ADDRESSES TO CONSTITUENTS.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1373, 10 July 1878, Page 3

ADDRESSES TO CONSTITUENTS.

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL AT DUNEDIN. [By Teikgbaph.] [yboh the coebespondknt op the pbess.] Dunedin, J uly 9. Mr Stout addressed his constituents in the Queen’s Theatre to-night. The upstairs part of the theatre was very full, including many ladies. The lower parts of the house were only partially full. The Mayor presided, and on the platform were Messrs G. M. Reed, Jas. Smith, Russell, Robin, Hon. Robert Campbell, Howorth, Isaac Rutherford. Mr Stout began by saying that he met them in accordance with a promise made to the electors when he was elected that at the close of every session he would meet his constituents. He had put off doing so until the last moment, in the hope he would have been accompanied by Mr Macandrew; but he had received a letter from him, expressing regret that he was not able to be present. He was the first Qtago meruber to set the example years ago of meeting constituents, and giving accounts of stewardships. It was a wholesome practice, the observance of which circumstances lately had interfered with. Mr Macandrew wished to assure his constituents that though deeply engaged in attending to the affairs of the colony as a whole, he was not neglecting his duty to his constituents. Ho had such a multiplicity of business to deal with, that he could not -'et away from Wellington. (Cheers.) The course he (M!r Stout) had chalked out for himself was to allude first to what was done during the past session, giving his individual opinions on various matters which came before the House. In the second place, he intended to make some reference to what might be termed the policy of the Government. Referring first to the land question, he said he had charge of the Land Bill through committee, and succeeded in carrying it through. They knew his opinions on the land question. He held that the State ought pevef to have sold the land. He had thought tliis matter over for a long time, and had read almost every book he could lay hands on on the subject, and all this thinking and reading led him to form the conclusion that the best thing possible for the State would be that it should never have parted with its freehold lands. On entering into Parliament, he moved in that direction, but found either the public mind not at all educated on it, or that in consequence of the large quantities of land sold already there would be very great difficulty in getting such a principle made law. Finding he could not succeed, he did what he conceived to be the next best thing in the direction of his principles. Two things had to be guarded—first, to see that our lands were not parted with except for the promotion of settlement; and secondly, that our lands were not quickly parted with, but that we looked to the future, and not merely to the present in dealing with them. He had therefore strongly opposed the extension of ton years’ licenses to the Canterbury runholdors, and, though unsuccessful, succeeded in wringing from the ex-Attorney-General that the Canterbury runholdors had no legal claim for thio extension. What right in equity had the colony to give them this extension ? Ho replied— None, On education he said emphatically it

