Rangitikei Election MR MACARTHUR AT FEILDING

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 65, 18 November 1890, Page 3

Rangitikei Election MR MACARTHUR AT FEILDING

{Contintted from last issue). Educatiox. They all knew that he and his opponent, Mr Arkwright, diifered on this subject. .The speaker believed in free, secular, and , compulsory education. He was opposed to raising the school age, and grants in aid of denominational schools. He told his hearers that offers had been made to him to the effect that if he would support •denominationalism he would have a block -vote from a certain quarter. He had emphatically declined to accept them. Under the present system they had got rid of sectarianism, which was such an ele- " stent of discord in the Old Country. He was astonished to notice the change of opinion which had taken place among members since the introduction of Mr JPyke's Bill in 1887, when it was pooh . poohed by members, yet in 1889 when it was brought in under another name, out of 80 members present it was defeated by a. majority of 12, and in a smaller house of 75 the majority would no doubt be smaller. He was annoyed and astonished to see how many of the candidates were promising to vote in favor of denominationalism, and the electors must watch •carefully, or not only would large concessions be made to the Roman Catholics, hut to the Church of England aLo who were working with them in this although they did not agree on other points. The Roman Catholics were more deserving of assistance because they had spent large Bums of money on the education of their children, which the Church of England .had not. They had no grounds for demanding these concessions and breaking Tip the present system. It was a sign of the times to see these join hands to carry views although opposed in other things. He argued that if we admit denominational schools side by side with the State Schools the latter-must become extinct. In the Rangitikei Advocate they would have seen some statistics bearing upon the subject; but he had gone more exhaustivelyinto the matter, and he found that, taking the whole colony, the average cost per child in the State Schools, with an attendance -of under 150, was JB4 14s 4d, while the cost per head in schools over 150 was £2 18s lOd Taking the educational districts •one by one, with the exception of the three smallest (Marlborough, Grey, and Westland, which reflected the same principle though on a smaller scale) he found that the following was the result : — Schools over Schools under

The average cost ever all classes of schools had been last year L 3 13s lid per -child, or Is Id less than the capitation grant of L 3 15s, a proof that the Education Boards cut the coat according to their -cloth. These figures showed most conclusively that, as one would naturally expect, the cost per child rose and fell with the attendance, thus proving that any project which tended to lower the attendance would at once put such a strain on tho finances of the Education Boards as ould force them to, in some cases, close mv smaller schools, and, in new settlements, decline to start them. These figures had certainly surprised him and he thought if they would think them over they would surprise them too. He selected the number 150 specially because Mr Arkwright had said, he would not allow a denominational school to be established where the attendance at the State school was less than that. If this suggestion was examined they would find Mr Arkwright's proposal was an utterly impracticable one. Any action which depleted the State Schools in ihe large towns would prevent the Education Boards from providing for the small schools in the country districts, and thus retard settlement. The cheaper the children were taught the more funds the Education Boards had at their disposal. Once our educational system is upset it can never be re-established again, and therefore the electors who wished to preserve an institution of which the -colony had so much reason to be proud, should be extremely careful whom they returned to the House. For himself, if he never intended to go into the House -again he would never vote for a man who would assist to destroy the system. He -was not pleading his own cause, but the cause of those who would come after him. He had no arguments to adduce except his statistics, which were perhaps somewhat more comprehensive than those which appeared in the Bangitikei Advocate a few days ago. If you throw obstacles in the way of a man getun his children educated in the country districts, it hindered settlement and the general progress of New Zealand. He advocated a system of uniformity in school books, as the present varied plan was a source of needless expense to the parents. It had been said that our present system of Education would break down by the weight of its expense, but he refused to believe this, A people who could afford to spend £500,000 a year on the totalizator, and .£2,000,000 'a year on drink, could easily aftord to spend £400,000 on the education of their children. Before they grumbled they could retrench in j both the above items. (Laughter and cheers.) On the subject of SECONDABY EDUCATION He said it was a mistake to suppose they had to support the High Schools. These were maintained by rents from endowments and fees paid by parents. Something had been said about colomalising the school reserves set aside by the Provincial Goyernments. The great bulk of these were made in Otago, Canterbury and Auckland when land was plenty, but the other provinces had neglected their opportunity. It had been said of Scotchmen that they " Remembered to keep it the Sabbath day — and everything eke they could lay their hands on" ; but he found that the English in Canterbury were no more inclined to let go their hold on these r sserves than the Scotchmen in Otago. There were a majority of members in the House from these provinces, and any Bill touch'ng the reserves would inevitably be thrown out, if only on the grounds that it would be inequitable to take them. There is a grant of £6500 for scholarships to enable children to attend the High Schools, which was a perfectly justifiable vote to assist a select few of clever children who deserved not to be stopped at the 6th standard, but allowed a chance of getting a higher education. Yet this grant was only of use to children in the towns, because the amount paid in each individual case was so small that parents i living in the country could not afford to send their children, whereas the children in {hep towns who won the scholarships, -etui -reside with their parents when atten<iiug the High Schools. He would advocate a division of the grant into two classes : one for the towns and one for the "country. If this could not be done then the scholarships should be done a'waj ■ - =-" " " .'*' -V TAXATION. At every election it was necessary tc

