PARLIAMENT.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 1 July 1880, Page 2

PARLIAMENT.

Wellington, June 30. In the Legislative Council to-day,

In answer to Capt. Fraser, Mr. Whitaker said a mining inspector had been directed to report whether the Shag Point mine was properly ventilated. The Bankruptcy Law Committee was given a month's extension of time to bring up its report.

The whole of the afternoon was occupied in the discussion of the Wellington Racing Club Bill on a motion for its recommittal. The debate was merely of local interest, except a vigorous denunciation by Col. Brett of racing generally as conducted in the Colony, where acts were done such as honorable men would not do. He expressed his intention to oppose racing bills as long as he lived, in the interests of the rising generation, and therefore moved the throwing out of the present measure. This was negatived by 23 to 4, and the Bill was recommitted. Some progress was made in Committee with the Dog Registration Bill, and the Council adjourned at 5 p.m.

In the House of Representatives today, Mr. Hutchinson gave notice that he would introduce a Bill to restrict Chinese immigration. Replying to Mr. Reeves, Mr. Bryce said the sum of L 224 had been advanced upon the Matahea and Oponi block, at Waiupa on the East Coast, but it was afterwards refunded, and the proclamation of the land was removed. The land was understood to be in the occupation of Captain Porter, who was lessee of the block. It was not acquired by the land purchase agent. Stringent regulations prohibiting such agents from acquiring land while in the Government service were issued in 1878, and a telegram was read from the land purchase agent, challenging an enquiry into the allegation that he had so acquired property. Mr. Stevens asked whether the Colony had paid LSOO, or any of the sum to plaintiffs solicitors in the Waka-Maori case, more than it ought to have paid; and if so, by whose authority. Mr. Hick said that the same question was put on the previous day. He had discovered he was in error in saying that no such payment had been made. He had now ascertained that the sum of LBOO had been so paid. It had been done by the authority of the late Native Minister.

Mr. Stevens : Then, may I ask the Government if they do not think that this i§ a proper subject to be remitted for enquiry by the Public Accounts Committee 1

Mr. Hall replied in the affirmative, promising that that course would be followed.

Replying to Mr. Stewart, Mr. Dick said that the Government did not see its way to alter its determination in consideration of the numerous petitions from residents in the Provincial District of Otago to make provision in the Licensing Bill for bottle licenses.

Replying to Major Harris, Mr. Rolleston said that on an early day the Waimate Plains would be sold. They were now being surveyed. Replying to Mr. Pyke, Major Atkinson said it was proposed to rate all pastoral and agricultural land belonging to the Crown, but snow-covered mountains would be excluded from the area.

Replying to Mr. Tole, Mr. Rolleston said the recommendations of the Royal Commission to offer appointments in the Civil Service as prizes to be competed for by students of the New Zealand University was being considered, but it had not yet taken a practical shape. No doubt the Government was most desirous of encouraging the pursuit of technical educa? tion, and when the whole question' -same under consideration, the Governmentwould endeavor to make arrangements accordingly, Replying to Mr. Gisborne, Major Atkinson said that the preliminary arrangements had been made for carrying out t.he arrangements for the quinquennial investigation of the Government Insurance Department. No actuaries had yet been appointed. Replying to Mr. Seddon, Major Atkinson said the Government would be glad to equalise taxation as far as possible, but they could not say they would support any measure having for its object the equalisation of taxation for local purposes upon gold miners and gold-mining property until they saw the measure. Mr. M'Lean resumed the debate on the no-confidence motion. In three years the whole five million loan would be paid away. He believed it would take a large amount of misgovernment to kill New Zealand, and still he had to remind them that a very great deal of misgovernment had occurred. He counselled them to forego factious opposition and face the extremities of the case in a spirit of honest determination to grapple with the difficulty. Mr. Seddon' said tha.t after what had been said about the Civil Service and its abuses, he for one would much rather go about begging his bread than belong to such a service. Had trade and manufacture been properly encouraged there would have been a more extended sphere far labor, He would look forward with interest to the report of the Local Industries Commission. He charged Government with having obtained their seats at the expense of damaging the credit of the Colony in the Home "country. He hoped both sides would support Government in the firm manner in which they had grasped native affairs. He hoped they would soon see the Waimate Plains open for settlement, believing that that was the true solution of the difficulty. In alluding tq the property tax, he advocated thg imposition of a license fee of L4Q on all doctors and lawyers, . B[e thought the sooner the House was dissolved the better for the country. . Major Atkinson said Government was bound to reply to many acousations made against them, It seemed to him that the purpose of the House was to discuss the proposals of the Government rather than discuss their shortcomings. Such being the case, the discussion had taken place under most unfavorable auspices. Points had been raised personal to himself. It had been asserted that his finance had consisted mainly of Treasury bills. He would put forward a few facts to how few of these circumstances were correct. He would go baok to 1870- It had been said that the people of the Colony were responsible for the present state of affairs. He would show they were not. To do that he would divide the period from 1870 to 1875, a nd from 1877 to 1879, when the member for the Thames was ejected from office. He blamed the difficulty up to 187P to the facl that the Provinces had not been abolished. From 1875 they took their votes in large sums, Governme/it being left to spend these as they liked. In 1877, when he left office, it was stated that there was a deficit. He : had had prepared by the Secretary to the Treasury an audited statement, which wojild show that in September there was in [he Treasury a sum of L 900,000, The labilities were L 989,000, so that would nave left the Colony some LBO,OOO to the bad had it been woiind up at that tinp, but of L 276,000 for land purchase, cilytothe present'dateL9B,ooo had been pad, so that in reality, when the late Goveri nent took office, there was a sum of LIOO )00 in the Treasury. Out of L 332,000 o Treasury Bills issued, L282,00Q had pep paid directly to the provinces, That was the full extent to which he had committed the ; Colony .tor. treasury Bills. Yjh,en Mr. < Macandrew took office,; ample neans were ' afc ha,ntf to meet all %ea wo i

