PARLIAMENT.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1317, 26 June 1880, Page 2

PARLIAMENT.

Weilesgton, June 25.

In the Legislative Council to-day, Colonelßreti; gave notice: to moye,-fora Select Committee to enquire into the volunteer outrages at the late southern review.

In reply - to Colonel Whitmore, Mr. Whitaker said the Governmeiit were con? sidering the whole subject of the AgentGeneralship, and before they came to any decision as to terms on which future appointments will be made, Parliament-will be consulted.

Replying to Mr. Waterhouse, the At-torney-General said the agents were not authorised to convert any stock outside the last loan. Before any further conversion is authorised, the whole matter will be discussed and settled by Parliament.

Sir F. Bell asked if Sir J. Yogel was to receive any commission on the conversion of the five million loan. Mr. Whitaker said no one had got any commission for the conversion, and before any commission was paid it would have to be debated and authorised by Parliament.

Sir F. Bell then gave notice to ask on Tuesday if it is the intention of the Government that for any future inscription of stock Sir J. Yogel shall receive anything.

In the House of ; Representatives today, ... Mr. Kelly presented a petition from. Taranaki re the modification of the property tax. Mr. Hall gave notice that he would move next sitting day for leave to bring down the Representation Bill. Mr. Hall laid on the table the original copy of the evidence taken by the Civil Service Commission. He explained that the. Government had not yet had time to get the evidence copied, and he hoped great care would be used in its perusal. Mr. Macandrew suggested, nnd Mr. J. C. Brown moved that the evidence be printed. Mr. Hall pointed out .that the evidence Was very voluminous, and. hoped the House would not insist upon getting it printed. Messrs. George and Murray spoke against the printing, saying that they helieved the cost would not be less than L4OO or LSOO. The motion was withdrawn.

Replying to Mr. Reeves, Mr. Rolleston said it would be inconvenient to make any general rule with respect to the periodical removal of wardens .and resi* dent magistrates once at least every three years. Replying to Mr. George, Major Atkinson said he did not expect to retrieve any revenue from the extra Customs duties on imported beer for the financial year 1880-81.

The debate on the no-confidence motion was resumed by _ . Mr. Reeves, who said he came up with the intention of supporting the Government, but on reading their proposals he was constrained to go into Opposition. He condemned the property tax, arid did not expect when it was spoken of last year that it would ever have been brought into operation. He admitted the depression, but contended that a better plan to meet the' emergency might have been devised without resorting to the proposals made. A half-penny duty on woo] would have realised without any expense whatever L 150,000 per annum. He would make no distinction between washed and' greasy, and by that means additional labor would be employed as all the wool would be washed in the Colony. Another impost he would propose was,ss per ton on coal, which would give a sum of L 40,000. That would tend to develope their own mines. The stamp duties should be increased, and the education vote reduced. Their standing army was in the direction in which reductions might be effected. He characterised the District Public Works Board as an absurdity. The proposal to abolish the subsidies was unfair inasmuch as that they were promised.for a period of five years, and local bodies had entered into engagements on that understanding. They had been .promised a Re-distribution of Seats Bill, and he hoped that Government would make it a condition that, immediately on its passing, Parliament should go to the country. Were the mining industry better looked after, the revenue would be largely increased. He sympathised with the Government in its emergencies. It was being torn limb from limb by its own supporters. Captain Russell criticised the inconsistencies of the previous speaker. He was a protectionist in the one breath and a free-trader'in the other. With njuch that the member for Clive said last night he could not. agree ; particularly in the proposal to reduce the Civil Service estimates L 200,000. He believed that it should be reduced, but that proposal was too sweeping,: Hp approyed of the .property-tax. It wa3 a slur on the Colony to say this tax would hamper their progress. He was opposed, to the beer-tax. He thought they would have done better if they had stuck fast to the property-tax and not imposed one on beer. Respecting the proposal to abolish the subsidies, hs reminded them that the first duty owed was to foreign creditors. After that they must look after the local creditors, foremost amongst whom he ranked local bodies. TVjY- gtewart said the debate had shown how very little Goujd be said in support of the financial statement, and how successfully it could be attacked on all hands. The more lie thought over the financial proposals, the more inexplicable they appeared to him to be. The objectionable features in the property _tax were that it was essentially inquisitorial in its character, and there were no proper safeguards for secrecy. Even the persons exempted had to make disclosures just as fully in regard to their means as those who came under the provisions of the Act. Then, again, the tax struck at their manufactures whiph produced no incpmes, equally with thosp prpduping fixed in? comes. A tax of that nature was calr culated to retard enterprise. Then, again, this chopping and ohanging of the tion session after session was a most objectionable thing, and one which would be disastrous to the country. He did not agree with the theory that shipping should not be taxed. If this tax was insisted upon they might just as well proclaim tne entire Golony a sheep run, for sooner or later it would revert to that state. He would heartily support any effort to reduce the Civil Service. He hoped the Government would see its way to make material alterations in their proposals. He was totally disinterested in the result. Still, that would not deter him from expressing his opinion freely on the point. Any reasonable proposals, he believed, no matter from what source they emanated, would meet with the hearty support of the House. Mr. Mason argued that in the present state of the Colony it should not spend money in education beyond the primary stages, say up to the fourth standard. Mr. Hursthouse spoke in opposition to the amendment of no-confidence. The country had bepn living io wanton extravagance for years past, q,nd it was thp duty of Parlianment to chpck its further tendencies. The proposals of the Govern-; ment were no doubt highly unsatisfactory. Any proposal to impose fresh taxation was, as a matter of fact, highly unsatisfactory | but they were absolutely necessary for the credit of the national character. He advocated the abolition of the Mines, Marine, and Weather Reporting. Departments, and that the honorarium should bp r§d u Ged to bare expenses, He quite be* lieved in primary education, but he \yas opposed to large tracts of country being set apart-for the purposes of secondary

