THE PREMIER’S SPEECH AND POLICY WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE AND FOUND WANTING.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 558, 1 April 1876, Page 2

THE PREMIER’S SPEECH AND POLICY WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE AND FOUND WANTING.

To the Editor of the Globe, Sir—To give a perfectly fair criticism of the Premier’s speech, after having written upon every topic in it, is an easy task. To 1 do this inoffensively, it is perhaps best to' imagine ones’self in his place, and to anticipate the objections to that policy, which has been so clearly and boldly marked out for New Zealand. First, the strong, outspoken assertion is in its favor ; it commits the Ministry on every point quite beyond recall, and leaves no doubt on any person’s mind, except indeed the Lyttelton Times, who only heard'the indifi* tinct rustling of a reed; but then we saw the wit of the Lyttelton Times dead and buried the other day, and its resurrection is very evidently not come yet. Who could after reading Sir Julius Yogel’s speech accuse him of vague generalities? Surely no one save the Lyttelton Times. The speech and policy have the following good points : 1. Elective bodies better than nominees, because nominees fall asleep, and don’t get stirred up. 2. All hope of preserving the provinces is at an end. 3. We must continue careful immigration, as a benefit to all. 4. I will oppose ‘‘ in toto ” a separation of the two islands. 5. Government will consent to nothing that does not give residue ot land fund to Local Bodies. 6. Inexpensive local government shall be provided. 7. Gaols, police, railways, education, surveys, shceplaw, hospitals, asylums, are to be: taken over by the Central Government. 8. Laud to be sold on deferred payments. 9. Government have sent round able men. to prepare complete accounts of all provincial, finance. 10. Will abolish the £1 household rate. 11. “ Railways cannot be managed as they; are now.” Now that is all good and clear; it is quite.', refreshing, after reading wishy-washy,-articles, to hear a man speak bis mind outlike that, But—here’s the rub—the above good points are smothered and spoiled by the-, following heavy v*f errors and omissions,, and by a minors and totally impracticablej finance. Evidently the Premier is too foneir of the provinces to have courage to sweepi the sinks away. He is afraid to brave the: House and the country with a new line off action. These are the twenty-two bad points: in his speech and policy 1. Counties to consist of seven Road Boards, elective. 2. Chairman, same as Superintendent, not to sit in Parliament. 3. Counties to manage arterial works. 4. Counties to borrow on rates, and to receive subsidies out of the taxes on food and clothes and out of land sales. 5. He must give an Education Bill with local control by committees and School Boards, but not a general measure of consolidation. 6. Civil servants must be compensated, more than a month’s pay. 7. For quietness’ sake, when driven, the. Government gave appointments to people. 8. Land on easy terms to large purchasers,. because they are large. 9. Harbors and goldfields to be taken by.* Government, FINANCE, 10. land Sales Revenue to be taken by" Central Government. 11. Subsidies to country Road Boards out ; of taxes on food and clothes. 12. There would be quarrels among RoadBoards. 13. To take over all railways on to the’ general land fund. 14. He breaks up the land compact of 1856. 15. To make a railway through the Snowy Mountains to Nelson. 16. To make a railway through the volcanic mountains up north. 17. Only the residue of the land fund, after paying subsidies and rail charges, is to go to the local boards. 18. He confesses that his financial law of 1870 was broken through political pressure. 19. Next session will deal only Kith counties, not with Road Boards. 20. No Property Tax , or income-tax, he' would rather see New Zealand without that; sort of taxes. 21. Wellington Harbor to be supported by/ the colony, 22. He will liquidate the bankrupt provinces out of the Canterbury and Otago LandFunds. I will comment on these serious errors at: the end of this Diagnosis. • SHADOW OF THE BUDGET. Our Treasurer has foreshadowed Hiff Budget, quite as far as prudence, and that awful provincial Hydra (with nine heads)would allow, but the financial principle is corrupt entirely, it is but a bid for political support ai the cost of every principle of juall dealing between man and man.