voted for him two and a half millions for general works. At tho end of that year he had to his credit about L 2,000,000 for public works. The truth was the hon. member got more than ho asked for ; he asked for L4,000,000—L1,000,000 to take up the loan of 1876, L 500,000 for provincial liabilities, L 833,000 for Treasury bills, and L 300,000 to repay the public works fund. They relieved him of the last two items, and showed him that L 300,000 was enough for provincial liabilities. The House would then see they had actually given him more than he asked for. That of itself proved that ho wiis not embarrassed, as he had attempted to make out. T\ was evident that the responsibility for their present condition dated from the year 1878, when they proposed to rely upon an enormous land fund. They based their estimated expenditure on a land revenue of L 2,000,000. Tho Minister for Public Works proposed to borrow L 300,000 to complete his scheme. The fact was that he had got L 5,000,000, and left thom to say how far the scheme was completed. When the member for the Thames left office, he left a sum of LBI,OOO, against which ho left liabilities including deficiency bills of 3i millions. They had actually during their term of office received in hard cash L 11,233,000, and they left, as he had said, a liability of 3| millions. These were the men who wished to replace them in the Administration. He would supply-detailed particulars of what he said, and if the member for Port Chalmers failed to call for that proof, he would ask the House to accept what lie said as absolutely true. He would lay the statement, certified by the auditors, on the table of the House. They had also trifled with tho credit of the Colony, being content to let month after month go by, indifferent as to whether they paid interest or not. The hon. member actually wished the AgentGeneral to get an advance to pay interest on loan due in August, September, and October, in the hope that he would get authority from the House to raise a loan. He asks the Agent-General to get an advance on that projected loan. That was the kind of finance they carried on, and yet in the face of these emergencies, the hon. member told his constituents at Port Chalmers that it would have been a good thing for the Colony had the loan missed fire. The hon. membor says "No." Will he tell us where he was going to get money to keep his engagements in London.

Mr. Macandrew : By the issue of Troa sury Bills.

_ Major Atkinson : Fes ; that is very like the resource—The Lord will provide. Regarding the L 5,000,000 loan, Parliament was not called together till the latest moment. When they did meet he pro-I posed to send Home a Loan Bill for . the/ L 5,000,000. The Opposition were obliged' to swallow this without the least Consideration, in order to provide inurcat which should have been provided for before. That was the position the jnon. member left them in. Who, thenlwas responsible for the present state of amirs? It was not the scheme of 1870, J the Government of 1877, as they left rpney to meet all their liabilities. It was now narrowed to a small compass. The persons responsible were—Mr. Ballancf who persuaded the people that they had peans that they did not possess ; the number for Port Chalmers was to blame for living manufactured a paper land fund and entered into engagements accordhgly; and lastly, and most of all, the responsibility mainly rested with the mempr for the Thames, as he was the headfo this Government who had undertakensto introduce thrift and economy into lie Government, and permitted all thesd things to go on ; in fact, it went on by liitauthority, when a word from him woiM have 'pat a stop to it. It was unfortutjute that the local finance scheme shouldj be discussed before they knew what it fas. Thet Bill would be down in a fow dats, when he would be prepared to discussjthe proposal. What he proposed wast to make the expenditure and revenue / for the forthcoming year to square eachfother by carrying forward L 225,000 of liabilities. They must bear in mind that thoy would next year have to provide |LIOO,OOO additional for interest—or, in rcpid numbers, they would next year hate to provide an additional sum of L350J000. The

