THE Marlborough Express. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1868. REVIEW OF THE LATE SESSION BY MR. CURTIS.

Marlborough Express, Volume III, Issue 143, 7 November 1868, Page 3

THE Marlborough Express.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1868. REVIEW OF THE LATE SESSION BY MR. CURTIS.

“ Givk me tue liberty to know, to utter, and to ergua freely according to conscience, above all other liberties.” —Milton.

The Electors of Nelson were called together on the 12 th of last month by Mr. O. Curtis, the Superintendent, one of their representatives in Parliament, when he reviewed the late Session, remarking upon the various measures which had come under the notice of the House. We shall not attempt to give more than some very pertinent extracts which will assist our readers to understand recent events better.

Alluding to the first No Confidence motion of Mr. Fox, he says he opposed it on the ground that before the Government brought forward their financial propositions it was impossible for him to say whether he was prepared to support or oppose them. He was not anxious to turn out the Government to admit Mr. Fox, until he had heard something of that gentleman’s policy. The following extract meets our own views so nearly that we therefore give it at considerable length, and the more especially, as we have beforetime argued in this place to a similar effect. “ The next vote of want of confidence was that on the resolution moved by Mr. Fox, after Ministers had stated their financial policy, to the effect that the House had no confidence in the Government. For this motion he (Mr. Curtis) had voted, because he felt bound to do his best against any Government which sought to do what he considered the grossest injustice to the Province of Nelson, and to other provinces in a similar position. (Hear, hear.) The leading financial proposal of the Government was to throw the interest and sinking fund of all the provincial debts on the colony at large, with an attempt to somewhat equalise the injustice by giving lump sums to certain of the lightly indebted provinces. He felt he could not support such a scheme, and therefore voted with Mr. Fox’s party, as he would have voted with any party for the purpose of turning Ministers out. He maintained that each individual in a province is responsible for his share in the debts of that province, and the only way that the provincial debts could be charged against the colony, with any degree of fairness, was upon that basis. Under that calculation, Nelson was entitled to £250,000, instead of the £90,000 proposed by the Government; and there was so thorough a want of any principle in the proposal to give lump sums to the provinces most injured by the arrangement as was sure to cause its rejection, by making it a mere scramble for each province to get as much as it could. (Hear, hear.) He was, therefore, prepared to vote with any party that would resist such injustice ; and from that time he held himself entirely aloof both from the Government and the Opposition, refusing to attend meetings called by either party. (Hear, hear.) Both sides of the House agreed, however, on the necessity of a dissolution, sooner or later, in the financial partnership between the provinces and the colony; and he thought we were mainly indebted for this to the efforts of the various Financial Reform Leagues. But, for his part, lie con-, sidered that there was no necessary connection between such a dissolution and charging the interest, bn - provincial loans.’upon the colony, as the financial partnership could perfectly well be put ah end to,[and each province continue to pay the interest on its own debt: * Ho had* mooted a plan.' to- this effect in the House last year, and had repeated it in a paper which he read to the Nelson Reform 'League, and which was printed at the time in- thb newspaper's. He • proposed to reduce taxation to the amount required for the services'of the General Government, leaving the provinces to provide for-the payment of the interest on their debts by means of an income property

tax, or some direct tax of that nature, to be passed by the House with a maxiinum limit, within which each province should levy such a rate as was required to meet the interest on its debt; so that in some provinces, such -as Nelson, where the debts were small, hut a small rate, or perhaps none at all, would 'have to be imposed. He was aware, however, that an income tax was an unpopular one, both in. the House and the country, but he was convinced that we should come to it sooner or later.”

He congratulated his audience upon the circumstance that the Public Debts Act was working more satisfactorily than was expected owing to the state of the English Money Market, and only served to shew how large a sum might have been saved to the Colony, if such a measure as he sup-" ported last year had been carried.— “ There was one point in connection with the ‘ Public Debts Act’ which he would refer to, as he saw that at a meeting of the Financial Reform League he had been blamed for the course he had taken in the matter. He had moved in committee, and carried, tuat all profits arising out of the conversion of the provincial loans should go to the colony and not to the provinces, and it was said that he wished to favor the colony at the expense of the provinces. But it was only the indebted provinces that would have lost what he thought they had no right to, while the uniudebted provinces, such as Nelson, would have been the gainers. He considered, as we were called upon to guarantee the debts incurred by other provinces, we had a right to share with them in any gain to be derived from the arrangement. (Cheers.) However, the House thought differently, and agreed that all the profit should go to the indebted provinces, by which Nelson is a loser to the extent of some thousands. At the same time that Mr. Fox moved his vote of want of confidence, he brought forward his own scheme of finance, which he (Mr. Curtis) supported, as being far preferable for the whole colony, and especially for this province, to that of the Government. (Cheers.) Mr. Fox proposed that each province should continue to pay the interest on its own debt, and that the provincial revenues should be supplemented by a capitation rate of 30s. per head, which he considered to be fai 'pre/erhble to theproposals of the Government. These proposals, with respect to provincial loans, would, he thought, show the electors why he had fought so hard for the £12,000 which we had lodged in the bank towards paying off our debt. He saw that'-some such financial policy as that brought down by the Government was looming; and he thought he had saved the £12,000 to the province. (Cheers.) While, however, he approved of Mr. Fox’s financial policy, he could not agree with his proposals with x’espect to native affairs. He proposed to give the entire management of native affairs to the Superintendents of the Northern Island, voting a sum of money to each for the purpose.” Mr. Curtis proceeded to refer to some of the Ministerial measures since withdrawn.

