THE HON. MAJOR ATKINSON AT HAWERA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1572, 23 April 1887, Page 4

THE HON. MAJOR ATKINSON AT HAWERA.

The Hon. Major Atkmeion addressed his constituents at Hawera on Wednesday evening. After referring to many matters of local interest, he spoke on general subjects to the following effect; —Many useful measures were passed last session, including the Local Bodies Loans legislation, to take the place of the repealed Roads and Bridges Construction Act. He gave great credit to Mr Tole and the Legislature for passing the First Offenders Act, which ho holt ved was working, and would work, well. ilic g»eat blot on the session, however, was the failure to pass the,Representation,Bill, a failure which would cost the country a considerable sum. There was no excuse for the foilure to pass it, for all the arguments used

against its passing last session would apply equally next session, and those who voted against it last session would vote against in the coming session. Be had doubts whether the Bill would get through next session. In view of the deficit it was proposed to remodel the taxation of the country. There was the question of protection and freetrade, the resumption of land for settlement, and other large questions which still were dangling before the country, and he confessed he did not like to see decided by a moribund Parliament such great questions. The" fault and expense of a second session would be at the door of the Government alone. Dealing with finance he said the position was not what be wonld have liked it to be. The Government now admitted that their finance had entirely broken down. Not one of their promises had been ful-

filled. All the hopes they had held out had tailed, as instead of telling of extensive borrowing bringing with it progress by leaps and bounds the Government now only spoke of economy, retrenchment and thrift, and. pointed the_ .colonists to path's' for following which, the preceding Ministry were ejected from office. After three years’ of financing without success the Government had taken to praising the methods their predecessors bad followed. Nostrums were out of place at the present crisis, and the questions of protection and freetrade, resumption of private estates, nationalisation of the land, and female franchise, important as each was in due time, were not the proper questions of .the hour. Look at the qqpditrpn of o,hr credit in the London market. It cost the colony at )«ast £40,000 when the last loan was floated, when bonds honestly worth from 100 to 104 only brought a shade over 97.

What was the cause 1 Not Mr Froude’s not the Standard's articles, not even the deficiency in the revenue, but the statement of the Treasurer, who in his official place in Parliament told the people the colony could not afford to carry out its engagements, and that the colony must, instead of paying the sinking fund out of revenue, pay it out of loan, in order that it might borrow seven millions more without feeling the burden. Our position then was that we had a debt of 32 millions, and our credit wss low, and there was a deficiency in the revenue, even after the removal of the sinking fund charge, of £240,000 a year from the consolidated revenue. The deficiency be roughly estimated would be from £IO,OOO to £150,000. As for the land fund, it was less than nothing. The charges exceeded the revenue by something like £20,000. The position was therefore difficult, but it afforded no ground for the lack of confidence. The first thing to be done would be to restore their credit, and that could only be done by not merely making both ends meet, but securing a substantial and bona fide surplus this year. It was the Treasurer’s business to do this, but in general terms he would say that there must be retrenchment not only in the Civil Service, which had been, it was said, cut down as closely

as possible,' but also in general expenditure ; and he should not be in fault were bo to say that it would also be possible to escape further taxation. As to Protection and Freetrade, he should foe glad to be in either one camp or the other, but he could not. Such cries were misleading, tor the colony could not it present afford to be either protectionist or Freetrade, because it must have revenue, but in imposing taxation for revenue purposes they could, as,he bad dona in. the past, assist local industries. As to the question of borrowing, be was glad to see a general feeling in favor of tapering off. By some it was held that borrowing must cease' entirely, but he did not think that was practicable. A large qnmber of men were determined to reduce borrowing, and ito begin the reduction at once. He was one of them, and thought it would be a fatal mistake if it were not done ; but there was a distinction between them and absolutely ceasing. He should not be a party to any loan being authorised next ssasion, and he thought Parliament should say that the public works expenditure should be something like half what it had been during the past two or three years. As to land settlement it was second only in importance to finance, Mr Ballance was an enthusiast, honestly doing bis best, he believed, to get the country settled, but doing a great deal without knowledge. He was afraid a great disappointment was in store for the country and for many of the unfortunate settlers who were put on land under Mr Ballanoe’s scheme. It was simply impossible for many of the settlers who bad gone bn these email lots in out of the way places to make a living. He complained that Government had net recognised the necessity of establishing a

Bent Court in connection withiperpetual leases. It was utterly, impossible to arbitrarily fix a rent which would be fair for any length of time.either to the Government or to the tenant. He had a strong preference for, the perpetual louse, and be Relieved that it would work well, but a necessary condition was a system under which the rent might bo proportioned to the price of produce and the profit of the tenant. He then dealt with Native Affairs, complaining that the Government had neglected to acquire land before starting the North Island Central Railway. Not an acre had been obtained ; and his information was that Wahauni had not the least intention of allowing the Government to have any of it; in fact, the Government advised the Natives to lease it. The Government rather approved of large block landlords anions the Natives. It was only the white man who should not hold more than a csrtaia quantity of land ; the Maori might hold unlimited acres, which were to be subjected to neither taxation nor rates, bat were to

have railways made for their improvement He ridiculed the claims for success of the one policeman policy, and said the Manaia incident last winter showed that the sum and substance of that policy was that the Government had abdicated their functions, and left the preservation of the peace in the hands of the settlers. Dealing with the question of the Imperial Oomfeien'cd, he said he was afraid the colonists did not take sufficient interest In the question of federation, He viewed with alarm the prospect of New Zealand being isolated from the other colonies, and should always do what be coaid to promote union between the colonies, and a federation of the whole empire. Ha was strongly in favor of woman’s suffrage. In conclusien he said that only an honest effort was required to put 4he colony in a sound condition. The Government should take the lead in the matter of retrenchment, and if the present one would not do it another must be put in that would.