MR A. E. G. RHODES AT TEMUKA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1730, 28 April 1888, Page 2

MR A. E. G. RHODES AT TEMUKA.

Mr A. E, G. Rhodes addressed a meeting of his constituents in the Volunteer Hall, Temuka, last evening. There woe a large attendance, and tho chair was occupied by Mr K. F. Gray, Chairman of the Town Board, who briefly introduced the speaker, and bespoke for him a patient hearing. They had doubtless been observant as to his actions and would be able to pronounce a verdict on them at the close of the meeting. He would be ready to answer questions at the end of tho speech. (Applause). Mr Rhodes spoko as follows : Mr Chairman aud Gentlemen, —lt affords me great pleasure to meet you in this hall once more, I have not forgotten tVe kindness with which you treated me during the general election, and I only ask you this evening to give me the same patient hearing that you accorded to mo dming the election. I have come here 10-uight, in accordance with longestablished practice, to give a reiumi of ihe events of the past session, and ray impression of what is likely to take place in the ensuing session. I would have asked you to meet me earlier, only 1 knew that you would not be in a groat hurry to hear soother political speech so soon after the termination of the last session, which was immediately preceded by the turmoil of the general election ; and 1 did not wish to speak until the harvest work was finished, i am glad that since I became your member many if you have communicated with me on matters of interest to the constituency; this has been a great help to mo in the performance of my duties as your member. Now, gentlemen, I will proceed, with your permission, to pass in review THE EVENTS OF THE FAST SESSION. You will, of course, remember that Sir Robert Stout tendered his resignation to His Excellency tho Governor as soots as possible after the results of the general election became known, and that His Excellency Sir William Jervois sent for Major Atkinson to form a Ministry. Major Atkinson declined to attempt to form a Ministry until Parliament assembled, and he could learn the wishes of m-unbers. As soon as he got to Wellington, meetings of those member* who had declared themselves in opposition to the Stout-Vogel Government were hold, at which the question of leadership was fully discussed, and it became evident that, for the session at all events, no other leader was available than Major A'kinson. It is true that many of us would have preferred a leader whose poitical antecedents had been more saiisf ctory, and who was less responsible for iho extravagance of past years thin Mijor Atkinson. But we had to do the best with the materials at oar disposal, aud therefore, though with some reluctance on the p rt of many, the Premit-rsidp had (o hi entrusted to him. The Ministry was then formed, and four out of the Premier's five colleagues in the Lower Hous-, viz., the Hons, George Fisher, T. Fergus, 1. W. Hislop, and G. F. Richards >n, were men who had never held office before. The present Ministry, therefore, whether a good or bad one, cannot with any degree of fairness be r 'proicbed with being a renewal of the Continuous Ministry, of which we have hoard so much. Indeed, that epithet could more fairly be applied to the Sbout-Yogel Ministry. As soon as tho Ministry was fornud an adjournment was asked for to enable them to formulate their policy and prepare the budget. I did not think this an unreasonable request. At the eipiratim of tlio tirn i allowed we returned to Wellington, and in the coarse of a day or two the Financial Statement was delivered, which contained a pretty full exposition of the whole policy of the Government, it this period 1 was not pledged in any way to support the present Ministry, but after hearing the Financial Statement I informed them that though I intended to give them a general support I was not prepared to follow them on their proposals as regards (he education system and the proposals for further borrowing. As you tre aware, the Government held office for the rest of the session. Any chance of their being defeated was put out of the question by the utter collapse of the Opposition, which was partly promoted by the extraordinary, not to say discreditable, conduct of Sir Julius Yogal, the leader of its largest section, who call themselves “United Canterbury.” I should like now to deal seriatim with the various questions in ' favor of which I declared myself when a candidate, in order to show you that my views on many of these questions were given effect to during the session. In the first place, the main plank on my platform was

