MR. MACANDREW, M.H.R, AT PORT CHALMERS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2255, 20 May 1881, Page 3

MR. MACANDREW, M.H.R, AT PORT CHALMERS.

[PBBSB ASSOCIATION TBLBGBAM.] DUNEDIN, May 19,

Mr Maesndrew met about 200 electors in the Forester*' Hall, Port Chalmers, this evening. The Mayor, Mr Innes, was voted to the chair.

Mr Maoandrew said that bis object in calling the eleotors together was not that he had anything new to Bay, but rather that they might talk seriously over pablio affaire. The last session of Parliament, although distinguished by the usual amount of talking, had not been conducive to the public interests. Its action had been very much retrogressive. The imposition of a most objeotionable tax was one of the results of the session ; the depriving of looal bodies of 20 per cent, of the land fund previously secured to them by law was another; the abandonment of the railway policy initiated and all but unanimously approved in the session of 1678 was a third ; the stoppage of assisted immigration was a fourth, and the return to the system of local roads and bridges being constructed by direct appropriation of a Colonial Parliament, with all the favoritism and log-rolling which must inevitably be connected with it, was another. As a set-off against all this, there was the great policy of retrenchment. There was little or no attempt at retrenchment as brought down by the Government ; it had been forced upon them by the House. He feared that, after all, it would be found that retrenchment had been a great cry and little wool. Of all the absurd thingß under the sun, the Now Zealand Legislature was one of the most absurd ; it was like a thousand-horse power engine, under full pressure of steam, driving a sewingmachine. Probably the Grey Government had effected as much real retrenchment during their short term of office as had been done since, only they did not make so much fuss about it. Had they been allowed sufficient time they would have effeoted much larger reductions, by simplifying the administration. He should set his face at any additional taxation for mere purposes of governing the country. New Zealand finanoe was most wonderful. As an example of how the ignorance of people might be imposed upon for party purposes, he adverted at length to tho assertion of the Colonial Treasurer that he (Mr Macandrew) had, before leaving office, committed the colony to liabilities exceeding three millions in the shape of outstanding contracts, while in reality the whole amount did not exceed half-a-million. In alluding to the comparison whioh Major Atkinson had made between the expenditure under the late and under the present Government, he said the one was stated to be £ 109,000 a week, the other £BO,OOO, thus seoking it to be inferred that the present Government had oconomißod to the tune of £1,508,000 a year, a statement too absurd to oomment upon. Now, with the exception of the Taranaki Harbor Bnard, none of the local bodies reooived any of the land fund; therefore no fair comparison could be made between the expenditure of the two Governments. Putting out of the question the reduced expenditure on publio works, the Grey Government had expended a million and a half loss than during the two years immediately preceding their term of office. The reduced amount in his time was owing to the commercial depression, which led the Government to take in sail and look out for squalls. In face of these facts, where he auk-id were the ignorant and unfounded charges of recklessness which had been so persistently hurled against him by the Ministerial Press throughout the colony. He had no pretention to statesmanship, like Major Atkinson, but he had oommon sense sufficient to toll him that it would have been the height of madness to have alarmed the colony to the extent Mhich for party purposes had been so pertinaciously done, with a commercial crisis staring them in the faoe, and the uncertainty as to how it might affect the successful floating of the intended loan. The Grey Government would have deserved to be consigned to political perdition had they been guilty of tho reckless conduct asoribed to then-., conduct which would only be compared to that of the Colonial Treasurer when, like Nero fiddling while Rome was burning, he delivered himself of that memorable budget speech on October 14th, 1878, in which he f old so mnch more than the truth. Fortunately for the five million loan, it was fixed up before that, speech was circulated in England, otherwise not one penny of the loan would have flouted, excepting at enormous loss. The bud cdour in which New Zealand and its fcuriticß were held for a time shortly afterwards was to be attributed to that speeoh. Speaking of tho pledge given by the Sank of England wh6n tho former loan was raised, and the best month

in the year in which to go hAo tho Home market, he said that, had the late Government remained in office till the loan was placed in the market, thero would have been no necessity to sacrifice it, as the Premier had taken the precaution to have snoro than one striDg to his bow, whoroby the punlic credit could be maintained in c»«e of need on advantageous terms. Mr McLean had said much of the financial trouble was duo to the absurd over estimate the late Government made of the land revenue, estimated at two millions for 1878. Tho fast v i.a, that the estimate was £1,229,677, a slight differ enoe, not worth talking abort by euch accurate men as Mr McLean and Major Atkinson. In coneoquence of unforecen complicationf on the West Coast several hunriivd thousand

pounds anticipated from tho sale of the confiscated land turned out a mjth, consequently the Treasurer's estimate of un oxcobb of ro-

