Ministerial Deliverance in Christchurch.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4433, 20 March 1883, Page 2

Ministerial Deliverance in Christchurch.

THE HON. H. A. ATKINSON ON THE STUMP. / :">

(Per Press Association.)

Chbistchubch, Monday, j Major Atkinson addressed a.meeting at the Oddfellows' Hall to-night. The Mayor of Christchuroh occupied the chair. There were about 500 persons present. Major Atkinson was warmly received,'and thanked the public for the cordial way in which they had responded to the invitation to meet him. This he took as an evidence of the activity of political thought in the district. One of the difficulties which public men had to contend with was that of knowing what public opinion was. From this it followed that mosVof the public men of New Zealand were only known locally. This arose from the way in which the country had been settled from several centres; they had thus the advantages that various types of men were growing up in various places, and the difficulties caused by the country being dominated by oue large centre were absent. On the other band, in various Go vernments men had been chosen, not because of their aptitude, but because they came from certain districts. This was a disadvantage, bo lie had determined to let the electors have an opportunity of judging of himself «o far as they could by hearing him deliver public addressee. It was uaneces* {

sary for him to say he was a strong party man ; parties were necessary for successful government. He could understand the necessity of men sometimes sinking their differences, and combining for the general good. He was not going to deal with party questions now. He would ask them to consider what he would submit to them on its merits. He intended to make some remarks on the constitution, taxation, the land question, and pauperism.; That night he would deal with the first, three, leafing the fourth for the next night. Before pro ceedihg it was necessary to take a glance at the colony as it was. It bad a most beautiful climate, and was a country able to support many millions of people; an' energetic, capable population, possessing the virtues of their fathers, and also many of their vices. Their uett public debt amounted to £27,000,030. The indebtedness of local bodies was over £3.000,003,— a total of 31,000,000. It was also indebted to foreign capitalists on mortgage on estates to the extent of £16,000,000 more. The public assets were the Crown lands, railways and telegraphs, which amounted to over 21,000,000. No doubt they could wipe out the public debt by parting with these assets, though he, for his part, hoped they wonld not be so foolish. The total assets, public and private, of the colony were 157,000 000; so that after paying off the public debt they had £100,000,000 to the good. The colony had great advantages in the way of national communication, and one of the finest fleets of steamers a colony, overbad. With regard to the question of the constitution, that it was thoroughly democratic no one would deny. It, how ever, possessed certain faults ; first, as to the size of the electorates. It was a disputed point whether small or large constituencies were the best. He thought large constituencies were preferable in old communities. It had been found that in a newly-settled country, if large constituencies were formed, all the political power was in the hands of one ceutre; that, however, would disappear as the colony became more settled. In small electorates local interest was apt to be too prevalent; men were returned not from their ability, but because they would get roads and bridges for their districts; so it would be wise to consider if, in the future, large constituencies would not be desirable. The present system of elections might be improved upon. He thought that better men would be returned :, by adopting the Hare system. With regard to the Legislative Council, i.t had been accused of thwarting the will of the people, and also of want of capacity. He ventured to say it had been of great use to the colony. (" No ; no ;" and "Hear, hear") Never once bad it stood between legislation and the will of the people. It bad acted as a