POLITICAL IDEALS. Address by the Hon. Robert Stout.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 98, 18 April 1885, Page 6

POLITICAL IDEALS. Address by the Hon. Robert Stout.

Auckland, April 14. There was a large attendance at the Theatre Royal last evening on the occasion of an address on the above subject by Hon. R. Stout, Premier of the colony. The imposition of a charge for admission to the dresß circle bad t!\o effect, however, of limiting the attendance in that part of tho house. While the lower part of the house was filled, there were many vacant scats in the dress circle The platform was occupied by a number of leading citizens. Hia Worship tho Mayor, in introducing the speaker of the evening, read the advertisement convening the meeting. He said that from what they had heard and read of the Hon. tho Premier's conduct in the position which he occupied, thes could expect a practical and interesting address Hon. Mr Stout was received with applause, lie avid that betoic ho began to address them on the subject ho had chosen, he wUhod to say a few would on the position ho occupied here. Somo timo ago the Auckland Liberal Association mvited bun to address a meeting if he came to Auckland tie at once consented because he called him?ett a Liberal, and still had anxiety for Liberal principles He did not forgot that in 1875 he fought on tho same side as tho majority of tho people of Auckland in favour of provincialism. Ho felt that those who had then fought for local selfgovernment were actuated by high political j principles, and had not forgotten them. He ffa , in a difficulty respecting the subject on which he should speak. Sir Julius Vogel aud other gentlemen had addressed theln on matters connected with the political situation, and therefore he would not enter upon the question of party politics. He thought he would be doing himself tho better justice and paying them a higher complitneut by pointing out some political ideals which he believed every true .'olonist should have before bun. This was a Mibject that would commend it-elf to the people of Auckland. He wa-. glad that tho need for technical education was felt here. Technical education did not mean the teaching of a boy to be a carpenter, engineer, or mason. There were different kinds of education. They had a literary education and a scientific education, which were both valuable. A tcchtu cal education implied that there is in the most practical work that a man can do — such, for instance, a3 carpentering or engineering— an underlying principle or law •which, must be studied. Every boy mu=t learn this principle of mechanics, and must see that iv the most practical tilings of htc there is an ideal behind which, if tie is to be a practical man, he must shape j his work. The people would say, *' Oh, ' politics are a practical thing; we must have practical politics." lie believed theie must be practical politicians, but he held that every pol tician must learn that there was a la.v in politics. If a boy was to be taught " to bs a grc it mechanic, then he must learn mote than to handle the plane or saw. He must learn the law underlying; his trade. So it was with the politician, and it wa3 necessary that he should look for the ideal in politic-. It was also the same \s ith the miner, and if he were to become a true and scientific miner, it was necessary for him to leuo the laws that underlie his trade, and to follow the ideal. It was the duty of the politician to endeavour to discover tho?e laws which so affected him, and tn bo guided by th^m. Unless the practical politician had these laws before him, they would find his political action like the mariner without the compass. He would be driven hither and thither by every wind of the compass, and they would be accusing him of insincerity and " ratting." But perhaps the blame would not all be his. He might not nave the ideal before him ; and even then the people -night also change their opinions alter the fasnion which was so prevalent in these colonies. Let him look for a few minutes at this kind of political education. They heard a great deal about science nowadays, and scientific education, as it was termed, was more popular than classical education. But political or social science was the giandest of nil sciences. The ideal for -which they rhouid strive in politics was for a more pertect man than they had >et seen. If so, that was to have a more perfect Mate If they attained such an ideal, they would find that constituencies w Inch bad this aim and ideal beforethem would be conferringa favour and duty on themselves a* well as those w ho came after them. He hoped as he went along to show them that though some of these ideate might be termed theoreticandimpiacticible, they were just as practicable as an\ thing in politics may be. They mi<j,ht state two things. They had the indhidual and they had