THE BUDGET.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2250, 23 July 1870, Page 2

THE BUDGET.

(continued.) Mr Birch said they had met session after session to discuss a new policy, but this session the Government had introduced a policy which was a peace policy, and one which would tend to developo the vast resources of the colony, and he looked upon it as one which would go far to make the prosperity of the colony a fact. He would state that the province from which he came could take 10,000 immigrants per year, therefore he did not think that there was anything to fear in carrying out this great policy as applied to the great colony of New Zealand. He felt it his duty to state his full approval of the policy of the Government, which he contended would go far to assure the prosperity of the country. The question of railways was a very important one, and he thought that if Christchurch and Dunedin were connected by a line of railways it would open up a splendid tract of country. The present depression he felt was due to the tact that the colony was too sparsely populated ; what was wanted was people. He had much pleasure in supporting the policy of the Government, (Cheers.) Mr M'lndoe said he intended to give the Government his support in the scheme which they had enunciated, and in doing so he had been materially strengthened by advices which he had received from his constituents. Ho gave his support to this scheme because it was a practical, one. The only objection ho took to it was the protective scheme, which he thought as far as regarded an increase in the price of cereals, would bs a miserable failure. (Hear, hear.) The Government scheme was also a practicable scheme. If the Assembly gave the Government power to borrow the money he thought they would have but little difficulty in oh. taining it. The Colony only wanted population to develope its resources, He was much surprised to hear an hon. member say they only wanted four or five ships per year; why, he would almost say they could take that amount per month. He would confess that when the scheme was enunciated he hesitated in the course which ho would pursue, and he listened with great attention to those hon. members who were looked upon as leaders in the House; but he saw that they all approved of the general principle of the scheme, and disapproved only of the minutiae of it. He did not look upon railway schemes in the light of paying speculation?, but as a means of opening np the country ; and he did not at all wish to see the Govemment railway scheme carried out on the same scale as that in the Colony of Victoria, or that proposed to be carried out in the Province of Otago. What he wanted to see was a light surface railway of narrow guage, which he contended would not cost more than the ordinary arterial roads of the Colony. It had been urged against this measure that it was brought forward in a moribund Parliament, but he held that it was just the time, because they had a complete fusion of parties, and they were there t* consider & scheme which was wanted for the country, and one which was the scheme of all to assure the future welfare of the Colony. He looked upon the scheme as the bane of all that partisanship which had be<* the curse of previous sessions. They possessed all the natural advantages to adequately support a population quite as numerous as that of Great Britain. The reduetion of the price of bringing prodace to the market was one of the reasons why such a scheme should bo accepted. With regard to separation, he was of opinion that the bringing forward of those resolutions by the hon. member for Dunedin was inopportune* He thanked the House for the very patient hearing which they had given him, and ho now reiterated that be should support the scheme of the Government. (Cheers.) Mr Haughton thought it would have been better if the Treasurer had separated the schemes of colonisation and public worlta from his financial statement. He would say that as a political move it was perfect, and would meet the views of all classes. To the laborer it afforded ten years work at good wages ; to the fanner higher prices for his produce, the same to the squatter for h : g sheep. He thought, however, the anticipation of the Treasurer, that the railways would pay their expenses at the end of three years, was fallacious. The hon. Treasurer was entitled to the gratitude of the country for having been bold enough to bring forward a scheme of this magnitude. He did not believe in leaving this subject for a new and inexperienced Parliament to settle, and he did hope that bon. members would put their shoulders to the wheel and help the Government to carry out this scheme, doing their best to remedy what they considered the bad points in it. Whatever might be the result of the scheme, ho trusted it would be successful. (Cheers.) Mr O’Neill would support the proposals of the Government as the means of success to the Colony. (Hear, hear.) There ccmld not be the slightest demur to the fact that railways and roads were the paramount necessities of the day. The hon. gentleman concluded a lengthy speech by eulogising the Government for having brought forward so large a scheme.