have a cry. Last election it was Re trenchment, Freetrade, more Protection and more borrowing, and they got tw( out of the four. The cry fur protectior was got up in the lar^e towns of the colony. He had before pointed out thai Protection would have tiie effect of making ihe country settlers pa 3' more for tht goods they used, and thus their profits would be decreased by the increased cost ol living, and whatever it might do for the towns it would give the farmers less than nothing. The Proectiontists .aid it would give them a market for their goods, by increasing the population in the towns, but the price of produce was regulated primarily by the markets of the world. Knowing this, he was surprised to see that several farming districts relumed Protectionists, hut he accounted for this by the fact that many elections were de« i-ided on personal grounds alone. As they knew, Henry George had been in Australia, and his doctrines had been left behind him in the colonies to some extent. Henry George advocated absolute free trade, and that the taxes should be put upon the land Of course, in that case, the farmer would get rid of payment through the Customs, and would have to bear the taxation on the land. But there was this difference between the towns and the country, that by no possibility could the farmer shift his taxes upon anybody else. He could not recoup himself by putting the taxes upon the prices of his produce, as the merchant or storekeeper did upon their goods when duties were imposed. Tnat was a very important distinction, and one that they would very seldom hear mentioned. Mr Macarthur then referred to the arguments ot " Konroria," the author of a pamphlet entitled "Is single tax a remedy," which was in favour of a tax upon uuimproved values. Referring to the writer's assumption that the unimproved value of land held in the colony must now be L 100,000,000 because it was L 73,000,000 in L 878, he showed its fallacy by quoting the results of independent calculations arrived at by Messrs Sperry and Crombie, and the New South Wales statistician, who placed it at L 42,000,000. So it appeared (Continuation of speech on fourth page.)

