PROVINCIAL LOANS BTLL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 296, 2 October 1873, Page 7

PROVINCIAL LOANS BTLL.

(From "Hansard") Mr. Yogel, in the course of his reply on the above Bill, said : — I have to thank honorable members for the attention they have given me. If I did not feel that there attaches to me a large amount of responsibility on this occasion — an occasion on which we have asked the House to consider the position of the Government — I would not have made so long a speech. But I believe that it was my duty, however latf the hour, to answer the remarks which have been made ; and I hope honorable members will therefore feel that I have not unnecessarily trespassed upon their attention. The Bill which we h*ve brought in we believe to be an absolute necessity, as a curb to the disposition for indiscriminate borrowing, which has been abundantly evidenced during the late session-— which, for some time past, has been gradually increasing, and very naturally so, considering the success of the large public works constructed out of loans by the Colonial Government. The object of the Bill is to regulate this borrowing, and not to stop it — to place the borrowing power with those who will be responsible for the cost, and upon whose judgment will depend the decision as to whether or not the works shall be constructed. It has been exceedingly painful to me to hear remarks made from time to time during the session in lespect to my colleagues and myself. The comparisons which have been instituted have not only been exceedingly invidious, but I take leave to think they have been in very bad taste. It is the duty of honorable members to look at the Government as a whole, and not to institute invidious comparisons. I take this opportunity of saying once, and for all, with respect to the position of the Government, that I believe a stronger Government could not be formed — if a stronger Government can be formed it would be well that such a Government should be formed. I think the Colony is indebted to the honorable member who holds the Native portfolio, for the preservation of peace, without which no policy of progress or colonization can be successfully carried on. I feel absolutely certain that if the Government had remained in the hands of the honorable member for Timaru, and those who held office last year, and notably the honorable member for Auckland City West, we should be meeting now, not to devise schemes in relation to the prosperous settlement of. the country, but to devise means for carrying on a sanguinary war. We owe to the moderation of the Native Minister the fact that we have escaped war. Do we not know what took place before the session % Do we not know how the honorable member for Auckland City West breathed war and spoke of war 1 Do we not know how others spoke of war ? But has he, # or have they, dared to challenge the position of the Government, on the ground that we should have precipitated the country into war for the purpose of redressing a no doubt very serious outrage 1 ? That outrage the Government consider should be punished, and have no doubt it will be punished, But we were not prepared in the effort to inflict that punishment immediately, to do what would possibly have led to prolonged war. Sir, that policy did not please the honorable member for Auckland City West, but he has not, in this House dared to challenge it We have adopted the policy which other nations ten times more powerful have adopted. Take the great Uni^-ed States : do they fight the Indians every time an outrage is committed ? Do the Government of the United Kingdom, when an agrarian murder takes place in Ireland, place the whole population under *a ban? I repeat, we have adopted the policy of other nations — a policy of firmness, and, at the same time, of moderation ; and those who counsel otherwise have not the good of the Colony at heart In relation to another of my colleagues, the Minister for public works, I have to say that I believe there is no member of the House who is not fully aware of the very great energy and industry of that honorable member ; and to his intimate knowledge of the subjects connected with his department, is to be attributed the admirable state of organization in which that department is to be found at the present time. The Public Works department is now in a state of efficiency which will challenge comparison with any system adopted elsewhere ; and for that state of things we are largely indebted to the honorable gentleman who presides over that department. With the exception of my late colleague, Mr. Gisborne, and the honorable member for Bangitikei, the honorable gentleman who holds tho office of Colonial Secretary possesses a more intimate knowledge of the affairs of the colony in the past than any other gentleman lam aware of. lam sorry to think that a great deal of unfair criticism has been inflicted upon my honorable colleague, the Minister of Justice. Those measures which have excited the greatest amount of opposition, aud in some cases some very illnatured remarks, were not brought for-

ward without the full concurrence of the Cabinet ; but it was to be expected when he undertook to effect a reform of the law, he would incur the censure of a certain section of the House. But in bringing in those Bills, the Government were not singular in their action. The same course is being followed at the present time in Great Britain and in the neighboring colontes, because it is felt that the of law is so cumbrous and so«expensive as to involve a total negation of justice. The-*great remedy which it is being sought to introduce is to fuse law and equity, so that a person may get justice speedily and cheaply. Some honorable members have asked what would be the effect of the defeat of the Bill upon the Government. Ido not desire to hold out any threat, or to insinuate we are entitled to or wish to obtain a dissolution ; but I feel myself entitled to say, that if a dissolution were to take place, it would put the Government in a most favorable position. At the last elections, not so many as a dozen members were elected upon the understanding that they were going to oppose the Government of which the honorable member for Napier and myself have been members for the last four years. There were a number of members who were elected, not to support the Government, but to exercise their independent judgment upon such matters as might come before them. But I believe the feeling of the country at the present time is, that it it not desirable that those who devised this policy, and who are anxious to see it carried out successfully, should hand it over to those who would be only too glad to carry it out ;to the bitter end. Who that has listened to the honorable member for Auckland City West (Mr. T. B. Gillies) in his denunciations of the policy, can fail to believe that hi& triumph would be not in its success but in its failure. At the same time I know there is a general feeling throughout the country that public works are not granted to or withheld from any particular district from a consideration of the fact that its representative may .be either a supporter or an opponent of the Government There could be no greater test of the fairness of the Government, or of the correctness of that opinion, than that the constituency of Waikouaiti, at the recent ejection, returned a gentleman opposed to the Government. The constituency knew perfectly well that that they were safe in doing so, because the Government would do them full justice; and the honorable gentleman who has been returned for the district will be able to carry back to his district the same assurance he would have been justified in making had he been a supporter of the Government. We hold out no inducements to members on either side of the House that their requests will be treated in any preferential manner. I think those honorable members who have charged me with making so many socalled changes of policy, have repeated the statements so often that they themselves really begin to believe them. When we submitted the public works policy, we saw the difficulties we should have to "-meet in dealing with the provinces. We saw that they might commence a system which -would be utterly opposed to it, We came to the conclusion that the system of public works was of so much importance, that if necessary the provinces must be made to yield to it ; but we have endeavored to work with them. - Whatever our difficulties have been, we hay© per* severed in our policy, and have endeavored at the same time to keep the provinces in a healthful and progressive condition.