RETRENCHMENT IN THE fUBLId EXPENDITURE

wherever that could be effected without detriment to the efficiency of the public service. The present Ministry, in their Financial Statement, promised reductions which for a full financial year would amount to £300,003- As their proposals with regard to education (of which I shall speak more fully later on), which you are well aware I was not able to support, were not given effect to, this estimated saving was reduced by from £26,000 to £30,600. I think that when the Grown and Native Lauds Eating Act is repealed, aa 1 hope it will be next session, there will ba a permanent reduction in the expenditure of some £270,000 per annum. You will doubtless remember that when I addressed you during the election, I ventured to point out a number of possible reductions, and lam very pleased to be able to state that most of my suggestions were given effect to by Parliament, I advocated a large reduction in th« number of the members in the House of Representatives. An Act has been passed reducing the number of members in the next Parliament to 74 This was only carried after a severe struggle, perhaps the most bitter which took place during the session. Some people assert that the Act affecting this reduction will be repealed before the dissolution of the present House, but I do not think that there is any chance of this. I trust that next session the Representation Act will ba amended so as to give increased representation to the country districts in pioportioa to the large towns. Under the present Act, for electoral purposes, 18 per cent, is added to the actual population of ab districts, except b troughs with over 2000 inhabitants, I do not think this percentage is high enough, and a determined effort will be undo to increase this percentage tc 25 per cent, ut least. Next I must state

tb u the honomriiim paid to members of the Lower House was reduced by £6O, the exact amount which I mentioned during the contest. The honorarium paid to the members of the Legislative Council lun boon reduced by £110; not so largo a re‘ action rs I advocated, but still a con-si<‘'-ruble saving has been effected. The G vernbi’s salary is to bo reduced to £jooo a year, that is to say, all, hi* tr« veiling and other allowances have been bw pt away, though, of coarse, this mease a has to obtain the consent of the •Imperial Parliament, and in any event di ca not come into operation during the lima ef the present Governor. The number of Ministers will, after the reduction of the number of members takes effect, be reduced by one. I supported Mr Barron, the member for CavtrsHam, in his attempt to still further reduce the number of Ministers. The Ministers' travelling allowances are also to be limited to £IOOO a year, so in future we shall not, I hope, hear of large sums being squandered in this way. I think that the lata reduction in the salaries ef Ministers was an unwise economy. Money might have been wisely saved by a redaction in the number of Ministers, especially as the Member of members is to be so largely reduced. In a smalt House a large Ministry has an undue weight, but I certainly think that £BOO a year in an expensive pi 'Ce like Wellington, with the calls which a Minister has upon his purse, and, considering the uncertainty of his tenure of office, is a ridiculously small salary. Next comes the Crown and Native Lands Rating Act, by the repeal of which I hoped a large annual sum might bo saved. A Bill to repeal this Act was introduced, but the Government found it impossible in the short session to carry it. ' But they are pledged to introduce and carry it next session. The Government propose to ‘ effect very large reductions in the general cost of the Civil Service. The Government have also promised to introduce a Bill to classify the Civil Service, and to establish a Civil Service Board, by whom all appointments will be made, and to whom all grievances will be referred. This was another measure which I advocated during the contest, Then comes the important subject of EDUCATION. The proposals of the Government, shortly, wre as follows The proposal to raise the school age to six, by which they estimated that they would save £26,000 to £30,000 a year. This proposal, I am glad to say, was defeated, and my vote was, as I promised yon during the election, recorded against the Government on this occasion. Though . the Government, iu making this proposal, promised to make some allowances to country schools which would prevent the change from pressing too hardly upon them, yet, as they gave no satisfactory explanation of how the promise was to be fulfilled, I felt certain that such change would be disastrous to the small country schools. The second proposal was to reduce the capitation by four shillings a head. As you are aware, the capitation fixed by the Education Act is £S 15i per 'head, audio the days of our prosperity five shillings extra was voted annually by Parliamsnt. This meant a redaction of £16,000 per annum. The third proposal was to substitute the principle of strict average for the principle of working average in making out the returns. This chsage was estimated to offset a saving of £IOOO. The fourth proposal was to do away with the grant of £BOOO a year for the training of teachers. The three last proposals were c»rd id, thus effjctiag a saving of £32,000 per annum, about the amount which 1 stated dining the last election could be saved, I am satisfied that these reductions will not injure ’ our national system of education. Several of the Education Boards have already faced their position manfully, and shown that they can make both ends meet, notwithstanding the diminution of their income. In my opinion, one of the great achievements of the session was the passing of

