MR SMITH, M.H.R., AT WAIPAWA.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3573, 21 December 1882, Page 2

MR SMITH, M.H.R., AT WAIPAWA.

Last evening Mr W. C. Smith, M.H.R., addressed his constituents in tho Oddfellow's Hall, Waipawa, wnen there "was a fair attendance of electors. Mr B. B. Johnson occupied the chair. Mr Smith commenced by saying that had he acted consistently with his feelings h» would have put off meeting his constituents for a little longer, but it having come to his knowledge that the hall would shortly be closed for repairs for a period of two months he had deemed ifc better to say what he had to say before the holidays. KATIVE BILLS. Among the first measures introduced last session were those affecting native affairs. When he last addressed the electors of Waipawa County prior to his being returned he promised to support the native policy of the Government, so far at least as the difficulty on the West Coast was concerned. That promise he had kept, and, while he did not believe in keeping men such as Te Whiti, Tohu, and others in prison, bufc rather under surveillance and restraint, ha felt that ifc was necessary in order to avert war that those men should be arrested and thus prevented from committing further mischief. For this reason he voted for the West Coast Indemnity Bill. Recently, however, as those present were doubtless aware the Native Minister had been on a visit to the Wsikato, during which he made certain overtures to the Maori King, Tawhiao. Now, he (Mi* Smith) was entirely opposed to tho proposals the Native Minister, Mr j Bryce, then made. One of those proposals, j and ifc struck the speaker as being a very I absurd one, was to create Tawhiao—-a man untaught in law and whose mode of life

precluded his knowing little, if anything afc all, of civilisation —a magistrate of the colony. Another proposal was even worse, viz., to elevate Tawhiao to a seat in the Legislative Council where his vote might be used in the rejection of useful bills sent up by the Lower House. Such proposals as the above were in Mr Smith's opinion certainly nofc calculated to advance the.best interests of the colony, and the prestige of the Native Minister had suffered considerably in consequence of his having advocated them.

STATE EDtrCATIOK. The native bills having been disposed of almost the next business done was the consideration of the Education Acfc Amendment Bill introduced by Mr Vincent Pyke. When last before his constituents be had given them his views on this important question, and the views he then expounded had undergone no subsequent change. Mr Pyke's bill was evidently meant to alter the system of education and he (Mr Smith) therefore voted against ifc. He still held that the system must be free and secular, and if those important points were interfered with there would he believed be left behind a system nofc worth anything. (Applause). The only thing in the present Education Acfc that; he would desire to see altered was contained in the administrative clauses. In that respect ifc acted badly in some way. more especially in up-oountry districts where the central Boards had in many instances by the powers vested in them almost starved out the committees and the schoolmasters. When a school was built it. ought certainly to be supported, and a fixed salary should be allowed the schoolmaster. The school committee again had nofc enough power vested in them. Ifc had been ruled by the Hawke's Bay Board that no school in the district might be closed in consequence of sickness or epidemic arising without the Board's consent being first obtained. Now a good cause for closing some school might arise fche day after fche Board had sat, and yeb fche committee could do nothing in fche meantime bufc must wait until fche next meeting. There was room, therefore, for alterations in the machinery of the Acfc, but not in the system itself. A bill altering fche machinery so far as relates to elections under the Act had been introduced by one member bufc unfortunately it was thrown out in the Upper House.

P.BLIC LIBBAEIKS. Referring to the question of public libraries Mr Smith said he held that subsidies should be granted by the government to enable the working classes to obtain suitable reading matter at a nominal cost. With this object in view he moved last session to have a sum of £6000 put on the estimates for the assistance of public libraries throughout the colony. A large majority of the members of the House were favorable to the proposal from the first, although the forms pf the House enabled those who were antagonistic to ifc to keep the matter in abeyance for a time, but it was ultimately passed. The amount had been put on the supplementary estimates, and in all probability would be distributed among the various libraries next month. The effect of the passing of this vote so far as Waipawa county was concerned was the opening up of five new libraries in addition to the five that had existed previously. (Applause.) After referring to the Employer's Liability tßill the provisions and advantages of which were briefly explained Mr Smith, proceeded to speak of Sir George Grey's.

