GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2530, 18 July 1893, Page 3

GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. The Council met at 2.30 p.ra. on Friday. REPLIES TO QUESTIONS. Sir Patrick Buckley, replying to Mr Hart, said that no bookmakers pay a license fee to the Government for attending races, nor are they licensed, and no fees are paid. The amount received by the Government up to the end of the financial year from the tax on the totalisator was £IO,BOO. Mr Aclaud drew attention to the alarming increase of rabbits in South Canterbury, and asked if steps would be taken to inquire into the plague, with a view to stop its ravages. Sir Patrick Buckley said that the Chief Inspector had examined the country, and had appointed sub-inspectors, which action he trusted would have the effect of abating the nuisance. PAYMENT OF MEMBERS BILL. On the motion for the committal of the Payment of Members Bill, Sir Patrick Buckley, replying to Mr Reynolds, said that he would consult his colleagues to see whether the recently-appointed members of the Council should be the victims of a defective law, though he feared that the Legislative Council would be opposed to retrospective legislation. The Bill was reported, read a third time, and passed. COMPANIES BRANCH REGISTRATION BILL. The Companies Branch Registration Bill was put through Committee, read a third time, and passed. The Council adjourned till Tuesday. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. The House met at 2.30 p.m. on Friday. LICENSING BILL. Sir Robert Stout introduced the Licensing Act, 1881, Amendment Bill. OLD SOLDIERS AND VOLUNTEERS CLAIMS. Replying to Mr R. Thompson, the Premier said that he should consider whether he would this session set up a Special Committee to consider any fresh claims of old soldiers and volunteers.

A lengthy discussion arose on the whole question of those claims and was carried on for upwards of two hours. Several members took strong objection to the action of the Government in refusing to answer questions, and another discussion, lasting for nearly an hour, ensued. Mr George Hutchison, Captain Russell, and others, declared that they would put the questions standing in their names day after day until they were answered by Ministers.

The debate had not concluded when the House took the 5.30 p.m. adjournment. The House resumed at 7.30 p.m, THE FINANCIAL DEBATE.

Mr Moore resumed the debate on the Financial Statement, and in his speech urged that some Minister should be put up to answer Sir John Hall’s speech on Wednesday evening. Mr Willis congratulated Mr Ward on his able Statement, and said that although the Opposition attacked it, they were not able to find much fault with it.

Mr Bruce said in consequence of his retiring from public life for a time, and probably for ever, he had intended to be comparatively silent this session, but he wished now to say a..few words. What right or title, he asked, had the present Government to the name of Liberals ? Was it because they brought down a list of rubbishy legislation that simply harassed people, and were very far removed from the Liberal principles of Bright and Cobden ? A Liberal Government had more than once landed this colony in disaster, and it had taken all the efforts of our best public men to extricate it from that position. Speaking on the question of taxation, he said that the Government were taxing most heavily the industrial classes of the colony, and that the graduated tax was a disgrace to the (Statute Book. The fact was that the Government in increasing the graduated tax were bowing the knee to the Trades and Labor Councils. He referred at length to the laud for settlement and cooperative labor questions, saying that the latter was open to great abuses, and was likely to prove a powerful political lever at election time. In his opinion the Government policy on the whole would not stand the test of analysis, and Ministers were unworthy of the confidence of the people of the colony. Mr Reeves said that he should not have risen at such a late hour were it not for the fact that Ministers had been taunted with not replying to some of the speeches from the Opposition members. Referring to Mr Bruce’s speech he regretted that that gentleman intended retirement. His boasted Liberalism, however, was that of sixty years ago, and very much behind the times. He denied that the Government had yielded to the clamour of the Trades and Labor Councils when they decided to raise the graduated tax. There had certainly been n© general demand for such a change, but if so, was it not to the credit of the colony that instead of urging the reduction on the necessaries of life, which directly affected them, they should first of all advocate a change from the property tax to the land and income tax which did not affect them at all ? He held that his party ceuld fairly claim thit they had contributed their share towards the improved prosperity of the colony for the last year or two, and that they had absolutely falsified the predictions which had been uttered as to the effect of their advent to power. Hq defended the Premier from the charge of making an attack on Sir H. Atkinson personally. It was quite true that Mr Seddon had attacked Sir Harry Atkinson’s administration, but however much a man’s loss was to be regretted, one must criticise his work as a public man. Sir John Hall’* intended retirement from public life was to be regretted, for he had been a politician of whom his party might be pr<>ll4 ? and whow bis opponents might revere. Several of Sir John Hall’s statements in his speech the other evening were open to question, and his contentions with regard to the genuineness of the surplus were all astray. Another charge that he had made against the Government was that of carrying on the public works policy on the strength of the proceeds of conversion, but he (Mr Reeves) pointed out that the receipts from that source were £222,000, and that the Government could not have carried on for two and a-half years on ih p+ amount. The Government 1 •" mined to maintid~ ™' ere deter- . -XL a strong finance, and txiey refused to heedlessly reduce taxation to enable them to do so. The Opposition had raised a cry about the tax on improvements, which they alleged was a tax on industry, but now that the Government had taken off that impost, they wore still attacked for doing so. There were two reasons why the Cheviot estate was purchased by the Government, namely, to protect their finance and to encourage settlement. He defended the graduated tax at great length, and said it must remain a policy tax not for the purpose of bursting up large estates suddenly, but to c impel their owners to sub-divide them in a gradual manner. Mr Geoi’ge Hutchison

had attacked the Government for not being strong enough to gain the confidence

| of the country, but the question was not } whether members had confidence in the Government, but whether their party and the country had confidence in them. They deeply regretted the loss of their late leader, but they were honestly endeavoring to carry out the legacy left by him. They would go to the country to let it judge whether they were not honestly striving to do so. He maintained that the Government were prepared to carry out the Liberal programme, and that they claimed to represent the views of the majority of the people, Mr Mitchelson moved the adjournment of the debate. The motion was agreed to. PRIVATE MEMBERS’ BILLS. Mr George Hutchison wished the House to meet on Monday at 2.30 to consider the private members’ Bills which were on the Order Paper. This suggestion did not meet with the approval of members. The House rose at 12.35 a.m.