Mr. BALLANCE BEFORE THE ELECTORS.

Patea Mail, 4 November 1881, Page 4

Mr. BALLANCE BEFORE THE ELECTORS.

In continuation of address to Wanganui electors on Monday night, Mr Ballance said : He would not raise the question of the relative merits of the PROPERTY TAX AND THE LAND TAX. They ought not to go back but forward, and he did not look for the re-introduction of the Land Tax. lire inequalities ought to be rectified. The Land Tax had borne 'more heavily on the large men and on absentees than on the small men. Improvements had been excluded from the operation of the tax. The Land Tax had been in the interest of the small farmer. Agricultural improvements ought to be exempted under the Property Tax, and manufacturing machinery ought also to be exempted. To prevent a monopoly of the land, there should be a higher rate on large properties, and the rate should be increased with the area until it became prohibitive or nearly so. The same principle is recognised in the apportionment of the legacy duty. If these changes were made he thought the Property Tax might become a fair tax. The improvements made by the small farmer were much larger in proportion to his acres than the improvement of the large farmer or squatter. But the large land-owner could borrow at 6 per cent., whilst the small farmer had to pay 10 per cent, and sometimes as much as 16 per cent. This inequality tended in the direction of allowing large estates to lie idle till population came and made them valuable. Government had proposed to abolish the Waste Land Boards, to rate the Crown lands, and that there should be a board, consisting of three members, established at Wellington for the purpose of doling out money for the public works of the colony. Mr Ballance considered this central board was a bribe to the members of the House. The three men who composed this board would, of course, be selected from the supporters of the Government. Mr Ormond and himself did not approve of these measures. The}' did not desire a return to Provincialism, but they held that boards should be established in each district, and that the money to be spent in them should be allocated to the various boards, instead of everything being done in Wellington. The NEW REPRESENTATION ACT gave to Canterbury and Otago a representation quite equal to that of the whole of the remainder of the colony. He held that the Government should have taken the native population in the North Island into consideration when amending the representation, and they might fairly have done so, as these natives were large consumers of dutiable articles, and therefore large contributors to the revenue. The Electoral Act would seriously affect the Wanganui district, for, if the population here did not increase, Wanganui would have but a small say in the govern raent of the colony. The districts to the north of Patea were rapidly being peopled —population was flocking out there, but as Wanganui POOR WANGANUI WAS LAND-LOCKED by enormous estates on every side, which were held at a mere pepper-corn rental, there was little chance of population increasing. The whole amount of land in the colony was 64,000,000 acres, and the amount still in the bands of the natives was 16,000,000 acres. Under the Act just passed every facility was given to buy large tracts from the natives, but it was impossible for small settlers to acquire anything but leaseholds. He should ask that an Act should be passed preventing natives from parting with any more laud, except by way of leasehold, to anyone but the Government. The Crown should he enabled to come in and PURCHASE THE LAND AND MAKE IT NATIONAL ESTATE. This was the only way to save these 16,000,000 acres from spoliation. The passing, of the Thermal Springs’ Bill last session went some distance towards this object, and the natives themselves were how more in favor of leasing than of selling-their land. If an Act such as this were passed the public at large would derive the greatest benefit from it. In regard to the disposal of Crown lands, they had daring the session endeavored to introduce the system of ballot in cases where there was more than one applicant for any deferred-payment section, and he believed that in the next Parliament they would be able to carry it. In regard to PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE, Mr Ballance said, Free Trade might be most snitahler to England, but be believed with John Stuart Mill that in a young country protective duties were best adapted to it. He was perfectly certain that the people of this colony required that industries should be encouraged in every manner within their reach. In concluding the speaker said he would never become the tool ior engine of any clique. He should not alter his course in the Legislature nor desert his party, which was growing and gaining strength all over the colony. From Auckland to Invercargill the cause of progress had flourished, and he trusted Wanganui would not be the one place in the colony to say that it had repudiated liberal principles.