Government had passed one of the mostimportant measures, the Representation Bill, without almost any alteration, and they had carried out their programme more fully than almost any previous Government had been able to do. Last year Mr Ormond had criticised the property tax very severely, urging that it would depopulate the colony, and hinder capital from coming into it. During last session he followed this up by moving a vote of want of confidence in the Government. They knew the result of that motion, how it was defeated by four, and the result anticipated did not come to pass. Then there was the Local Government Bill of Sir George Grey —and such a bill; if it had been brought up again it would have been laughed out of the House. It was one of the most impracticable bills ever introduced. Then there were the proposals of Messrs Murray, Macandrew, Montgomery, and Saunders, with a windup by Mr Ormond. Mr Ormond's proposal appeared to be that County Councils should be abolished, the Road Boards continued, with a Council presided over by a Superintendent, and to this body should be relegated the powers of the Waste Lands Board, the Education Board, the Hospital Committee, &c. This was, according to Mr Ormond, to be the panacea for all the evils that existed. He did not think that Mr Ormond would suggest these proposals at the Wairoa. He did not believe that such a body could properly manage waste lands, education, and hospital matters; there would be an increase in the expenditure, and a decrease in the public confidence. He did not believe in the principle of nominated boards, but if they considered their constitution they would find that it was composed of such men as would be sent there if the board was elective. There was a feeling of confidence under the present system that did not exist under provincial government. The difficulties in the surreys had arisen from their being carried out under different principles in the different provinces. For some time they had been carried out under one head, and conducted under one system. It seemed to him that the real explanation of the wish to return to provincialism was a desire to escape county rates. Mr Ormond mentioned in his speeches that the local bodies should receive substantial endowments. That was all right—but where were they to come from ? No matter what sort of local Government they had they must maka up their minds to depend upon themselves. It was very strange, but he had not seen in any papers except the Hawke's Bay ones, any desire expressed for a return to provincialism. Of the 400 petitions presented to the House last session not one was in favor of provincialism, not one againet the property-tax, and let provincialists fan their desires aa much as they could they could not kindle any publia enthusiasm. When he last met them he told them he would be able to give a fair support to the present Ministry. He had not given an uncompromising support to them—he had spoken candidly and straightforwardly, and in the main the Ministerial measures met his approval. The House forced the Ministry to reduce the expenditure, and they had saved about £200,000 or £230,000 last year in salaries, by dispensing with the services of some officers and by the 10 per cent, reduction in all salaries. The latter was very unpopular. It was always unpleasant, even in business, to take a man "downa peg" in that way, but it had to be done, and the Government did their duty fearlessly. They were going to reduoe to the extent of auother £80,000