THE LAND ACX, for which I think the colony is greatly indebted to Mr Richardson, the Hon. Minister of Lands. As there are still about 34,000,000 acres of Crown lands yet remaining to be disposed of end settled upon, it is of the utmost importance that they should be properly administered. Previously to this Act, laud was set apart for disposal for cash, perpetual lease, deferred payment, or other tenure at the will of the Government; now the sstt er wishing to acquire a piece of Crown land can himself elect under which system ho will take it. Under the Estout-Vogel Ministry little or no encouragement was offered to any form of tenure other than the perpetual leasehold, nnd this was, I believe, a great hindrance to the settlement of the wastelands of the colony. Aa the choic# of tenure will now be left to the selector, 1 hope that a great impetus will be given to settlement. The' Act does not abolish the leasehold tenure or village settlement. In the present very depressed state of the land market, owing to the low price of produce, I do not think there is the least danger of speculative purchases of large areas of land. But the new Land Act contains provisions limiting the areas to be purchased by individuals or corporations. No person cun buy; land in any land district, which, together with any land already owned by him, would bring bis total acreage up to than 640 acres of first-class land, and 2000 acres of second-class land. In the case of deferred-payment selectors, or of perpetual leaseholders, section IS givee them the right to purchase their freeholds as soon as they have effected the improve* meets prescribed by the Land Act, without waiting any term of years, upon paying the balance of the agreed price. This section will be a great relief to many struggling selectors, for by acquiring the> freehold they will bo enabled to mak& their financial arrangements upon much more favorable, terms. Mr. Richardson informed the House during the second reading of the Land Bill that he had received a great many letters from settlers,, asking for relief. The following is ani extract fiom one of them “ I big most sincerely to thank you for the information that your Act will allow us to get our freeholds. This will be an inestimable booc to me aud many round me who. are situated «s I am. ...... I have

now some hops of escaping that total failure which must have happened except for this relief,” It may intermit you l» know what has hce > done under (his went Land Act in Canterbury eince it caute into operation. I got the following, figures from the Land Office this week ;—. The tot ui acreage of land open for selection up to Ibis dale is 26,246 a bt Ip, aud

the following acreage has been disposed of for cash: s.suctions' containing 416 a

Or 18p, realising £687 3s 8d ; deferred ■* payments, 9 sections containing 144 a, annual instalments £26 13s ; on perpetual

lease, 35‘sect ions containing 2598 a3r Ip, V annual rent S2BO 6s 84. These figures A show that the land baa not been taken up speculators, but, on the contrary, has / lean acquired by small holders for bona ] We settlement. The new Land Act does ; not interfere with the sale of land for village settlements, and as I know Mr is very pleased with the success of these settlements in CanterAnbury, I am certain ho will «ive every fy rfDoonragemeDt to this form of settlement. I As we all know, there is no department of /i Government about which there has been greater dissatisfaction expressed throughout the length and breadth of the colony than the RAILWAY DEPARTMENT, and one of the Government measures •f last session was the Railway Bill. By this Bill the entire management of the railways is to bo handed over to a board of three eommissioners appointed for fve years. A similar system is alleged to bo working satisfactorily in Victoria, and several of the other colonies seam likely to adopt it. I look upon this some- * what in the light of an experiment, which I can only say I hope will bo successful/ Whether it will be successful or not do-

pend# very much upon the choice of the commissioners. I am sorry that the motion to establish a different board for each a Island, for which 1 voted, was not carried. The circumstances ef the railways in the one Island are so different from (hose of the other, that it would have been better to have appointed two boards. I will proceed now to make some remarks concerning the loan policy, of last sessien. As you are aware, lam a strong opponent of further borrowing, and in order that you may understand how it w*s that the House was reluctantly