then that the tax of 1^ per cent which **.-J£ororo.ria" estimates would produce Ll>fiQo ? QQo,., would hare to be. raised to 6 per cent to produce that sum. No such-r-cttenchment as that proposed by t'Biqri.roria" (Ll.OOO.OOU) was poss ble foo, agrSi-rsH. iAtxinson had shown after i presiding fur permanent chartje-, >ueh I a^: imprest;,, sinking fund, the cost of the railways, arid post offices, which were revenue; producing c.epartments, there j Was* only about' a million to eoreif- the ; cost^f the. other eleven departments, in» eluding education, Winch alone took i L400,l)00, -and that, in order to raise as Wk'h-from the land tax proposed as , f*QM<I£SU,OfIQ of Custom Duties, plus li'ie Property Tax, a tax of 3 2-sths of ajj .penny- per pound on the. unimproved; jyaldec: would have to be imposed. lit' ©rde.Tflp-; illustrate the incideuce of tax- . atiou. under the. tax.. on .unimproved value •and., f he. ( Prp perry tax, he supposed the ' eas£ of a fat iher r Owning 100 acres of "iand. ; Talcing the unimproved . value of the land at L3per acre, which would be : ,L3Gj(>, improvements at L3OO, three she^p |jo,. ; fbe 'a'crer LloO, and furniture, his "total r property ; would amount to LBSQ. '.Under! tlie property-lax there would be . 'LSOO exemption, and in nine cases out of •Jteo such a : man would have a mortgage i:.ol^L4ooi orl two thirds of the value, which would leave him LSO, less than r nothing- to come under the tax. He • Would," therefore, escape taxation alto* • gether> Reckoning four to the family. he pays Customs duties of LI- lis 3d as his~slrare.of the L 250,000 Customs pro- ' pqSe"d / to v b'e repealed ; &ad that would • : be r, iiis fotily 'Contribution to the revenue JL .o&iithejicountr.y as. contrasted* i withy the proposed tax am-. unimproved value lesß -.Vthe/sharp of- the family of four of L 250,* .; CjOO. 'On 'the other hand, under- the tax J ba c -unimproved value . proposal, at 3 '''•'B&tW'df s' penny : per pound; he would pay L 4 5s per annum, less LI lis 3d. , je^uajlatoL2-13.a -.94-, As, against. LI lis 3d under" the present 'system. Of course '• : 'th^^baiahce of the 1 Custom L1,250,00p ' aT«- r hbt J bemg taken into account as being • paid "under this proposal: '' The single- tax, pure .and- simple, was: of course, much hoarier. , than this..-and ; would bring, the farmers payment up 'to nearly 5 per : cent'bh his unimproved value, and threw ; thViwrhole, weight :of taxation on. to the , land.;;; Under this form of taxation, too j fcU-jjother kjnds of property would escape, including the money of ihe mort« - gageekandithft puild|ugs in lart;e towns. .' The property of absentees, which it was - .pSWP s SdLo, specially; tax; was very much •:.. exaggerated. , The whole amount of their r^afjpr^operty'was i about L3,000,Q00. If " ihe'y i taxed that, at the' rate of another j ."'penny fo! the Jt' it would bring in only -■ about L 13.000. but it- would be raised by - an injustice, and he did not think it r woiild be right to put on a penal -tax upon an absentee, because he exercised the natural right of a free . -man to live where he chose. By ex» tempting personal property as was prO- - ppsed^'and imposing double property tax upon -absentees, the revenue would benefit by £13,000, but it would lose, under the -. unimproved value, propgsals the tax upon :"' £s,obpjpoQ of absentees' personal pro* ; perty.' : "In his speech at Marton before ■ the session he (Mr Macarthur) had sugf gested that to encourage settlement and t- to make up^ for the exceptional burden on s the farmers imposed ;by the Protection tariff, a special exemption on agricultural s improvements ot from £500 to £1,000 -.- should be allowed. Sir H. Atkinson, in v his-manifesto the. other .day, suggests the • same- idea. The revenue lost thereby might be recouped by getting at the money now -lying in the banks, in the shape of unclaimed deposits, and by compelling owners' tb send in with their property- tax retnrns a bank certificate showing their credit, balances. Mr; Sperry had re- . ported ; that nearly six millions must be : escaping tbe property-tax owing to false returns, the amount given by banks as being in their hands, exceeding that shown, in owners' returns by that sum. i( in conclusion, Mr Macarthur said he wjshed to.say a few words about himself. . jj^, thought he had done nothing to warr- . „ant the withdrawal of the confidence that was reposed in him at the election in ,1887. > -lift went into' the^ House new, compara« , -s lively speaking, to ,politics, and he might -.saytthat hewas now fairly well acquainted , ; W^th Parliamentary work. Mr Arkwright it was claimed, had sat in the House of Commons, but he did hot think that was * ; alfit training" for. a ■ Colonial Parliame;nt. He did not wish to say much about Mr j he.did/.saj thi s, that jby . . re^.si.r»ipg Mr Arkwright,, and rejecting " ', hiir^, they ; hiight be puttiug a man in who .probably would have iii learn a good "'deal r of ; his' business. When Mr Wilson ;re» : tired sometime ago from the contest for "theiPalmerstbn seat* heKMr Macarthur) •r had good offers of support extended; to him for that constituency, but he ; ?aid :'.thisythat;he would; not desert the district ' .y here, they , had always given him| a "l-jnajority, even though he were sure! of ' iiuecess elisewherie. work in the "yHiu^e'-'of -Ropresentativei? miyht be a ' •'linSatler for. 'honourable; ambition, huf it ~was a very severe work, i and if a person - did his- duty there he would find it a gre at strain upon lijm [He had on some ; occasions never-left the House, excepf to ►-. ;l£o ,tf> his ibed, for a week together. Why he was anxious; to get into the House :»gain w>as that he had pertain ideas, 'for the'roading of lands, for instance, thai; he wished to carry out. There was jaa •apathy shown t< wards the wants of biji h districts by «ity and southern piembprs, and it was the more important that their member- should understand his subject find; be continually pre>sinsj it. jHe would, therefore, like to be returned, for the sake of furthering these matters, rather than on account of any personal ambition. Of course it was a sonrce of ; ■ -.gratification to any man to have the con* fidence and support of the electors, jHe .might, he .said,, reasonably expect a Vote , of confidence in Feilding did he wish it, but he desired H to V-e distinctly understood that he did hot want it. He regarded a vote, of confidenci' in a meeting at election times as) treneh'n» upon the •: peerecy of the baUof, and wished tlieijn to give him a vote of thinks only, leafing the cpnnVlence to be expressed at|the /, ballo)t boxy ( Apphiuse ) Mr Harris ; asked if Mr Macarthur wquldibe in favour of an Arbitration Bill . to meet the case of strokes. ■ ■ : .;.j Mr, Macarthur could see no. objection if the disputing parties could be bound to submit to the award ofthe arbitrators, v /but, he pointed out, no law could compel • -an employer to continue his business at a loss, or force men. to work for wages which they aro not prepared voluntarily •• to accept. (Applause). Mr Alfred Eade asked if Mr Macarthur . wae in favor of an income tax. . Mr Macarthur was not as it would be far too inquisitorial and open to fraud. Mr Eade : Did not tho Property Tax drrye'capital away from the country ? Mr Macarthur : No, but agitation f< r - >■ changes 4id. f Mr -Eade: Are you in favor of franchise being extended to females. Mr Macarthur; Yes, and had vUed for it. 'Mr Henry Worsfold then proposed a hearty-vote, of thanks. to Mr Macarthur, - Mr Sandilands seconded, and the resolution was carried with cheers. 1 Mr Macarthur moved a vote of thanks ° i 'oJtue.p 4 hairman, which was carried with '. s \ '& lamatioh. • . • - ■■ : --c

Name . 150, 150, Cost per H'd Cost per H'd Auckland ... £2 17 4 4 12 10 Taranaki ... 2 18 2 4 0 7 "Wanganui ... 216 2 4 4 7 'Wellington ... 216 & 419 6 Hawkes Bay ... 3 18 2 4 12 0 aSTelson' .' 2 16 10 4 6 7 Canterbury N ... 2 17 9 4 13 8 Oanterbury S ... 2 5 9 5 8 1 Otago ... ... 3 6 11 5 8 5 Southland ... 3 1 9 4 2 3