by the amalgamation of certain, offices. Tlie position in. wtiich ne stciod with, regard to the other Hawke's Bay members did not result from any change of policy on his part. They would remember that the burden of Mr Ormond's speech last year was the property tax. He (Mr Sutton) had always avowed himself a supporter of the property tax. The Government had within*"" the last few days of the session passed a bill authorising the collection at the tai.. Hμ was passed by a large niajdrity, arid fchT Gover'rinierit would Have iid difficulty at any time in passing it. Mr Orniond objected to the property tax as a gririding tax. Hβ would ask whom did it grind ? (A voice i MrOrmorid). If the rich' tfere released from taxation He would, like .to ask wh'opi thfey we're ,to, \&k He' tHau'ghfc the , p'tbp'efrtiF tax was grinding only to those whom it was right to grind. The Government should look to those who had possessions, and tax them. Mr Ormond had further said that the present system of local government was inadequate. He (Mr Sutton) had been intimately connected with the present system of. local government from the first, and the result of that experience was a belief that the county system was quite adequate. It was said that a central government could not properly deal with local matters; out of the 175 measures introduced last Se'saidh there were , very few \vhich we're , matters f'di* local bodies to deal with. As to the provision for the redress of grievances, it had been his duty to examine every petition which was presented to the House, and 90 out of every 100 were matters which could only be dealt with by the House. There were petitions relating to native land, .suph, petitions aS Messrs Brogden'sj aiid petitions in reference to land taken by railways, &o. Such petitions conld not be dealt with by local bodies. It had also been said that petitions from insignificant persons had not adequate attention paid to them, but he did not think that influential people could bring so much pressure to bear upon the House as they would be able to dp upon a Provincial Council* " He had already eaidiirp reference to cditnty government that were efficiently conducted, but they would be Bufp'ris'ed to idafn that the county of Hawke's Bay had kept more miles of metailed road than the Provincial Council had done in all the three counties of Hawke'e Bay, Waipawa, and Wairoa. During the five years of its existence the Hawke's Bajr County Council Had al§6 spent fdur , time's as miich inoiiey on bridges as the Provincial Council had during its whole term of office. He hadhad the pleasure of devoting much of his time-—generally three or four days of each week, when in Napier — to county matters, and he believed that ftiL) County Councils and Road Boards together would be the only system' of local government the country required. Some corners would require rubbing off, and where the two bodies ut present clashed, their several functions would require some little adjustment; and then their duties would be fulfilled more satisfactorily and even more cheerfully than at present. Hβ had always advocated this view. What he had always consistently objected to was the system of duel or triple' valuation where one would be sufficient for every purpose. At present there was one valuation.,for the county, another for the Road Board*, and a third for the property tax. All these valuers went over the same ground; and had to be supported by the public. 7 He had had the satisfaction of seeing the. principle he had advocated, from the time. of his first speech in the House of Representatives, adopted by the Government, and proposed by them this year. Another matter he had originated was the rating of native and Crown lands. This suggestion had. also been adopted by the Government, and last year was embodied in a bill, which was afterwards dropped. Through the time in discussing Mr Osmond's want of confidence motion that valuable,, bill : had to be dropped. The large and valuable plains in the Omahu and Pakowhai districts were worth £20 per acre; these had "become valuable through the money spent upon the roads, to which they did hot contribute. £30,000 or £40,000 had been spent on roads and improvements in these districts, and all they had received from the natives in rates was £75. These lands, if rated the same as European lands, would bring in about £300 per ennum. Another valuable measure which had been dropped was the Roads Construction Bill, which provided a better plan thai that of subsidies for the construction of roads. Mr Ormond admitted that the of the Native Land Bating Bill and thej Roads Construction Bill were good, bu| voted against them because he thought they would tend to perpetuate the present system of local government. Of all the :petitions ; which came before the House there only one in favor of the abolition!, of the counties, and it did not-ask that provincialism should be restored. Hβ advocated local government in the strongest ,sense of the word. He believed that people could manage their own affairs better than outsiders. The county system had proved more effectual in this respect than the provincial system, and with very slight modifications, where it clashed with the road,.boards, would afford the country all the local government it needed. The colony had now had twelve months experience of the property tax, and it had certainly not fulfilled the gloomy predictions of those who said it would stop improvements and the influx of capital. Improvements were abundant and substantial, and money was to be had at unheard of rates. The predictions made by Mr j Ormond more than two years ago had totally wrong. The statistics relating to this , tax might surprise them. In-the colonyexcluding natives, who being exempt from taxation did not count—there were 489,000 people. Of these only 22,087, or about one twenty-fourth of the whole paid the tax ; 5417 people paid amounts under £1 ; 9048 paid between £1 and £5 ; 3267 from £5 to £10 ; 2146 from £10 to £20 ; and 2211 over V £20. These figures supplied a complete answer to those who talked of the iniquity of the tax. It had been introduced professedly to raise more money than the land tax, and it had succeeded. By its means £255,000 had been raised in twelve months, and he did not wonder at the rich men feeling it. A land tax was unfair in its incidence, taxing the apparent owner of the soil, and letting the real owner go free. He would advocate the repeal of the present exemption from the property tax, and a provision that no sums under £1 should be collected. In that way anjncrease in the revenue of £120,000 would be effected. He knew of an instance where a gentleman's property was valued at £50,000, and on this he paid £208 property tax: ■•? An income tax taken at 6 per cent, on? the value would require to be Is 5d in the pound to give an equal yield to the property tax. Would Mr Ormond like to pay Is 5d in the pound income tax ? Mr Ormond's object was to take the grinding taxation off property, and put it on to the: bone and sinew of the country. Hβ (Mr jSutton} 4'_--would always advocate a system which \ would place a proportionate chare of the taxation on the shouldors of the rich._ Hβ approved of direct taxation as tending to make the taxpayer take a lively, interest in the way the money was spent. At the present time £4000 per day was going out of. the colony for interest on loans. It should be borne in mind that every million borrowed represented an expenditure of £50,000 annually for interest.!.: Hβ believed that borrowed money judiciously expended would do good, but it added to our taxee, and made hundreds of private fortunes — absentee proprietors, whose lands had been benefited _by the . borrowed money, and who w'ere_!iving home in wealth, but who. .could not be reached by taxation, unlese by. a property tax. With reference to the Representatioi Bill he would have to speak at come lengtl. It was the only measure the bers were pledged to support. " Mr Button • here gave a sketch of the bill, and said it hid been objected >to as giving' am , uneue advantage to the South Island, but it leened (0 be oTerfooked that the North had MY«

