Mr J. G. Wilson at Foxton.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 22 November 1890, Page 2

Mr J. G. Wilson at Foxton.

« SPLENDID MEETING. Mr J. G. Wi'sou met his old constituents and electois at the Public Hall la9t night. ')he Hall was neaily full, and the address was listened to with manifest interest and attention . Mr Wilson spoke fay bettor ihan he has ever been heard hero before, ami louder and clearer. The Mayor took the chair, and said that he did so with great pleasurf*. It was unnecessary h ; s pretending to ntroduce Mr Wilson, as , the; majority present hadjknqwn bim as their' Hopresonfative in Parliament fou the past nine y»mrs; There- i fore his acts and doings had been | freely oritioised. The speaker took*

more iuteivcii, in Mr Wilson's o»ndidature this time, as he (Wilson) had been prossed to come forward. He (the speaker) looked upon the colony as rosonibling a ship tossed in a dangerous storm, and we therefore required a well tried man to assist at the helm. He felt perfectly satisfied that bad a requisition been needed to have been signed to have brought Mr Wilson out this time, a thousand signatures could easily have been obtained. As it was then; had been hundreds of letters -poured ii) upon Ml* Wilson to do so, and he had accede J to their wishes Ho. trusted Mr Wilson would leqeive all their support, as he could be thovoughly relied on to stand staunch to our need-!, and the needs of New Zealand^' (Applause.) Mr Wilson, who on rising was vociferously applauded, said he felt very much obliged for Mr Gower's opening remarks. They knew tba* a short time ago he was very indisposed, but now he was thankful to say he had nearly recovered, and had sufficient " go." The other n : ght, when addressing the electors at Palmersion, he had felt a little strange, but here he felt like one "on his for the native heath." He hadalways treated his opponents' With friendliness, and wotild do soj and he thought any one was entitled to stand if he thought he ctuld do goo 1 colony. Last session was a m-ist unsd'isfactory one. It would be remembered that before proceeding to the session he had criticised Mr Fergus' Queenstown speech, and had stated his intention to oppose the Government if they adopted the

ijuuuj mm uuku iv im, iiunovoi i but little more was ever heard of thess proposals. The party who had gone generally wiih the Premier met him and asked him to continue aaJeader, even though he could not IgUaliv * n Tjile ' House j" as they had. fejt.i^-better to save the money a second session would inevitably have eoJBt. „ They acted on ths principle of iits being wiser to keep to the friends they knew than to fly to thoseiihey knew not of. The absence f the Premier from the House made |; (Sbvernmeiit very weak and some readjustment was bound to be made QJl^bing was very evident that 86rQe step must be taken to stop the ei^rnal flow of talk that at present goes ou. It was against the feeling of- a free people to burke discussion, but some alteration in the rules of procedure must be framed. At the last election the cry was Protection and Economy and at this election we liaye the Land Tax on unimproved vaftfes and the reduction of Customs duties on the necessaries of life. Mr Bal lance is in favour of progressive land-tax. Such a statement from ' him was very peculiar as it must be remembered that Mr .Ballance was i in the Stout-Vbgel Oovernment as \ Minister of Lands when the biggest land Monopoly, that of the Midland j railway was granted. He now find j fault with the few people who own large tracts of land, though it is only , seme short five years a^o when he i did this. Townspeople seemed to ' view the possession of land as aj wrong thing, but he viewed it ns the exercise of thrift. In Years past the ; Government sold the land for cash, as ■' they needed the cash to carry on ih ■> Government, and the 'and then was of no uso avit stoocl. It seemod now to be a very unfair proposal t&.put such a tax upon it, as to force the owners to sell at a loss I here is no unearned increment ou this coast and also none, on the average, over the colony. In Waikato there is the instance ot a railwayrunning through it, yet ft )-day you can purchase land at a third of its cost If the increment is seized the State should pay the dp-oreraont. It has also Jbeons ated that no one shouM own more j than 1000 acres of hind. Such a statement has nil to do w^rii the quality of tho ground, and whoever talks ;thit,.W£y -knows nothing alroai • what ho Viyst" it has also been said > that estate* nust carry more families j that thoy should be sttbtlividou. f Such a proposal cou'il bo applied t< ' Binali liolilinsys as v\oll as largo onsv Once admit the vrinoip'p (hit a nfei\ j l_ll ..».. 1.1... • ..... ..... K n ni. \yk\A I

limy ion you ni«t yvui i'.»<\- «»h> «v*u ; so iuuoh I'iiul, you lot. iv v-o fchhy.a.V}.*. j of tho wedgo in, tbo ©ml of vfluwi uo man can mjq. If fchoy loolcqel ut r>hu results of v Laiid-mx- «8 n gainst ■, U»«> froperty-tnx, .th«\y would, l]nd tlmt tho country nny--" f>B p*u % cent aiul. tho Towns 81 )W oont. St. had been said that the lnnd-ownfr pnid very tow taxes, hut tho huul-nvoor paya through the Custom's, Property* rax, and local rato* 1 "I ho total amouut of lo^al rates in tho colony was oonv ridorably over £500,000. Then tli oro wore the sljoop and oatt'e rates and when the owner died tho lr»nd had to pay ten pel* ocnfc. They heard nothing about that from, those who wished - to ' tax the land moro heavily. Then if wo alter the incidenco of taxation the natural re < suit would be that money will, rise in value. The English capitalist is easily ft ightened,. and-, he will either refuse to lend his money or 'will clmrgo a high rate of interest for it. The indebtedness of the settlbra under mprtgagees amounts to 80 millions and a rise of one per oent in the interest would mean an annual loss of £300,000. Capital and lal our should work baud in hand. Iv the Waikato they had an instance where capital 1 lost, yet the labourers obtained their share in the •xp«ndi-