the btate. The State avu- an organ i-tn that had grown. It had its function-) and its limitations ; its rights and duties. A State had to exist, and had to look after its existence, and also to look after the maintenance of individual liberty, for he did not believe in Socialism. He belie\ed if the raco ■sw'is to be laiscd and elevator], it- would have to be by individual salvation, and that men were not going to bo made in heaps or ma&-es. This rai-ed the question of the duties of the State compared with the duties of the individual. He did not intend to go into tho argument* of greatw riters on thi 1 - question. Buthcwi^hed to go into the question of the land, and ho asked them to see if they could discover the rights of the individual and State, and their duties in reference to this question, and see if they could have some ideal .set before them as to the dealing with thi.subject. In this colony there were millions cf acres of land, and there was no question more practical than to decide upon the rule as to how those lands phould be dealt with. As for the lands that were sold, they weic gone from us, and were beyond our reacb. No State could afford to enter upon a policy of repudiation or destruction of credit, and it was mi-leading for so called Liberals to set before them an ideal out of their practical grasp, when there is a question within their ow n hands which needs all their energy and attention to carry out. He looked upon land as a monopoly, and as one which the State had a right to control. He recognised in the land no individual rights, except those subjectto therightsof 'he whole community. He looked upon land as in ono respect an heir, and no generation had the right to partition land, and decide for tho generation which was to follow how the earth's Burface was to be parcelled out. If tome people's views were carried to the logical conclusion, there would have happened what a Maori in the House of Representatives said was happening to hia people. Complaining of the manner in which the land had gone from them, he said it had been taken from them hereand from them there till soon they would have nothing left them but the main roads. The speaker proceeded to refer to the evils of large private holdings, and illustrated his meaning by pointing out what would enßue if some wealthy individual were to buy up the whole of Newton and give the residents there notico to

quit. There was nothing, he contended, absurd in this illustration. Similar occurrences had taken placo in the Old Country, and the whole of a prosperous village had thus been cleared in six months. It had been hia lot to witness an eviction in the Old Country, whore men were driven from tho homes that their ancestors had occupied for 500 years. They had a right in a new country like this to sco that in dealing with lands wrongs that had been dono in other countries should not bo enacted hero. (Cheers.) Ho was saying nothing new when ho said this. Ho believed ho was the first in Now Zealand to bring forward a law with tho object of preventing further sales of land. Ho introduced such a measure in the Provincial Council of t»tago, and brought forward that propositiorTin tho llou&o of Representatives in 1875. If they wero activo in the furtherance ! of this- land question, and stirrod by a doep enthusiasm upon it, their feeling would not only noworfully re-act upon their representatives in L'arlhmont, but it would uUo create a public opinion from oml to end of tho colony Ihat the State should no longer delay to oxerciso its lights as a landlend. Tho monopoly of tho laud in a comparatively few privato hands tondod, at thoy must know, to tho virtual enslavement of tho poo pic -who dwolt > upon that land and wero dependent upon it for a subsistence. That wa-, an evil of gradual growth, and now wa-; tho timo to apply tho checks to its development. Then, too, it was* well known that land had the tendoncy, peculiar to this class of property alone, to increase enormously in valuo without eilorl on the part of tho owner, but simply through tho growth of population in its vicinity and a consequent creation of stable industries. In many cases within our own experience, a«ul going no further away than QucenstreoF, wo could point to land which in such a uay had mere i«cd fully a hundredfold in \ alue. It was not tho same with money or any other commodity Tho interest or puoc of these fluctuated considerably, but the v.ilue of lan 1 became enhanced in alto gether a dittorvjot way. It was tho Stato as re presenting the poop'e at largo, which l.irgeiy contiibuted totho result from which the privato land-owner deiivcd his advantages, and it was high time that the State b.'g.in to turn co pi oti table account tho value it was thus constantly giving to land. H the colony had ivted >ears ago upon a policy of State le i^ng we should now have bet'nju-t as pro-perou-, colonies, wo should ccr amlyhavoalaigerrcvenueamlgrcatlyimproved (iiianec^, and dually, wes-hould have a fai more v iluab'c security to oiler the moneylendois when wo determined to raico a loan. . Wh.it prevented the people of this* city j from bjing overbuithonod with rate* and ta\e» if it u.i- not the levenue derivable from it- endowment*? anil ju-t in tho sumo *;i\ the State -hould situoiuid its-elf W ith endowment- of land which would engine to it a nevei failing :iml a constantly-in-crci-s'iug source of revenue tending to lighren^thc vUc.il burdens of the people. I lfe earnestly hoped that tho -y.