THE ELECTIONS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4605, 23 December 1875, Page 2

THE ELECTIONS.

♦ " MESSRS. PEARCE AND HUNTER AT THE ALBION GROUND. An open-air meeting of the Te Aro electors was held on the Albion ground last night. About 300 persons were assembled. Mr. James. Stewart, of the firm of Greenfield and Stewart, was called to the chair. The chairman having explained the object of the meeting and introduced the candidates, Mr. Pearce rose to address the electors, amidst great applause. He explained that it had hitherto been usual in their electioneering speaking for him to address meetings first, though he did not know why Mr. Hunter should desire it to be so, unless perhaps because he was the younger man of the two. Mr. Hunter and himself, as the meeting were no doubt aware, were old residents of Te Aro, and it appeared to him that there was. a peculiar fitness and propriety why they should, on the eve of the day the elections were to take place, meet them upon their own ground as neighbors and ask them to listen to their views, and so give them an opportunity of answering any questions which might be put, before asking" for a renewal of that confidence which they had reposed in them for so many years. Mr. Hunter and himself had so frequently addressed the electors of 'Wellington lately that it seemed as If it was almost repeating a twice told tale to do so again—threshing out straw as it were. At the same time there were new points here and there that might be introduced with advantage. The questions most prominently brought under the notice of the public up to the present time had been—the change in the constitution of the Government of New Zealand, the education question, and the question of the incidence of taxation. These were the. three cardinal points introduced into the present contest. Upon-the .question of abolition there reallyseemed to be little necessity to say a single word, because throughout the whole colony there were very few candidates who ventured to ask for .the votes of the people with the object of reinstating provincialism. He was not surprised that Wellington had not declared in favor of provincialism, because Wellington had for many years suffered by having provincialism as an institution here. By the impending change an impetus would be given to the city, by the Corporation haying placed at its disposal funds which would enable a large amount of useful work to be done for the city. Whatever might be said to the contrary, the change that was to take place must of necessity increase the resources of the municipal government. On the question of education, it really seemed to him -that they had already so clearly and emphatically declared their views as to render it quite unnecessary to dilate further upon the question ; but to reiterate some of the words used by them before, so as to dispose of all possible doubts upon the point, he would merely remark that if the Government introduced a purely national and undenominational system of education into Parliament, no stauncher supporter of that measure would be found than Mr. Hunter and himself. He held that the duty of the State was to provide a good system of education for the whole community, and the only way to accomplish that was to make the system secular. As to the incidence of taxation, it might be necessary to say a few more words in addition to what he had already said upon the point; but this was only rendered necessary because their views had been either misunderstood or misrepresented. One of the evening papers hid informed its readers that 'Messrs. Pearee and Hunter belonged to a class bitterly opposed to the imposition of a tax upon property, or to any attempt to compel wealth to contribute its fair share to the revenue. Now upon that head they had said most distinctly that every man ought to contribute as far as possible to the cost of government in proportion to the income he received. That declaration theymade most emphatically, and that was their firm conviction. There might, of course, be a difference of opinion as to how that result was to be arrived at. He would ask them as rational men, men who understood the relations between capital and labor, and the benefit that the latter often derived from the judicious employment of the latter, would it be wise to so alter the laws of New Zealand that the colony should cease to be a fair field for the investment of capital;—he would a3k them as men of sense whether it would not be a most disastrous day for New Zealand when capital was driven out of the country. He believed that if that were brought about it would be one of the worst things which could possibly happen for the working men of the colony. In whatever alteration they made in this matter they must be careful not to overdo it. At the present moment the tax upon the necessaries of life was felt by few. Still, if the Colonial Treasurer could see his way to reduce the Customs' tariff, he (Mr. Pearee) would be delighted, and would cordially support any such reduction. They were told in the paper he held in his hand (a placard issued by Mr. Moody) not to vote for the talking candidates, who had led them off the scent, by talking of everything but that which most concerned them, but who had not told them that the eighth part of their wages was " collared" by the Government as taxes, nor that their tea, coffee, sugar, boots, hats, and clothing were in reality taxes upon them to ease the landholders and land-jobbers, and so on. Well, he would only say in reply that if they took the returns, published in the financial statement, they would find that the taxes upon the whole of these articles amounted to only £161,000, or a little over 10s. per head of the population. No doubt upon spirits and tobacco the duty was very heavy ; but the payment of the tax was quite optional If they chose not to drink or smoke they need contribute nothing. For himself, he liked to drink his glass of grog and indulge in his pipe, and of course he was willing to pay for these luxuries. Still he did not consider the tax upon these articles so excessive as many supposed. As for saying that an eighth of their wages went in taxes, the statement was not only untrue, but was utterly nonsensical. It should be borne in mind that the attention of the Legislature had been directed to that question, and that in 1873 an important change hid been made in the mode of raising the customs revenue of the colony : instead of the previous system of raising the revenue by means of measurement duties, a system of ad