Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. Saturday, November 26, 1881.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 1004, 26 November 1881, Page 2

Poverty Bay Standard.

PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. Saturday, November 26, 1881.

We shall sell to no man Justice or Right; We shall deny to no man Justice or Right; We shall defer to no man Justice or Right.

The Hon. John Hall has delivered his election address to the Leeston electors, and, as it may be regarded as a Ministerial utterance, there is much satisfaction in its perusal. Whether the candidates for the East Coast have followed the Premier’s teaching in reciting the tenets of their political catechism, or whether an accidental lot of circumstances have been strung together to suit the necessities of the occasion, we cannot say, but the coincidence of a general accord and agreement between the parties —-with one exception, which we shall notice at some other time—is noticeable, if not surprising. Mr. Hall reviewed the work of the past session with an unsparing denunciation of the tactics pursued by some of the Obstructives, and foreshadowed the desire of the Government to legislate in this direction if they remain on the Treasury Benches. He said the number and length of speeches had become intolerable, and it was recognised that some limitation must be imposed. It was still more necessary that -‘stonewalling,” or systematic obstruction by a minority should be effectually put an end to. A notorious instance was supplied by the last session, when nearly three weeks were spent over a Bill, probably two-thirds of that time being wasted in “stonewalling.” Under the present Ministry our member will be able to work heartily in support of a continuance of the Property Tax as against either an income or a land tax. On this subject Mr. Hall said: The Government had also been able to lessen the rate of property tax by id in the pound. There was an outcry for a land tax in place of the property tax, but it was mainly the cry of men who escaped under the land tax as it had existed. The taxable value of rural property in the Colony was estimated at £36,000,000,-and ’that of personal property at £25,000,000. Why should not the latter, including as it did Government or other stock shares, mortgages, and merchandise, contribute to the cost of governing the Colony ? It was alleged that stock-in-trade should be exempt from the property tax; but land was the farmer's stock-in-trade, and why should it be exceptionally treated ? Another suggestion was that an income tax should be substituted. At first sight this appeared equitable, but consideration of the matter revealed many practical difficulties. Those who were really land workers could hardly tell what their actual income was, necessary current expenditure being so intermixed with expenditure for permanent improvements. The income of the tradesman or manufacturer .could only be ascertained by scrutiny of all his books. In these eases income tax was a tax upon conscience. The whole system must be made intolerably inquisitorial or large evasions must be submitted to. Professional incomes and salaries, which now escape, did not represent a large amount, and the earners of them paid, proportionately to their receipts, more than an aveaage amount of Customs’ duties. It was sometimes alleged that the property tax favored the wealthy class; but of £104,000,000, the estimated value of real and personal property, £43,000,000 were free of tax under the £5OO exemption. He had concluded, after a most careful consideration, that, taken altogether, a property tax was fairest in principle and most convenient in practice.

Mt. Hall enunciates views of the advanced Liberal school, which indicate pretty surely that the Opposition cannot any longer designate themselves by that familiar party cry. Mr. Hall thinks that the net result of last session was that New Zealand now possesses “ a Constitution as liberal, if not more “ so, than that of any other British “ Colony.” He adduces the Licensing Bill, as a ease in point, and proposes to give to women the privilege of Parliamentary franchise, and steps, with an easy agility, across the boundaryline that separates Liberalism from ultra-Democracy. Mr. Hall speaks on this latter question less as Premier than as a candidate, and does not pledge his Government to support it; but we are glad to find that his convictions are confirmed as to the necessity for continuing the Upper Chamber as a part of the Constitution, but suggests that it should be made elective, on Hare’s system of election, and -with a property qualification. Acting on this principle, Mr. Hall would have the Council “ composed of men “ elected rather for general services “ rendered to the Colony, than for “ high standing ; the Council would, “ in fact, become the fly-wheel of the “ Constitution.” If we understand, by this simile, that the Upper Chamber should be what it is not now, a popular body —an absolutely necessary piece of machinery, without which the State Locomotive cannot be propelled—we fear that Mr. Hall will have his work cut out, although, even in a radical work of that kind he will be encou-rao-ed by all classes except those who, according to the pre-quaHfication stated by him, do not come within his category as eligible members. If property is to form the basis of an Upper House qualification, the Colony will look to Mr. Hall’s Government that it does not allow it to degenerate into being, as is now, in many cases, the only qualification. There are men presently sitting in that Chamber drawing life annuities from the loansupplied coffers of the Public Treasury—men who are mean enough to annually sponge for their honoraria on the over taxed pockets of the people—who, were their pockets, empty, and they relegated to the humble position whence they sprung