Bo large a number of representatives as the South; nor, on a population basis, was it entitled to so many. The bill gnre approximately one representative to each 6500 of town votes, and one to each 4900 of country electors. The population of the borough was somewhat below the average number, but was close enough for it to repeiye , a member; "Whatever objection might, be raised to ft population, basis, it iSfcmfcd tb him the' only prab'tice'able one in ■this country. For his own part he would rather represent men than barren hills., The bill increased the number of members by seven. He had rather there, had been no increase, but this was a fiefcail might hare ibeen remedied. Hbweverj.tib in&nb'ei witfild rote , foy ,a. b'ilj to wipe himself out, and this would have • been its effect in many cases. But for the increased number of members, the bill would hare been stonewalled by twenty or twenty-five, instead of by the Nelsen members alone. The population of the South Island being 296,000 against 192,000 in the North, it was only just that the South should have the preponderance, and he had never kpown the Southern members band together in opposition to the North. Jfc was better that the preponderance should be , with the . Southern members than , the ihen who controlled that .wonderful thing called "the native mind" in the North. During the session he received a telegram from the Napier Corporation, asking the Napier representatives to support the bill. With the full assent of his colleague, Captain Bussejl, he replied that they would .both do their best tb support the bill. While it was etiU under consideration Captain Russell visited Napier, and on his return, without any , consultation with him (Mr Sutton), and notwithstanding his assent to the reply to the Corporation, opposed the bill at every stage. Captain Eussell advocated manhood Buffrage and full electoral privileges for the natives, though they paid no rates nor property tax, nor anything else that they could help } he argued that if that were done, Napier would be entitled to another member. After a careful calculation he (Mr Sutton), had made out that we should have been entitled to three members and onetentbj and he. thought that they would agree with him that ,the admittance of the Maoris to equal electoral rights tiosseesed by the whites was to pay too much for otie-teiith of a member. He had been amused at a sub-leader he read in a Napier paper on his return from Wellington. It eaid that Waipawa would surely never do BO suicidal a thing as return Mr Sydney Johnston —a runholder; but would send up • their old member. As Mr Ormond was as extensive a runholder as Mr Johnston he failed to see the point of the argument. _ It went on to say that Captain Eussell, being a runholder, was the man for the Hawke's Bay County ; but that Mr Sutton was of the town, towny. The logic of the article ■was too much for him—he gave it up. As a candidate for the oounty, he claimed that hia knowledge of its affairs was infinitely . greater than Captain Russell's; he (Mr Sutton) knew something of its wants; he had taken an active and intelligent part in its affairs from its institution ; and this, he thought, was a better qualification than.buying and holding cheap runs. At the last general election he stood at the head of the poll, beating his colleague by six votes in town and cix in the country. As the senior member for the town and chairman of the County Council he had some reason to expect to be oonsulted by those who took upon themselves to arrange who should come forward. But he had never been consulted, and his friend Captain Eussell had never mentioned the mat , er to him. In this he thought he showed a great disregard of duty. (Cries Of" Yes" and "No.") Had he. occupied the position so worthily filled for years past by the Mayor, he would have stood for the borough; as Chairman of the County Council it was only in the natural order of things that he should seek to represent it. But those who arranged that Captain Euseell should stand for the county seemed to take it for granted that he (Mr Sutton) would never presume to contest the seat. It had been stated that Captain Eussell, Mr Ormond, and Mr Buchanan, were to run on . the same ticket, and he could not help asking why is this thus ? The electors would require gome light on this peculiar combination. „ As far back as April last Captain Eussell • had been soliciting votes, and three or four gentlemen had been actively canvassing for himi The contest *vould be a keen one, but : he did not fear the result. He had read in a newspaper article that he had been re- ; tarried to support Mr Ormond. He recognised no such position. He was mot returned as a machine, but would use his own judgment as to what was for the interests of the country. Captain Eussell, during the eeven sessions he had sat in the House, had never originated any suggestion 'idf a practical kind, or one that was adopted by the House. He could for himself claim the credit of originating several suggestions which had been acted upon by the Government; one was the rating of native and Crown lands, and the issue of Treasury . hills for the purpose of raising money within the colony instead of outside. He 1 'must admit Captain Eussell had given his attention to two matters. One was the establishment of a parcel post, a convenient thing no doubt if you were in the habit of '"'getting parcels from home. (A voice: A suit, of clothes.) Yee, perhaps a suit o£ clothes. The other matter was the manufacture of beet-root sugar, which would no .doubt become an important local industry ; but Captain Russell could not claim that he had originated that or anything else which had been carried out. They wanted a representative who was not only a pleasant fellow, but one who was not afraid or •; ashamed to work to carry out what would benefit hia constituents and the colony .generally. He (Mr Sutton) had been blamed for leaving his post before the session was over, but if the'division lists were looked through it would be found that his name down in more of them than that V_;6f any other member except Mr Swanson. AtHavelock and other places.requisitions , were being got up in favor of Captain Buesell, who was the accepted man of the upper ten —of that class who were desiring to ease themselves of the burden of taxation and put it on to the shoulders of others. . [Cries of " No," " Yes."] So far as he (Mr Sutton) knew there was no requisition being got up for him. He did not believe in them. The ballot-box, he considered, was the proper place for the electors to record their opinions. (Cheers.) He wanted no written agreement. He wanted no employers to take their men to the poll to vote as they (the employers) directed. (Applause). Under the present law a man that had been in the colony a year and resident in one district six months was entitled to a vote, and he did not believe in 80 liberal a privilege being crushed out by the influence of employers. (Loud cheers). He would very much like to know what modification had taken place in Mr Buchanan's opinions to induce him to write that very peculiar address which had appeared in the newspapers. Mr Buchanan did not certainly say nnnh in that address, but he pointed : to the necessity for an -understanding between the members of the district and a community of interests. He (Mr Sutton) knew nothing himself of any such understanding, but he would like to know what modification of views had been made by Mr Buchanan to enable him and Mr Ormond to work together —at all events, up - to the election. Mr Buchanan implied in his address that a crisis had arisen. Yea, there was a crisis, and it had arisen in the endeavor of the men of wealth to shovel off from themselves their fair share of taxation. He could fairly say that his parliamentary position had been very satis- - factory to himself; he had always been well received, and attentively listened to. At all events he had been no nonentity in the House. He was essentially a man of the people. There were many residents in Napier who had