Central Government. Receipts. Expenditure. Taxes on food, clothes, Fixed charges &c, and general revenue (that is consolidated fund 7) Subsidies to County Boards Subsidies to counties Education Land sales Subsidies to Auckland and other bankrupt boroughs Rail and other profits Rotten railways Wellington Harbour Bankrupt provinces Treasury kites Compensation to servants Provincial revenues Provincial liabilities Balance loan Unprofitable trunk lines on Nelson and Auckland mountains Counties. Borrow on rates Arterial works I Subsidies out of the What 7 poor man’s food and clothes Boroughs. Borrow on rates and Harbours works Subsidies (to Auck- Drainage land from Canter- Civic charges, &c bury land fund Boad Boards Must rate themselves, Roads, bridges or get no subsidies Culverts, &c Subsidies equal taxes Residue Land 7 How much 7 Yon hare now before you the few good points, the great errors, the bad Budget, but there is worse to come —viz, omissions. 1. After stating the country was in a mess, must have four millions. Sir Julius Vogel has lent (dirt cheap) for the past year two millions to a Bank, that has eight millions of liabilities, with only £600,000 capital, and no invested Reserve Fund, and he is about to lend the money again as he does not Want it. 2. If that Bank failed, where would New Zealand be to-morrow 7 3. He merely registered our bonds, that is the simple thing that be makes such a fuss over, but the £600,000 of savings is in the above two millions, and there is no Trust Fund for New Zealand. 4. He taxes the traders and labourers, but he will not tax property, although property gets more out of the railways than anybody. 5. He does not propose to assess the whole country. 6. He dare not abolish the provinces, but he castrates them, and calls them counties with nothing to do 1 7. He gives you no landlaw at free selec tion and upset price. 8. He does not restript deferred payments to small holdings, but says, “ Large purchasers shall have easier terms.” Western Australia and Nelson split on that rock. 9. He omits all those fearful laud monopolies—Tairua, Piako, Murimotu. 10. He makes no land reserves for education buildings, although schools are wanted everywhere. 11. He destroys the safeguards {i.e., local charging) against losing railways. 12. He does not reserve our minerals. 13. He does not tax absentees, or wild land, or property. 14. He will not alter these abominable five year Parliaments, although, as we have. Been ( e.g ., Mr Reeves) the members get in dead oppositson to their constituents. I propose (as space compels) on a future occasion to give to the public the New Zealand Budget, as it ought to he , so I will now merely comment sharply, shortly on these twenty-two errors and fourteen omissions. 1. A chairman elected by the same constituents as the Board, will clash aa they did, witness Messrs Rolleston and Kennaway in Canterbury, Messrs McAndrew and Reid in Otago. 2. The Westland Road quarrel, the Timaru quarrels, show that arterial works must be by central authority. 3. Counties then can sit still, suck their thumbs, while the Road Boards, Boroughs, and Government, do all the work. 4. Fancy twenty counties and 100 boroughs going into the market to borrow money. The old story all over again—bad bonds—damaged credit. 5. Five hundred Education committees yelping for cash !! I If the Canter ,-ury committees are a fair sample, they will send the Treasurer out of his mind. 6. Subsidies out of a poor man’s food and clothes, his beer and baccy, to those rich jolly country boards, full already of land fund. 7. If there be a surplus on taxation, lower the tariff. 8. I am astonished he is opposed to Property Tax, or Income Tax, the fairest of all taxes ; but perhaps he wants to buy support, and so taxes the poor to spare the rich. 9. There is no necessity to make paupers of the Civil Service, if they are valuable to us they will be valuable to others as servants. 10. Deferred payments must be limited to email holdings, or the country will be lost 1 !! 11. Farewell to the Land Compact of 1856, Messrs Maskell and Sir C. Wilson can ruefully gaze at the vampire provinces as they draw the fat carcase of the CanterLand Fund. Oh !ye gods I I went to that fight in the Canterbury Coun,"i ] > and 36 1 came 0l ? fc 1 “ uttered ~ K proud man, dressed in a little brief authority, P la y s BU ° h fantastic tricks before High Hea\ ' ea as make the An S ela wee P--12 The premier implies that he made those bankrupt railways up North, rather than give up £.' , ° 00 a y ear P ockefc mone ySUMMING UP. Altogether as a politician, out Treasurer has completely faile * to meet the crisis, and will be easily turneu out <m the above ; but let us all do him the /ortioe to he has put his foot into it brav , , He has told you his P. clearly, he ha sketched out his Budget, ke kas committed the Ministry irretrievably,' no more tent ' Policy is short-sighted t unsound, unjust, ruinous, _ , , Sir J. Vogel, with Counties, .Boroughs, tea, borrowing in every direction, \ 71 “ ruin our credit, which can only be presex'V ed by * ol ’ lowing the Policy sketched out by > tliat is my conscientious belief. My Budget will neither follow \ ke sa “ e form nor the same principles as tht 1 one ke ’has given you. Yours, &c, J, W, TBB^DWBiVU