THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

Evening Star, Issue 3898, 21 August 1875, Page 2

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

[Bv Telkgra,ph ] Wellington, August 21. In the House of Representatives yesterday, after the Kaitangata Railway and Coal Company Bill was passed, Mr Wales asked, without no'ice, whether, in the event of the Abolition Bil being pa-sed, it would be possible for the Governor, in whom these reserves are vested, and which were now held by Superintendents, to divert these rterves from their original purposes ? He was rather auxious for a satisfactoiy reply, as it might seriously affect the course he had intended to take.

The Treasurer said the clause of the Bill referred to S'cured these reserves according to the original intention ; and if there was any doubt upon the point, the Government would see that the clause was altered to secure that intention. He referred the Iron, gentleman to the Financial .Statement to show that the Go vernment intended that these reserves should remain in their present trust. M r lleeves called attention to the great want of clerical assistance to the Committee. The Speaker said the matter would be attended to.

Mr Ward called attention to the wav ir which the Government printing was behind hand.

Mr Luckie said the Government Printing ‘iffioe should bo relieved by distributing the work amongst the different newspaper offices in the Colony. Mr Reeves thought that the Government, having entered into competition with the printing offices of the Colony, should take steps to introduce a modcr»te numb.r of compositors previous to the session. He was confident they could be easily absorbed amongst the other establishments of the Colony. Mr Creighton pointed out that the free pas sages offered to printers by the Government had an injurious effect upon the trade. He suggested that- Provincial printing should ho done in the different Provinces, and that Government work should be thrown open to public competition.

Mr jjO’Conor said printers were not as well paid in proportion as other trades. Sr Donald McLean said the Government would consider the matter, with a view of in troducing some printers amongst other immi grants, if it should be found necessary.

THE ABOLITION DEBATE was resumed by Mr Mervyn. He was forcibly struck by the unanimity shown by the objectors to the Bill. Their great objection seemed to be that the time was inopportune, and that the people were taken by surprise. But there was no foundation for these objections, because the question had for the last twelve months occupied the attention of the people of New Zealand. He could inform the House that when he was elected it was distinctly upon the question of abolition. Very much needless stress had been laid upon the fact that this Bill invaded the people’s rights, but the fact was studiously ignoredthat this measure was,merely a makeshift, and was only intended to pave the way for something more suitable. 'J he hon. gentleman proceeded to show that it Pi-.,, vincialists had desired to improve the local government, they did not show it by their opinion towards the Bill introduced in 18(37 by Mr Stafford to grant local government. And although in the following year his Road Board Bill was passed by a majority of six or seven it dropped at that solely through the influence of the Provincialists. His experience of Povinoial management bad not creat d any sympathy with them. He had seen bis district neglected systematically by the Provincial Government of O’ago, while the revenue contributed by out-districts was lavished within thirty miles of Dunedin. Another great cauie of complaint he had against Provincialism was the way in which the waste lands were administered. The >and laws were made with a view to prevent their occupation by bona fide settlers, and to allow the original leaseholders about twenty-eight years to , urebase, if not the whole of their runs, at least the choicest portion of them.

Xiv Macandrew : Who made those laws ? Mr Mervyu ; They were made by this House, but only upon the strong recommendation of the different Provincial Councils, for their re marks applied to Nelson, Canterbury, and Marlborough, as well as Otago. If for no other ivason tbau the alteration which the Abolition Bill would effect in this direction, h* welcomed the Bill. He was quite satisfied with the pho. visions for local government .made by the Bill,

and k» sould Hot undmUhi why peapls should want the Bill relegated to anothrr bmUdd. Another great reason which induced him to support the Bill was that education Jwould bo better attended to than if the money came "om the land fund or any other fund. He would vote for the second reading of the Bill. Mr O’Conor said when he first tame to that House he did so as an abolitionist. He did so because large out-districts were continually neglicted. Ho presented a petition on th© subject, but in consequence cf a comoination among the Superintendents, their {lievjuice was looked <oldly upon While he deemed it an honor to be a Provincial ( ouncdlor, he maintained that it nevt-r intended that Superintendents of Provinces should be more than Chairmen of Municipalities. Had hey been confined to that it would have been otter for the Colony, and it was .he fault pf he Assembly that they had nut been so confined. The House couid always have done it, and could do it now. His chief reason fur supporting this Bill was that he expected true local government from it. if Provincial Governments had failed in doing justice to out*dia..act**, aud they had failed to do it, the General Government would make a still neater failure. Neither of them could possibly possess sufficient knowledge of the •mt-distric's. Another great reason for bis supposing the Bill was its tendency to give ncm a common purse. They had a common auditor, a common interest, and they should nave a common revenue and common purse, le cared nothing about this compact or that •ompact. It was iniquitous that oue portion f the ' olony should be oiling in wealth—defraying Provincial charges out of land funds—wlul' oth-.r parts of the Colony were in very reat need. Charges of maladministration had been made against Provincial Councils, but these were charges which might and would be brought against any Government hat occu•ie i tt'C Government benches of that House. While he was desirous of seeing Provincialism abolished he did not aoprove of the way they vent to bring it about. There weie various vays in Welch they could have deprived the Provincial Governments of their power of legislation and have given more to out-distriots.