-lem o\ stato I losing would be c\tcn<\ed in the future, so i a- to give the State a practicil control over I land lioMing in tin- colony In advocating '. thi- policy ho wa- expounding no Sociali&tic [ciee.l; quite the contrary. Tho great defect which he found in 'ill Socialistic '^.Meui- wu- that the l-i/y and dLs-olute J man wu- place. l upon the t-;nne lc\cl a- his sober ami thiift, neighbour Ho would favour no such premium upon idleness. At the haxnQ time it behoved v* to keep in mind in all our land schemes the guiding principle that the tenant should bo secured in hia tenure; and fuither, that capital and land should not be mived up together. In this connection he conte>~ul that it had seemed strange to i him that the people heic should cheer and applaud their member.-* who advocated the 'property tax, and were instrumental .in nnpo-hig it. (A voice: "No fear.") Well, at any rate, if ho counted up the Auckland member* who did &uppoit the propei ty tax, it would be found that they foimcd the mijority, and he would not .-o far di-credit them as to &u> that they misj lepic-ented the feeling of their constituent-,. 1 lie was one of tho-c who co-operated with ! and a«-i?tcd Sir George Grey (chccis) in ! imposing a land tax, and he had ;-een no j adequate reason for tho subfequent sub- ! stitution of a pioperty tax for _it ! L-ind was peculiarly amenable to taxation, ' for the tax levied upon tho owner was onlj ! a paltry i etui n for the benefits which the | State had heaped upon him without any corresponding labour on hi-- part. It was 1 meiely taking back a very little of what it ha<l fieely given. When they came to be fully impressed with this fact, that land was" totally unlike all other kinds of propel ty, and thcrcfoie called for special treatment, they would s-ec even moie clearly the need for reform. J "While they prc.-eivcd to o\cry settler the full value of bis implement?, they bhould be caieful that the State did not K>c the control of the hind itself. In this piovince lie h?«d seen some magnificent timber, and if tho country «.'h to be piotpcrom the Sta'e would ha\ofoJook toihe con?ei vation of it- forest.-. Thi-i was another point which demanded every con-idcration, and particularly so in this part of Kew Zealand. 11 Auckland was to look forwaul to a fuHue when it would bo bcicft of its foieftts,thnt would be a future of diminished pro-peiity He had been pained duiing hi- tour up Noi th to see many grand young Icauii trees standing where they had been burnt up by fiio, and when he inquired the reason he found that it wa& that the digger might get tho gum ho was in f-carch of Such ierklc-s> waste should not be alloyed Our duty wa- to take care that our forosth did not borome exhausted, but that our valuable timber induf-liy, by judiciousplauting and .supervision, bhould have its preser vation ensured foi hundreds of yea is Pa«si q on to other features of his subject, he had to point out that the State was growing, and that it was being ' threatened with many dangers, .some of 1 them a& great as dcspoti&m itself. Theso dangers and the means of coping with ' them had been summarised by an able American writer, Mr Abbott. He said that the State had a right to perpetuate its own existence, and that tho individual j wa? a social unit. This meant that the I child had its lights, as well as the parent, and that the State should safeguard the child's interests ju&t as carefully as those of tho adult. Tins writer haid further that in order to the State's existence it hal a right to establish a pystosn of universal suffrage, to enforce a system of right morals, and to institute a system of univeibal intelligence. This universal intelligence depended upon a national system of education ; or, in other woid a , a complete system of pub ie schools Tho-io who denicl the right of the State to prov de far the education of the pc >plo would be obliged by a natural extension of their argument to sweep aw a/ all State aided hospitals and other such institutions. If they lookc d only at the physical ride of man, hospitals would be abolished and tho eick be al'owed to die, in order to pre&crve the stamina of the race unimpaired ; but this would do an irreparable injury to the emotional and moral skies of man's nature. These req tared to be developed just as much as the physical side, and hence the necessity of national education. From this point ho would go on to chow the rncesaity of the State providingalsoforhigher education. Of- course, lie know that thoro

