GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1359, 30 June 1885, Page 2

GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

In the Legislative Council on Friday, A return was ordered showing the number of orders made under the provisions of the Adoption of Children’s Act.

The Imprest Supply Bill was passed through its remaining stages. The land Transfer Bill was read a second time without discussion, and was referred to the Joint Statutes Revision Committee. In Committee it was resolved to forward to the Governors of the Australian colonies a copy of the Address, to Her Majesty adopted a few days ago. The Council then adjourned. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. The House met at 2.30 p.m. on Friday. The Congregational Union Incorporation Bill was read a second time. Mr J. W, Thompson gave notice that on going into Committee of Supply, he would move as regards the incraese in the Customs revenue for the current year, estimated to amount to £89,000, that this House is of opinion that instead of increasing the duties of Customs with the view of realising this sum such sum should be raised by increasing the property assessment in the cases of properties of the taxable value of £I,OOO and under £20,000 to Id in the £, and in the case of properties of the taxable value of £20,000 and upwards of l|d in the £. Replying to questions, Mimisters said : —That Government would consider if anything could be done in the way of maintaining training ships at one or more of the principal ports of the colony for boys who are committed as neglected children to the Industrial Schools of the colony ; that the Government intended to insert a clause in the Land Bill dealing with the various ungranted sections of land originally selected under the N.Z. Settlement Act; that where an Inspector of Police was doing his duty it would be unwise to remove him except for very special reasons, whether on a goldfield or not; that Government would have taken charge of the Bill dealing with the hours of polling at country elections but for having so many Bills already—if, however, a general election were to take place before another session Government would bring down such a measure ; that the Government does aot guarantee the payment of life insurance policies of foreign Insurance Companies doing business in the colony ; that Government considered the statement by the Christchurch R.M. that since the suspension of the Contagious Diseases Act in Christchurch crime had increased there, a subject for the local authorities to consider; that the Government are now considering how long the time should be extended during which the duly of Is per lb on tobacco would be charged, and might make some proposals during the session.

Several other questions of only local interest were put and replied to. Mr Joyce brought before tbe House the state of the Government Printing Office. Mr Cowan and himself had visited it that morning and found it in a dreadful state —the atmosphere was stifling. He had no idea that a Government establishment employing over 150 persons was conducted in such a manner.—The Hon. Mr Stout said he would refer the matter to the

Hon. the Colonial Secretary, in whfl Department it was, and no doubt soma thing would be done in the matter. H felt obliged to hon. members for bringin| it forward.

The Hon. Mr Stout then moved U second reading of the Counties Aj

Amendment Bill. He said the principfflj which; guided the Government in bringing in this measure were that four local bodies were supposed to look after roadsl bridges, and other local affairs. Hi thought it would be better if they osll had twe local bodies, namely, Borougll and Road Boards.,, One form of local government in his opinion was quit! enough, but he did not believe in overl turning existing: institutions without bringing io some real reform. Thl present Bill made some alterations ill principle, one of which was that it « tempted to localise finance. It aim proposed that road districts and ridingl should be made coterminus. The syetenfl was not a new one. It bad been tried! and bad succeeded admirably. The Bill also proposed that there should be n<fl new Counties made unless by order ol the Qovernor-in-Oouncil. It was nol proposed to disturb existing institutions! If they wished to maintain their Roacl Boards the Bill would not interfere witli them. It would be found to be ad advantage to many places in the colon]! to have no Road Boards, but to bavd their own rates spent in their own dial trict. He had. prepared a Consolidate Counties Act, but he thought thfH would not be time to pass it this session! As to the town districts, he proposed to! make an alteration by which each town district should.be e separate subdivision! of a riding. Another proposal in the! Bill was that the chairman of a Count]! was to be elected in the same way as the! Mayor of a Borough. Provision was also! made for the election of auditors by the ratepayers direct, and several other provisions which he need not enumerate. He thought if the Bill were faithfully carried out it.would be a step in the right direction. » Mr Seddon moved the adjournment of the debate till after the financial proposals were considered.