known him twenty yeai's ago, ahdi.whp knew that he then held no lofty positibti. He had come to the place when a young fellow —he attained his 21st year of age when in Ifapier—in humhle circumstances, and had risen by his own energy unassisted by friends. (Continued applause.) He had endeafoi-ed, since first election in 1867, to represent the constituency faithfully, and he believed, he had, given satisfaction to those who liad sent him to' Parliament. l*hey were notf clbdo to o> general ele'ctioii caused by the so-called liberal measure the Triennial Parliaments Bill. He entirely disapproved of it. He was pleased to see such a large attendance on such an unfavorable night. He now resigned the trust thoy Jiadj reposed in him in,the full assurance thai he had done soniething fur his coti; stituents, and for the good of the country. He looted forward to the election -with the greatest confidence, and had not the slightest doubt that; when the numbers went up he would be at the top of the poll. Mr Sutton concluded amidst loud and continued cheering. Two questions in writing, in reference to the Meanee reserve, were handed to Mr Sutton, and in reply he said they would remember that a bill was brought in vesting the reserve in WusteeS. He did his best to get the Meanee reserve vested in the Corporation, but there had been no effort on the part of the Corporation td get the reserve vested in them. Since that the reserve had been vested in trustees under the Public Domains Act. He was never consulted about the matter; and he believed that the names of the trustees were suggested to the Grovernment by Mr Orinond

After some delay, Mr Sutton said he had not arranged with anyone to move a resolution of thanks or confidence, as he did not want ever to appear discourteous to Captain Russell. He would move a vote of thanks to the chairman.

Mr J. W. Neal rose and moved, " That a rote of thanks bo accorded Mr Sutton for his able address, with an expression of regret that the late members for the Napier electorate had found it necessary to oppose one another instead of contesting the two electorates."

Mr P. Bear seconded the motion,

Mr Crozier Graham wished to ask Mr Sufc.ton in reference to. the claims of oU soldiers to fifty acres of land. Mr Sutton said the Government were appointing a commission to inquire into the large number of claims of this kind. The Chairman then put Mr Neal's resolu tion, and it was carried

Mr Sufcfcon moved a vote of thanks to the ohairman, and the meeting terminated.