... compelled to sunstion tlie Loan Bill of last Session, I must make a short explanation ‘of the Public Works account. When the present Ministry took office the Public Works fund, which is divided iito three accounts, stood as follows J No. 1 account, consisting of the balancss of loan raised prior to 1886, which wore not specifically appropriated to any particular works, but are available for general works, such as roads to open up Crown lands, public buildings, school buildings, purchase of Native lands, telegraph extension, hartour defences, etc. This account, after providing for liabilities ■ incurred and engagements up to the 30th J of September last, was overdrawn io the T extent of £134,000. No 2. account is the . account dealing with the North Island Trunk Railwaj Loan. This Loan, which was authorised in 1882, has never been raised, but there has been spent on this work up to the. 30th September last the i aum of £384,700, and on that data there were liabilities actually incurred to the amount of £137,400, leaving only available the sum of £477,1100. No. 3 account deals with the loan of £1,325,000, authorised in 1886 t» be,raised for railway construction for particular railways mentioned in the Act. On the 30th September last there was £556,645 of this loan (which was actually raised) speni, with liabilities amounting, to £304,000, thus leaving only available a balance of £252,000 out of this loan. The Loan Act of last session authorised £500,000 to be L yaiaed for the purposes of the No. 1 of which amount the Stout- ~ Yogel Ministry had actually forestalled £134,000, as 1 have already shown. As tbu account includes all public works constructed oat of loan except railways, I, for one, will be perfectly satisfied if the expenditure of this balance of £366,000 will suffice for the next three years to p»7 f« r the hundred-and-ono works of this sort which are constantly being demanded, The Government proposed to allot £70,000 of this loan to the purposes of immigration, but this was not carried, and the sum of £7»,000 remain, nnallotted. As to the No. 2 account (th* North Island Trunk Loan) the £1,000,000 to be raised for this"'account, more than half of which has been spent, is, as 1 hare •hown, not a fresh loan, and the present Parliament is not responsible tor ij. As to the No., 3 account, for which £600,000 , of fresh loan was authorised, although in W the present circumstances of the colony, X am, as you know, averse to the construction of fresh railways, it waa impossible to get the House to take this so many members were interested in/ works now going' on, and for which further Bljms were rrquired. We must, however, congratulate ourselves that we succeeded in getting a pledge inserted in 4he Act preventing us from borrowing for three years. The net amount of VBSSH BORROWING authorised for public work* of Just session, and which has to supply all.our wants for the next three' years, is only about £836,000. There is, however, a further aum of £400,000, Jor which, under the Public Revenues Act, the Govsrnmeut were authorised to issue short-dated debentures. Nearly all this aum waa required to take up dificiency bills issued by the Stout-Yogel Ministry to maet the large deficit on the ordinary revenue and Land Fund for the last two years, and £40,000 ft year is to be set aaide from the investments of the Sinking Fund, under the Consolidated Loans Act, 1867, toward* paying off these short-dated debentures. The

MIDLAND BAIL'WAT QUESTION iras one which took up a great deal of the time of Parliament last session, and an Act was parsed by which a moditisd contract juay be entared into by the Government. Under the old contract it seems doubtful if Abe Government could s*t up*rt lands foi mining purposes in the authorised j*rea. Company also contended that if the land grant they are tn receive does not realise £1,250,000 they have the right of selecting other lands for the purnos# of niakiog up the deficiency ; m «lher words, that th»re is an implied fcuarautse in the contract that all the land iboy are to receive is worth 10s an acre, (Tnder the proposed new contract the Government »n set apart 750,000 acres of land in the aiuhorised ar»a for mining purposes. This i» » great concession, to the mining interests, an<i the Company arJXiecT'to take £1,250.000 worth of Crown land from any land not reserved .for any special purpose in the authorised ,aua. but■ they ate not to have any .claim- to any land outside the authorised area, which i s bounded .on the south by the Uahai*. Ine •Company ar* also to start coostruct-

