POST-SESSIONAL ADDRESS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 359, 13 April 1889, Page 2

POST-SESSIONAL ADDRESS.

MR A. J, C ADMAN AT PAR AW A 0\ Mond.iy cvoning last Mr A.. 1. Cadman, member i'or Coromnndel, delivered an address to Iris constituents at P.ruwui,

ThamiV*.' The address appears to have been a very interesting 1 <nnd practical one, The following extracts are taken from the report thererf' which appeared fin -the' Thames Star**— ' l ; l if Occupation Licenses* :,-The Wirden now * had the power to grant iip- to 50 acres Jf land for agiiculturaJ, horticultural, or dairy purposes, which could be held for a term of seven years, at the end of which time the occupier could remove his fences. The rent charged, however, w,v excessively high, ami when the Hon Mr Richardson was recently passing through CorcVhviodel oh his way tothe Thames] he (Mr Ca'dmslrijf, had interested himself in seeing if .itcould nut be reduced. He had pointed out a block of 50 acres to the Minister for which 2s 6d was ask ( ed, and upon asking the Hon Mr" Richardson what he thought was the value of the freehold/ ho replied 5s per acre. It would thus be seen that the rent charged was simply ridiculous, aa at a rental of 2s 6d per acre the person would have actually 'paid the value of the freehold in two year^, and the result, was that people could not ,he expected to take up land. The Minister had, in consequence of representations he (Mr Cad man) had made to him on the subject, promised to have the rent for goldfields lands reduced to say 5 per cent on the fee simple, which meant that the rent would be red jced from 2s 6d per acre to 3d. ° ° * ° Thame.s-Te Aroha Railway : — A good deal had been hear I lately regarding the Thames-Te Aroha railway, so that he would like to refer briefly to the matter. It appeared as though the Minister for Public Works had gone down to have a look at tlie Ota^o Central line, while the hon. Mr Fergus was now in the North having a look at the North Helensville line. They would probably see these lines would be reported on favourably, and to his (Mr Cadinan's) mind it pointed to another loan in which Taianaki would come in, and it would be the usual case of " you scratch my back and I will .scratch yours." The speaker ther. said that it was just possible that tnV Thame9 railway was also being now mentioned with a view to securing the support of himself and the other looal representative to the more important lines he had referred to. The Thames railway seemed to be in a most unfortunate position from (he start, and he could speak from experience in saying that he had no end of. trouble from the settlers owing to the manner in which the line had been laid out bv Government. The outfall drains were altogether insufficient, and the settlers had co'nplained that their crops had been damaged by the storm water flooding their land He had strongly repiesented the m-itter t<> Government, who had instructed a report to be prepared by their Engineer, hut the latter hid replied th.it the outfall drains weiv sufficient. He again urged to the contrary, but with a like result, until a week later a flood occurred, and as a result four 20ft. waterways had hr>en put in near Mr Elliotts alone, thus affordingample proof that they were necessary. About the end of last session he received another petition from the settlets, which had been referred to the Undersecretary, and after a delay of thrpe months n reply was oofained bv him to the communication that nothing further could be done, If Government had taken more care in lavin<r out a line in the fir*t instance," it would have saved both trouble and expense afterwards. Mr Cad man then proceeded to refer to the fact that the Hon. Mr Mitchelson was to be deputationised re the extension of the railway vvhen he visited the Thames, and he urged thata straight question should be put to the Minister, and that an evasive repU should not be icoopted . They would doubtless remember that when Mr M'tchelson was here before he hf.d distinctly promised that the line would be gone on with, and yet in the House, when he (Mr Cadman) had read an extract from the local new spipers regarding what he hid said, the Minister denied having made any such promise The same kind of tiling occmred re the promised £2000 for the Big Pump, and he thought th -question should be put t<> Mr Mitcbelson, " Dv you mean to do the Thames-Te Aroha railway, or lo you not?" That would bo a strii^ht question, and an evisive answrshou'd not be taken. ° ° ° ° i Property T ix v. Lmd and income Tax : It had of course been said there was a irood deal of theory about those of them who advocated a Land and Income T.ix, ! 1 but he felt «nr« tint were it given a trial it would soon commend itself, and th n y could rest assured that he would do his utmost lo have it given a trial as soon as possible. Ho also flt convinced that it ■ wruld be found less objectionable than the Propcty Tax. lie would just illustrate wha>t he meant, and leave them to judge for themselves. There was a block of 1 md — 76*00 af-res — at Mo^han, the title to • which had been completed and Governi ment had purchased it for JC.'HSfi. It contained 12 licensed holdings, and the com- { bined Property Tax was a mere trifle. But for some reason or other the K.ipanira — an English Company at Coromandel — which owned 30 acr-s of Imd that had cost Government £15, had to p-iy something most exorbitmt. During the last 14 years ' the English capitalists interested in this | . company had expended £12o r OOO in , developing the propeitv, and taken out • gold worth £23,000, leaving them £102,000' to the bad. The mine and plant was not ' worth £5000 — no one would care to give 1 that for it — but, to be above the mark, ' say its value was £10,000. That was the i whole interest that the shareholders in the i Kapanga Co. had in New Zealand. Yet what was the result. The Property Tax \ Valuer had sent a notbe to the manager that he had assessed the company at £lOG,OOO. The result was that the manager had come to him (Mr Cadman) about the ■ matter in a great st*te, and said that when i the assessment went Home the directors' would most likely wind -up the Company. , Ho (the speaker) had written a letter to the Property Tax Commissioner regarding the matter, and asked him to show it to the [ Premier, but had received rather a f iceti- • ous reply, being to the. effect that the assessment had been made on the marketable value of the shares of the coinpanj* in i London on the Ist of October There weie 185,000 shares in the company. If this w is an example of how outside capitalists were to be encouriged and assisted, he, certainly thought the gw.und would long continue to be undeveloped. The manager of the Company had placed the matter in the hands of Mr Ile.sketh, and it was mist likely that it would be fought out, but such a tax as this could not fail to do the colony incalculable harm and keep capitalists? from our shores. In his opinion the legitimate expenditure of out>ide

