PARLIAMENT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5447, 11 September 1878, Page 3

PARLIAMENT.

HOtTSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Tuesday, Sepiejibek 10. The Hon. the Speaker took the chair at 7.30 p.m. PETITION. A petition waa presented by the Hon, Mr, Gisborne. NOTICES OP MOTION. Notices of motion were given by Messrs. Wood, Carrington, Swanson, and Wakefield. PAPERS. Papers were laid on the table by the Hon. Mr. Macandrew and the • Hon. Mr. Ballance. MONDAY SITTINGS. The Hon. Major ATKINSON said before proceeding to the notice paper, he wished to suggest, with a view to expediting business, that the House should sit on Mondays in order to proceed with the Estimates, and whether it would not also bo well for Government business to tako precedence on Wednesdays or Thursdays. The House had now been sixweeks In session, and seeing the number of Bills on the paper, it would take months to get through tho work properly. Ho trusted he would be excused for making this suggestion to the Government. He knew that many hon. members were anxious that this suggestion should be given effect to. Sir GEORGE GREY said the Government would consider the suggestion of the hon. member for Egmont, and be would intimate the decision of the Government next day. LAND ACT, 1877. Mr. THOMSON asked the AttorneyGenera?,—Whether clause 59 of the Land Act, 1877, means that one-third of each pay- * ment goes to the county or road board for the ten years over which the lease extends, or whether the whole of each payment goes to the county or road board in the first instance, until such time as the county or road board has received one-third of the price of the land ; and on which of these interpretations the allocation of the land revenue to the counties and road ' boards has been made 1 The Hon. Mr. BALLANCE, in reply, spoke bo indistinctly as to be perfectly inaudible in the reporters’ gallery. LAND TAX BILL. The debate on the motion for the second reading of this Bill was resumed. Mr. FYKE said he should have preferred a much bolder measure of reform, but if the Government did not see their way to propose a larger measure of reform he would thankfully accept this Bill as a small instalment of the reform he should like to see carried out. He would confine his remarks to the principles involved in this measure. If he were asked whether those principles were in accord with his views, he would reply that they were, because they were the principles he had constantly advocated throughout the whole of his political career. The non-improvement clause was in his opinion very fair in principle. The exemption he entirely approved of, because he did not believe that below a certain fixed minimum property or income should be taxed. The hon. member for Geraldine came tripping into the Honse and made the astounding statement that unimproved land was of no valne at all. He (Mr, Pyke) was prepared to admit that unimproved land—land not built upon—was of no value to the State, but it was of very considerable value to the owner, who allowed it to lie ‘unimproved until the improvements carried out by bis neighbors gave a great value to hjs land. On this point he joined issue with the hon. member for Geraldine. He could not see why such objection should be taken to the proposal to tax the net profits of joint stock companies. By the imposition of this tax they would be enabled to reach a. large class who at present contributed nothing to the fund required for the maintenance of law and order in the country. He should like, however, to see small shareholders exempted, on the same principle as small landowners were exempted from the payment of a land tax, A great outcry had been raised againt the imposition of a duty on beer. He was decidedly in favor of this duty being imposed, for the simple reason that beer was not a necessary of life, (Hear, hear, and No, no.) He repeated it was not a necessary of life. (Hear, hear, and No, no.) What was the definition of the term “ necessaries of life 1” Necessaries of life were grain, roots, and watrr, and the moment they . went beyond these everything they used was a luxury—a superfluity. He therefore agreed .with the proposal to place a duty on beer. With regard to the Customs* tariff, he thought an additional penny ought to have been taken off tea, and that the duty on sugar should have been reduced further still. The abolition of the duty on grain he was not so certain of being a step in the right direction. (Hear, hear.) If the duty was removed off grain, he thought it only a matter of fairness that it should be removed off timber as well. He thonght the Government would do well to be cautions not to give too many inducements that might tend to interfere to too large an extent with the grain producers of the colony, by taking off the 'duty altogether, and therefore it was he was not quite so certain as to whether the abolition of the grain duty was a step in tberightdirection. Everybody knew well that he was an advocate for the abolition of Customs duties altogether, and the substitution of direct taxation. [The hon, member quoted Mr. Clyffe Leslie and Mr. Richard Cobden in support of his advocacy of the total abolition of Customs duties, contending that a change of their system in this direction would give a great impetus to commerce, and to native industry.] He was not seized by such unreasonable hastiness as to expect that such a large reform as this could be effected all at once; but he would say to the Treasurer, “Be bold, and bold, and ever bold, but never too bold/* This Bill was a step in the direction of direct taxation. In connection with this question of a land tax he thought that two accounts should be kept—one showing the amount derived as land fund, and tjie other the amount raised by taxation. The amount derivable from land fund ought to be devoted to local public works, and the sum derived as taxation ought to he expended in meeting the ordinary necessities of the State. The Government had been advised to withdraw their measures and bring them forward in a better shape next session, but he hoped they would do nothing of the kind. If the Government had faith in these proposals they would proceed with them, and aa he hoped they would do this he would vote for the second reading of the Bill. Mr. WASON said the Government would not receive very much opposition if they agreed to allow their proposals to be amended in committee in such a manner as would render them more suitable and acceptable to the country ; but if the Government persisted in forcing the proposals as they had submitted them to the House' he believed that a very serious opposition would arise not only in the House hut throughout the country. As to free-trade principles he yielded to uo one, but he thought that the tinkering made in the tariff by the Colonial Treasurer was nothing less than an insult to free trade. He (Mr. Wagon) objected to wholesome beer being taxed, wh lo tho duties on heady, intoxicating colonial wines were reduced. With regard to the land tax he did not think it was a means by which the wealthy classes of the country would bo got at. There was no argument in exempting any property at all, and this was one of the most objectionable features in the present Bill, If they were going to exempt property under £SOO, then they ought to adopt a sliding scale. They were placing another direct taxation on people who already paid a great deal in the shape of local rates and taxes, and the money came up to Wellington to he filtered through the fingers of the Colonial Government. Those who contributed this direct taxation in the way of a land tax would know nothing as to what became of the money, and to this they had a very natural objection. They bad now arrived at such a point in the debate that ho hoped the Government would agree to a compromise. Let them reduce tho duties on tea and sugar let them relievo tho wages class,

and let them carry this Land Tax Bill; but at the "same time let them pay over the proceeds to the* various county councils and local bodies where it was collected. He thought the Government should not attempt to force their proposals under a threat of appealing to the country, and then the cry of the Government to the people would be, “ These are your gods, O Israel.” Mr; CURTIS said he would vote against the motion for the second reading of this Bill. The Hon. the Minister for Public Works had made his Statement, and according to the proposals which that Statement contained it appeared to him that a very great injustice would be inflicted on the part of the colony to which be belonged. The people of tho northern part of the Middle Island would be called upon to contribute towards the making of railways in more favored parts of the colony, and they would derive no benefit whatever from the construction of those railways. As he said before, a gross injustice would be inflicted on the part of the colony to which ho belonged, and it was for this reason that he would oppose the second reading of this Bill, although agreeing with the principle involved iu the measure now under consideration.

Mr. MANDERS intimated that be was opposed to the beer duty. Mr. BRANDON said he was opposed to the proposals of the Government, and would vote against the second reading of this Bill. Mr, HUNTER moved the adjournment of the debate. The Government would perhaps indicate what time they wished to have the debate adjourned to. The motion for adjournment was agreed to. It was also resolved that the debate bo adjourned until next day at 7.30 p.m. The House then adjourned, on the motion of Sir George Gret.