The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 1879.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5740, 22 August 1879, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 1879.

We have received a report of Sir Wm. Fox’s address, which was published in the “ Wanganui Chroniele.” It is somewhat condensed, but as it is given in the first person, we are entitled to assume that, so far as it goes, it is an accurate verbatim report of what the leader of the Opposition really said. We commend the speech to the attention of our readers. It contains a straightforward and able exposition, of the many failings and backslidings of the present Ministry, who stand arraigned before the country await* ing a verdict. It is an ample justification of the claim put forward by the Opposition to be called Liberals ; but Liberals who are prepared to respect the law of the land, and to support the present Constitution. Even if it were proved that Sir Wm. Fox had said many bitter things which are not set forth in the report before us, still we aver that after all such remarks were but surplusage. If we had been denied the right of seeing Sir W. Fox’s speech in the form in which he delivered if, how poor and unjust an opinion of it would have been forced upon us by the untruthful and one-sided telegraphic summary of it which was forwarded to Wellington by the Press Association—an agency which professes to give a fair, truthful, and impartial report. Sir Wm. Fox tells plain truths, which wound his enemies and damage the reputation of his political opponents. They cannot and dare not deny his facts, therefore they turn round and abuse his style, his manner, and even the surprising energy and mental activity which enables the leader of the Opposition to maintain his right to the position he holds unquestioned by any younger man.

In reviewing, as shortly as we can, the speech before us, we shall endeavor to follow the line taken by Sir Wm. Fox, and to summarise the arguments to suit our space. Sir Wm. Fox began by apologising for being later in the field than his rival. He explained that Mr. Ballance had deserted his place in Parliament, where his presence was sadly wanted during the discussion of the ways and means of the colony. Mr. Ballance’s intention of stealing a march on Sir Wm. Fox was evident. A few moderate sentences explained the circumstances, and the candidate at once passed on to matters of more general interest. Ho proceeded to assert that “ any “ man will bo prepared to coincide “ with such principles” as those contained in the “great Liberal programme.’’ “The real, question,” he said, “ which “ the people have to consider at the “ present moment is the fact that the “ Grey Ministry have been totally un- “ able to give effect to any of their princi- “ pies.” That fact has been made patent to Parliament during tho whole term of office of the present Ministry ; they can talk, but they cannot work, and, like all bad workmen, they complain of their tools.

Sir Wm. Fox next dealt with the Electoral and Maori Dual Vote Bill, for so it ought properly to be called. Ho gave a short and simple history of it. In a few words he described how Sir G. Grey, in a childish fit of obstinacy, tore up the Bill and threw it into the waste paper basket, simply because the disgraceful dual vote clause, which had been tacked on during its passage through the Lower House, was recognised . as a gross injustice, and excluded by tho Upper House. Coming to triennial Parliaments, the candidate read an extract from a book embodying his own views, which proposed a constitution under which “the Lower “ House should be elected for three, the “ Upper for five, years.” Surely it must be admitted that as leader of the Opposi. tion Sir Wm. Fox had a perfect right to point out the curious inconsistency of Sir G. Grey, who although a large land owner himself is exempt from payment of rates, pays hardly any land tax, and yet owns an estate at Kawau which is valued at £24,000, but only pays land tax on £2OOO. Sir George has violated the proverb that •“ hawks dinna pick out hawk’s “ ee’n a large landed proprietor himself, he nevertheless objects to any one else being one, and reviles the rest of his class. It must he borne in mind that so far as the outside public are concerned, the present contest appears to be one between Sir W. Fox, as leader of the Opposition, and Sir G. Grey, as Prime Minister. The leader of the fight, and the chosen of his party, is generally held to deserve the honors of victory if he achieves it. This being so, it was but right that Sir W. Fox should challenge comparison with his rival, and say to his hearers “ I have striven hard for the “ working man, and placed hundreds—on “ the land, and in conjunction with Dr. ■“ Featherston I did all that X could to “ settle ■ small farmers on the land. 1 “ have sold half my estate to small far- “ mers, and their land is worth three “times as much as it was seven years ago.” An ounce of fact is worth a pound of glowing fiction ; Sir W. F6l knew that the “ Great Pro-consul” could not adduce such facts about his island of

Kawau, where he lives, a monarch o£ all he surveys, and where hia right there is none to dispute.

It is an admitted fact that the land tax up to the present, and in its existing; has been fthd is a failure. HVe hold that' landed property should bear its full share of the public burthens, but we also claim that it should boar no more. We see no reason why a man with £SOO worth of land and perhaps £IO,OOO worth of other property should be absolved from all payment of the tax. A progressive land tax means communism, i.e., robbing the rich, the careful, and industrious, and giving the spoils to the poor, the wasteful and idle. Landowners as a class in New Zealand have no easy life of it. Wo are satisfied that the class hatred which Sir G. Grey and his party have labored so hard to stir up and establish by class legislation in favor of the small, and at the expense of the large farmer, is the heaviest charge in the whole indictment against them. Wo were pleased, therefore, to find that Sir Wm. Fox braved the popular indignation, and with the full courage of his convictions pointed out the many evils of the present land tax, the only measure which his rivals, and more especially his local rival, had to boast of. “I do not for myself,” he said, “ object “ to the tax, but to the method of collec- “ tion. ... It throws down the value

“of landed estates, and then the small “ owner suffers more than the large.” Speaking of taxation, he said : —“ A “ general tax is the fairest —one which “ falls on all classes—except any who are “ poverty stricken, and the country can “ afford to let them go.” The broken promises about the Civil Service reductions, the gross mismanagement and lavish extravagance in connection with the Native Department, Sir G. Grey’s disgraceful trickery with the Land Act, all these sins of Ministers were duly noticed and criticised—in every case in language quite mild compared with much of that which daily appears in the columns of many of those papers who now misrepresent the speech as the ranting tirade of a fish-wife, but which have published no fair report of Sir Wm. Fox’s own words. The old school of politicians are masters of plain English, and are not ashamed to characterise the untrue as false, and the false as despicable. A more mealy-mouthed class of men might speak of the same deeds as lacking the essential conditions of verity, and as being unworthy of admiration or imitation. For our own part, we prefer to call a spade, a spade, and not an agricultural implement. Sir Wm. Pox’s speech was a good one, and we believe that a great majority of those who read it, of whatever party, will be constrained to admit that it is so. Pressure on our space alone precludes us from giving it in full. The few extracts we have made are in themselves enough to direct attention to it, and to show that it is a production well worthy of the leader of the Constitutional party.