This Bill asked them to hand over ail their

egislation for twelve months upon the promise ii'uftt at the end of that time they would get a system of local government. : why give them prom ses only ? Why not give them in the ill dl ihat was wanted? I low could it be under the Government proposals ? Suppose he wanted . bridge and was a Government sup* porter, the Government, of course, would mpport him, or he could not support them. )ne thing he could compliment the Government upon was the wayfthey dealt with goid.nining districts, though it would be an improvement to abol sh the gold duty altoredier. He disapproved of how the land and was proposed to be dealt with. He was strongly opposed to giving such large sums of money to large centres of population. There were a great many parts of the Colony that had no Koad Boards, and had to depend upon Provincial Governments alone, and this measure made no provision for hem. Another feature he strongly objected t-o. tie hoped the limara and Gladstone iloaid of Works would be placed in the same position as oth-r parts of the Colony. He hoped if Government found it necessary in the transition stage that the services of the people to •supervise local affairs were requisite, they should place these appointments in the hands of the people. They had no right to be deprived of that right It was altogether improper that any Government on the eve of a g. neral election should hive such au enormous amount of patronage in their hands. With all the objections he had raised to the Bill, he i bought that on the whole it was in the direction of giving the people more and belter local government than they had now. The Government admitted that the Bid had imperfections, and they invite 1 assistance and suggestions to improve the Hill, a v d he hoped members would act upon the invitation, lie could but think that those hou gentlemen who said that after the second reading of the Bill they would wash their hands of it altogether, would act improperly o the country. Mr Basstian referred to the feelings on Abolition in the part of the country he came irjm. He said he had never heard a single word opposed to Abolition, except fro n one person, and he was a member of the Provincial hxecut ve. It seemed extraordinary to him that the country could not bo governed without little governments. He did not apprehend any great damage or dislocation of the machinery of the Government by the present change. 'Vhen Southland, after gove.ning herself as a separate Province, became onc> more united to * 'tago, n i one could detect any difference In the way affairs were conducted. As tar as results were conoered, no one could tell that any change had taken place, nor in this change did he anticipate any difficulty in the transaction, ’loviuciaiism seemed to be like au old man’s constitution—lt had had its day. He would vote for the Bill. The House adjourned till 7.30 p.m., when Mr Fitzherbert rose and spoke until the rising of the House at 12.30 His speech was very discursive and laden with that illustration peculiar to the speaker. He reviewed the openiug speech of Major Atkinson, then commented upon those of Mr Bowen and Mr Stafford, and afterwards touched upon the demerits of the Bill and some points made in the speeches of the Government supporters He denied that thc.o had been any contest between Centralism and Provincialism iu years back, and cited parliamentary evidences fi om each successive Administration from the time of Mr Sewell in 1856, when ho said he desired to work in harmony with the Provinces, down to 1872, when Sir J. Vogel endeavored to introduce the Transfer of Powers Hill—but which he abandoned upon being warned that it was interfering with the liberty of the Pi evinces, and was directly opposed to the principles upon which ho was elected. The hon. gentleman also referred to the action of the present champion of Centralism, when in 1856 he displayed the narrowest Provincial spirit in bringing up the celebrated Compact resolutions. Ho also defended Provincial institutions from the charge of engendering purely local feeling. Instead of demoralising the feelings of the people, to them only was due the cieation of a truly national feeling, and they were the only promoters of true local self government. He characterised th*» financial proposals of the Bill as vicious in the extreme, ana only a masked attack upon the land fund of the Colony, in order to be the better able to meet the great and growing necessities of the Colony. The great undertakings of the Colony would soon require mere money, but the Ministry dare not risk their seats to meet the emergency by levying increased taxation. He denounoeil the system of subsidising Road Boards out of consolidated

revenue as certain to lead to increased taxation. He condemned the Bill as destroy, ing the very elements of the liberty and rue representation of the people by wresting from them the control of their own revenue, and depriving them «>f the power of electing their own thief Executive officers. In conclusion he warned the House they were doing their utmost to bring about separation of the Colony The great provinces of the Colony —Otago and Auckland—would never submit to be controlled from Wellington by the electric wire, and would rebel against it if it was at* tempted. He said the country for years, and was now in a state of intoxication from the effects of borrowed money. During the past live years the Colonial Revenue had averaged only L 1,360,000 per annum, but we had been spending at the rate of two millions per aunnm for the same period. If the hoi rowing power of England aud r ranee had been increa'ed in the same ratio, the yea ly expenditure of England for a like period would he L 102,000,000 and that of Frame LI 3,000,000 a-y ear, and under such circumstances the liberties of the people could not possibly be maintained. Such an tnormous power of spending and biibiue in the hands of any Government would be simply irreoi t ble. lie warned the Government that they had better give the people time to reflect before sweeping away their old institutions. Mr Buckli.nd moved the adjournment of the debate.