salutary check upon, hasty legislation. The time was coming when its constitution must be altered. (Hear, hear.) Now bad the electors thought out the question how it was to be altered ? (Yes.) He was delighted to hear it, and hoped those who bad some practical scheme would quickly enlighten the colouy. (A voice: "Bring your own out first.") That was what he was going to do. There was great danger in-having two elective Houses unless their functions were clearly defined. Even in that case the best men would gravitate to one House or the other, and the difficulty: then was to get enough capable men to fill both Houses. They must, however, apply the elective principle to both Houses soon. There were two courses: either to; make two constituences of the two islands, and elect the Upper House by the votes on the present electoral rolls. The Hare system could be advantageously applied to the election of the Upper House, or the House of Representatives might elect the Upper House. He preferred the former. With regard to the functions of Government he believed tliat these, in a democratic country, had no natural limits. It appeared to him that <he only limit was what could be most profitably done for the welfare of the people,—so, when it was said that such and such things were outside the function of Government, he'did not heed unless it were proved that they could be better done by private individuals The very idea of a democratic Government was that it was an embodiment of the people; therefore he hoped when-ever-a scheme was opposed they would not pnoh-pooh it because it was said to be outside the function of Government. No doubt it was undesirable that a central Government should absorb all the power of the people, and, therefore, too much centralism was objectionable. Taxation was usually oonsidered rather a dry question till the tax collector came to the door; so, while political matters were quiet, he wished them to consider it. Taxation was unjust if it bore unfairly on any class. The four canons of taxation were: Equality, certainty, convenience,, and economy. They should try their taxation by those standards. It was im | possible to provide any one tax which' would meet all these requirements. A variety of taxes was needed so that all classes should pay their fair share, as a class tax was not one paid by any particular class, but one which was imposed ou one class without other classes being called on to pay a corresponding tax< The Land Tax was a class tax—-("No, no;." "Hear, hear-"—because it touched only! on those who possessed land, and unless: they had a tax pressing in an equal degree on holders of other kinds of property it was a class tax. (Hear, hear.) One taxation was of two classes ; taxation proper, as Customs and Stamp duties,, which' yielded £1,950,000; and taxation for cervices rendered, as railways, <fee, which raised £1,350,000. One half of the Cus : toms was on spirits, wines, and tobacco. This was an important fact, and had a great bearing on pauperism. If they added the duty on colonial beer, they would find that £762,000 was paid annually on drink and smoke in the colony. It fell short of this in 1170, and a great effort had to be made to increase it, so the- Customs were increased. It was objected by some that it was foolish to increase Cvs 7 toms, and that the lower they were the more they would realise. Now these, critics forgot that we we were a people who were determined to have what we ' like to eat and drink, chance what it cost. , In au old country, it was difficult to make any .reductiun of duty which brought things within, the reach of people who { could not enjoy them before. He was satisfied that the imposition of this extra two per cent, on spirits and tobacco had not led to the smuggling, which had been referred to in a Christchurch newspaper, In 1879 there had been in the amount of spirits consumed a fall of two pints per. head of the adult male population; a further fall took place in 1880; but in 1881 it rose again to 17-| pints per head. The fact that the revenue had ngt fallen off showed that there had been bo systematic illicit distillation or smuggling. There had been a great improvement in

