SATURDAY, 27th NOVEMBER.

Southland Times, Issue 1179, 10 December 1869, Page 3

SATURDAY, 27th NOVEMBER.

Mr Bell, in resuming the debate on Mr Basstian's amendment, said that neither it nor the original resolutions precisely met his views, and hoped the Government would agree to such modifications as would be acceptable to the annexation, party and the country generally. He did not, however, object to the second clause of the resolutions. The Hon. Dr Menzies said the object of the amendment was to obtain time and information on the important question before the House, which was not of a nature for hasty decision. As it was now re-opened, he wished to remark on some points of the report that he had not previously noticed. The terms appeared to him le*s liberal than those contained in the Permissive Bill, which provided that all Southland laws should remain in force until the United Council agreed to alter them, the report recommending their abolition, with the exception Of the Land Laws, which were really out of the power of the Provincial Council, and could in fact only be dealt with by the Assembly. Yet it was not shown that Southland laws were inferior to those of Otago, and at any rate the Commissioners were not entitled to consider their merits. They appeared, however, to have prejudged the Southland laws, although it was quite possible that if they were looked into, some of them might be found worthy of preservation. Another point was the representation of the district. The Commissioners agreed upon the appointment of eight members — the Bill provided there should be ten. There was another point on which even members of the Government were at variauce with the Commissioners. Mr Calder had pointed out the great advantage that would arise from the relief from pressure consequent on the distribution of the debt over a larger population — but the Commisiioners spoke of separate accounts of revenue and expenditure, to be kept at Dunedin and Invercargill, so that Southland would have the advantage only of the surplus arising from revenue in the present district. If that was contemplated, then the debt would not be distributed over the whole united province, yet, if it wera not so, it would be incompatible with clause 13, which provided that all assets and liabilities should be taken over by Otago, and if the auticipation of the Government that the revenue would not meet the expenditure was correct, Southland could derive no benefit from surplus. It seemed to him that the Coum-il in trusting to the report of the Commissioners, and taking action thereon, were building on sand. The hon. member went on to state that nothing could be lost by the delay asked for — that it would be better that the two Governments should make arrangements during the recess, in order that the Council mighfc have something more tangible to work upon than the clauses of an informal, imperfect, and contradictory report. He did not think due prominence had been given to the value of the place as a commercial centre, which, as happily described by Mr Lumsden, would, if taken over by Otago, give the latter not only a commercial site, but control of the largest, most fertile, and richest district in the southern portion of the colony. He admitted that re-union might be a means of promoting immigration, but the other statements made of benefits to accrue were a mere tissue, of assertions and expressions of opinion to which not the least weight could be attached. He thought that if Southland adopted local taxation — if the Government had the moral courage to impose it — that the Province might carry on. The hon. member went on to review at length the statements of previous speakers, and, after quoting some statistics relative to Oamaru — the progress and prosperity of which were, in the opinion of the hon. member, due rather to the public spirit and energy of the settlers than to Government aid — the revenue received from that district amounting to £340,000, while the amount expended was — according to one representative of the district in the Assembly,