wore many people who claimed that the woalthy alone desired this higher education for their children, and that therefore they should be left to pay for it (hear, hear). Well, that was a fallacy to start with, and the effect of such a doctrine would be the retrogression of Now Zealand behind other colonies in this matter of education. Wo should then have no University, for we had not enough wealthy men amongst us to provide such a desirable institution. This higher education was opon to all, rich and poor alike, and it was not the rich who derived tho most advantago from it ; for, in very many cases, our wealthy men sent their sons home to colleges and schools in England. To sweep away such institutions as our' high schools would be to placo the poor boy of talont under the disabilities with which in his own youth tho poor had to cope iv Scotland and England. Ho had gained his education in a high school for tho poor, and had it boon for the rich ho would not havo been there at all I (Cheers). After onuraoraling somo of tho diiiLeulries with which the humblo student had to put up at homo, tho spoakor went on to say that if wo desired to raiso Now Zealand to a pitch of national and intellectual groatnoss, it would be t mosfc materially done by cheapening the facilities for a good oducation. If ho had hia own way ho would make all our high schools, and oven our University, as freo as our primary schools. A nation's greatness was moasurcd by tho men .she produced ; and a man of goniua bhed a lustre upon Ins country groator than any winch | she rotlectod upon him. Having! now pointed out somo ideals upon the questions of land and of oducation which wo must always keep before us, ho had still some other ideals to indicate. One other great ideal was to havo a thoroughly socular Stato, and in this connection he advised his hearers, if they wfahod to perceive more clearly his idoa'l, to road tho picture drawn of Athens, by Pericles. It would be found in Jowatt's translation of Thucydidos. Tho State should lecogniso no croed, nationality,nor raco. It hud nothing what ovor to do with religion, for a religion under Stato control was worth very littlo. Wo must preserve the secularisation of our pchoola, and ho stated it as a general fact thatthorc was a danger of getting men upon our education boards and school commivtocs for tho solo purpose of carrying into effect cert.iin pUns of their own in the ditcction of our school system. 110 did not with this statement to be strained to any local application, for ho did not even know who wero, for instance, tho members of the Auckland Board of Education, but the danger was abroad nevertheless. In fine, ho urged tho peoplo to sot their faces again?t anything which had a tendoncy to cramp and hinder the growth of a national lifo, whether in an educational, political, or religious manner. That was tho only way to carry nuta true national lifo llehad spoken of two idoals: that they might set before them, and ho would now say a few words as to how these ideals fe\\ou\d be carried out. Ho believed in political associations. He did not think it was tho leading; peoplo who took an inteiest in politics. There were some people \\ ho were always saying things were not as they wore whon thoy wero young, fhcro were pecplo who were drawing horrible pictures of tho democracy and what they woro coming to. Those people deplored tho progress of education, <md asked who were to do the manual labour. He would reply : Put your own «ons to it. Thry had us much right to do it as tho sons of the poor man. lie believed tho man who was continually cr\ ing out about the democracy had 'omo thing wrong with hia digestion. Tho speaker then proceeded to oulogteo thy local Liberal Association. At the same time ho said ho did not believe in a political reformer who neglected his own family. Political reform should not prevent citi/x us from altonding to their own homes. But they should all givo somo attention to politic 3 , which came within the