PURCHASE OF VOTES BILL. This he termed a yerv good bill with a very bad title, and one which led it to be /it first niuph misunderstood. When its prbfisions came to be explained, however, jfcWas found that ifc was really infcendedNOffiy tp prevent the purchase of * votes by persons buying sections of land in different districts, and thereby constituting themselves electors of each of tho districts. Cases of this were frequent enough. He (the speaker) voted for that bill because he fcjfc that every man should vote in his own distrjcfc, and pot be allowed to swamp another in which he did not reside, An elector should have one vote, and one vote only. (Applause). ALIENS AME"___C_-*T ACT. Another important measure that had been passed was fche Aliens Amendment Act which did away with a great hardship. Hitherto an alien who paid the £1 2s 6d naturalisation fee became himself naturalised bufc nofc his children born outside of the colony. Besides this the fee was prohibitive. These matters he represented to the Gorernipent, and it was arranged to bring in a bill which the 'Government ppomjgpd tp support, extending the naturalisation of a » parent to his children, also to reduce th? fee to five shillings. In committee, however, he succeeded in having the fee reduced to 2s 6d although much opposition was -shown in the. Legislative Council prjncipall'v on the groiipd or its exceptional treatrnpnjof tho Chinese, but that point q): difference '" > was finally overcome by a compromise,' an*} the bill became law. (Applause.) THE FISIJEBIISS BJldj. One bill was introduced that he considered a bad one for the colony, viz., the Fisheries Bill. Under its pi-vi-iorns a turn haying a,

piece of land could fish off that land and invite his friends to do likewise without taking out a license, while the man who had no land before he could angle even for eels, or native fish of any kind, must take out a license for the provincial district; in which he desired to fish and pay £1 3 s for ifc. That was going back to the old game laws of England which would never he hoped find any favor in this colony. (Applause). He •was happy to state that the Fisheries Bill met with so much opposition that ifc was ultimately withdrawn. They were promised ifc again next session, and he hoped that should ifc be introduced, which he very much doubted, ifc would be speedily disposed of. (Applause). THE PENSIONS BILL was brought up for the second time last session, and after strong opposition it passed the lower house. It was found that pensions in some instances had been illegally granted, and. to obviate this in future it was proposed to take the decision as to the right to a pension from Ministers and to let Parliament decide on each case. As matters went ifc was not the struggling ill-paid clerk who had slaved out his life in the service of the Government who got a small pension for his . declining years, but generally large pensions were given to men already wealthy. The bill passed the Lower Houso, but was thrown out by the Council. It was acts like these that raised a cry against the Upper House. If such things were done the people would cry out, " We will not stand this sort of thing any longer," and they would demand some change. (Applause). ELECTIVE LAND BOABDS. The bill providing that every elector should be entitled to vote in the election of Land Boards he regarded as an excellent measure, but unfortunately it was thrown out on a division in the Upper House. He believed the Council would yet have to go more fully into the land question. The Elective Land Bill, it seemed, <vas quite too liberal for the Upper House—(applause) — hut if the country was to advance, settlement must be promoted. At present members of Land Boards were appointed by the Government, whether they knew their duties or not; in fact, ifc was just an appointment given to a political friend, and the sooner the system was abolished the better for the colony. (Applause.) the treastjeee's insueance proposals created no little astonishment when they were submitted. No one, he (Mr Smith) believed, ever thought those proposals were brought down with the intention of passing them, and the only purpose the Treasurer's action in the matter served was to fritter »way an amount of the time of the House in useless debate, and to keep back the local government bills, which ought to have been before ifc, bufc which were unhappily delayed until late in the session. Of course, as everyone knew, the proposals had to be withdrawn ; and a good thing, too, as their provisions would simply have had the effect of driving working men and women away from the colony so as to avoid the imposition that it was contemplated to lay upon them. RAILWAY SERVANTS' -WAGES. When last before the electors he had pledged himself to support any measure having for its object the refund of the reduction made in 1880 