£15,000, another said £63,0 0. To show that it was not impossible to carry on the Government, he would quote Mr Calder's statement that £33,000 of revenue was required before any public worka could be carried, on Mr Caldetc — It is wor3e than that; £3i,000 are required for interest and General Government sirvices provincially charged, before there is anything for local departmental purposes. Mr Webster — What is the amount of the General Government services provincially charged ? Mr Calder— £3ooo. The Hon. Dr Mi£N T zrEs — Then do I understand th-it £34,000 h required for interest and servicesprovincially charged ? What then is the cost of the local Government ? Mr JouxsToy— lt has been £22,000 per annum, and cannot be le^s now than £15,000. Mr Calder— About £10,000. Mr Webster— £l3,ooo, I think. Dr IVIEXZIES went on to remark, that what had just passe 1 proved the value of continuing the debate — that more information had been elicited — although he did not wish to imply that any was pur- . posely withheld. Adding £15,000 to the £34,000 required to meet the debt charge and Assembl v votes, would «i ve £ 18,000 as the revenue required. Now the land revenue for six. years and a half past amounted to an average of £59,723, but as two of those years were exceptional ones ('65 and '6G) — in the one case the revenue was small, and in the other, large, it would be expedient to omit those and take the two years immediately preceding June lasfc. In these, the average annual revenue from land was £37,736. Now, to this must be added £12,000, the province's cl share of the consolilated revenue — this Avould be less than the average of past years. He was aware I that the Customs revenue for the past J six months had been under the average iof the last two years. Taking the whole ! taxation, and population of the colony as a basis for calculation, it gave £4 10d per bead as the taxation. Taking the population of Southland at 8000 — and this he held to be under the real number — that amount (£i 10s) was agreed upon by influential members of the Assembly as the basis of a new system of distribution of revenue — gave a gross total of £36,000. One-half of that was the legitimate provincial share — r rom that deduct the General Assembly vote 3— they were £6000 in 1887. Mr Calder said they amounted .to £8000 now — deducting the latter am »unt from £18,000 (the provincial share), left £10,000 to be added to the sum already shown. The miscellaneous revenue last year from various sources, publicans' licenses. &c, was £11,000— the previous year, £9000 — he only found it stated in the Gazettes for those two years — 3ay an average of £10,000 to be added to the £47,000 previously shown. This gave £57,000 total revenue, which, after deducting £15,030 for local Government charges, left £9000 to start with, and with the levy of local rates for improvements, would allow of the Government of the province being carried on usefully. This, of course, did not provide for the floating liability. (At next meeting of the Council,* Dr Menzies corrected an error he had inadvertently made in the above in stating the provincial charges voted by the Assembly as a charge on the net provincial revenue, whereas it was deducted from the gross provincial share of the consolidated revenue, and consequently £SOOO should be struck out of account of expenditure stated, leaving the amount to stand thus — Estimated revenue, £57,000 ; expenditure, £41,500.) With regard to public works, he thought that some large and comprehensive scheme, such as that proposed in last session of the General Assembly by Mr Fitzherbert — the raising of a large loan by the General Government, to be doled out to the different provinces (on proper representation being made) for the prosecution of large public works. The hon. member went on to speak of the advantages that would accrue from the extension of light railways throughout the province, to act as feeders of the Bluff line, and by establishing cheap and speedy communication, enabling the province to compete successfully in the home grain market. The land company, he was informed, would resume cultivation on an extensive scale, if such facilities were afforded it. Such a resumption of its operations would, he said, afford employment to a large number of laborers, circulate annually a large amount of money in the district, establish regular direct communication with the United Kingdom, the vessels bringing stores, machinery, &c, for the Company to the Bluff, would afford facilities for bringing out immigrants, for merchants to obtain their goods directly from home, swell our Customs revenue, and returning, would take away the produce in graiu and wool, and this increase of production and trade would augment the traffic on the railways. Mr Lttmsden, in support of the amendment, read several extracts from an Otago paper, to show that the provincial system, of which that province was supposed to be the best example, was not equal to the present requirements of the community, and strongly advocated the making of a further vigorous attempt to maintain the independence of the province until the institution of general changes affecting the colony as a whole.

Mr Webster hoped the Council would accept the amendment, and believed ifc was quite possible to devise means of extricating the province from its difficulties. He was prepared to explain in committee the details of a scheme to effect that end. Alluding to the remarks of hon. members on the other side, who had resented the term he had applied to some of them (" old hats"), he begged to withdraw the offensive expression, remarking at the same time that it was not so esteemed in Melbourne, where he found the term was claimed by a large

party, who stoutly denied any imputation that they were anything but genuine " old hats" (laughter). As to " wooden heads," — well, that was purely a joke — never intended offensively, and certainly not applied to hon. members of the Council. Mr Macdonald complimented Mr Webster— who had complained so much of" want of information" — on the rapidity with which he had mastered the details and difficulties of the" situation," so as to have, at such short notice, prepared a scheme to entirely supplant the one before the Council, and expressed a confident hope that similar quickness of perception would enable hon. members to decide with equ il celerity on the relative merits of the two. The amendment was put to a division, and lost, the numbers being — Ayes, 7 ; Noes, 11.

Members of Parliament are threatened with a new and frightful danger, much worse than the explosion in the crypt which is to blow them into the air. A mechanician named G-ensoul has invented a machine which reports speeches verbatim. The idea is the same :>s that which governed the " mechanical compositor" from which such great things were once hoped. The reporter sits down before a piano, and plays, as it were, upon the keys, each stroke placing part of a word upon his copy. When in full practice he can outstrip the swiftest speaker. There are few speakers in either House whose speeches, thus reported, would not be wearisome in the extreme, full of repetitions, mental stammerings, and mistakes, which the reporter at present omits. Perhaps four men in the Commons, Mr Gladstone, Mr Bright, Mr Disraeli, and Sir J. Coleridge, could stand it ; but to the majority of the speakers photographic reporting would be ruin. The valuable letters contributed by The Times' special commissioner in Ireland, and communications from influential landlords, are ripening public opinion for an. equitable settlement of the Irish land tenure question.