THE Temuka Leader THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1893. PLURAL VOTING.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2561, 28 September 1893, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1893. PLURAL VOTING.

Sie John Hall has been banquetted by his political friends to commemorate his retirement from public life. Sir John Hall, notwithstanding his gridironing of land, was not the worst on his side of tho House. On the land question he was extremely Conservative, and yet there were, and are still, some more so. For instance, in 188 b, at the request of Major Steward, the Atkinson Ministry placed £IO,OOO on the Estimates to buy land for settlement purposes in this part of the colony. Sir John Hall voted for this, but our own Mr Rhodes voted against it, and it was lost by one vote. Only for that, £IO,OOO would have been spent in South Canterbury on settling people on the land, but very little has been done since. Sir John Hall was an ardent believer in protecting our industries, and in many other respects he was far more Liberal than his colleagues in the Opposition. One thing which can be said without fear of contradiction is that he has left no one in the ranks of the Opposition fit to fill \he position he has vacated, or.who will command such widespread respect. While admitting his many admirable qualities, however, we desire to call atteution to some remarks made by him in his speech in reply to the toast of his health, last Saturday evening. Iu the Press of Tuesday he is reported to have said:—

" There were, however, two subjects which to his mind were of so great importance that he was anxious to commend them to the care of those wl-o were going to remain in public life. Tiie first was obtaining for minorities fair representation. Until that was provided the people of New Zealand as a whole would not be properly represented in the Legislature. The majority was represented but a minority, deserving consideration from its experience, its education, its services to the colony, and its contributions to colonial prosperity and revenue, was not fairly represented." The other reform which Sir John Hall referred to is that the Legislative Council should bo elective, but we shall deal with the representation of minorities first. Now it will be seen that the minority which Sir John Hall desires to see specially represented is the one whose " experience, education, services to the colony, aud contribution to colonial prosperity and revenue" entitle it to consideration. What class answers this description ! Is it nob the wealthy class which has education and experience and contributes the largest sum to the revenue. For this class Sir John Hall wants special representation, and the question is: How is he to get it ? There was started iu Auckland a year or two ago a political organisation which called itself the National Liberal Association. It is still in existence, and only a few days ago several ladies joined it, and it his branches all over the Now one of the planks of the optional Liberal Association is to give two vouf* 3 to men of property and only one vote to poor people. The Honorable Johu Bryce started a branch of the association in Martoii, Rawgitikoi, and he moved the resolution endorsing this, and in several of his speeches he also said that men of property should have two votes. Now what we want to know is, Is this the special representation Sir John Hall has recommended his friends to work for? Sir John Hall has not said so, neither has he specified what he meant, but readiug between the liues it is plain that this is exactly what Us means, and that if the Conservatives get into power two votes will be given to the rich and oiie to the poor. This is woath thinking over at the present time.

BORROWING ON THE SLY. The Honorable Mr Bryeo made a violent speech against the Government At the banquet given to Sir John Hall last Saturday evening. After working himself up into hysterics over the wickedness of the present government, he said " it was his firm belief tkai UP New Zealand | .Government ever relied on borrowed 1 ta(Wi*y .so much as the present Goyprumen* l'<^ ed on borrowed money in its wori form, k tha ho P e that it would be concealed from *J° public. Now we have heard enough of this n.'.? ane raving about borowing on the sly, as it is called, bat no one has yet shown how it is done. Do these people think that the public are so gullible that they will accept the ipse dixit of everyone who cau stand up and shriek " borrowing on the | sly," in preference to the public records i of the colony ? There is in this colony a gentleman who is officially styled the Controller-General, and his business is to prevent! the Government dealing with any money except in a manner provided for by Act of Parliament. This officer is completely independent of the Government, and would report to Parliament if anything had been done wrong. Then every session Parliament appoints the Public Accounts Committee, whose business it is to examine all the Accounts of the Government to see that nothing wrong has been done. Then there is Her Majesty's Opposition, led by Mr Rollestou, and there never yet has been a more unscrupulous Opposition in New Zea and, or one more regardless of the pauona of good, taste mi geotjeawpl/

feeling whoa criticising their opponents. Now neither the Ooutroller-*ieneral nor the Public Accounts Committee, nor Her Majesty's Opposition hsve been able to put their finger on the spot where this money is borrowed on the sly from. On the other hand, we find the Colonial Treasurer and Minister of Public Works telling us where they got every penny of the money they have speut. They say they hod ouer half-a million surplus, that they got £160,000 from loan conversions, also small balances from old loans, which, by economical management, they have been able to spin out, and thus they account for it all, and yet we are asked to believe, without one single bit of evidence, that they are borrowing on the sly. Friend and foe alike united in complimenting Mr Ward on having produced the most straightforward and the clearest statement of the colony's position in his Financial Statement that had ever been delivered, yet the men who complimented him then now aay that he is borrowing on the sly. This is on a par with the " frightened capital" cry, and the people will not believe it. The fact is, the Conservatives are so dazzled by the splendor of the success of the financial policy of the Government that they do not know how to account for it, and have to invent cries of this kind.

THF LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. In his speech at the , banquet Sir John Hall suggested to his political friends to make the' Legislative Council elective. Mr Rolleston favours the same idea, so does Mr Rhodes, but it is very remarkable that it is only recently this notion entered the Conservative mind. We want people to understand this point clearly. If the Council were made elective, the electors would not be the same as those of the Lower House, That, people may as well understand at once, because if the electors were the same in both cases the two Houses would be so much alike that a second chamber would be a superfluity. This is not what the Conservatives want. Their idea is to make the Legislative Council elective by men of property only, and the effect of that would be that no Liberal measure would ever be allowed to pass. At present the Government can compel the Council to pass its measures by making fresh appointments, as was done last jear. If the Council were elected on a property qualification the Government could do nothing, for all Liberal legislation would be blocked. It would be as bad as giving two votes to the rich, and one to the poor. These are two reforms Sir John Hall has recommended his friends to carry out—that is, special representation of minorities, cjusisting of the educated classes who contribute largest to the revenue, and an elective Legislative Council. We recommend electors to keep their eyes wide open with regard to these measures. MUTILATION OF BILLS. It will bo remembered that it was with great difficulty the Government were able to make twelve newappointmentstothe Legislative Council last year. It was alleged that they were not necessary, but this view of the case cannot be borne out by the action of the Council with regard to Government Bills. The Shop and Shop Assistants Bill was thrown out by 25 to 11, Mr HicharJson, ouo of the new councillors, voting with the majority. The next thing the Council did was to mutilate the Railway Bill, by 21 to 14, and next the Conciliation and Arbitration Bill was destroyed. All this was done in one sitting and shows the temper that august body was-in. Sir Patrick Buckley said in all his expefleiVce he '"never knew the representative of the Government to be so insulted as he had been that day. It is no use for the Lower House to be passing bills, if they are to be flung out in this fashion, and the result will be that another batch of councillors will have to be appointed. This is very much to be regretted as it means additional expense to the country, but when the Council is so unreasonable as to reject measures year after year in this way nothing else can bo done.