MR. J. B. WHYTE IN THE HOUSE. (Wellington Evening Press.)

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 111, 18 July 1885, Page 7

MR. J. B. WHYTE IN THE HOUSE. (Wellington Evening Press.)

We take the following report of the excellent spee h o \ the no confidence motion (delivered July 3rd), by our representative in the House, and which is well worthy of a careful perusal by oui; readers :—: — . Mr J. B. Whyte mnde a capital spopoh. Me said : " I had intended t? address the House rather fully upon the various matters linger con^Heralion, hut being affected with that bash fill ness and timidity which is so prominent a characteristic of the Scotch people, I have put it oIF so long that nearly all my points have been ahvaiy dealt with by previous speakers I however still wish to make a few remarks upon the event*?, which have led up to this do>nt<\ [ hnve hwd, sir, that there is a p-irt of the HotHc of Commons which is called the eros> hen-dies, where members who have not fa'imly attached themselves to eitlicr party generally ?it. 1 have also hoard it. said that a man with a cross bench mini is a great nuisance. Isotwith- i standing tiiis, [ have to confess that I \ have been driven to the conclusion that j 1 must have a cfo«*R bench mind, nn 1 the only thing i could do in order to prevent myself from bcinj^ con*i lered a. nuisance was to vote pretty steadily with my party. My reason for co-uing to this conclusion was tuat T viewed tl.e acuesion of the present Ministry t n power without those feelings of rancour and hatred which ought to fill the bosom of every good party man. This, 1 think, was owing to the fact that I ha 1 always heard the present Premier spoken of as a very able man, and also as a thoroughly honest and straightforward politician. I was therefore glad to hear of his return to political life. As regards the Colonial Treasurer, I had always been one of those who thought that his policy of 1870 haJ on the whole done more good than harm to the colony, or, in other words, that if it had increased our indebtedness it had also increased our power to bear that indebtedness in a greater ratio. I regret to say that recent events have tended very much to decrease my confidence in that hon. gentleman. Then J had no special dislike to any of the other members of the Ministry. For these reasons T viewed their accession to otiice with an astonishing amount of resignation. Perhaps this feeling of resignation was also partly brought about by the fact that I could not prevent it. But, sir, I watched with gieat interest the birth of th • present Government and its progress from infancy to sturdy mauhoo 1. I also watched with most particular interest that particular period when Lie infant Ministry was being carefully nurse 1 by what I may call its step parent, the member for Auckland East, not that I think he did ?o from any special affection f >r the child, but because he thought that when it ha I ft Hy taste- 1 the sweets of existence it won! I ilo his bidding, and if it did not, of course he, holding the balance of power, could knock it on the head. W.'ietaer or not he was right in his idea the coming division will show. However, I coul I not also help admiring the ctiteness of the child itaelf, who was a very promising infant, although constitutionally weak, in the manner in which it carefully put aside all such strong meats as the Constitution Amend meat Acts, Repeal of the Property Tax law, Practitioners Bills, and abstract principles generally. It said no, these are too s'rong for our constitution just now, but next session when we are fairly upon our legs we will then indulge in a good square meal of " abstract principlen," and let the colony have one too. Now, this term " abstract principles" brings me to remark upon the extraordinary changes which are daily occurring in our mother tongue. Members are all well aware that Words and phrases that mean so and so to-day meant something very different ten, twenty, forty, one hundred years ago. But lately the changes have been rather sudden as shown by the two last Financial Statements and also by the utterances of Ministers m the debate. Now, having been promised a supply of abstract principles this session, ami having now before us, we are told, all the policy measures of the Government, ami as they consist of little besides borrowing — in fact, their essence seems to be borrowing — we are compelled to conclude that the term " abstract principles" must now hare a new meaning. It must mean " those principles which ought to guide us in ' abstracting' as much money as possible from the pockets of anyone who can be deluded into lending it to us," an jthat the leading one of these principles is " how to evade skilfully that awkward pledge which was extracted from us limiting the amount of our borrowing within a given time. For instance, in a small way. we are congratulated in the Financial Statement on having been able by means of guaranteeing the West Coast harbor loans, instead j of borrowing the money direct, to evade the letter, if not the spirit, of the agreement. Then, on a much larger, and, in fact, gigantic scale, we are now invited under the Local Finance Bill to evade it aga'n. Of course, to borrow seven and a half millions direct, or even five would be too palpable and glaring a violation of this pledge, so we are asked under this Bill to set aside the interest of seven and a half millions for 25 years in order to borrow through the medium of the local bodies perhaps five millions at a much higher rate of interest. This,

[ tiere.foie, fippur.ii.ly i- to be t ! o mem- | ing in fuluiv of tiic term " abstratt I principles/ and, I reg.etto say, I fear tuere is- every indication that theso principles of " abstraction" are likely to cliaracterise the conduct of not only Ministries towards the outside capitalist, but also that of members towards Ministries, and constituencies towards members. This, of course, is very demoralising. Now, sir, vhen on the subject of the changes which are rapidly corning over our mother tongue, perhaps it will be convenient t.o follow the example set us in the Financial Statement and to '' summarise " I heard oue unkind man say Hint the" summary* could have done very well without the statement, but I do not agree with that, on the contrary I look upon the two latest Financial Statements and fclio recent speeches of Ministers as very good educational medium*, and the lemons which they teach Us are as follows :—l.: — 1. " Elasticity in taxation" mn-t be hold to mean in future a state of " normal increase." '2. " Dv-i-iva^e in cxpc.idi ture" menns shifting it from nno vote t<> another. 3. That it is gratifying an ' satisfactory to find that the people in the colony are no longer able to spen I «o much money in spirituous liquors ; so gratifying an 1 satisfactory as to justify increased taxation. 4. That the Bmks being full of money is a good thing, or in other wcr Is that it is a goo I thing that first class securities are so scaice and confidence so shaken that capital'sts fear to withdraw their money from t « Iwnks. f). 'Chat to " oompronr'^ the Property Tax" o you mn«t first dou >X it and bye an<l bye cut it's tail off G. That a " reinstated finance and reduce 1 expenditure" is, ''our present position." 7. That assured fhlinct 1 means mortgaging everything you have to the very hilt In other words if you wish to assure yourself of 25 days supply of victuals you mn*t gobble it all up the fi -st day and pull in your bolt one hole each .lav afterwards. 8. That the Colony is n^w progressing by leaps and Ixnmds. ( J. That the North Islan I Trunk Riilway \Vill be finished in about fifteen years. 10. That a disposition to " give and take* must characterise our policy. Well, we hav\i shown every • 1 imposition to take, an 1 as fortunately, the foreign capitalists have shown a willingness to give, our '• policy" is "assured." 11. That the survival of the fittest need n< t be a source of anxiety to us for the present. This is very satisfactory, especially to the fittest. 12. That when a politician is acouspd of downright villany that the reply " you're another" is sufficient and complete. 13 That onr guiding motto shoul J be " that the employed of to-da7 miy become t!ic cm ployers of to-morrow." This is on excellent motto, but T venture to pre 'iff til-it if our present and proposed poli y bo pursued mneli longer th" employers of to-day will become the Mntmploiftd of to-morrow. I need hardly say in conclusion that my vote upon this occasion will be guided by ' Abstract Principles.' "