in the pay of the wages men in the railway service who did not participate in tho restoration made the succeeding year to those receiving fixed salaries. That pledge he had fulfilled. Shortly after the House met the member for Oamaru asked if the Government did not intend to increase the wages of day laborers receiving 6s a day, and to reduce the working hours of those employed more than eight hours. Ministers said they thought 6s a day fair wages. Subsequently, with fifteen or sixteen other members, he (Mr Smith) interviewed the Minister for. Public Works and asked that the wages men might be restored to the old rate. The Minister asked if the deputation would be satisfied if sixpence a day were added. They promised to accede to this. He then said he must consult his colleagues. He did not think tbere would be any difficulty in the matter, but he would let them (the deputation) know the result. They then left, but no official answer came, though one of the deputation was privately informed by the Colonial Treasurer that Ministers had agreed that ifc would nofc be wise to give this extra sixpence. After waiting three weeks for an official reply, he (Mr Smith) had to retui'n to Napier, but asked the member for Sydenham to put a question in the House on the subject. Ministers again answered, as they had before answered Mr Shrimski, that they thought 6s fair wages for a day's work, and did not intend to increase the rate of pay. When he (Mr Smith) got back to Wellington, a month after the deputation had waited on the Minister for Public Works, he drew up a motion which he submitted to the Speaker. This motion was for the 10 per cent, reduction to be restored to all Government servants to whom it was not restored in 1881. He did nofc single oufc platelayers and ballast men. This he mentioned because his motion had been misrepresented. He intended ifc to apply to guards, engineers, and all others who had nofc |been restored to the old footing in respect to pay. He proposed to give back what was taken away in all cases. There was, however, a difficulty in bringing forward a motion of that kind without infringing the rules of fche House, which did not allow private members to interfere with votes passed by fche House. The Speaker kindly made a few alterations to put fche motion in order, and he (Mr Smith) brought ifc before fche House. After some unavoidable delay he obtained a pledge that the Government would restore the 6d a day, and on the strength of that pledge he withdrew his motion, although he did so aguinst the wish of tbe Opposition, who desired a division on ifc. He understood this to apply to all employes who had not had the 10 per cent reduction restored to them, and a vote of £20,000 was placed on the supplementary estimates for the purpose, but he afterwards found that the increase was given only to the platelayers and ballast men on the railway. A similar thing was done with relation to the charges for carrying goods on railways. Ministers were urged to make reductions in the rate for grain, timber, &c. They had jusfc gazetted a new list of charges, but reductions were made on grain only. LAND LEASING. One of the most important bills that had been before the House was the Land Bill introduced by fche Minister of Lands. Ifc was a mistake, however, to have erassd some pf jts original proposals, Thp time had gone by when the leasing system would be found to work. No sane man for instance would take up land on lease in the province of Hawke's Bay at the present; time, there being none to he obtained except bush land that ifc would take years to clear and improve. Had the bill have been brought in before the cream of tho land was gone ifc woidd have acted very well indeed. (Applause.) A man could have made a vary good thing of it in that ovent, but it was nonsense to talk of leasing now. People coming out to New Zealand preferred freehold, and did not need to come 16,000 miles for leasehold property. The Upper House, however, removed the objection to the leasehold clauses by inserting a purchasing clause, by which, after a certain number of years, any leaseholder could buy the freehold of his section. Several other clauses of the Act as passed were of interest to Hawke's Bay. The- quarantine reserve at Wainui Tfti's allowed to be dealt with as ordinary Crown lands. Qur lands could now also bo classified as worth ss, 15s, and 20s an acre, instead of 20s being the lowest limit as before. He would have preferred lo fix the prices at os, 10s, and 20s ■ but tho fifteen fehijljngt* was fixed as the middle price bepausp it was desired to place lauds at Wairoa, in this province, on the same footing as lands adjoining and in Poverty Bay, which were in the Auckland province. It was a pity this clause was not in force earlier, before so much bush land had been sold at a price •which was really abo're its faltfe.