education. They did not want that system of education which taught the son of a ploughman that he was destined to become a telegraph clerk, but to teach him to become; a more intelligent farmer. The amendment had told them that the members now on the Government benches were a very bad lot. No doubt they were, but Sir G. Grey and his followers were much worse. -.. ~V

Sir William Fox said the whole discussion went to show that the ship was on the breakers, and that it was time they put about. That was not a time to wrangle, as they had been doing. The .first question was this, Was further taxation necessary. They had members of that happy temperament who thought it was not. According to his reading of the facts put before them it was absolutely necessary to impose further heavy taxation. It had been said that it would take a great deal to make this tax palatable. He would answer that it it would take a. great deal to make any tax palatable. One reason of the unpopularity of the.tax was that it had been grossly misrepresented for party purposes. He said the Act was not understood, and in the absence of that understanding the Act itself had- been most deliberately and shamefully misrepresented. Then, again, they, had been told that under this Act every man's circumstances would be known, and that there was great danger of these being made public, to the prejudice of the persons taxed. The provisions of the Act itself showed that this was utterly erroneous, and that no such danger could possibly accrue. The assessors were all sworn to secresy, with heavy fines and lo.ng terms of imprisonmeut for breach of faith. The member for Clive made a speech last night which made them all stare. He stated that the country could not stand this tax. It would grind them down to the dust; Now the fact was that twothirds of the population would not pay a sixpence under the tax. The fact was, the member for Clive stood up last night the advocate for the rich man, and he was sorry to see it. The settlement of the waste lauds was no doubt a method for relieving the present depression, but then that was a slow process, and any attempt at force in that direction would be a very great mistake. There was no man more in favor of settlement on the waste lands than himself, when the man was suitable and the conditions right. What he reprobated was the talk about smiling homes and happy families in the which was a mere clap-trap, an election cry. Nasly insinuations had been made against the public works scheme of 1870- It was not that scheme which was responsible for these difficulties. Had it been carried out under the conditions upon which it was laid down, instead of having anything to regret they would have every cause for rejoicing. He next referred to the question of retrenchment. He tnought that the Government had a heavy duty to perform. They would have to harden their hearts for the occasion. It would inflict hardships on many deserving men, but still it would have to be done. He referred to the Education Bill. He counselled the Government not to alter the great system of education they had been at so much trouble to build up. He did not say it was perfect in all its parts, but he said, stick to it, and they would yet have a cause to be proud of its results. Mr. Stevens said the public debt of the Colony had risen from seven and a half millions in ten years to something like 37-Jr millions of mcpney. The annual charge having risen from L 474,000 to in a very few weeks at least L 1,535,000. That itself showed that the time h*d arrived when the position of affairs required to be looked into,

Mi'. Tawhia protested against the proposal to tax native lands. He would give his idea of the cause of the present financial distress ; it arose from the policy of the member for Rangitikei, who in 1862 commenced borrowing to destroy the people of Waikato. They had gone on borrowing ever since, but where was the money now. Not a penny of the 27 millions had been spent on his part of the Colony; yet now the people there were to be taxed to pay interest. The Colony had actually borrowed from them, for they had actually contributed more to the revenue than had been expended on their district. He complained of reduction of native officers' salaries, while a standing army was kept on the West Coast. They could save money by abolishing this army, and the Native Lands Court too. If all the Europeans were to be blamed for the present state of affairs, they had better hand over the government to the four native members, who certainly had done nothing to cause the present distress. Mr. Dick said if Government tried to follow out the q,dvipe they had got he wondered what would become of them. The position taken by the Opposition at the outset did not correspond with their after remarks. They set out with a spirit of hostility, although they were more conciliatory afterwards. They told us that they did not want tq gupergedg them. He could well understand the meaning of that. It meant that they were- to incur all the obloquy of reducing the Civil Service, and then the Opposition would take advantage of the weakening of their position thereby occasioned, and step into their places. They had to retrench, and that was not a very satisfactory state of things, in 18,66 he was Superintendent cf Qcago, and he had retrenchment forced upon him. That was on the eve of a superintendental election, and the result was the member for Port Chalmers came forth froin obscurity, and defeated his election. He then ' left LB.f,QQO in the Treasury, and Mr. Macandrew promised to make it fly, and it did fly. That would show them that he was alive to the consequences of a retrenchment policy. Still, as a Government, they were determined to retrench. They had no fear of the results, they were confident of their ability to carry through the policy, and carry it through successfully. Mr. J. T. Fisher prpdncpd the resolution of a public meeting held at Lincoln, Canterbury, demurring to the property as unfair and acquiescing in the withdrawal of subsidies,

Mr. Speight moved the adjournment of the debate, and the House rose at 12.20 a. in.