tine, ruder the l'rupeHy-t&ac a niau can deduct his mortgage, but under the Laud-tax on the unimproved value he had to pay in full, how then was possib'e that a small settler wou'd be benefited? The farmer makes his income partly from his stock and party from his land, but if you charge him an income and a land tax you charge 'iiin twice over. The Premier has stated that the unimproved land is worth. 42 millions. The advocates of the Land-tax say, take one per cent of this and ifc will give us £420,000, which is just 2£ times more than is charged to the land now ! One of the candidates for the Palmerstonßeat^iMffSted that every family in New Zealand 'would save £12 if the duties were taken off the necessaries of life. There are 600, 000 people in the colony, and taking 5 to a family, there were 120,000 families, and a saving of £12 on each family would lepresent £1, 444,000 just as much as the Customs tariff brought in alt' gether. As a matter of fact, he believed there wold be a saving of something like £2 per family. (The continuation of this report is held over to next issue.) QUESTIONS. Mr Spring— Are yon in favour of compensation to publicans ? Mr Wilson— l am not in favour of local option without compensation to publicans. I have never seen my way to give the people power to take away a man's living without payment. Custom And equity are laws as much as legal laws, and a man who has his license taken away has a right to be paid. Mr Mackie —Are you in favoui of granting State Aid to Catholic Schools. Mr Wilson^-Not particularly to Catholics r Jbu| as I. hdye :already stated I am iit favour b% a -small grant to all private schools, \; ;• Mr Spring^- Who was the author of the most liberal land Act. in the colony? / Mr Wilson ~ls that a riddle Mr Spring ? No? Then I give it up. Mr Mackie — Did you vote on; the one man one vote bill. Mr Wilson — There was no bill for thi-j purpose, bat the Government brought in a clause providing for this in anoth'r. bill. I paired against it, and always would against one man one vote,., as I hold that property nhould also be represented. ■•■.• . An Elector— Are you in favour of the 8 honrs bill being passed ? Mr Wilson — T. am in favour of the 8 hours movement; but I am doubtful about legalising it. You would find that you would have to make so many exceptions that the risk of leaving out any might do a great deal of harm. This question should be left as between the workerß and [ employers. Mr Bradlaugh, the labour M.P., of England, the other | day showed it was against the interest of working men to have 8 hours fixed by law. Mr Ballance also says "it is best to leave this matter to the Unions and employers " The State should inspect workshops and factories, but to make 8 hours a legal day had better be left to the Unions. Mr Mackie - Are you in favour of a tax a'ong a railway line? Mr Wilson , If you place the railway without a man desiring it, to tax the land woult bo a great injustice. If the owners ask for a railway, then 1 think they should pay. Mr Harwood — Are you in favour of the woman suffrage . Mr Wison Yes I haye always boon iv favour, and would vote for it. ■■, '■ .An Elector — Ay yon in favour of a mx o'i ;ill single men? Mr Wilson— No, ••ecause sometimes ttay jire 'thsv cannot li-'lp ft. 'AY Elector - Ari^you in favour $if an elective Upper House orof abolishtm»it? -'•' i Mv r Wilson— -I think the Council <Ws : iWo.'ul w >rk 'in preventing hasty iojjHution Whether it should be oWtivo or not is another question. Au alt oration is needed. This muaj; howovrv fomo fr«im itself, as it stlwnys thvowkiont any Bill from the Tlonsu, Numbers of mr mbersarecomptately past doing any useful service. The alteration might be a limitation of a seat to ten years. Mr Harwood — Would you be in favour of the Bible beiug read, in sohools ? Mr Wilson -If the Biblo is read without eomenc yon might; do harm instead of: good* Some kind of re* Hgidn should be taught, but fofr-ih scho 1 '• I would place every facility for clergy and others to teach it at the, schools, at a time, say half an hour, >ot apart for doing so. / Mr Mackie —How many divisions in the House, were you present at last session ? vMr Wilson— Not so many,.,ftj[ I was ftway on sick leave. . I ,l;.av« however always paired^ on every question of any importance. Mr Spring — Did you g* t Mr H'g. lop to bring in a bill on Teohn'ral education as mentioned Ty you Inst year. * • , ,-. r^ Mr Wilson— Yes, a ;bijl_ w^as brought in last session- but ,ld*t through the ; stonewalling, biijb owing to its importance it is bound to come up again. . ' ' Mr McMillan proposed that 'a rote

l.i Mi Wiiao.i. .\fr B. Spelinan seconded it. On tho Chairman pu ting the re solution to the meeting it waacarriei amidst great applause almost unani mou4y about 4 holding up thei hands against it. The usual vote to the chair (vn eluded the meeting.