“ The Disqualification Bill provided that no salaried officers of either the General or the Provincial Governments should have seats in the House. He considered that officers of the General Government should certainly be excluded, and provincial officers also, so long as the financial partnership between the colony and the provinces existed, as those officers had a direct interest in keeping up taxation. The Bill did not exclude Superintendents, and this he thought quite right—(hear, heaz’, and laughter)—as no one else could know so well the circumstances and the wants of the provinces, or so effectually do battle for them. (Hear, hear.) The battle was, however, ultimately withdrawn, as was also the Provincial Legislation Bill, which defined the powers of Provincial Councils, but introduced no change of importance, except the withdrawal from Superintendents of the power to assent to Bills without reference to the Governor, which might involve some delay, but was not otherwise material. The Provincial Governments Bill, however, proposed some very important changes. It proposed to' relieve the people altogether from the trouble of electing *their Superintendents, who was to be appointed by the Provincial Counibil, of which he was to be chairman. It also.,proyided.for monthly meetings of the Council,’which; in this province at all events, would be absolutely for it would be impossible to get/members from the ’Amuri or the Coast —distances of 150; or, 200 miles-—to, come toNelson-once a month. But the ‘idea of ‘thVßilrseemed to be that Provincial CoUh'cils : whrqjto. be put on a par with Country Bo id Boards or Boards of Works. Then as to the Superintendent being Speaker or Chairman, he would, according to the usual practice, not be allowed to. speak, and would have to sit, still and hear all manner-of abuse pburedj out upon his actions and motives, until he*

must either defend himself or burst. (Laughter.) If, on the other hand, he was allowed to speak he would always be speaking, and would certainly catch his own eye more frequently than any one else’s. The Superintendent would necessarily be the head of a political party, and it would be impossible for him to act impartially as Speaker or Chairman. He would be liable to the temptation of making second speeches, and of ruling other members out of order for doing the same thing. How could it be possible for Hr. Stafford or Mr. Fox to preside over the sitting of the House of Iteprepresentatives ? (Hear, hear.) And as to the election of the Superintendent by the Provincial Council, we have had some experience of that in the Province of Marlborough, where they had had five if not six Superintendents in eight years, so that a man was scarely in office, and hud hardly had time to make himself acquainted with his duties, before he was out again. These were the most important political measures, and upon these and the financial proposals, which had also been withdrawn, there ought to be an appeal to the country; for if the Government met the same House next ye n’ the same measures might be again proposed and withdrawn, or in the absence of a united Opposition they might even be passed.** ** Mr. Fox might possibly succeed in re-uniting his party, but he did not believe he could; at all events he did not think he could reckon on more than twenty or twentyfive members at the outside. Unless, therefore, a dissolution took place in the meantime,. such measures as these might be passed in the absence of a strong Opposition ; and he hoped that the whole colony would insist upon an appeal to the country before that time. (Cheers.) He would now refer to two or three Bills brought in by private members. One was the Libel Bill, which proposed to protect newspapers from the consequences of publishing fair and impartial reports of whatever might be said by speakers at public meetings. This seemed at first sight to be only reasonable, but the very case which was brought forward in support, of it showed the danger which might arise from the Bill being passed. At a meeting of an Education Board in Otago, for the purpose of electing a schoolmaster, a member had said of a candidate for the office that “he was unfit for that or any other public employment.” A newspaper ■published these remarks, and, on an action for libel being brought, it had to pay damages and costs. Now if, as the Bill proposed, members of such boards wore to be held personally responsible for what they said in reference to such a matter, full and free inquiry into the character of a candidate would be impossible ; and it was questionable whether it would not, be better to compel newspapers to exercise a discretion as .to, what they published. However, he had voted for the Bill, as, on the whole, he thought it better that newspapers should be protected in publishing full reports of the proceedings at such meetings. (Cheers.) He had also voted for a Bill which provided for election by ballot —(cheers.)— although he had no great faith in it, and did not think it would do much good. But he knew that public opinion was in favor of it, and as he strongly disapproved of the present mode of election, and which was neither open nor secret, he voted for a trial of the ballot- (Cheers.) However, that Bill, as well as the Libel Bill, had been thrown out.” (Laughter.)

We here close our extracts, as the rest of the proceedings had reference chiefly to matters of a local character. A. hearty vote of thanks was then passed to Mr. Curtis “ for coming forward so promptly to give an account of his doings in the Assembly, and as shewing they had perfect confidence in his good faith.”