SIR DONALD McLEAN'S LATE SPEECH AT NAPIER.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4305, 7 January 1875, Page 2

SIR DONALD McLEAN'S LATE SPEECH AT NAPIER.

(From the Sydney Morning Herald.) We have received a report of a speech delivered by Sir Donald McLean, K.C.M.G., at a dinner recently given him by his friends and constituents at Napier, New Zealand. It is well worthy of perusal as illustrating the state and progress of that flourishing colony, and also by reason of the new light which in some respects it throws upon policy of the present Ministry. Of that Ministry Sir Donald McLean is a prominent member; and it is, therefore, hardly surprising that his remarks should be distinguished by a sanguine tone. Under tho daring and speculative policy initiated by Mr. Vogel and his colleagues, New Zealand is undoubtedly thriving at the present moment, and making rapid strides in advance. In the nature of things it should be so. A profuse expenditure on immigration and public works could hardly fail, while it lasted, to give life and activity to almost every interest. It matters not in this stage that the outlay is fed by borrowing heavily ; so long as tho money 13 at command, and the expenditure continues, the effects will be felt by the community generally, from whatever source the funds may come. The difference between drawing from g* ordinary revenue and spending loans will become apparent at another stage, when the authority or the power to borrow is exhausted, and sharp reminders of the actual state of affairs come year by year in the Bhape of demands for interest. Sir Donald McLean says that at the time ;» when he undertook the duties of Native Minister, nothing but a decisive policy and strong and vigorous measures could have saved the colony from ruin. To open up the country, to people it, and thus to provide for the rapid

utilisation of its dormant resources, was the course resolved upon. That course lias been followed in no timid or wavering spirit ; and the present prosperity i» now confidently pointed to as a proof of its wisdom. . But to a certain extent the present prosperity of New Zealand—the second of the Australasian colonies for the number of her nodes—is due to the favorable state of the world's wool market. To a certain extent also it is due to the temporary stimulus given to its various interests and forms of enterprise by the mere introduction of the new policy. For the full proof of its wisdom we must look to the future. The hope of New Zealand is, that before the time of pressure shall come, the new population, profitably employed, will have caused so ■ great an increase in the revenue—and the public works becoming, on completion, really reproductive, will have so far reduced the charges incurred in their constructionits to°tide the colony safely over all difficulties. May it be so. We can sympathise with New Zealand not only because the of each of these colonies has a favorable bearing upon the interests of the whole group, but because in some degree that which is a source of prosperity to New Zealand is a source of prosperity to New South Wales also.. We may join New Zealand in deprecating a serious fall in the value of pastoral produce, because such an event would disarrange the calculations of financiers in both colonies. And disarrangements of that sort are awkward things when there is a heavy annual charge for interest on borrowed money to deal with. In New Zealand ti-is is no light matter. As Sir Donald McLean states, the net total indebtedness of that colony on the 30th June last was twelve and a half millions, since reduced by £IOO,OOO by the redemption of Treasury bills. But there were further sums yet to be raised that would bring the total debt up to eighteen millions, involving an annual charge of more than £900,000 for interest—that is' to say, about one-third of the present total revenue or only about £IOO,OOO less than 'the whole sum now raised by taxation. Assuming that, as the actual debt forms about two-thirds of the prospective debt, the present charges for interest bear something like the same proportion to the charge estimated for the future, wo have in New Zealand say £600,000 a year now payable for interest out of a total revenue of £2,776,355, whilst the revenue raised by taxation is £1,055,296. The annual charges fox interest in New South Wales amount to £629,000 ;' but that is against a revenue of £3,324,713, of which £1,3d2,752 is raised by taxation. And further, whilst our taxation is £2 10s. 3d. per head, theirs is £3 133. id. On the other side, it is but light to note that according to Sir Donald McLean, the immigration policy of the Government will by the end of the present year have increased the population by 50,000 souls, and that the total length of railways now •uthorised exceeds 1000 miles. As to the profitableness of this expenditure the speaker had no doubt, and he fortified M 3 position by referring not only to the later experience' of New South Wales and Victoria, but to what had been done in Canterbury, where works carried out by Mr. Moorhouse, when Superintendent, though considered by some at the time to be premature, and too costly for the limited population, had been so successful as to silence all opposition to railway extension. . . In speaking upon the abolition of Provincial Government, Sir Donald McLean took some pains to show that the system was .regarded as temporary by the framers of the Constitution, Sir George Grey excepted ; and that an Imperial Act, passed in 1868, gave full power to the General Assembly to deal with the question. We learn also that some of the very reasons which led to the establishment of the provincial system are now brought forward in support of the proposal to get rid of it. The foundation of the provincial system was a want of confidence in the ability or willingness of a Central Government to give due attention to the local wants of the outlying parts of the colony. But experience has shown that there can be centralisation on the small Bcale as well as on the large—in a province as well as in a colony. And, as the speaker intimated, provincial centralisation may be at least as unjust as the centralisation of a General Government. The tendency of provincialIsm has been for tlie" centres of population to absorb the revenue ; and that tendency it is the bject of the proposed change of policy to neutralise. The abolition of the provincial system would transfer from local todies to the general Legislature the higher functions now entrusted to them ; but it would get the local work better done by placing.it more truly in *local hands under an improved or extended municipal system. The substitute for the Provincial Councils has already been provided, as far as the towns and centres of population are concerned, by the Municipal Corporations Act; and the plan indicated for meeting the requirements of the country districts is' to unite the smaller Road Boards, and to give them representation in general Shire or County Councils. Sir Donald McLean speaks, not without a feeling of justifiable pride, of the success of that pacific and conciliatory policy towards the native race, w th which he, as Native Minister, is identified. It appears that of £39,000 voted last year for his department, £9500 went to the purposes of native schools and education. Special importance was attached by the speaker to the instruction of the native youth in the English language, as the surest means of bridging over difficulties between the two races. Believing in the soundness of that view, a . little more information aa ] to what was being done and proposed to be done in this matter would have been welcome. So also would have been more detail as to the nature of two recently passed Acts, which, though mentioned by the speaker in a cursory manner, may possibly be classed hereafter amongst the strongest evidence of the statesmanship of the present Ministry. One of these is the Insurance and Annuities Act, which now enables the wage-getting classes, by small weekly payments, to make provision for their families to the extent of £2OO, on the best possible—that is, on State security. The other is the Public Trusts Act, which is described as "most beneficial in a country where the business avocations of persons, otherwise ■ thoroughly qualified, prevents them from becoming trustees." The fact is, that many men are prevented from becoming trustees, not only by reason of business avocations, but by the serious personal risks attaching to the position of trustee. And while it is difficult to see that, in the interest of those who are most concerned, the stringency of the law as to trustees could be materially relaxed with safety, the alternative course of appointing State or public trustees promises to be the true solution of what is really a grave social difficulty.