the habits of the people in this respeer. ( voice: "Hard times.") He would have been pleased had he been able to promise a reduction in Custom duties, but he could not, and so far aB smuggling and illicit distillation were concerned there was no necessity for it. He considered that, on the whole, taxation was rery fairly levied in New Zealand. To find out whether this was so he had divided tbe population into three classes, viz.: property tax class, intermediate class, and industrial class. , mitting spirits and tobacco, the duty on which was a sort of voluntary'"lax," the industrial class—consisting of 324,000 people—paid £280,000, or 17s 3d per head; the intermediate, 96,000, paid £256,000, or £2 13s 3d each;. the property class, 68,000, paid £31G,000_ or £4 10s 10* d each. He thought there could be no fairer ;tax,7than, the Property Tax, for it was taketf from property after deducting liabilities, and au Income Tax dealt with so much of a man's property as he chose to make reproductive. If a man with a large capital chose to invest' it so as' to return only £800, income ta* would bepaid-,on that sum, while a poorer man, in trade) who had to get a return of 20 per cent, from his money, so as to get a total income of £2000, in order to meet the expenses of his business, had to pay a tax on that sum ; a result' which was manifestly unfair. The Property Tax touched*--* both men fairly, as it made each contribute on capital. Property Tax also included land, which now paid as much as under a Land Tax, and as the land increased in value so the tax on it increased'' -t A Laid Tax caused a permanent depreciation inthfe value of property, as a man who held land would naturally deduct the J capitalised value of tbe annual tax from what he paid for it,, so the present holder was the;oafy person who was reached by the ' t«x. If land was being held in large estates to the detriment of the country the State should at once determine what amount.of land a man might hold with advantage to' the public. The owner must be : fairly cpja^ pensated, but the State, must take the land. (Hear, hear.) Taxation must greatly depend upon what people^ determined to have spent, so thatj with the people rested the amount of taxatioriV It was difficult to be ; economical in; this colony, as people would not give up there public conveniences, yet they expected to escape taxation. If the public desired a reduction of expenditure they must exercise a much greater degree of self denial. He need not say much about loans and public works, as the proposals of Government extending over three years had already been approved by -Parliament. He would say, however, that it was desirable to borrow enough money; to, continue the Public Works system, and complete the trunk lines of railway already began. The matter of land tenure seemed to him of greater importance than taxation. The peoples of. the world would very shortly consider this question in orderto remedy the present defects. Two interesting works had been written-on the subject by Mr Wallace and Henry George. The latter proposed that the State should take possession of the land without compensation to owners. He himself did not think any people in the world would do this, as the foundations of society: rested on respect for tbe right of individuals.., Mr Wallace was far more practical, as .he saw no good could come from a violation of the rights of individuals, and he proposed to properly compensate the, owners. There were those who desired lo maintain the English title as it is, but they, he was glod to say, were very few. Some, again, advocated free trade in land, and'the predominance of authorities was on their side; but many of those gentleman had supported the Irish Land .Act, which ;said free trade could not work, in Ireland. Judging by the meetings bein* held in England and Scotland, he thought there would be. a ; very. strong de« rnand for dome .restriction in those countries. Here we. hadfree trade in land, practically, except thttrthere *was still the power of tying land up by -will which, no doubt, would be teken away next session. (Applause ) . They would then be able to-try the experiment as,; to how free trade in land,would suitT&is colony. The question otvthe nationalist^ tion of the land was very difficult in the old country to what it was here. 34,000,000 acres out of 64,000,000 in New Zealand wjare . owned, by ,-ihe people of New Zealand; and, agaiu, the possession of land here did not give social distinction; it did in; Englaud. Land/ienure?slibmdf he 'thought, be discussed in public meetings and by the Press, and the Land Act pi last session should, ba, gifen a fair trial. If they'- were s■■**5 ■■** wisef^tney would put aside for a long time the question of nationalising of fi&l the land in the coldny.-i-they might find freehold tenure the' best." They should wait and see the result of leasing land with perpetual tenure, and then they would be able Ho see which tenure was best. As to the appli* cation of rent received from Government; land,.some thought it should go to relieve general taxation. Others agreed "tbat^ff we got enough rent from the"- land to > abolish taxation altogether the rent would be applied to the relief, not-of the whole community, but to that of the various taxpayers in proportion as they cbntri- ' buted to the revenue. His object in bringing this feature before them' was to show the favorable position the; colony occupied in regard to dealiagtVntEf tua great problems of the. present day. The greatest of these was the distribution ofiji . wealth What was the object of civilize tion if not to secure the greatesthagpineas to the greatest numbers? What good was civilisation if it'broughty«aie"Tand plenty to the few and want to all the many. No pauper class had existed in the colony at present, and they should be rerjf thankffl for it. (A voice: * Any amount? hundred are starving in Chriatchurch.") (Another voice: "It is not true; we have had a soup kitchen.") There was no pauper class in tbe colony, but there were materials for making "one, and with a little neglect they would have one: men born and bred u to live upon the State. They would grapple with pauperism—they would strangle it, —if they did their duty as citizens and made the most of their opportunities. It woo|d not then be said of them, as of a nation of old, " He gave them their hearts' desire, but sent leanness into their souls." (Loud applause). The meeting, which was very orderly, then, terminated. .'-.'"-' /.;