valorem duties was introduced. This was an important change in the interests of the working man, inasmuch as it placed the weight of the taxes upon the shoulders of those best able to bear it Taking all that he had said then and previously upon the question, he was able conscientiously to eive an emphatic denial to the assertion that Mr. Hunter and himself belonged to a class that was bitterly opposed to contributing a fair sharetowardstherevenue. It didnot do to make the burden of taxation fall unequally. If they drove out capital, and made the country one where there would be no fair chance for the investment of capital, it was his firm conviction that an immense deal of harm to the colony would be the result. With regard to the necessity for further taxation which, it was alleged, would arise in consequence of the enormous debt with which the colony had saddled itself, they had been told that, using I round numbers, the colony owes £20,000,000, | and that the annual interest was £1,050,000 ; and from the way in which the statement had been made, it would be naturally supposed that all that money had been already spent. To an-ain take his figures from the Financial Statement, he could tell them that on the 30th June last the total indebtedness of the colony was £17,000,000 and some few hundred thousands, and from that was to be deducted £1 000 000, so that the total indebtedness of the colony was only about £16,000,000, with £2,000,000 still in hand. It waa quite true that Parliament had sanctioned loans to the extent of £20,000,000, but on June 30 last there was £2,000,000 in cash and £2,500,000 still to be raised out of the authorised loans. The money was not all gone. The sinking fund was an important element in the question. Something like £IOO,OOO a year was invested in the hands of the public trustee. As yet they had notfoundthe interest upon the debt of the colony so great that they could not bear it. It had been said, too, that they had been paying interest out of loans instead of out of

reven-SP- That was a mistake. It would be thoroughly legitimate that the interest on the cost of works not returning revenue should be charged upon 'loans; but what were the facts o£ the case. A sum of £250,000 was already paid, and the revenue was found to be so good that one-half of the stamp duties had been set apart to relieve the interest upon loans, and since that had been done, up to the 80th June the total amount of interest paid from this source was £40,000. They were able to pay interest even -upon works that were not reproductive. Up to the present moment not one single sixpence of interest upon works not yet reproductive but had been paid.out of current revenue. In every instance the current revenue had exceeded the estimates made by the Colonial Treasurer; and although our expenditure had been lavish, our receipts were £200,000 or £300,000 over and above what was wanted. They must remember that in the raising of these loans the money had not been wasted. It had not been spent upon war (which was like pitching it into the sea), as was the case in old times,—it had, on the contrary, been spent upon works of a reproductive character, which would be of benefit to the whole colony. Supposing they took fright at their financial position and asked some of the large railway I companies at home to buy our railways from us, and give us enough money to clear off the debt of the colony,—if they were really foonsh enough to make such an offer they would find companies willing enough to take advantage of such an offer. The Government were wise, therefore, in not allowing contractors to have anything to do with the working of the railway system of the colony. A middle course had been pursued in India. A guarantee of 5 per cent, upon the cost of construction was riven to the contractors, and the lines were afterwards taken over at a valuation. liven had this colony offered a guarantee of o per cent it would have been found that the cost of construction of the railways would have amounted to more than it had done. 1 akmg the average cost of all their loans, they found that it amounted only to 5 per cent., though five years ago, as they would recollect, the estimated charge for interest was 5J per cent. Taking the costof all theloansraised, including the discount they had been bound to submit to, the whole cost was only 5 per cent. Even Mr. "Vox el, with all his sanguine expectations,- did not think the money could be raised at less than 5J per cent. The result, therefore, as a whole must be considered satisfactory. Speaking of Ministers, he believed that in the present day a Government generally required more support than opposition. He regretted that inside of the House and outside^f, the House there was a habit of constantly Dagging at Ministers. Complaints were made of this thing and that upon most frivolous pretexts. Speaking generally, he believed it would be better for the people of the colony if more support were accorded to Ministers of the day, whoever they might be. He would like them to believe that the present Ministry were doing the-best they could for the colony. As for Mr. Vogel, he thoroughly believed that he was a man who was honestly devoted to the good of New Zealand, and that while he was away he did the very best he could for the colony. People talked of the advantages of a Minister's office, but he assured them, in many cases, the position entailed a positive loss upon the holder. He believed it was so in the case of Mr. Richardson, who was a self-sacrificing man. A man like him was worth a great deal to the colony : probably, two or three times what he received as salary would be m:>re like adequate remuneration for his services. While he said that governments ought to receive more support, and meet with less nagging, he still believed in a good Opposition. It kept a check upon governments, and spurred them to their work ; and a bad feature of the last two Parliaments had been the want of such an Opposition. When the roll was made up next time, he hoped there would be a good Opposition, acting under a leader who would be able to criticise the actions of the Government, provided it was not done in an ill-natured and nagging kind of way. He did not wish to detain them much longer, but he would like to say that the people could not shut their eyes to the general prosperity which had accrued to the country, in consequence of the policy of the Government, and in consequence of the action of Mr. Hunter and himself, and those who supported the Government. Take that test and they could not