MR WAKEFIELD ON THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1694, 25 July 1879, Page 4

MR WAKEFIELD ON THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

The following was the speech of the hon. member for Geraldine in the debate of "Wednesday night:

Mr WAKBriBiD said ho rose to support the amendment of the hon. member for Wanganui, and he must say he never hoard a •want of confidence motion received as this one had been. What reason was there why the motion should be so received ? The Premier had told them it was an attempt to crush one man, and that they consisted of Canterbury land swindlers, or venal supporters of the "Upper House, and he was grieved when he hoard that they were only moving in this matter to get office instead of in opposition to maladministration. Ha attributed to both sides the highest public motives, but that did not prevent him from saying the Government had forfeited the confidence of the House, and gthe argument to the contrary meant that they should be supported on the Government benches, contrary to any of their judgments. From those great liberal principles which the Premier professed he would never alienate him, but it was the mismanagement, bordering on the ruin of the colony, which had caused the Opposition of which he was now a supporter. The Premier asked for a trial and said he would he willing to go out of office if he did not give satisfaction. Well, he had been kept in office and had not given satisfaction. At the close of the first session an event occurred which shook his confidence in the hon. the Premier. He referred to his advice to the Governor not to assent to the Uand Bill, which the hon. gentleman now told them he had given in the interest of the colony. If it was admitted that ho had the power to abstract one Bill, there was nothing against his abstracting the other, or all Bills in like manner. The administration of the Government was not so good as it might have been after the abandonment of provincialism. But for this there was some excuse. But when the House met they found nothing but expressions of disappointment on all sides with the measures brought in, and this was largely due to the way in which the Premier treated his followers. They heard that the Triennial Parliaments Bill was a great feature of the reform contemplated by the Premier. Why the fact was this Bill would have been made law last session if it had not been for the folly exhibited by Sir G. Grey. If he had then made it a Ministerial, instead of a private Bill, it would have been law. Measures which Ministers said they would stand or fall by were tnrown out, and they had the spectacle of (the Premier intriguing against the measures of his own colleagues. The disunion of the Ministry was common talk, and Cabinet secrets were banded about in the most public manner. The Ministers wore not working together amicably, and after the session the administration of the colony was left on the shoulders c£ the Hon, the Postmaster-General. The Premier wont to the Thames and there made a speech of which he ought thoroughly to be ashamed. Ho made ludicrous statements which could not be supported by any solitary fact. He spoke of fifty Upper House pensioners, and said they would have to make them fifby-Gve before they could destroy them altogether. So long as they had the Legislative Council as an institution the hon. gentleman should treat that institution with respect. Referring to the land tax, the hon. gentleman said the taxing power had been given them, and although it was cnly one half-penny, they could make it fourpence. By that speech he had kept much money out of the colony. Ho know one instance of a gentleman who intended to send out £IOO,OOO to the colony, who had the -draft ready when the mail came in, and on reading the serious speech at the Thames, he said not one penny of his money would go to that colony. He knew other similar instances to which he need not refer. Mr Wakefield referred to the dispute in the Cabinet, and said that the country ought not to have been scandalised by snob a fracas, when if there had been grounds Ministers could Lave been got rid of without recourse to such a step. The Premier loft the Colonial Treasurer to prepare his statement, and when bo returned he took the earliest opportunity to insult him. It was the common habit of the Premier to receive from all parts of the colony anonymous communications, and to act upon them against the advice of his supporters in the Ministry. Was that constitutional Government in New Zealand. The Premier had patronage in his hands, and during the recess one important vacancy occurred, which ho had watched with inteross to see bow it would be _ filled up. The Press watched in Wellington and soon gave forth a sound. They told the public of disunion in the Cabinet, and •especially over the Speakership, The Government thought a gentleman who was not a member should have been selected as Speaker, and the Premier thought otherwise. It then came out that the Premier had refused to make the appointment for over three months, and told the House that he dashed off the letter making the appointment in a few minutes, and did not recollect what construction might be put upon the communication. This was only a specimen of the way be conducted business. Ministers travelled all over the land in specials so much that in the Middle Island they were afraid to cross a line for fear of being run over by a special train carrying Ministers. He had himself been kept waiting at Timaru for an hour with 150 persons whilst the Minister of Works was conversing with some magnates in a neighboring hotel, and when he had had what he caDed his crack, he came into the train waiting for him, and then they were allowed to follow, He carried on this to such an extent that he was made to pay £BO for one train. The thing was becoming bo ruinous that the officials oven could not stand it. It was fortunate that ho had so much money to pay for it. Where were all the votes of last year, the result of the button-holing policy. In Waimate, a village of 1000 persons, a sum of £3600 had been spent on a Court-house, hut what for he know not. In Christchurch they had a moat miserable makeshift for four thousand. As to the actual administration of public works, it was wonderful what an amount of work the Ministers had got through in Otago, whilst not a single yard had been constructed in Canterbury. But there were also other districts which suffered, and it was only on the approach of the session that the Public "Works Minister broke out into tenders right and left. He thought a little contract here and there was not the props- course, especially when the middle of a lino was commenced first. Take the Oxford and Temuka line, where at one end they had a small contract let and at another a bridge, whilst the very route had not been decided upon. But they had the wretched bridge in readinorg to commit the country to the work or satisfy some interviewers. He would not refer to the advertising, except to say that the first notice he saw of the bridge in question was in a bi-weekly paper circulating away from the district if it circulated at all. 100 miles away, because it was a Government organ. But these were trumpery matters, to which he would not refer. Last year they passed a Land Tax Act, which ho opposed. It was the duty of the Government to put that that law in motion with the utmost can'ion, and not give the public cause to complain. Instead of this, they intensified the evil, and did little or nothing to carry it out in a proper spirit. They got valuers from tharabble, or from persons whose judgment could not bo relied upon. They should have selected the men beat known, instead of this class of persons,. and they would have given rise to much less dissatisfaction if they had done so. They actually asked people to value their own land, and got the most incomprehensible forms prepared with that object. A good many people were too frightened even to value their own lard, for fear of some penalty of £SO. If the tax was ever paid—and he doubted whether it ever •would be collected—it would bo the most iniquitous that was ever collected in the colony. He dealt at some length with the blundering of the Department in currying out the valuation and collection of the tax, and referred to the settlement of the people on deferred payment lands. He was anxious that j persons who hod a little money should be allowed to expend their money in lands on deferred payment?, and asked for a block to he opened for that purpose, but to his astonishment the first block was only thrown open a few days ago, when only speculator could dabble in it, instead of hard-working Bottlers. The Premier did not care for deferred payment settlers, unless they injured some Canterbury runholdors. So long as that could not be done they might he seated in the clouds instead of on the plains which ho referred to as now thrown open for the special benefit of speculators. Then there was the appoinmenfc of Mr Reed as Immigration Agent, which was a disgrace-

ful piece of jobbery. They made use of him as long as they could, and then gave him an appointment at £6OO a year, with £250 a year as travelling allowance there, and the same to return with. He was never fitted for such an appointment. Then they had a nondescript man, known as Captain Barry, sent as Reed’s colleague, but the latter refused to associate with him. This was the Premier’s bribery and corruption. They brought out Kentish laborers at £2 a head additional cost in a large steamer at a time when their services were not needed, and the poor follows were now idle. Mr Wakefield continued some time longer impeaching the Government on the Native administration.