ADDRESS BY SIR JULIUS VOGEL.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 212, 23 July 1887, Page 1

ADDRESS BY SIR JULIUS VOGEL.

Vote of Confidence Carried. Christchurch, July, 19. Sir. J. Vogeli addressed the electors of Chri*tchurch North to-night at the Theatre Royal, which was crowded. The Mayor was in the chair. Sir J. Vo^el, who was warmly received, s-aid he had been subject toso much criticism on account of his policy of public works, I hat he would review the past. It was alleged that his public works policy had failed. In ISO 9 the colony was in a condition of extreme depression. He would comparo that pejiod with this. Ho then cited elaborate *tati*>tics relating to the two yeai's 1869 I ami ISSG, of which the following are some of the items:— lBG9: Population, 237,000 as a^ainbt in ISBG 558,000 ; Customs, L> 1 23,000 against LI, 311,000 ; Customs, per head L 3 9s ad against L 2 4s 6d. Wool : ' '21 million lbs weight against 90 million Ib, weight; value of wool, L 1,371,000', 371,000' aoain-t L 3,072,000 ; value per lb, Is 4d against 8(1. Railways : 46 miles against 2.054 ; land under crop, 257,000 acres again-u 985,000 acres ; land sown in grass, 65,0i<r> acres against 5,465,000 acres* ; is.ivinji> bank deposits, L 320,000 against L*2, l."S,000, to which might be added life insurance equal to L 1,285,000, 285,000 in the doveinment office, and probably L 1,000,000, 000, 000 in other oih'ces. He read extracts to show that Major Atkinson and Sir John Hall appnnetiot uhac he had done, and said he could lead many pages more by old friends and by the Opposition. It was cowaidly to bl line him. The men who had become rich, and ho but for his policy would have been poor, were those who now attacked the author of the policy which had enriched them.

Defence of the Government, He claimed that the Government had been prudent and economical. The distinguishing feature of their policy had been the encouragement ot local industries, in which he included land settlement and mining. He would briefly refer to the principal feature of the administration, enlarging afterward? on some of the subjects. They had started the North Island trunk line, and had proceeded with the Otago Central, HokitikaGiey, Wellington-Napier, and the north of Auckland. The Midland Railway had been started, and they had put in hand the completion of the trunk ?3-.stem in each inland excepting the Marlborough con'.ection with the Midland. They had established friendly relations with the native?, and had brought into force a system for stopping land • sharking by enabling the natives to dispose of their lands through the Government. They had undertaken the systematic defence of the principal ports ; they had carried on with success negotiations concerning the Pacific Island*, and avoided a disastrous federation which the last Government nearly committed the colony to. They had secured the opportunity of making New Zealand the naval station of part of the Austialasian squadron, aresultforwhich he had striven for > 17 year.-. They had amended and improved the laws relating to the local bodies, and had substituted the Government Loans to i Local Bodies Act for the Roads and Bridges Construction Act. When he took office there was great disorder in the post-office in 1 expect to the carriage of home mails. The Post-office, London, insisted on sending part of the mails by way of Melbourne at a heavy cost He had even to threaten to put on a special rate by way of Melbourne before the London Post-office gave way. They had made a contract with the direct steamers to England. He almost immediately saved some X/ 7,000 in the cost on the Calif ornian service. A parcel post was about being established, and he had introduced a system of extending delayed telegrams, so that jDractically, except for important business, the cost of telegraphy was reduced one-half. The Government j had sa\ ed L 5,000 a year for continuing the cable "subsidy. The present Government had also arranged the most difficult matter, the purchase of the District Railways. This purchase was rendered necessary by the clumsy legislation under which authority was given to construct railways. There was no recourse but to buy the lines out ; yet, if the legislation had been sound, no better object could have been served than to encourage construction by private enterprise of branch lines to connect with the main railways. The Government had saved taxation, although they found the finances l in the most disordered condition, with a deficit of L 150,000. They had practically introduced a system of retrenchment ; they had unceasingly, in every direction, endeavoured to encourage local resources. They had taken means to make two.Newcasbles on the West Coast in Greymouth and Westport. They had offered encouragement for the development of the fisheries, and had taken charge of the consei'vation of forests. It Was well known how anxiously they had aided the permanent settlement upon the lands. They had endeavoured to increase, tho tariff of 1885. -They had dealt with the Charitable Aid question, which had evaded the ability of previous Governments. They had reduced the cost of administering justice, besides introducing some valuable Acts, such as the First Offenders Probation. They had virtually stamped out soab in sheep, and were on the point of relieving New Zealand of the ban placed upon it by the other 1 colonies. It was a common assertion of their opponents that the present Government had introduced crushing taxation, but what were the facts ? When they came into office the property tart was fd. Duvine: the three years they had been in office it' had' averaged 11 lGths, or 1-I6th less than when they took office. They had not increased taxation through the 1 Customs, but the revenue had fallen immediately through 1 a change in the habits of the people in regard to the consumption of alcoholic drinks, and a fall in the value of goods subject to ad valorem duties. The Government must re-instate the Customs duty. Great objection had been raised* to Mr feallance incurring liabilities for village settlements to the extent of L 60,000. He admitted it was irregular, bufc not illegal, since' the law allowed the Government to exceed the vote by LlOO,OOO.