ing blocks of the railway at Springfield on the Canterbury side, and at Belgrove at the Nelson end, as well as at Srunnerlon, where they have hitherto boon working, the Government undertaking to work these sections when completed for five years, and to pay the. Company 40 per cent, of the gross takings. I consider the country will be in a much better position under the new contract than under the old one. As yet we have not heard of the Company signing the modified contract. The principal matter of purely local interest to this district which cropped up last session was Mr Macarthur’s HOSPITAL BILL, one clause of which provided for tin* separation of the Waimate County from the South Canterbury Hospital District. Mr Turnbull and I received petitions from every local body in our constituencies, a-kiog us to oppose this clause. lam very glad the Act was not pusei-d, and 1 shall do my bast to oppose it nexf session, when, no doubt, it will be brought on again. There has bean « good deal said, in the House and out of ii, about the so-called YOUNG NEW ZEALAND FARIT, and »a the youngest member of the House, and a New Zealander by birth, it will not be out of place to make some reference to the subject. As a party, if we may be so called, we met on seveial occasions, once for convivial purposes. As the party contained members of both sides 'of the House, and of every shade of political opinions, it was of course impossible that wo could act collectively in matters of ordinary parly politics. Bui lam thankful to say that wo did some service to the country of our birth by making a stand against a number of bills authorising extravagant borrowing for new harbors. Difficult as it is at auy lime to FORECAST TIE FUTURE, it is atill more difficult at the present time, owing to the departure from the colony of Sir Julius Vogel, to predict the course of events in the coming session. The absence of Sir Julius Vogel from the House next session will, in my opinion, be a source of weakness to the present Government. One of the measures which the Government are pledged to bring forward next session is a

FAIR RENT BILL, by which a Court to bo created for purpose will fix fair rents in the case of leases of public lands. As you are no doubt aware, many persons are holding public lands which belong to various endowments, at rentals fixed some years ago, which have, owing to the altered circumstances of farming, become exorbitant, and however anxious the authorities are to meet the tenants by a fair reduction, they are unable to do so ; hence the proposed measure. Another subject which will take up our attention next session is the proposal of the Government to

REFORM THE PROCEDURE OF THE HOUSE. Nothing strikes a new member so much as the waste of the time of the House in various ways under the present system. The details of the proposed changes have already been made public, and you will no donbt remember th-it one of th'Bß proposals is that the House should sit in the morning, I think this would bo almost impracticable, as it would interfoie with the Commitioe work, with which onr mornings are mostly occupied, borne of the couifiiitif e«, for example, the Public Petition CoimnUtee, of which I was a member, sat nearly every morning lust session, and Ido not see how the committee work can be done if the House sits in the morning. Moreover, I think the morning sittings will bo unnecessary if the other proposals for saving the time of the House are carried. However, there is no doubt that under the present system the time of the House is sadly wasted, and I hope that some useful reforms will be introduced at tho commencement of the next session to prevent the waste of time io future. THE NATIVE LAND QUESTION

is not one which ia usually supposed to have much interest for a southern audience, but properly considered it doe* concern us very much, for, it is of vital importance to us to have the land in the North liland fully occupied and brought into cultivation. The Native policy of the Stout-Yogel Ministry was to tie up the Native lands, so that neither did the Natives enjoy the full benefit of ownership, nor were Europeans able to acquire them. I fchink itim* has coma when the Natives should be put p i an equal footing with the Europeans, and be allowed the same liberties with regard to their property, and be lUble to the same responsibilities. This view was advocated last session by one of the Native Representatives, Mr Carroll, one of the most intelligent members of the House. X understand the Government are prepared io meet the wish of the Natives in this direction. Undoubtedly the main fight of tha next session will over the BEf'WfQN 0f XflE TAKIPD'. The position wiil fie this» that although the Savina’s effected by retrenchment and the reorganisation of the Civil Service, and the increase <#the property tax, which we raised last session to Id in the £—will probably meet the deficiency in the revenue, yet more revenue ni l be necessary in the future, because there ate some items of expenditure which have hitherto been defrayed out of loan which will henceforth have to be provided for out of revenue. The question will then arise, How is this extra revenue to be raised ? 1 don’t think it would be wise to increase the property tax, as t,o dp so must check the flow of foreign capital into the country, which would have a most disastrous result. Nor do I think that any further burden I can be placed on the local rates. It, therefore, follows that some extra revenue must be raised by the Customs duties. I shall, however, oppose any duties which are put on for purely Pro-, tective purposes, and X do this not merely on the ground that such duties are in themselves objectionable, but because all Protective duties in so far as they exclude foreign goods fail to produce revenue. Notwithstanding nil the talk about the strength of the Protectionist party in the House, the Fjeetrade party ia still a powerful one, and if will be found, when w® come to discuss the (tariff item by item, the Protectionists will be so divided-~as was strikingly shown when the coal duties were umH discussion last session—that I have no fear but that the Freetraders will be able to resist any serious in the tamfE of a Protectionist nature. Victoria is const-mil} being .quoted to us as «n example of the blessings of Protection, but we see there that the protected industries are constantly clamoring for further increases of toe

alroiiily lit'li duties, in order to keep I heir factories ' £oing. And the fanning interests, which have hitherto been the groat soffure's by the duties, are now demanding Protection on their own account. They already have a protective duty on oats and dairy produce, and they are now clamoring for an expert bounty of Is a bushel on wheat. Nothing more strikingly shows the fallacy of Protection than this. We see also that in America, for many years the stronghold of Protection, that they are now awakening to a sense of its evils and there seems every probability of a reduction of the wool and other duties being carried before very long, I will uow say a few words about

