HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XL, Issue 195, 9 August 1876, Page 2

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Wellington, Tues'ay. Upon the House meeting to-day. Kara'tioa Takamona took hi* seat cheered by the Opposition. Mr Button took up the adjourned debate on Sir Georg_ Grey's resolutions, wbich he con'idered too important to-be made a party question of, as hud been done by the Opposition. If the echerae proposed was one there w a. reason to believe the people were favorable to, it ought to be decided by a plebiscite. The hon gentleman's speech was intended as a refutation of the arguments and allegations made against the Government by Sir George Grey. He contended that the colony was very deprosed when the Premier took office; that it was not now, and if clouds ot depression impended they were likely to blow over. The Government had shown no palsied hand in building the scheme of local government they had submitted to the House that session. He deprecated seversng the unity of the co'ony, as the resolutions must surely lead to, and ridiculed the idea of effecting economy by creating three governments instsad of one. The practice of making b ase'e.s charges of corruption constantly against the Government waß likely to end like the wolf and the shepherd. When they had a substantial charge to make people would not believe it. All historical teaching was in favor of unity aB against federation. The Premier announced the recipt of a telegram to the effect that the balance ofthj £1,250,000 five per cent, debentures had been sold at par, and that £600,000 had already been received. The negotiation was oa the same terms as the last loan. Mr Hislop spoke at considerable length in defence of the resolutions, contending that no answers bad been made to the arguments of Sir Georgo Grey, aud no explanation given as to his charges against the Government, which mu9t therefore be accepted as true. He regretted the personalities of the debate, especially tha) referring to the hospitalities of the Premier. He asked the Premier how he oppose! these resolutions when he once asked the people to support the public works poicy because it would lead t . financial separation. That the present Pai li tment hid not been able to overtake its duties in the p3B_ waa an arguraint iv favor of a Parliament in each i.laod, especially as ha believed economy could alao be secured. He denied that the resilutions wouid als) affect the unity of the colony; he wou-d not support them if they did. They would improve its credit and facilitate its progress. Federation was the true scheme, and might be the stepping stone to an eventual federation of tha Australian colonies. Mr Woolcock said that if a tenth of the charges made against, the Government could ba sustained they ought to be cononed where they could not prey upon the colony. If the Government borrowed largely, aud built up a great debt, they only carried out the wishes of the House. He failed to see how they could unite a colony by .separating it, or c .oaomiss the cose of Government by creating thre. i_Btead of one. No true idea could be obtained of the indebtedness of the colony unless its assets and liabilities were t-et side by side, and no onn dared say that the increased value of pr.i-p.-r'y was not infinitely greater than its indebte Ineas. Taxation too waa a comparative trrm for what was heavy ia one country was light in another. One hon. gentleman i-uggested that separation would afford the means to meet any deficit in the revenue without resorting to the direct taxation of the people, by taxing the thirty millions of acres ot land alienated from the Crown in'o the hands of private individuals, and which had been trebled and quadrupled in value. It it could be shown him that the proposed scheme would ilo all that was claimed for it, he would support the resolutions, but nothing he had heard yet had that tendency. The Honse rose at 5,30. m. rr Wednesday. lhe House resumed at 7 30. Mr Hodgkinson supported the resolutions in a long speech, saying that he thought the plan proposed was simple and comprehensive. The Government had ruined the constitutional edifice, and were now trying to set up 39 paltry skeletons. Hitherto the Parliament had been servile ani subservient, otherwise the Premier could never have got and maintained his present position. The Government were corrupt, extravagant, and a disgrace to the colony. He regretted that Mr Stafford had not had the carrying out of the Public Works scheme as the colony would hive benefited thereby, still he was the man who struck the first blow at the Constitution. As long as the present Centralists system existed representative government was a sham and a delusion. The hon gentleman claimed for the Iproposals th.t they provided a good f mndation on which to erect a superstructure which would secure a better and more eco* nomii.al Government. Mr Bryce dealt chiefly with the arguments of the last speaker, but on." the question of borrowing snid that, heavy as the debt undoubtedly was, the position of the colony in the money umket was not so bad, and if the expenditure had been excessive, the blame Jay with the House for putting such pressure on the Government, and no member of it wag m.re to blame on that ground than the Superintendent of Otago, yet these were the men who now were loudly condemning what they ought to be r.sponsible for. Touching the details of the scheme, it appearei that there was no provision to support a Federal G )ve**nment, as each province was to have all the revenue raised within itself, but even if the arrangement were carried out the South Island could not evade certain responaibiliti's if war broke out in the North. The present Ministry were as well fitted to sit on the Government Benches as any men in the House and any change of Government would be a -hock to the colony. Mr Whitaker went more into an explanation of the nature of the proposed scheme than any member of the Opposition The stumbling block hitherto regarding financial separation had be.n th_ apportionment of the public debt, but that being settled there was no longer any difficulty in the way of arranging the wholj matter for which he eked rev* rai precedents. He recognised bow thit the provinces were irrevocably gone and the question was should they accept the Go vern ments or Sir G. Grey's proposal-? The latter were the most sim.-le ami comprehensive. With all iheir experience of provincialism no system of government worked so well as when the colony, was governed as two islands with a Governor General at Auckland Under the present prppo.als they would h .ye a Parliament in each island Mating six or eight weeks yearly, with a Federal Parliament meeting at Wellington once every four or five years to deal with Customß, Lighthouses j &c, This would bring about better and

-, ~ ~ ~ more economical legislation. He saw no reatou for disunion, and said the public creditor would be secured better than ever. The hon. gentleman cited South Africa, the United States, and the German Empire, instances of the popularity of Federation. He a. so advanced a number of reasons to .show why it waa to the interest of both islands that the scheme should be carried out. Mr Bowen s _id that Mr Whitaker was the only man on the other side who had said anything meriting a reply, the debate having . been mainly confined to gross perjonalities such as he hoped woald never be heard in the House again, and to which it was not to be expected that any reply would be made. He than dea't mainly with Mr Whitaker's arguments, and said that when tho colony was govern* d as two Islands and a Lieut-Governor there were only 15,000 inhabitants, and the Government was anything but a happy one as far aa Wellington and Otago were concerned, aud it would not be at ail acceptable to-day. It was a mistake to refpr to the Federal Go- ' vernment of the States as an illustration of a Federal Government, for it possessed infinitely greater powers than ifc waa proposed should be given in this esse. He wondered on what principle the public debt was to be apportioned unless upon that of splitting the difference Why was the seat of Government to be given to Canterbury unless as a bribe, for that province had never been going in for separation. He alluded to the imposition of the railway and education charges upon the land fund, and argued in favor of cultivating a generous and national spirit as compared with a provincial one. Then as to the expenditure. By the end of the year nearly a thousand miles of r..;i .vay costing £6000 per mile would be open, and that was something never before achieved in any colony or cou.try. After replying to j the other arguments, he deprecated the extinc* I tion of a national feeling in favor of the provincial or island jealousies that were proposed. The House adjourned at 12.30 a.m.