Retrenchment. Sir Julius then proceeded to discuss the question of retrenchment. He read an extract from a speech by Major Atkinson, showing that ho considered retrenchment merely a popular cry to displace the Government. The year 1880-81 was Major Atkinson's model year of retrenchment. He alleged that he was making a oroso saving in the Estimates of over half a million. Two years afterwards he admitted ho was increasing the Estimates by nearly L 30,000, though he alleged the increases were partly nominal, and partly to avoid undue hardship? to the public service. Major Atkinson's retrenchment was taking oft' one year and putting on another. He read an elaborate comparison between 1880-1 and lSSu'-7, showing that there was a great reduction of ordinary expenditure, after eliminating some sums which he explained, and that tin 1 * saving was notwithstanding the fact that there was 10,000 increase in population, and much larger wants to satisfy- T ne speaker proceeded to pay they claimed to have initiated a system which would permanently lead to a reduction in the cost of the future Civil Service. Ho explained that a saving of L 1,300, 300 per year had been made by the recent changes in the Customs Department. He did not mean to say, however, that they did not suffer by losing the somcus of experienced offieeis. He referred to the savings in the proposed estimate, which, had the Government proposals been given effect to, would have led to a saving of L 150,000, i of which at least LBO.OOO might beset down to non-recurrent votes. The Government now proposed further retrenchment, as the country seemed in earnest about it. But it must be clearly understood that reduced expenditure beyond a certain amount would mean reduced services. It was yet to be seen whether when the various parts o" the country actually felt what retrenchment meant they would be content to accept it. If the country showed its determination in the matter, the self-denial of separate districts might be exercised to an extent which had never )et been. For his part he meant to do all that could be done to reduce expenditure, even at the cost of losing useful services, not absolutely neces sary.

Customs Duties and Protection. The increase of Customs duties was an absolute measure of safety, demanded by prudence and honesty, when the difficulties of the colony and its responsibilities were taken into account. The Customs duties in ISb'i) amounted to L 3 9b od per head of the population. In 188G they had fallen to L 2 4s (id per head, and during the m\-fc three months of the present year to less than L 2 a head. TO was quite possible to increase revenue and at the same time to give encouragement to local industries. This had been the policy of the colony for many years past. He introduced in IS7I the iirst unmistakable measure of protection. Lyttelton was exporting wheat and flour and importing timber. A judicious arrangement of duties soon led Auckland a)id Lyttelton to exchange their products, instead of sending to and receiving from foieign maikets. The question at present lay in a nutshell- arc we to disregard employing our population, and put them in competition with cheap labour elsewhere ? If cheap production was a superior ccnfeLleration to keeping the people, then they should import coloured labour, an absurdity which the colony would not stand. They had seen this logical outcome of free- trade in the late proposal to employ Kaffirs to shear sheep. The plea that protection would lower the rate of wages was. an insult to the intelligence of the working classes, It meant that in the course of time, pay half a generation, such competition might grow up that labour would be excessive. But how could they put such possibilities in. the future against the present actual hardships suffered by the population through want of employment? The probability of future competition through excessive local manufacturing was modified by the consideration that as the country grew its wants would enormously increase. Working men must not be deceived. Let them ask themselves would the philanthropists who are now opposing protection do so if they really thought it would reduce the rate of wages during the next dozen years ? His colleague, Mr Richardson, had ctono more than twenty men in encouraging local industries, by having iron bridges and locomotives made in the colony. If his colleague had granted all the requests made to him he would be more popular, but he made it his rule to conscientiously refuse to the few what was not good for the many. It was not proposed, as had been stated, to tax agricultural implements. With very few exceptions, they had still been left free. Farming was an industry which gained largely by protection. Farmers must recollect that they benefit more by a home market than by a foreign one. He estimated that at least five and a half millions sterling of farm and agricultural produce, including meat, was consumed in the colony, and it was short-sighted to think more- of the foreign than of the home market.