The amendment was carried, and the debate adjourned till Tuesday. The Hon. Sir Julius Vogel moved th| second reading of the New Zealand Stag Forests Bill. •

After detailing the principles of the Bill which was brought in for the perservation of the State forests, he said it was proposed under the Bill to borrow £50,000, of which £IO,OOO was only to be borrowed in any one year. It was also proposed to vest the control ,of the forests in a commission who would be subject to the authority of Parliament. The chief duties of those who would be entrusted with the charge of the forests would be to loo|, after the existing forests, and, when necessary, to plant new forests. The Bill also provided for the proper parliamentary control of the scheme, and in no way gave the Minister in charge of the forests any extraordinary powers. Ho thought as it was evident timber was decreasing all over the world, it wouW enormously increase in value. It waa altogether deplorable the manner in which the forests were destroyed at the present day. Their preservation also, it was well known, affected the rainfall to a very considerable extent, and it was most necessary to take some urgent measures to preserve them. Messrs Downie Stewart, Hurst, J. C. Brown, Cowan, Bevan and Buckland, Eeetham, (Hobbs and Peacock, and the Hons. J. Ballance and B. Stout, spoke for and against the proposal. \ _ Mr Rolleston objected to the Bill, was intended to provide for more borrojw* iug, and to create a separate department. He thought the question of forestry would not be helped forward by the Act. He was strongly of opinion that'a great deal more should be done in this direction than had been done, but he considered no provision that could be made would'prevent the burning of forests. He thought if the present legislation was supplemented by placing more power in - the hands of local bodies, the object in view would be belter attained. He thought the existing forest tree planting Act should be repealed, and the Government were doing right in proposing to give money compensation instead of land. The giving of the land had cost the colony a great deal more than money compensation. In his opinion.a few amendments in the existing law were all that was required. The debate was interrupted by tjS 5.80 adjournment. The House at 7.30 p.m. The Hon. Sir Julius Vogel moved tbH the House go into Committee of Supply, i Major Atkinson said the Hon. Treasurer said that last year there was a deficit of £150,000, but this year there was a surplus of £20,00.0 He was silent, however, as to the cause of this surplus, but the fact was the Hon. the Treasurer had borrowed £247,000 to do it. The Hon. the Treasurer's statements were misleading the country, as he did not put tjj^.

position fairly before it. Last year thejj Land Fund began with a credit of £BO,OOO, and ended with a balance ofl £36,000, so that upon the transactions ofl the year they were short by It ought to be stated to the country that they were' only able to get the balance by borrowing the £247,000. Taking the consolidated fund as a whole, there was actually a deficit on the receipts of £30,000. They were told that the depression was passing away, but, on the contrary, the depression was deepening, and it they allowed the Financial Statement to pass, things would bo in a far worse condition. He asked the House not to trust the hand of the Hon. the Treasurer to relieve them from their dif- , Acuities. In 1884 the expediture was f £2,020,000, in 1885 they spent and in 1886 they were asked to speodjj £50,000 more. The expenditure ducy?T " 1885 might be reduced, however, owiSWro the double session of Parliament by about £31,000. Now, he asked, where were the promised savings I It appeared from the Estimates that there was a saving of £13,000 in the Armed Constabulary. But (he rote for police was increased by £4OOO. The savings were not real savings. They found in fact a total crease for this department of £16,000. * As to survey they found an apparent saving of £44,000, but when they looked into it they found that £IO,OOO had been given to the Minister for Mines. He said there was also charged to other Departments some £16,000, but he did not find i it in the Estimates. The real in the Survey Department only £17)000. There. wa« no reduction