most ardent retrenchers had notkttempted

; to reduceexpendituremore than L 250,000, i so that LIOOjOOO would still rlmain uni provided for. In that case mey would • see that fresh taxation was absolutely necessary. The Government proposed to i deal with the matter by retrenchment,, ! the property tax, the tax on bepr t and; in-. . crease of customs duties. Thjo, 6iov<jrn-» : merit recognised the importance of retrenchment, but that could only be accomplished by abolishing unnecessary officers and reducing salaries. Little* saving could be made this year in dis* missals, as officers dismissed would have to be compensated. If they were to do anything appreciable, • it would have to be done by reduoing public conveniences and salaries payable to officers, Taking the expenditure on 1() of the principal classes for 18,78-0, the expenditure was L1,(V?5,000,. Qn that expenditure they proposed a reduction of L 105,000. They had not then the report . of the Civil Servioe Commission, nor did ! they know that the House would support i them in that direction. Now that they did know it, when they went into Committee each Minister would be prepared to say what further reductions could i be made in their departments.. They had i been accused of imposing crushing taxation. He pointed out that over the : estimate of revenue for 1878-9, as made ! by the late Government, all they proposed in the shape of taxation was L 246,000. Had the late Government been in office he had reason to suppose that a much heavier taxation would liave.been proposed. They had gone some length in that direction, if report was true. It was stated that they had propared an Incomo Tax Dill, and an increase of the land tax, to 20s per aore. That was a lively prospect for the country. He denied tiialf cho property tax would' go down id tha working man. He had not boon able to understand what was meant by a property and income tax as spoken of. He held that they should never touch a, man himself as long as hj»& property was sufficient for the purpose. That was tho real distinct tion between a property tax and an incomQ txz. The latter was far more d difficult of collection than the farmer. They had teen told that the property tax would drive away capital and prevent improvements. The fact was that English capital was coming into the Colony very. largely, and so far as he could hear none of the monetary institutions of the Colony had the slightest fear of the tax. Any capitalists afraid of tho tax were bettfr out of the Colony than in it. He not believe his own ears when he waa<iold the tax would stop improvements, Say a landowner had Lioo,ooo in the b?nk, ha would have to pay less if he exg<ndod it in fencing, &c., than if he lef/,it undisturbed in the hank. They wfo told it would affect the springs of in da try. Ho was told that was maohit-ry, but he understood it was the and sinew and brain power of the c'Qtry. Well, that was not taxed, machinery was simply the result of acc ill »lated capital, not springs of indu-'y. That was i simply protection. «Ie man invested LIOOO in land, his L2OOO in machinery. The oni'^ 3 to be protected from taxation, whil"he other was to be subjected to it. } now came to tho question of exempt'* He thought soma exemptions were f- Enough property to make a man oo° r table should be left a man before thrfate taxed it. To make other exemptio such as machinery, would be to wk the prinoiple of the tax, JEfe did«think tho exemption of

_. on al effects touched the principle, SW he had yielded very unwillingly. Sf loped the property tax would be oraHv accepted by local bodies, and if §?£ were done the cost of the property ♦ r would be very small to the country. condemned the land tax as a most ■dons one, and the idea of its reaching tte unearned increment as fallacious. 2T e Government, if they remained in office, would next year bring in a Bill to inhibit entail and repudiate the beSneatba* of land, as they felt that the Ljooition of large landed estates in f°*jTjgs would be most injurious to the /vfonv. They had no sympathy, how"with any attempt to " burst up L' estatggjy a land tax. He had provLj the tax most unwillingly. Er e jfd not think it would yield more :Li he estimated, from experience of ijei# clap it wa3 in force last year. far as their present experience went, v jeenied a3 if "it would yield L 40,000 La than he had estimated. The estimared Customs duties were L 50,000 les3 than fa amount actually received last year, fw had increased the duties with regret would reduce them whenever they could; b ak he saw no immediate prospect o£ * being able to do this. The House jjonld now address themselves to reducing the Estimates under the lead of Government. They should then Ke yw much taxation was necessary to tufnnce the accounts. They should limit public works expenditure to works jjlcolated to render those already conjtxiiccecl more complete and profitable, jjd the expenditure should be very ntadual, 30 33 to extend the expenditure Jf the loan over the next two years, fffcile he was Treasurer the Hou3e and the country should know exactly what the financial position really was. He denied tliat he had ever told more than the truth, and every fact he had stated had jeen amply borne out. Useful and necessary public works must be steadily proceeded with. Having done what j L , had indicated, he thought that tig House should refuse to pass < pre than a very few absolutely necessary jiiis, and then as socn as possible leave tje Government free to commence in earnest the work of reform. There was u need for a panic, but, with care, thrift, jml attention, New Zealand could, riihout much difficulty, meet all difficulties. The local bodies and the people Jtnerally must learn to practice the virtue of self-denial. He believed they were willing to do this, and if the Government succeeded in inculcating this edition (?), they would feel their work had not been in vain.

ilr. de Lautour moved the adjournaent of the debate, and the House rose at midnight.