should be free, compulsory, and secular. A great blot in our education scheme was that it did not provide for a higher as well as primary education. If the Slate did not provide higher education it would be received only by the wealthy classes of the community. He would like to see the plan adopted that was carried out in Boston, U.S., and was the law in even such a poor place as Sweden. From the lowest to the highest schools, and even to the university no man should have the right to demand a fee for education if the child could pass the necessary examination. This should be afforded by the State, and should be open to all free of charge. [Cheers."! Finding the House would not provide for higher education, he did what he conceived to be the next best thing. He attempted to save some of our education reserves, in order to give our high schools an endowment, and was successful in that. If those reserves were well managed the day would not be far distant when every boy and girl in Otago, if able to pass the examination, would have a free education. On the licensing question, as they knew, ho took a decided stand, and was not afraid of asserting his opinions. Some people appeared to think that they could frighten people with a block vote; but he would sooner have the block vote against him rather than he would change his opinions. [Cheers.] On the land fund he said it could not be denied that when abolition became law, the land fund went because Canterbury was the only province that could pay the charges on the land fund proper. The system of issuing Treasury bills to meet the deficiencies of these provinces was vicious in the extreme. On August 24th, 1877, he told the House that the land fund had gone, and that was when there was not the slightest chance of the Atkinson Q-overnment being ousted. The Grey Government had been greatly blamed for taking the land fund, but practically they did not take it, as it had gone some time before. Under the proposals of the Grey Government, Otago would be better off than in 1875, because one-third of the price of deferred payment land bought was returned to the holders to make roads, and 20 per cent, of the total land revenue went to the counties in which the land fund arose. It was plain to everyone that the land fund must go. To have preserved it for another year would have been allowing the rich district of Canterbury to have got an enormous revenue, as it was selling its land very fast. Mr MurrayAynsley, in his speech, was frank enough to admit that. They would find that at present the Road Boards in Canterbury had half a million of money standing to their credit. If the fund had not been taken this year, probably they would have had half a million more, and then they could have snapped their fingers and said “ You take the rest gentlemen,” when there was nothing left. He quoted from Mr Curtis’s speech to show that the other side intended to take it, and from Major Atkinson, to show that the present Government had dealt with it more liberally than their predecessors intended. One effect of their action had been to raise the price of land to a uniform price, so that land would no longer be frittered away in the North Island at from 2s 6d to 10s an acre, and the public estate shamefully sacrificed. After referring at some length to the Native Lands Bill as being the principal cause of the downfall of the Atkinson Government, he touched upon the policy of the Government. So far as public works went, he hoped to see the proposal made by Mr Macandrew yet carried out in a modified form, so that instead of having our railways made along the coast and through settled districts, they should be so made as to penetrate into the interior and open up vast blocks of Crown lands, so that the Crown would reap some benefit from the construction of the lines. If that principle were adopted through the colony, the result would be increased value obtained by the Crown lands, which would go a large way towards paying the cost of the railways. At all events it wou[d pay the interest on the money raised. So far as public works and immigration were concerned, they must bo proceeded with by this or any other Government, in order to develop the colony’s resources. This Government were striving, in dealing with public works, to carry them out efficiently, and were carrying on the surveys of such lines as would really benefit the Crown lands, and these surveys would be laid before Parliament, so that it might have an opportunity of saying whether or not the lines should be continued. Before coming to what ho might term the three planks of their platform, he wished to tell them what were the aims and views of the Government in dealing with those three great questions. They must remember that any Government setting itself the task of obtaining any measure of reform could not obtain it all at once. It must come gradually. All the people could look to was this—Have the Government an object in view ? Are they honestly working towards it? And if the p >ople approve of the object the Government have in view, and believe that they have plenty of energy to carry out their work, then the Government were entitled to get the support of the people. [Cheers.] He should arrange their planks in this way —Ist, administrative reform; 2nd,electoralreform; 3rd, taxation reform. The Government had pledged themselves to effect administrative reform. Although they had only been in office a short time they would be able to show the Parliament if it adopted their estimates that there would be a saving purely on administration—without calculating those departments which furnished revenue as telegraph, postal, and constructed railways, which must necessarily increase with the progress of the colony—of at least, and he was speaking of the minimum, £20,000 per year. [Applause.] That was only the beginning. There must be reduction in the expense of Government. How was that to be attained ? By the amalgamation of offices and the casting upon local bodies of functions that could not possibly be undertaken by any Government sitting in Wellington. In the Native department there would be an immense saving and there would be large savings effected by the reforms inaugurated by Mr Macandrew in the Public Works Department. As instancing how administrative reform could be carried out, he mentioned what the Government were attempting to do in reference to the Department of Justice. They must endeavour to bring about their reforms without being unnecessarily harsh or severe, and not even for the sake of reform must they altogether ignore personal rights. In the colony there was a large number of District Judges, but he could not say that the District Courts had done half as much work as they ought. There was also a vast number of Resident Magistrates. In fact, he had known of instances of men in the past who, being found unfit for anything else, had been made Resident Magistrates. [Roars of laughter.] The Government proposed to establish District Courts throughout the colony. Possibly in the larger towns there would be what was termed a Resident Magistrate, and these would, they proposed, take the criminal business and the civil cases up to a certain amount. Then they proposed that the District Courts should do the rest of the civil business up to a certain amount. A new District and Resident Magistrate’s Courts Bill had been prepared, and would be laid before the House. It would increase the jurisdiction of the District Courts, giving them jurisdiction over partnership matters and small disputes about boundaries. If he had his way, and could carry out his system of judicial reform without reference to officers who would have to be dismissed, he believed he could in one week effect reforms that would save £IO,OOO a year, and justice be far bettor adminis'ered than it was now. They were gradually leading up to that. But if each small village must have a Resident Magistrate for itself it would be hopeless to expect any reform or economy. If the District Judges went to the various chief towns and smaller towns of the province once a month or a fortnight, in the same way that the County Judges in Victoria do, the work would be done better and more cheaply, and the people would bo more satisfied when they had a properly trained man, and not a man chucked into the service because ho had not ability for anything else. [Cheers.] He had, through the Colonial Secretary, asked the Judges of the Supreme Court to simplify the rales of that Court. He did nob know whether he would be able to carry it into law, but he did not see why there should not be a fixed scale of fees for appeals from the

District to the Supremo Court, and from the Supreme Court to the Appeal Court, as there was from the lower to the District Court. If the Government were able to do this and simplify the procedure of the superior courts, they would have conferred a great boon on the colony. (Cheers.) As to manhood suffrage, he echoed what was said by the Premier A Bribery Bill was also to be introduced. If he had his way he would prohibit the employment by any candidate of any cabs, canvassers, <tc. (cheers), aud would strongly support the closing of public-houses on election days. On taxation reform he quoted largely from Mill, Fawcett, and other political economists. Our present systems of collecting revenue were class legislation of the worst description, because they mostly fell on the working classes. He argued at great length in favor of a land-tax, which, hedged about with certain provisions, would be the fairest. One of the provisions proposed by the Government would be that land should be taxed, and that land worth less than £SOO should be exempt. There were two ways of carrying it out, and he did not care which was adopted, because it seemed to him they were practically the same. One was the acreage system with classification—a proper system of classification and valuation independent of the buildings or improvements on it. What was the other scheme proposed ? One ex-Minister would like to see a police and educational rate. The first objection to that would be creating two machines, and that it would be expensive to collect. Then it would be a tax om improvements and unimprovements. Higher in fact on improved land, and the great objection of all was that large holdings in the outlying districts would escape scot free. Something had been said. about a bursting up policy. If the policy of the Government burst up estates he could not help it. They were merely following out a system of taxation according to the highest dictates of wisdom. As a member of the Government he was not advocating bursting up, but simply a fair system of taxation. If it had the effect of bursting up estates they should not be there to burst up. [Cheers and laughter.] If the views of the Government commended themselves to the people, they ought to receive the support of the people. If they failed the people should not blame them. Before sitting down he would just say this—Some people objected to a representative becoming a Minister. There was a very good remedy for that. There was a class of men whom, if they elected, the constituency might guarantee they would never become Ministers, [Cheers.] He hoped in the future, as he had in the past, to receive the hearty support of the constituency. If they thought he was going wrong or misrepresenting them they had only to tell him so and he would be “ non est.” [Loud cheers.] After answering of questions saying in respect to the Proudfoot case that the previous Government made the mistake of allowing it to be a quasi private prosecution, and that the law ofii -er of the Crown had advised that the indictment could not be susstained in the absence of the witnesses, a vote of confidence in Mr Stout was proposed by Mr Garrick, seconded by Mr Robin, and carried amidst repeated cheering. After 830 the theatre filled rapidly, and by nine was full in every part.