anywhere. As to education, he thought the Hon. Treasurer had a complete scheme of education, but the Hon. Premier would not let him bring it in. The Hon. Premier had some scheme for effecting a saving in other departments, but the Hon. Treasurer would not agree to it, Referring to the Sinking Fund, the speaker said be could not help contradicting the Hon. Treasurer when he said the Act was a splendid success. Hd considered the Act was a most immoral one, and it would come hack on them 1 some day. As to the proposals for this year, the increased taxation which the Hon. Treasurer proposed was at least £250,000. What was it wanted for 1 £75,000 was for local bodies and £50,000 for the deficiency, and the other £125,000 was for the general purposes of Government. The Hon. Treasurer doubled the property tax, which was doing such injury to the colony according to his own opinion, and did not tell the House what it was for. It was their duty to see that every possible reduction was made before they resorted to additional taxation. The local proposals of Government were framed by the Treasurer, so that a sum of money could be borrowed whereby the local bodies could borrow further. Ho was convinced from actual experience, that generally and locally, the Hon. Treasure's scheme must fail, and would not be of the slightest use to the local bodies. He was not going to discuss the question of local government, as ho believed they had good local government. The Hon. the Premier, at the Dunedin drill shed, had said that those who advocated the abolition of the province were not statesmen. The Hon. the Colonial Treasurer was one who advocated that abolition and carried the resolutions for the abolition of the North Island provinces. It therefore followed that the Hon. the Treasurer was not a statesman according to the views of the Hon. Premier. Then, how were the Government going to raise the money they required ? They proposed to increase the Customs, the stamp duties and the property tax. There was no doubt if the people had now the amount of spending power they possessed in 1874 the tariff would be far more increased than_ by £IOO,OOO. Supposing the duties were imposed, would they get the increase the Hon. Treasurer expected 1 He ventured to say they would not. He himself was not a free-trader or a protectionist. He believed the duty proposed on coal was very unwise, but he considered there were other industries which should be protected, He should consider the separate items in the tariff without reference to what are called freetraders or protectionists. Government had been compelled to put on the duties for the purposes of revenue, but as to the present tariff, what the Hon. Treasurer asked for no necessity was shown for it. No doubt, after the present debate the Treasurer would reconsider his proposals. He thought if the hon. gentleman wanted fresh taxation it should have been by the property tax and not by the Customs. Re was going to ask the House to refuse to give the hon. gentleman the million asked for for public works as it meant spending by March next three millions, not excluding the million for the North Island Railway. He hoped the House would refuse to grant the million, and would say they would not permit the colony to be deluged with borrowed money in this manner. He also wished to point out that the railways had not progressed at all satisfactorily this year, especially after the promises they had made last year. He hoped the Government would withdraw their loan Bill. He wished to say to the House that Government had entirely failed in their promises. They bad not given good government; they had put no less than eleven persons into the Upper House since their accession to office, at great cost to the country ; they had appointed a large number of J.P.’s., many of them for party purposes ; they had failed absolutely in the reinstatement of the finances ; in fact the only result that was obtained from their term of office was an increase of expenditure and taxation. He trusted the House would absolutely decline to pass the tariff, or give the Government another million. They should also insist that the Estimates should be reduced to the extent of £BO,OOO or £IOO,OOO. , The Hon. Sir Julius Vogel replied at considerable length, contending that the Government had effected considerable savings and that the depression now existing was very different from that of last year—that then it was want of confidence, not want of money. In conclusion he would ask the House to look at the policy of Government on a broad basi*. They had not brought down their measures piecemeal, to be passed bit by biti He had taken care to place all their Bills before the country in as complete a form 88' possible. He would ask the House not to look at the proposals proposed by the hon.Jmeir-ber for Egmont. Mr Wakefield then spoke adversely to the proposals of the Government, concluding by expressing the hope that the House,- without reference to party lines, would refuse the taxation proposals of the Hon. Treasurer.

At 12.55 a.m., Mr Dargaville moved the adjournment of the debate until Tuesday at 7.30. This was carried, and the House then rose.