THE RABBIT QUESTION which, when you consider how the depredation committed by the rabbits have already affected our pastoral rents, and what a large area of country they have lenderod useUas, is really one of the moat important questions of the day. Bor the last three years a Joint Committee of both Houses has sat to deal with the rabbit question, and they recommended the erection of a rabbit-proof fence along the southern boundary of Canterbury. We aro indebted to the Btout-Vogel Ministry for this fence. Shortly before their resignation, I believe only a faw days, they accepted a contract for 42 miles of fencing material, but they had no opportunity of providing for its erection. It seemed to mo that as the material bad bean ordered and had to be paid for, it was a monstrous absurdity not to erect it. 1 accordingly did my best to get the present Government to proceed with its erection, and as you know, Mr G, H. Richardson, the present Minister of Lands, paid a special visit to the district and examined the proposed line of fencing, with the result that the erection of the fence is being proceeded with, though tire lino of fence is to be on the north side of the Tasman instead of on the southern side, as Mr Kichardson found it impossible to erect a fence on the south bank. Wo have heard a great deal about the various proposals of Messrs Pasteur and others for exterminating the rabbits by disease. 1 think the present Ministry are acting wisely in deciding to wait until the experiments aro •horouglily tested before running the risk of importing new diseases into the co'ony. 1 should now like to say something about the GENERAL CONDITION OF THE COLONY. We have been passing through a period of grave depression, which ha# been caused partly by the great fall in prices of our staple products, a fall which is not merely local, but huJ taken place all oyer the world ; and partly by the reaction from the period of inflation and spoculolion, brought about by the lavish and often injudicious expenditure of borrowed money. But, notwithstanding this, the progress of the country in the Lai few years has been very considerable, both in agricultural and industrial pursuits, and will, I am sure, continue now that wo are, both in public and private, practising economy. The following figures will give you some proof that we have not been standing still. Our exports in wml have increased from 59,415,940 b in 1881 to 90,853,7441 b weight in 1886 ; butter from 2426 cwt in 1881 to 231750 wt in 1886; cheese from 3056 cwt in 3 881 to 16429 cwt in 1886 ; frozen mutton from nil in 1881 to 316,055c«t in 1880 ; bacon and hams from 138owt in 1881 to 10.440 cwt in 1886 ; salt beef and pork from 1456 cwt io 15,800 cwt. The population, excluding Maoris, increased by 89,000 ; the total number of bands employed in the manufactures from 17,938 in 1881 to 25,655 ; and the pounds of wool used from 950,000 to 1,927,932, W« have beard a good deal during the last two or three months of the alleged exodus to Australia. No doubt a certain number of men h*vo left us for Australia, but when wo consider the mining mania that exists there, 1 do not wonder that a certain number should go. The extent of the exodus is greatly exaggerated. On looking at the returns for the laat four months L find that it was only in February and March that the balance of departures over arrivals have been against U”. In the early days of the breaking out of the. gold diggings here, there was a much greater (X)dusfrom Australia to this colony. I think that before very , long many of those who may now leave us will be only too glad to come back. The labor market in Melbourne appears to bn very much overstocked, and wages are lower, and living d -a'or, tmti in New Zealand. And 1 expect before long there will be a great reap'ion in Melbourne, as the land and mining fever seems to have reached its height ihere, and there must be a disastrous reaction. CONCLUSION. X must now thank you for the patient hearing you have given mo, and am ready to answer any questions you may desire to ask.

A number of questions were asked and replied to, mid a vote of thanks and confidence was carried unanimously.

[We are compelled to hold over the questions which were asked. They will appear jn our next issue.]