WORDS OF WARNING FROM VICTORIA.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1235, 18 February 1878, Page 3

WORDS OF WARNING FROM VICTORIA.

The following extracts from the great speech recently delivered in Victoria by Mr Service, a prominent politician and an exMinister, have a very direct relevance to some of the cries which certain knots of politicians are at present straining every effort to induce the people of New Zealand to raise : COERCION OF THE SECOND CHAMBER. As far as he understood, it was the intention of the Government to bring in a Bill either to abolish the Council or make it subordinate to the other Chamber. Some men referred to the members of the Council with great disrespect, and as if their opinions were not worth attention; but the best writers held that a second chamber was absolutely necessary for the welfare of the State. He would read to them a short extract from Lord Brougham on that head. He (Lord Brougham) said : —“ The separate and independent existence of different estates or authorities, each required to concur in all acts ; each free to act as it pleases, and as its separate interests prompt; each armed with the same independent power of resistance to the other, is the only effectual method of preventing one body in the Government or one class in the community from ruling uncontrolled, subjecting all the rest and mismanaging public affairs.” He thought it would be well if that doctrine were pondered carefully by the people. The idea that we should only have one House proceeded on the false impression that the Assembly always represented the people of the country. No one knew better than the people of this country that such was not the case. Within the last three years we had an Assembly which the men now in power declared did not represent the country. Yet those [men did who not represent the country might have passed hundreds of thousands of pounds for expenditure of an objectionable character. The country gave the Assembly power to deal with fifteen millions of money in three years. Was there to be no check ; was it wise to leave the Assembly open to those influences to which bodies of men were liable to yield ? They knew what took place in the city of New York, where one man stole from the New York Treasury a million and a half of money in two years, and a newspaper in the employ the Ring received £IBO,OOO for advertisements in the same period. Similar things had happened in every country where cheeks were wanting. The object was to provide checks so as to make irregularities impossible. In trusts, in banks, and in borough councils the principle was recognised, and acted upon. In the United States the Senate had more power over the Government of the country than the House of Representatives, and after bills had passed the three estates of the Union, the Supreme Court judges could review them, and if they declared that they were not within the constitution of America they became null and void. That was in America, the home of freedom and democracy If these checks were thought necessary there, why should we ignore them here ?

THE GEY AGAINST CAPITAL.

He would like to direct their attention to a cry which had been raised in some quarters

against capital. There had been a cry of down with the black hats and the white waistcoats, but they must all remember that capital was not confined to the rich man. Every man who owned a house or a child, who had £5 in a savings bank, was a capitalist in the strictest sense of the term. In speaking of capital and capitalists, they must not suppose that they were speaking of people who were not for them because they were rich. In dealing with capital they must remember that it was the life’s blood of the count ry; that in proportion to the amount of capital in the country, so in proportion would be the wages paid. The increased capital had helped to enrich the country, and it could only enrich the country by enriching the individuals in it. There was never such a period of prosperity in the country as there was when the price of wool was high in London, because the squatters came to Melbourne and lavishly spent the money which they had easily gained. If they had not got that money, where would the men who had built their villas, and participated in the expenditure, have been. The relations between the grades of society were so close that they could not attack one without injuring the other. He then narrated an incident which was reported to have occurred in an omnibus, where a horny-handed son was talking about the men who wore black hats and white waistcoats being made to pay their fair share of taxes, and where a man in the conveyance who wore « white waisteoast said that if ho was to be further troubled because he wore such an article of dress his washerwoman would have to suffer. They had heard a great deal about a proper distribution of the capital of the country. He should like to see every man have his fair share of the increased capital, and to see every man between fifty and fiftyfive years of ago be able to retire to his cottage and enjoy himself for the rest of his life, but he was not such a fool as to come there to tell them that could be done in the present state of society. In all ages they ha d had rich and poor, and they were told that they would always have the poor amongst them. They could not avoid them by legislation, or by any efforts put forth for them by honest men in the race for riches, which every one was running. THE FOLLY OF VIOLENCE. In conclusion, ho would ask that they should have no violence. Let it bo a fundamental principle that there should be no violence in high places, such as had been foreshadowed There was no security in a building society or other financial institution which had not lessened in value since the deadlock commenced. They did not want to resort to violence in order to bring about an alteration of the constitution when that alteration could be secured by the most peaceable means. They should neither trust to the Council nor to the Assembly, but keep the power entirely in their own hands. Let them tell those bodies that they must consult the constituent body, who would settle all differences between them. In the meantime it was the duty of all peace-loving and law-abiding men in the colony to work together hand in hand. Wherever there were any differences let them sink them, and set such an example to the rising generation as would teach them to conduct the affairs of the colony with moderation, with thorough concession and goodwill amongst themselves.