Iceipts by £300,000 turned out a deficiency; which, however, might have beon tided over without recourse to additional taxation. It might fairly be «aid, that if this view were correct, it involved reflections anything but (complimentary to tho present Government. He wag not going to run a tilt against them, because they did not tee with the same political optica as he did. They did their beot according to their lights, but unfortunately for the country, their light! were very dim. Taking them collectively r the situation had been none of their making any more than it was of their immediate predecessors, although such could not bo said of several Ministers individually. The practical effect of repealing the clause in the Act of 1877, securing 20 per cent, of the land fund to local bodies, was to deprive the Southern provinces, especially Otago and Canterbury, of an enormous sum, which otherwise would have been available for local works. In the cac-o of Otago alone ifc meant two to three millions ultimately. The Grey Government had been freely charged with havine first deprived tho provinces of tho land fund. The fact was that it was the whole object of abolition. Although the Abolition Government had not tha honesty to take it openly and abovo board, they took possession of the whole in a roundabout way by means of that peculiar manipulation which long distinguished colonial finance. In reality it was Major Atkinson and his supporters who first secured the land revenue, and who now again grabbed the whole. Tho abandonment of tho railway policy of 1878 was a faleo atop, as it embraced the construction in both islands of important railway*, involving the probable expenditure of six millions, spread over seven years. Of this sum it was proposed to provide a million and a half out of the last loan, and four and a half million! out of the sale of Grown lands, to be placed in the market as the railways made sufficient progress to render them advantageously saleable at an enhanced value. They implied an unbroken line from Wellington to Auckland, which would do more to enrich the North. Island and settle the Native difficulties than all the legislation and Royal Commissioners woro ever likely to accomplish. Ab regarded tho South Island, they involved an enormous development of its productive resources. Among them were the East and West Coast and Otago Central, which, although they at one time commanded themselves to the mind of the Legislature have since been stigmatised by weak; brethren as wild and visionary. All he could say was, had the late Government continued in ofiico until now, every one of the lines sanctioned in 1878 would this moment be in actual progress. He predicted that most of them would live to see the works in question an accomplished fact, unless the people of New Zealand were unworthy of the high destiny within their reach. He explained the mode :> y which it was intended to carry out the proposals of 1878. Effirts were now being made to carry on some of the proposed lines by means of joint stock companies. He did not think anything practical would oome out of this for years to come, and people were only deceiving themselves if they expected otherwise. Even if the companies were to succeed, the Government would make the linos in point of fact; that was if they were to guarantee interest on the cost or make grants of land. If made by companies, it implied the employment of foreign capital, involving a further drain on the colony by way of interest; if it was to be a case of foreign capital, the Government were in a better position to acquire such on more favorable terms than any company. In his opinion the whole of our public railways ought to be made by the State without the aid of foreign gold. Looking at the enorniouh sum now sent out of the country in respect to foreign loans, be should hesitate before agreeing to any increase of this drain for any purpose whatever. They were now sending to England every day in the week upwards of £4OOO to pay interest. Many imagined that the colonial debt had been incurred for public works and immigration. Not one half of the debt wag so inenrred. They had better ask of the great financial doctors of the pact, several of whom had been rewarded with sinecures, pensions, and Imperial honours, what became of the other half. Perhaps their friends at Taranati might know something about it. He had no objection to borrowing to any extent for reproductive purposes, provided the interest was not sent out of the colony. This could be done if we only divested ourselves of the cobwebs of so-called political economy. The stoppage of assisted immigration was another blunder. He looked on immigration as the life blood of a new country, provided the immigrants adapted themselves to the colony's circumstances. He desired to see a steady stream of immigration, confined exclusively to the friends of people in the oolony, the immigrants to understand that they must take their chance of the labour market. Certainly New Zealand was capable of supporting millions of people in comfort and happiness, and the greater the number settled in the colony the more employment would there be for all. It was impossible to predict the result of the next session of Parliament, but he knew what ought to be. The first railway policy of 1878 ought to be carried out in its entirety; the property] tax should be repealed, and nothing put in its place; immigration should be resumed on '.the principle he had indicated ; cost of education should be greatly reduced, by altering tho minimum, school age to six or seven years. He had always beon opposed to the education polioy of the Abolit ion Government, believing it to be a mistake to apply one cast iron rule to the whole colony. In Otago they had previously a system which worked well, and as it was provided for by fees and endowments the cost to the Government was very little. Last year the rental of the primary education reserves in Otago, which the much-despised provincial authorities had the foresight to make, realised £20,000, which had gone into the general pot. In Auckland, the denominational system then prevailed, and though he thought a national system the more efficient, where different communities were satisfied, tho arrangement should not have been disturbed, but he would be disposed to let the matter rest. In the meantime, provision ought to be made whereby a fair proportion of the secondary education endowment should be devoted to the _ purpose of providing technical education, for though he did not undervalue Greek and Latin, he believed that in the ciroumstances of the colony the means of acquiring a practical knowledge of manufactures and agriculture would be more beneficial. There would bo a radical reform in the constitution and practice of the Supreme Court, so that the cost of obtaining justice between man and man might be diminished. He again strongly advocated the institution of direct steam communication with Europe, and regretted that party spirit should have influenced the members of Parliament to prevent him from laying before a committee of the House practical proposals from eminent ship-builders, which might have led to the institution of the grandest steam lino in the world, and have provided for the export of our surplus products. The readjustment of representation on the basis of population was one of the hardest nuts the Assembly had to crack. The number of representatives should not be increased. How the question would be settled it was difficult to say, but knowing the complexion of Parliament, it was almost hopeless to expect the right thing would be done. Then the Assembly should divest itself of the parish business, with which it was so incompetent to deal, and transfor it to laoal bodies as near as may bo to what the Provincial Councils were intended to have been. The section of the Act which deprived local bodies of 20 per cent, of tho land fund ought to be repealed. Mr Macandrew contradicted Mr Fulton's etatomont regarding the tactics of the Opposition, and asserted that notwithstanding the twaddle of a certain section of the press, there never had boon a more compact Opposition than the Opposition last session nor one that confined itself more 'to its legitimate functions of criticising and watching the actions of the Government. He referred to the fact that within tho next few years three million acres of run would fall in, and said that this was more a question for wise administration than for now legislation. So far as Mr Pyke's land league could succeed in keeping tho administration up to the mark, he thought they were worthy of support, and he wished them sucoess. After several unimportant questions had been answored, on the motion of Dr. Drysdale, a vote of thanks and confidence was carried unanimously.