Tlie Property Tax, oto. Exception had been taken to the property tax proposal. The plan relieved some small payers, who ought never to havo been taxed. Supposing the plan of the income tax exception in England was followed, incomes being capitalised at seven years' purchase, the exceptions would be much larger than it was proposed. Supposing the rate was uniformly a pennyallround, exemptions on the English scale would save small payers LlB,OOO more than was proposed by the Financial Statement. 12,000 tax -payers now paid in all L 9,000, or an average of fifteen shillings each. Large owners wanted, by moving the exemptions, to make them pay fifty-five shillings instead of fifteen, and to get from those who now paid L 9,000 no less than L 33,000. This was monstrous cruelty. As regards the effect in England, they must not allow themselves to be scared by those who sought exceptional advantages. They must be just ; Great Britain was really affected by the tax on mortgaged property. When the tax was originally proposed, forcing lenders to pay the tax was a severe strain, but now the contracts had ! fallen in, new ones had been made, and lenders of money had notoriously protected themselves by putting on a half per cent. The tax had neveV approached this, so the

lenders of money had made the difference besides the exemption. He took an instance of a mortgage for L 5,000. The borrower would pay the lender a half per cent., equal to L 25, whilst at the average of the last three years the lender would only have had to pay, with exemption, LI 5 os. Even under their proposals in the Budget, a penny tax would still leave the lenders the gainers by a fifth of a penny, equal on thirty millions to 1,23,000. This was a sure gain to the lender, paid by the borrower, to be given to Government, and kept by the lender. He thought it would be well to remove uncertainty in the futuro and to h'x the tax on mortgages, so that it would not be altered w ithout five years' notice. This would save exaction of a margin to cover risks. There wa.s no danger of any Government of which he was a member committing spoliation. It was the duty of the Government of tho colony to piotect a person's property, libeity, and freedom. The working clashes were inteiested in giving capital its due protection, for labour depended on capital ; but they were not to allow capitalists who wanted more than they were entitled to, to black-mail them with threats of withdrawing capital. They tried that on in Victoria, but Parliament there nevertheless insisted on a land tax on areas exceeding G4O acres, and with an exemption of L 2,500. The colony had not suffered through it. He was charged with excessive bon owing. He lead a statement of expenditure of borrowed money dining the time Major Atkinson, >Sir George Gicy, and himself were in ofHco respectively, and of the two years lie and Major Atkinson were in office together. It showed that during nino years he had spent of borrowed money thirteen and a half millions, whilo Major Atkinson in eight years had spent fourteen millions and a quarter. His> yearly average was one and a half millions, Major Atkinson's L 1,780,000., 780, 000. Ho believed strongly in the Midland Railway contractors, and those they contracted with had seen the country, and were satisfied it would be a calamity to let it fall through for the sake of any trifling concession. That question and the question.? of re-leasing runs and stopping inclusions of rabbits into South Canterbury, were | jects which would vitally affect Conteibury in the corning Parliament. There were 2,700,000 acres of runs in tho hands ol 02 holders paying L 47,000 rental. It would be a great question how these should be dealt with fairly for the benefit of the whole community when the leases fell in, as they would in a little moro than two years. As regarded the united Canterbury plank, it was right a large di&tiict should look after its own interests, but not band itself against the interests of other districts. The greatest misfortune there was was a want of colonial feeling, failing to appreciate that the whole colony benefited by any benefit a portion ' enjoyed. There were two parties before the colony — their own and Major Atkinson's. Those who voted against one supported the other. Sir George Grey and Sir John Hall could organise parties, but they had not declared their intention to do so. He could not conclude without expressing his bitter disappointment afc the want of courage which distinguished most of the utterances through the colony. Nothing in the condition of the colony justified such gloomy utterances. Retrenchment was desirable, but the reinstatement of Customs revenue should cause no uneasiness. For the last three years it had been expected the property tax would be raised. The fact of the Government reducing its borrowing should stimulate private "enterprise. They wanted capital, not lent on mortgage, but invested in land settlement and industries. There was ample room for legitimately employing capital in agricultural, pastoral, mining, and manufacturing industries. He ventured to expect a re-action from the prevalent despondency. The speech was listened to very attentively and frequently applauded. A vote of thanks and confidence was carried amid great enthusiasm, only three hands being held up against it. Cheers for Sir J. Vogel and the Mayor terminated the proceedings.