province of their dutios of citizenship. It was necessary they should all strive for political and social leform if they wore to avoid the blots in tins now country which reflected on the old. Thoy should seek after the ideals he had indicated. Ho would like to see them all going to the polling booth, not influenced by nobblcrs of whiskey, or inspired by fecling.s of friendship for any particular candidate, but improsscd with the feeling that they were going to perform one of the most .sacred duties of their )ive3. If thoy were so to act, they would have a different political life to any they had in the past. They would approach nearer the (rue politicalidoal, and secure purer government. Quoting the word? of Abraham Lincoln, the speaker said thai if thoy could not get the ideaUy best, they .should get the next best, and if thoy could not attain that, they should pot as near to it as possible. When they sent mon to the House, it was their duty to aid and encourago thorn and (stimulate them with enthusiasm ; and if thoy did not do that, they need not bo surprised if their representatives tailed. They had not yet learnt to thoroughly understand the State. Some peoplo looked upon the Government as some great dispenser of favours, and that tended to destroy the State. They should look upon tho State as their governing representative. He would like them to bo so fired with enthusiasm about the schools that thoy would give their services for half a day to help to erect a [ new school, and would assist with their worldly meant*. Thoy should be inspired with a natural lifo and enthusiasm in politics, and then this duty would be a natural and pleasant one. If danger from war threatened the State, and he recognised tho services that Aucklanders had thus rendered in tho past, thoy should not stay arguing about capitation allowances. He hoped they would act as their fathers had done before them, and show a true love of the State. Tho speaker dwelt on the public duties of a man's life, and said he did not know that thero could be any grander epitaph on a man's tombstone than this : — That he loved his family ; that ho loved his children ; that ho was always helpful to those around him with kindness, though he may not have had any money ; and that as a citizen, carrying out a citizen's duty,he had a single eye to tho future, a single ideal to see a more perfect type of humanity and Stato. And now he wculd end by giving a few verses, which perhaps they might romember, from a poet whom he did not think was half woll enough appreciated amongst u&— a poet who had Mritten many noble and good things. He meant Robert Buchanan, and the verses he wished to quoto gave the poet's idea of a perfect Stato :—

Where is tho perfect State Early most.bleat and lato, Perfect and bright? 'Tis whtre no patuce stands Trembling on shifting Bands Morning a' d t Ight. 'Tia whore the soil is free, "Where, fir a* eye can see Siat ay d o't r hill and lee H me i teads abou- d. Where clean and broad and sweet Market-square, la- d, and atrtot Belted by leagues of wheat Citiua are found. Whore is the perfect State, Early most blest and late, Gentle and good 1 'Tib where no lives aro soon

Huddling In lanoa unseen, Crying for food. 'Tia where the home is pure, 'Tis where tho bread ia cure, Tia where tho wants are fewer, And each want fed. Where plenty and peace abide, Whore health dwells heavenly-eyed, Where in nooks beautified Slumber the doad. Whore is tho perfect State, Un vexed by wrath and hato Quiet and just, Where to no form of creed Fettered are thought and dood, Rotwan and trust t 'Tie whero the Rreat free mart Broadens, while from iis heart Forth the great Bhips depart, Blown oy the wind. Tis whero tho wise men's eyos, F xed on tho oarth and skies, Seeking for signs, devise Good for mankind.

The Premier resumed his seat amid loud cheering. Mr J, M. SjrERA proposed, lv That the hearty thanks of this meeting bo given to tho Hon. tho Premier for his admirable addross." He was suro that the ladies and gontlemon present had not merely welcomed Mr Stout that evening as the Promior of tho colony, but also as a well-known member of the Liberal Party- in fact, a front rank man. (Cheers.) Tho proposition was seconded by Mr D. 11. McKonzio, and on being put to the mooting was carried by acclamation. Mr STOUT,in acknowledgment, said: Ladies andgentlomen,— I thank you exceedingly, not only for the vote that you have passod, but also for the patient, considerate, and kind hearing which you have granted me on this occasion. I only rogret that I have been unable to speak upon many subjects on which I intonded to address you, and in thanking you for your kind hearing and kind vote, I assure you that I shall leave Auckland not only with many pleasant recollections of your scenory and of your climate — though I would Hko that to bo colder, and it is there we in tho South hays the advantage over you —but also of tho oxcoodingly kind and generous way in which every Auckland colonist whom I have met has treated mo. I hope that those whom I am notable to personally thank will accopt my thanks now, and I hope further that they will think of this, that if 1 have not written thanking them personally for their kindness, I am by no moans wanting in appreciation. I am unable to thank them all personally ; they are so numerous. The Phemier concluded by proposing a vote of thanks to the Chairman. It was passed by acclamation and His Worship briefly responded. The assomblago then dispersed.