but be satisfied that there was a great deal of wisdom in the policy initiated by Mr Vogel. Throughout the colony they saw men improving, their estates in various ways, fencing, ploughing, and increasing their flocks, and altogether they saw that, a general feeling of contentment prevailed. In the towns building was going on in all directions, so much so that the resources of municipal governments were taxed to the utmost to provide streets and drains for the expanding population. He thought he had shown them by figures that the debt of the colony was one which it could very well bear, and that the result would be for the permanent good of the whole colony. Holding these opinions, he thought Mr. Hunter and himself had done right in supporting the present Government, for the Government was essentially the same that initiated the policy. The same leading minds were still there ; and if Mr. Hunter and himself were returned again they would continue to support that Government and their present policy. (Loud applause). Mr. Husteb, on' coming forward, was received with applause. He commenced by referring to the financial question, upon which Mr. Pearce had touched with such clearness. They were constantly hearing about the twenty million of debt, but he must remind them that it was only fair to remember that onefourth of that amount, or in other words, nearly five millions of money was raised and expended by the provinces before the public works was ever thought or spoken of. That money had been judiciously expended; still, it was part of the public debt, which was now in course of liquidation by the sinking fund. In those days sinking funds were in fashion, although political economists had renounced them as an old-fashioned system, thinking that it was absurd to be borrowing money with one hand and paying it away with the other. But these sinking funds were inaugurated by the Provincial Governments. The system was insisted upon by the General Government, and it had been kept up till the present time. As Mr. Pearce had pointed out, the sum of £1,000,000 had been liquidated. With regard to another sum of £5,000,000, it had been absolutely wasted by being spent on war, and in a way which was unproprodactive. Had it been expended _ on roads and bridges, New Zealand might have advanced further and been more prosperous than it was at the present time. He wished them t.o bear in mind, however, that, so far as the present policy was concerned, there had only been spent about £10,000,000, and that had been expended_ for the benefit of the whole colony—for Wellington and every part of it. (Cheers.) They (the speaker and Mr. Pearce) had been supporters of the Government, and the public works policy. (Applause.) Pive years ago they had appeared before the electors of Welb'ngton City in opposition to Messrs. Travera and Richmond, who were decided opponents of the Government. They were returned to support that policy and the men wfio administered it, and they had seen no reason to regret their determination in that particular. He was not going to say that the Government had not made any mistakes—he did not believe in people who professed to be perfection. Any Government who had to grapple with questions such as that must of necessity make mistakes, and difficulties would arise which could not be easily surmounted. It was all very well for people to say this or that thing might have been done better. Lookers-on never found any difficulty in criticising particular actions ; but he would remind them that it was their duty to take the average works of the Government ; and he believed that the very best had been done, that the present Government had administered th§; affairs of the colony as ably and judiciously as any other set of men could have done. They must give them the credit of initiating that great policy. They had had old statesmen and able men in Parliament, who had occupied high positions there for years and

years, but their oldest and ablest never dreamt of such a thing. When Mr. Vogel initiated his scheme he was laughed and scoffed at; but he had thoroughly successful so far, and they might depend pp. it that the policy be successful to it completion. Having said tins much, hesup posed he should be laughed at h esa d he knew they would have to borrow moie money. But those railways which werem complete would have to be earned out and they would have to borrow more money to complete them. He then proceeded to show that the natural increase in the revenue would be sufficient to pay interest on the del t they might incur, which would benefit the whole colony and every one m ic. As to the' success of the . Govei ment policy, financially, asked them was not the credit of New Zealand toted recently, and was not their loan taken up ,by the greatest house in England. Sir Ju| U \W had been blamed for what he did, but hXew the money was wanted and.knew the ri>dit wav to go about getting ic. A Colon a Teafurerof this colony was he not histified in providing means? That was why he went to England, to provide the means of which the colony stood in need. ■ He (the speaker) and Mr. Pearce had been supporters of Sir Julius Vogel, and he believed they were right in so doing. (Applause.) Referring to- a statement made regarding Mr. Pearce, he said that as Mr. Pearce would not allude to it, he would. It had been asserted that Mr. Pearce had stated, regarding the contest between Messrs. Dransfield and Moorhouse for the Mayoralty, that Mr. Moorhouse was brought forward by "a scrubby lot of workmen." Now, he would appeal to them (his audience) to say, was not Mr. Pearce about-the last man in Wellington likely to expresshimself in that way? On hearing the report he had questioned Mr. Pearce as to its accuracy, and that gentleman indignantly denied ever having said such a thing. Mr. Hunter then referred to the circumstances under which he and Mr. Pearce were first elected, and concluded by expressing an earnest desire that they would regard his colleague and himself as one in this contest, and that if they had any doubt about the disposition of their votes, they would give them to Mr. Pearce, who he really believed had been of more service to them in the House than he (the speaker) had been, being a younger and more active man. He concluded by professing willingness to answer any questions that might be put to him. After an interval Mr. Huntek proposed a vote of thanks to the chairman. Mr. Shannon moved that a vote of thanks be accorded to the candidates for their addresses. Seconded by Mr. Brown, and carried unanimously.