GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

Kumara Times, Issue 2582, 1 October 1884, Page 2

GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

GOLD DUTY ABOLITION BILL.

In the House on the 11th ultimo, Mr J. C. Brown (Tuapeka) moved the second reading of the Gold Duty Abolition Bill.

Mr E. J. .O'Conor (Westport) supported the motion.

Mr Stout (Premier) said: As this Bill has to go to the Goldfields Committee, I do not intend, at this stage, to offer any opposition to it. I hope that, if the Bill gets to the Committee, that Committee will bring down to the House a report showing what proposition it will make to raise the .£25,000 which this gold royalty gives to the local bodies. Unless they Bhow how the local revenue is to be made up, I do not think it is fair to take away this duty.

The following is the speech of the member for Kumara, taken from Han-

sard :

MrSeddon: Iliad no intention, at this stage of the Bill, to enter into a debate upou it—as the father of the Bill for the last four years, I was quite satisfied to leave it in the hands of its sponsors but the remarks of the Premirr, I think, call for an expression of opinion from goldfields members. Perhaps the honourable gentleman, in expressing a wish that there should be no debate, did so in order to get at the ideas of honourable members in regard to matters with which he does not himself appear to be acquainLed.. Perhaps, too, he thinks that he is throwing down to goldfields members a bone of contention, so that we should wrangle amono ourselves, and give a very good excuse to others for opposing the measure. I do not think that will be brought about this evening, for if there is one matter on which all goldfields members are unauimous it is this of the abolition of the gold duty. The Premier said it was our duty to show to the House and to the State that a substitute could be provided for the revenue taken away under this Bill. The honourable gentleman has been out of political life for the last five years, or he would have known that already the Legislature of New Zealand has provided a substitute for the gold duty. Major Atkinson: -The counties do not know it.

Mr Sp'Jilom : The la to Colonial Treasurer sajs the counties do not know it. Poihajjs I uiu) [nu bc.ic tht; houyur-

able member and the House the astonishing fact, in proof that the connties do know it, that the County of Westland has at this moment .£4OOO to its credit on deposit receipt in the Bank of New Zealand at Hokitika. Two years ago the County Council was heavily in debt, and was constantly badgering the late Colonial Treasurer for money, and he had to give it the money it wanted. The passing of the Roads and Bridges Construction Act and the Crown aud Native Lands Rating Act brought into the counties there £BOOO last year. As their gold duty only came to £SOOO, the balance was a surplns over and above all that they had previously received. That is a complete auswer to the honourable gentleman. Will the honourable gentleman name any other county that he desires information about ? The Greymouth County Council gets an amount in the shape of rates on the Crown lands equal to its gold duty. Inangahua County does the same, and so does the Buller Comity. Would the honourable gentleman name another? Major Atkinson : Tell the House the state of their finances. Mr Seddon : " Tell the House the state of their finances \" Yes, and I may say that tbey are in a bad state through maladministration, just as the finances of the colony are in a bad state through the maladministration of the honourable gentleman. If the honourable gentleman wants further information I am quite, ready to give it to him. Coming back to the question put by the Premier, I would say that it is not the duty of the goldfields members to sanction the imposition of further taxation on the goldfields than is already imposed upon them. Onr duty is to relieve them of taxation, and I say that the local bodies are fully prepared to put up with the consequences. Sir, petitions have been sent to this House session after session by the local bodies asking that this gold duty should be abolished. Mr H. Hirst: No.

Mr Sedclon : Emphatically, Yes. The honourable member has been out in the cold of late years, and if he continues to hold the same opinions he is likely to go there again, and possihly into the very freezing-chamber of political oblivion, to remain there. I say, petitions came to this House the session before last, from local bodies on the West Coast, expressing their desire for the abolition of the gold duty. The Bill was thrown out in another place ; the Committee there, which reported on the Bill, said that, owing to the representations of thess local bodies, and to the representatives of the people having passed the Bill during three sessions, if it came before them again they would pass it. So that the responsibility rests with this House. I Bay we have no right to reverse the decision of the last three sessions unless very good grounds are put before us ; and I should like to see the honourable member who would stand up and defend this tax. Has not the Premier admitted that in principle the tax is ■wrong ? If so it is his duty as head of the Goveroment—and it is the duty of the members of this House—to sweep away any tax that is wrong in principle. It is condemned by all political economists. It is a tax upon exports, and upon an industry of the colony. It is the only tax upon the export of any product of New Zealand, and we in New Zealand are the only colony that imposes this tax. It was done away with years ago in Victoria, in New South Wales, and in Queensland. As there are a good many new members in the House perhaps I should inform them of the reason first given for the imposition of this tax. The first object was to provide means to recoup the cost of administering jusiioo on liie, goldfields, and for the carriage and escort of gold. That was the° reasou for the imposition of the tax; and the only defence was that, where gold was discovered, there greater expense was entailed on the country. I recollect that the last time in Queensland it was to defray the expense of the escort from Cook's River to Cooktown, and only Gd an ounce was imposed. After that the roads were opened, the aboriginals were driven back into the bush, no escort was required, and the Queensland Government withdrew the tax In New Zealaud this tax lias been imposed from the first, but the state of our goldfields in the early and now show two very different aspects. I say that, as regards the administration of justice on tho ;„'oM!ie!d.-:, ihnf-i; districts are quite self-oupporl-in.-.'. ISo escorts are now necessary ; consequent! v no expense under thai head h required. And when i ;:;aiipaiv tie, :.!ae ;.;!' af-

fairs between ioo2 and 1870, wiieti the gold du;y was 2a Gd per ounce, v.iiii the state of affairs now—comparing the average earnings of the mi tiers from I'3C2 to 1870, :>m] t.l.e, average earnings

of the miner now—l find that the payment of 2s 6d per ounce formerly would be about equal to paying a duty of 2d per ounce now. That would be about an equivalent, taking the amount of gold got per man now. I believe the average earnings of ihe miner no as shown by the Goldfields Report of last year are =£7l 16s per annum. Why should we impose on men earning only that amount a poll-tax of £2 10s per annum ? Sir, it is absurd and wrong; and we have no right whatto do it.

[To be continued.]