The Premier at Wanganui

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 100, 14 February 1891, Page 3

The Premier at Wanganui

" (PER "UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.') ' * ' Wawc*npi, Februarf 13. ' At the banquet given to the Uon -•". Hir Ballance to-night the Mayor \va - ■ -3ro the chair, and there was a laryi -attendance of representative men o , ' the constituency. ' The Hons W P -^7 Reeves and John Mackenzie and Mi G. Hutchisou, M.H.R.'s. were amongsi those present. Apologies were reac from the Governor, several Ministers, and other persons. • : In leplying to the toast of his health, the Hon. Mr Balance referred to the Legislative Council appointments. ' -With regard to the, action of the Governor, it was held that the Governor Was to blame for certain things which had been done. Mr Ballauce thought that no one was in a position to judge more correctly as to the propriety of -the GoverLor's action in the matter than he was He was perfectly convinced that if there was any oeusure'or; blame to be cast on this 'matter'it should fall'on the Government, or t|ie party that supported the Government that gave that advice, and not upon the Governor. (Cheers.) The Ministry assured him that they possessed- a nvij >rity in a neuly elected House, aud the Governor had no means of ascertaining the contrary, and so was bound to act on their representation. As' to the late session of Parliament, many things had been said about it, among which was the statement that • - "it was. a mercenary session in which the representatives of the people took money .that did not properly belong to them" In any case, he would point out that the present. Government or party new in power, the Liberals, were not responsible . for the session. He based the argument upon the fact • . that there was a • written agreement -signed by the Prime Minister of the - Colquy in the pievious session, in which" he deliberately agreed that if the Government v were found in a minority, "as a result of the elections, "they would retire' without -calling Parliament together, which agree ment, let him say, was signed in t>rder to avoid the expense of an additional session ; but in defiance of that, aud ' without any excuse, the Government still claimed that they < represented a majority, and a session of Parliament was called. A new adxrrnistration having been form°f', there arose the question whether members were entitled to their honorarium or no t — whether there should be an ad jourument or a prorogation. Who were the people who moved in the matter? The gentleman who moved the resolution came up to Parliament hot for the Speakership, with £600, a .year ; and another gentleman spoke of the expenditure as criminal. All • those gentlemen- who supported that motion drew every single penny of =the honorarium which- thoy objected to. Indeed, the very gentleman who proposed the rnotiou, the great purist V ho wanted £600 a year with the Speakership, was the first to draw the' • -.honorarium ; while the other geutle--jnan who -declared' it was a criminal ,Bet was the second or third to draw rhis honorarium. -He „ hoped they ' would hear very little more of this -honorarium business ; but if the .gentlemen -.who voted to prevent the rhonoranum being - paid . had such lender consciences it was wrong of ithem to go to the Treasury. They should -have ' left the money there as :consciene.e money." A great question which was being discussed from one end of the Colony to the .-other was that of taxation, vnd he would say ithat the propo.al :.,r a cl an,.e for a radic a in the inciden c of taxatio i would be made by the Government in sthe ensuing session. The direction which that change would take would be to relieve people who were now bearing xinjustly an" "undue proportion of the •burden of the property tax and to place it "upon broader shoulders which" would be better able to beat it. They hoped to be able to take some of the weight off the farmers and manufactures, the artizans and the labourers, to place a fair share of the burdens upon "those -who had acquired wealth in^the .Colony and were able to pay additional taxation. He did not say exactly what the nature of the proposals would be, but he had given them the spirit of them, and it would be for them to draw their own in ren;es as to the direction in which these ouanges - would be made. (Applause.) '- Another question of great importance to the'Oolony at the present moment was the administration of public lands. He alluded to the presence of the Minister sof Lands that evening, and said they had ■at last the right man in the right place at 'the head of the Lands Department. Dummyism and dummies would not exist Jong under his administration, and they might depend upon .lHthafc -proposals would be made by the Minister of Lands in the ensuing session to stamp out dummyism. " Alluding to the unsold public lands of Ihe Colony, he said people were apt to say we had large quantities of land still unalienated, that we hac -alienated only 18,000,000 'acres, and had -still 38,000,000 acres -in our possession ; but this was a delusive statement, for they had nothing like that. A statement prepared, by the surveyor-General, the o h jr day, than who atlcc \\ as .10 better authority, ' showed that of pasio.-al or a rlcultural land — by pastoral land he meant fairly.'low-lying lands and not hilltops there was now available for settlement, o ily 2,850,000 acres. Heferring to the labour troubles of last yeir between private employers and employees and 'the Railway Commissioners and their servants, the Government thought it was very desirable by Legislation of a prudent character to bring labour and capital together, to reconcile them, and to place, as ifc were, both parties in a position so as to avoid strikes in the future ; and they were not without hope that tKey would tend to effect a lasting and permanent reconciliation between labour and .capital. " He would like -to say one word on the question of borrowing, for it had been said they-were afraid to touch thii delicate ouestion-lest they might make a mistake He was not afraid. He had come to the conclusion, and so had his colleagues - that borrowing in the English marke must be discontinued in the interests o the Colony.- The Colony must run m risks of rebuffs or humiliations such a bad been -by 'some of th Australian colonies lately. It must b self-contained, it must realise this'grea fact that it had already mortgaged its in come for many years to come, and tha the enormous demand for interest wa draining the life blood of the Colonyj?lßoo',ooo~per'year was, taken from v to W interest on ' the 'foreign debt, an we must take care to see that the amour

of that interest so sent out was not increased in future. If they had to borrow within the Colony, it must only be for carrying on the work of colonisation, making roads, aud opening up the country. v - Concluding, Mr Ballance said the Govern*s ment would be able to meet the House c with a strong consolidated party, with a )f broad and liberal policy, and with pro- >. posals which would commend themselves r to the judgment of the people of the 5t Colony. _ d ( For continuation of Reading Matter see i, fourth page.)