SIR GEORGE GREY AND MAJOR ATKINSON.

Temuka Leader, Issue 984, 29 July 1882, Page 3

SIR GEORGE GREY AND MAJOR ATKINSON.

I The following fsjtaken from Hassard. On the discussion on the National Insurance I Scheme, the following pa(sage-at-arms occurred between Sir George Grey and Major Atkinson. Sir George Grey was speaking, and said .—I asked him, " Why ?" and he eaid a Tory large turn wai at present paid ourof the revenue for the support of hospitals and charitable institutions; that that was Gorernment mosey; that the object of the plan was to tare the Government money, and and make the peopl* pay for these thjpg*

argument. Major Atkinson—Yes; that is the whole argument. bir George Grey—Then the Colonial Treasurer is in absolute error. I put it to honorable gentlemen whether the hospitals 'and ar,e supported by Government moifey, *of by the money taken from the people by taxation—from those who pay this larger portion of the Customs duties. Of course it is j saken. from the people. If you put this fresh taxation on a different c'ais, does not that become Government money? It is in this way that the Government is'going 1 to make the people pay for themselves. What is the distinction except this—that it is simply a design to shift ithe tuxttion from property to other persons ? That is really the thing aimed at. And now, let us look further at what the Treasurer said. Amidst all the gloominess of his speech—and certainly it was one of the most wearisome that I have ever listened to in my life, and tha assenting laugh of the House shows that others fjoined in the feeling that it wWa moat dreary hour and a halfone bright spot broke in. Forgetting himself, forgetting all his party have ever done, what did he say ? He said that the support of thejse pauper people should properly in part be charged against the land revenue of the country. Truly that is,the source against, which it should be charged. If' the land of the country had been properly dealt with, that land would have sufficed to pay for everything j and, when he said the pastoral land was the property of the people, I ask him, did he admit that'the whole of the land was the property of the people, and that he and His friends by their legislation and administration have in great part robbed the people of a large part of that property ? Major Atkinson —By a Governor's regulations. •

Sir George Grey—A Governor did issue regulations ; but did he wrest the lands from the peeple for his own advantage ? Did he administer the laws for his own purpose!, as you" did? Ho. Had you put ,o'n a land tax at once, those fegnlafcions ' would' have been the best tnVcelo'ny ; has' ever" seen. '' They would! have prevented enormous tracts being taken up by individuals;," And, to his shame, I put these questions to the Colonial Treasurer—Did his friends wrest the regulations to their advantage by unfair proceedings? Did they gridiron the country ? Did they by pre-emptive rights, by cunning, acts, make good regulations bad to enrich themselves P Those regulations Bhould have met with a better fate. Can any man lay that liever issued a regulation from which I derived one penny of profit, or that I administered the law to my own benefit f . I say that you did make and administer laws to your own profit, and to the plunder of the people of thii country. ; Major Ackinson—l defy the honorable ; member to bring any proof of that. Bir George Grey—Bring t it! Why the people sit here whe have done it. The honorable gentleman is continually getting up and saying that it is not true. He knows in his heart that it is true, and I appeal to gentlemen all around me, who know the country in every direction, am I or am I Hot speaking what is the fact ? I say Yet, and I say that there is another place which has been filled in part with members who have, as I believe, unjustly taken the great estates from the people. Some of the members-sitting in that place have nobly and justly acquired their properties, but other's have acquired their properties to the detriment of the people of this country, by means that were not just j and the Colonial Treasurer would hare done his duty better if, instead of' putting on.this new taxation, he had provided that it fall back on the land. Why, look at the immense valur that has been given to the properties by the work of the laboring classes of this country, by no effort of .the owners, but by the labor and the money taken out of the pockets of others. Would it be too much to let the burden fall upon them ? Would it be too great a charge to say that they should bear some part, by a land tax; of the charges now borne for the relief of destitution by the consolidated'revenue of the country P I say it would sot; and the attempt to take thai taxation from property and put it ia the, form of a poll-tax upon individuals who are already so much, wronged by taking from them that which the -Colonial Treasurer has this night admitted to have been their pro* perty,is a thing which neither this House nor the country ought to tolerate.