would not be looked at by any Government, much less would they have a place in an Assembly which ought to be the very Fountain of political intelligence and public honor, Mr. Hall has largely contributed to this state of things himself. He has nominated members to the Upper House whose only recommendations were their political support, and their cash ; and he has, likewise, trifled with the privileges of that House by making it a convenient stepping-stone to the attainment of his own ends. But we have the spirit of forgiveness upon us, and we look hopefully forward to the full fruition of Mr. Hall’s political repentance. On the other salient points of the address, we will allow Mr. Hall to speak for himself: The system of government for towns was satisfactory. For rural districts improvements should be in the direction of giving elasticity to the system of Counties and Road Boards, so that the people themselves might choose under which form they would have their local affairs administered. There should be delegated to local bodies many of those powers which were originally and rightly given to Superintendents of Provinces, but which, when abolition took place, were vested in the Governor. Money was the great want of local bodies, especially where important and difficult roadworks were necessary. The Government meant to propose that, where Crown or Native lands required roads, there should be power to rate those lands. As to main roads, they would propose, first, that if a district raised by rate one-fourth the cost of a main road, the other three fourths should be given by the State. Secondly, that for district roads money should be lent to local bodies, and be repayable to the State by instalments extending ever thirteen years. The expenditure under this head during the last nine months of 1879-80 was £1,750,000, and during 1880-81 £1,958,000. The previous Government had made inevitable the unpleasant but useful task of making the small balance of loan money left available when the present Government took office last, till 1883, before which another loan could not be put on the market, and to this task he and his colleagues had devoted themselves. They intended next session to submit carefully-reasoned and definite proposals for further works, such as they believed consistent with a justifiable increase to the colonial debt • and, in hopeful recognition of the news, the great resources, and the reviving and extending industries of New Zealand, the Government desired so to deal with this most important question as to prove that they believed there was a great future for the Colony and had faith in its natural advantages. Some of the candidates now seeking election announce as though it were a discovery just made by them, that the waste lands of the Colony should be settled ; but the proposition was really not a new one, and, as far as the Government were concerned, they could appeal to their continuous action since they took office in 1879 to prove that they believed the proposition and had not neglected any means of practically giving effect to it.

Coming to the Native question, Mr. Hall said that the improvement brought about during the Government’s two years of office was a matter for congratulation. The Native Office had been purified, squandering had been stopped, the ordinary expenditure of the office had been reduced from £39,000 to £15,000 a year, and contingencies had been cut down from £14,000 to £4,000. The Natives were all the better for this, because they were relying more on their own industry and less on Governmental gifts.

Referring at some length to the West Coast question, Mr. Hall enquired

Had the Government acted harshly and illegally. as some of its opponents alleged ? What they did was to give an emphatic and final warning that unless the law was obeyed the promises made to the Natives would be regarded as withdrawn. The reserves set apart for and offered to these Natives —who did not exceed 3000 in all—were valued by the Commissioners at £600,000. He was credibly informed that they were well worth £1,000,000, and would, at once, if let or utilised, produce an income making these Natives the wealthiest in New Zealand, and richer than the mass of Europeans. The authority of the law had thus been upheld without a shot being fired or a blow being struck ; and, more than this, it had shown that the Volunteer force of New Zealand was a most valuable reality, which enabled the Colony in cases of emergency to have at its disposal a considerable armed and trained force determined to assert that the law should prevail. Mr. Hall concluded by saying that his platform was not one of dallying before the people the prospect of a blaze of prosperity obtained by lavish expenditure of borrowed money, but to be atoned for by a long period of depression and suffering. If he could not win this election without resort to such political artifices, he would be content to lose it. His platform, while substantial and safe, was also one of progress. In a new country, it was part of the duty of the Government to assist in developing its resources. We had in New Zealand a country worthy of the utmost efforts in that respect, and one which, by a policy of steady and prudent progress, might be the prosperous home not only of our children, but of multitudes of our fellow-countrymen.

It is not surprising to find that a vote of thanks and confidence was unanimously passed.