DE*EBBED PATMEITT LANDS. One or two changes had been effected through his interference in the terms under which deferred payment lands are held. The residential qualification had been done away with, and a great boon was thereby conferred on the struggling settlers. (Applause). The old regulation also by which if a settler had only taken up five acres on the deferred payment system ho was precluded from taking up any more was abolished, and now a settler was allowed to take up as many sections as he pleased provided the total area of the land did not exceed 320 acres. There were also other clauses passed favorable to the deferred payment settlers snch for instance as that providing for the non-forfeiture of sections under certain liberal conditions in the event of the occupier being unable regularly to keep np his annual payments. Hitherto failure to do so caused the forfeiture of the land. FINANCE. The financial proposals as brought down by the Colonial Treasurer showed that after providing for every expenditure there was a balance of £215,044. It was mentioned in I the financial statement that two thirds of that amount came from excess in Customs duties ; the greater part, therefore, came directly oufc of the pockets of fche people. The Treasurer stated in the face of that surplus that it was nofc intended to lighten the duties on necessaries of life as should have been done. No, it was proposed rather to lighten the property tax. The Treasurer had maintained that the property tax was a class tax, but even so that was not the class which should have been benefited by taking off taxation —ifc should have been fche wages portion of tho population. (Applause.) taxation. Speaking of fche question of taxation he felt that too much had been levied in the past in tbe shape of taxation on the necessaries of life. He had no objection to a heavy tax on luxuries, but the necessaries of life ought to be free of duty. A complete change in the incidence of taxation was urgently needed, and a land tax would have to be enforced to compel holders of large estates to turn their properifcy to more usful account and thus assist in the work of colonisation. Nothing short of a tax such as that would meet the present requirements of the people and the country. It was absurd to say that because a man held a large estate he could lock ifc np or do as he pleased with ifc. Tho same argument had been advanced by slave owners in the days of slavery, but no sane man believed in such a theory as that now. (Applause). A land tax would also benefit the landed proprietor as it would render more valuable lands in the vicinity of those that he would be obliged to cut up and dispose of for settlement. When he stood before them last he advocated a progressive land tax, with exemptions in favor of small holders. He had thought very much over the question since, and had come to the conclusion that the theory of exemptions was a wrong one. There should be no exemptions, bufc the property tax, which he had no doubt they had already found oufc to be nofc only inquisitorial, a second and more insidious form of Customs duty ought to be abolished. He objected to the property tax because it touched improvements, the very thing a land tax would not touch. Mr Smith here proceeded to refer to the question of free trade, and pointed oufc that in his . opinion protection was an ingenious fraud. Be was favorable to free trade pure and simple. (Hear, hear). It would he believed, be found to be the best for the country in the end. This question and that of a land tax would before the next general election be the burning questions of tbe day, and candidates should be pledged to support both. THE LOAN PROPOSALS. Referring to the Government loan proposals, Mr Smith explained that his reason for recording his vote against the same was that it was not at all clearly stated, when the proposals were brought forward, how the first loan of one million was to be expended, although ifc must have been patent to everyone that the money would be expended on the proposed railway to Taranaki. That meant excluding Hawke's Bay from anything bufc paying the interest on the borrowed money. The extension of the Northern line should have been proposed to go through the centre of the island instead of along a barren coast line. That could have been done either by way of Ellman's route, or by a route which might be mode to tap Hampden, and join afc Takapau. He would then have voted for the loan right through. He, however, was glad to say that the opposition to the loan had clone some good, for ifc brought about the insertion of a clause which forbade the construction of the line until after a proper report of the best route had been made. There was one thing more he wished to make clear. His opposition to the borrowing, which was based upon a desire to see lessened taxation, did not, as had been wrongly asserted, jeopardise the railway extension in the direction of Woodville. He saw the Minister for Public Works purposely on the question, because he knew that the sum of £45,000 was placed on the estimates for the work. He wa* told that the money on tbe estimates for railway extension in Hawke's Bay was not conditional upon the passing of the Loan Bill. Mr Smith concluded by expressing his belief that the larger settlers in Waipawa County would not object to be rated, if necessary, for a harbor at Napier, as was recently stated at a public meeting by Mr John Harding. A harbor would do much good to the district, and he hoped one would soon be obtained. Afc the same time he did nofc believe that any rating for the purpose would be required, as the shipping and increased commerce would pay interest on fcho cost of a harbor ; bufc if a rate was needed, the land which was benefited by a good harbor would be taxed. Amongst tha local government bills he thought the Road Boards Bill would be a boon, as it gave local government to the small bodies. He did not believe in tho principle underlying the Roads and Bridges Construction Act, but still it was better than the system of subsidies. Subsidies gave to all bodies alike, irrespective of wealth and poverty and needs, while the Acfc gave ! greater help to those bodies who needed help most. The Acfc, however, he felt, would not last long. With respect to tho state of parties in tho House, he would give his allegiance to the present Ministry rather than to a party formed by Sir John Hall, of which there had been some talk. He (Mr fc-mith) was in favor of triennial Parliaments, and thought that any alterations were made in respect of the duration of terms tho term should be made shorter instead of longer. In conclusion, Mr Smith referred to the alteration caused in his circumstances by the death of his wife, and said he had afc first thought of resigning his position. This, however, had met with such strenuous opposition from his friends, tbiifc he had given the idea up, and would, if it were at all possible, continue to do his best for the country. Should, however, anything unforseen happen to prevent him making arrangements to fit in with his altered circumstances he woidd give timely notice before the commencement of next session so that they might put another man in his place. (Applause). No questions being asked, a unanimous vote of thanks and confidence was accorded to Mr Smith on the motion of Mr John Harker. ADDRESS A*i r D PRESENTATION. Mr Wilding then came forward, and, in a few well chosen words, presented an illuminated address (said to have the signatures of 712 electors attached to it) to Mr Smith. The following is a copy of the address ; —" To William Cowper Smith, Esq., member of the House of Representatives for the electoral district of Waipawa, in tho colony of New Zealand, —We, the undersigned electors of tho above-named district, hereby desire to make known to you our "■appreciation of, and our complete satisfaction with, the conscientious and able

manner in which you acted during the lately ended session of a first Parliament. We assure you that the painstaking and successful manner in which you have striven for the welfare and progress of your constituency has aroused in us feelings of admiration ; and, further, that we augur from your actions during the time you have been our representative, that your future efforts will be alike creditable to yourself, and conducive to the best interests of the district and of the colony. We are, your sincere friends and well-wishers," Mr John Harker also presented Mr Smith, on behalf of the railway employees, with a gold watch bearing the following inscription :—" Presented to W. C. Smith, Esq., M.H.R,, by the Hawke's Bay railway employees, in recognition of his valuable services on their behalf during fche session of 1882." Suitable replies toboth testimonials having been made by Mr Smith, the proceedings terminated with a vote of thanks to the Chairman.