Last Night's Sitting.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3592, 1 July 1880, Page 2

Last Night's Sitting.

} i The House resumed at 7.30. M r Scddon spoke for fonr hours and a quarter. He advocated a license fee of £'J0 a year to lawyers and doctors.

M.v .\- Alkinson said the main error of \'<:-.•.'■ 1 h\h,\ Works policy was its not i Lutuafs abolished^ the provinces when initiated.- Hci defended himself from the Tsfc&ge W^SH^L^&ia^oivT***. sury Bill*. During tfeSfc whole of bis former term of office, th& Treasury Bills afloat had only been increaSf* «# £300,000. When he left office and Bi\G- Grey got in, there was £919,00,0 in fhe Treasury; or fully £100,000 over thewnKu^ cien*'t0 proriio for all liabilities. 'Th^^^^Pvernmeht had also had a loan of^^M^p* to spend, and. they were ves^^^ieWJ^ the present state of afFairs^Mrß^llai^ for having persuaded the people,they had the means which they had not; Mr ' Macandrew for having manufactured a paper on the Land Fund, and piMTe'e'ded to spend it; and Sir &. Grey more than all, because as Premier he could hare Btopped that with a word; Durittg their term of office they had spent £11^243,000. and left liabilities of £3,Q00,00^ < ?ne people of the colony were not to blame, because as soon as they could make their voices heard they hurled those gentlemen from office. It was they who had caused the necessity for increased taxation, and before they left office they-had bills prepared to impose an Income Tax, and raise the Land Tax to two pence an. acre, a far more crushing taxation, than that .now proposed by Government who would not ask the House to interfere about Minister's salaries. They would simply cease to draw,/ the full amounts; If^ they had not done more in retrenchment, it was because last session ended at Christmas,

rations ha< »>ort v aDd theicya! Comcollecting Jr en »PP°'--?ted to assist in Sill cont'S> ll fipanc" P^posals till the f'T'^F l-«* was before the House. As to locis ' - „ I .» were open: ?*]* three co^' ea out of tho :i,'l° abollß. h th? m > PV the, m • *-«« Q «^' ♦.»^3» or rttise tQe amount by ySSfiAfen. They^ chose* the J3&P--7*' rx'HeGov*a»aeat wore in earnest about retrenc'ifttcjjt f'^-key could- effect this by dismis'ii • v.htch>suld not hare immediate efr^-t !» sating as compensation wutA bo paid '^y redac* ing salaries roundj^and by i dismissing the convenienceii|Torded the I public they would act immediJ*tely "m*iae " '.two latter di^cti- :.n. Alr^y the de* partmental oßtimpttl^ «"e?*e £105,000 belovr those ofi 18/c<,^2;>.s '^fiitt ten of the principal classes, ua<T a»^>i«ister« now fouud the Houb ■ T«ally istfaraest, each minister when h\a depa^&entsl estimate was in Comniittee would endeavour to make the House agree to what* erer * further reductions were • possible. The; amount of extra taxation proposed was only £240,000 otcr that proposed in 1878 9. He defended the Property Tax at length, and laid so far from driving capital away the monetary institutions did not object to & »nd he knew that large amounts of foreign capital were flowing in for investnift. Ke hoped the Property TBxyftluatfc^oufilf^lrcnwiUy accepted by the loogibodies, dnd'he condemned the Land^BK especially as a means' of burattnjg-^^afae Estates, bat the Govern* ment felt 1W- strongly the evil of large family estates that next year they pro* posed to/ 1 jntfcjidnca , a bill, to prohibit entail and regulate , the bequest of land. He had. been unwillinglsg forced to the Beer) Tax, tfie e«P| mate 3of its yield were baseor on the previous, short experience of it, but in* stead at yielding more revenue than estimated, the returns so far indicated that it would yield £40,000 a year less. Regarding public works they could not stop altogether—they must complete workf which would bring ma return, or render other works more profitable, but they must strictly confine themselves to necessary and reproductive works, and spend on these very gradually, io as to extend over the next two years. Ho advised th& House, after settling the question before it, to go on with the Estimates, reffseto pass more than a very few necessary bills, and leave Ministers with along recess to devote them* selves to real work' of reform. There watt no need of a panic. With thrift and prudence the colony covld easily meet its difficulties, but the people must exercise self-denial and abandon luxuries. Mr DeLautouc moved the adjournment of the debate, and the {fouse rose eft mid* nieht. - * » -

L. H