capital should be encouraged, and he would he in favouipYof^givine, 'foreign ooljipanifSs an exemption from taxation* for i&\nr 6 I yews it' they were prepared j to s^nf! a,s ( much money as'the Kapanira Co, hadxlone in Coromandel. « <> ,» •, /V^ : ' l^JCooti 'Scare, pt^.;/ Mr^^drrtn.n* fnid : This 'matter would be certain' to give the Government some trouble next session, a.s also would the appointment le tlie recent Judgeship^ , RaiKvay Commissioners, and other matter*. 1 ' G-overnment were in a minority last session, although they held office, and weie still, and he thought they Won l,dj have" an unhappy, time.- He r yery^ much l d6ub'ted whether tile GoVernmlnX* could- stand, . and. -daid. that injthe event of, their being" defeated he believed that an endeavour would ,be made to form a Government from the Oppositior, though Were'- if defpated ?i -dissolution.. wouUL, probably result. Reference was then made to the lack of interest the present Minister of Mines showed f to the mining industry,; , to the rumoured contemplated appoint-; merits to the Legislative Council, which Mr? Cadman said he would strongly oppose, o o 0 0 deduction of Member's Bill : With reference to this subject by which the number of members in the Lower House would be reduced to 70. He said ,he\ * did not share in the general belief that this Bill would be repealed, and he felt ' positive it would become law. It had his entire concunence, Mr C.idman then gave an outline as to how the proposed alteration of the boundaries of the electorates would be likely to hffert' Thames, Coromandel, and the upper country. He said that the population of the colony from the census returns of 1887 was 645.000, of which 41,000 were natives, leaving 604,00»> Europeans, and the natives had .separate representation. There were to be 70 member-, and dividing the European population by that number gave 8628 as the quota for each member. A reasonable allowance to country distiicts would probably make the quota— towns, 10,000 j country districts, 7000. The total goldfields population was : Coromandel County 2500, Thames Borouuh 4444, Thames County 4435, Ohinemuii County 1115 r and the Te Aroha Ridipg of the Pinko County 1203, making a totnl of 13,697. By adding the balance of th^ Pinko County would trive 1117 more, or sufficient population for two country seats. The question, however, was as to where it should be divided. It was impossible tn get one town s»at and one cmmtiy seat, because the portions nv.iilnble sire— ThaniPß Borough 4444. Wiiiotalii Riding 534 r Knuae'ranga 1 708, and Parawai 578 ; total 7304 for one sent, and thus leaving for the other : Coromandel County 2500, Hasting"* Ridiii" 61 1, Totara Riding 944, Oliineiimri County Hl5, and Piako County 23^0; total 7490, Pie did not think this would b^ accptf'd, bpciiuse the muntrv distiict wou'd «how a larger population than tint for thp rou-n scat. Ther.« n -e-ond way nf diviilinar it, bping «s foJlowt : - Thames Borough, 4444; Hastings 611; C-rninnmlel County. 2500; tota 1 . 7555, for one soa« ; and for thn otlif-r 1 1 I<~1 <~ |{i<?inas of Kfliianrinir»i 1708, Parawai 578. W«i(itnlii 534. Tfitnrn 944. Coutilies of Ohim — luuri ins; Piikr. 2320: total, 7*2f>p. LooK-in-r nt it impnitially tlii" cirt.imlv, hi his opinion, s-pmed tlnj, in -st pquitablw way of dividing the electorate, as^it gayer anequil proportion of popn'ati<»n in town nnd country. The Act provided ti.nt th • Commi Rionor" shill recosrni-e cmnnmiuty of interp-t-« as much :i<* po^ibl^, ami tint they •j'lail be miii'fd by some reeo^ni-^-d liniindiuic-*. such as the boundary (»f ii Riding, Road Bonrd district, &<_-.. th.' ohjecr tlin-- beinsi to ma'<e it_ easi-r for elector^ to detuimine in which district tli -y reside and can exercise the franchise. After referrinjr to vaiious other m.ittfiNMr Cad-nan resumed hU seat ainidnt lou.l applause. A unanimous vote of thanks .and confidonce was accorded Mr Cadman