MR. BUCHANAN AT CARTER.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1692, 22 May 1884, Page 2

MR. BUCHANAN AT CARTER.

The Carterton Public Hall was tilled last evening by an attentive audience to listen to Mr Buchanan's professional addim Mr Diehard Fairbrothur was voted to tie chair, and said ho had no doubt from the great interest Carterton electors always took in public matters, Mr Buchanan would bo carefully and attentively listened tn,

Mr Buchanan, who was received with applause said lie was again unfortunate in the weather which was as bad as on fcho occasion of his last address, He would therefore make his remarks aB brief as possible, Two sessions had now como and gone since they did him the honor of returning him as their member, and now the third and last of the present Parliament was approaching , and he would give a short history of the past session, and take counsel with them as to what was best for tho future. Some might say he should have culled theni together sooner, but they were kept well posted up with events by the press, and it was not necessary, and another reason was they could best judge the wisdom of the session by the results as shown in the recess, They had also the Vise in the railway tariff (with Mr Coleman Phillips' letter) (laughter), a serious deficit in the revenue, and the advent of Sir Julius Yogel to discuss, He first j »avo a brief outline of the work of last j session. The onlylocal bills in which.the Wairarapa District was interested was fcheGreytownandMastertonTownLamls Management A.ct, which Mr Beetham. deserved great credit for passing in spite of great opposition, and which had. been the means of happily settling a | long standing grievance between the i two townships. : One of the most useful measures passed was that by which a simple endorsement saved tho heavy expense of a reconveyance and another wag the placing of bills of exchange &c, on a sensible and simple footing. Another measure which the Govern menthad introduced in response to a general desire all over the colony was the new Bankruptcy Act. This Bill; embodied the combined wisdom of the various Chambers of Commerce of the Colony arid ' should therefore be effective. From the little; experience they had of it already thero was every reason to believe it would be so, among other amendments .was one in the Roads and. Bridges, Act,: which limited the amount that cbuld beap-| plied for by one county to £SOOO. It had been found that sonie counties had made demands out of all proportion to the amount available to meet them, hesce the amendment; ■ which would give air an opportunity of obtaining what they required. Another valu*

bio alteration in-this -Act was'/thai applications could now - be; ipade 'U'kv a year—a -provision which. would, hi thought be fouud. very useful ;to' Road ■ Boards, though by an urifbrtmvj ate mistake this clause did not come 1 into operation till December next. The Nutivo Eating Act was another- -measure that ho approved of. formerly,, the ii'osit of getting native'land Tpui■ through the 'Land Conrtj [cost, with 1 .lawyers, fees,:fe,, almost- as much*as. theland was worth.7 Now lawyers were not permitted to be employed sj ; such eases, and it was only at the dis-' cretionof the Court that «ne native could appearjfor another, He, fori one, oould congaitukte Mr Bryce on ihw-, ing this measure passed, ' He waiglad to "say there was very little need for the Act in this district; it ..was niore particularly required in the northern pMion of the colony. Among other. Bills thrown out by last session was the Payment to Mem-, bers of Assembly Bill, which fixed the payment of the rnembera of the Lower House at 1200, as at present, and reduced the Upper House to £IOO, The latter Chamber rejected the Bill. : He, would like to abolish payment to the Legislative Council (applause), and' reduce thepayment to members.of the Houso of Representatives! (Applause,) This was a difficult matter to. deal with, however, as it must be berneia mind if they did not pay members of the Lower House only one class would lie able to take seats '.there. (The speaker w»3 here interrupted by the irrepressible Arraaud Bennett, who muttered in tones resembling distant thunder that he would be paid. A voice: sit down! Armand B,: 1 wont sit down! An elector: Give him a long beer I After a few seconds of this sort of thing Mr Buchanan pro; ceeded.) Another Bill which he sirongly disapproved of was the Bailway Improved Lands Bill, which had been introduced last session merely for circulation. It was for the purpose of taking land within five miles of any new railway, and, would, in most cases, prove a very unjust infliction. (Applause.) Ho approved of the principles' of another Bill—the Tenant's Fixtures Bill, which gave power, to tenants to remove their fixtures arid improvements, provided they inflicted nodamago in doing so. This was thrown out ,by the" Upper House. To show what they had sometimes to deal, with in the House, he instanced the Regulation of I Hours of ' Shopkeepers Bill, which 'sought to give power to two thirds of the shopkeepers in-a-town to compel the other third to close at any hour tho majority chose, (Mr Bennett:' Thats nothing to do with you!) Arid another absurd Bill consisted of only one clause, and was called, tho Selling Goods - by Betail Bill, and provided that no person should be able to sue to recover money for such "sales, The House-had shown-its good sense- in refusing to allow this to be admitted at oil. He then referred to the proceedings of the Government during .the recess, touching on the meeting of the -Councilof Delegatqs at Sydney; the. | proposed-, federation of Ine colonfes ;' jthij danger of tho French reefcdjvisites Scheme, showing that escaped Flench convich were-.Spreading throughout the colonies and practising their villianies wherever they' went. (Mr Bennett : Let the British and French Governments fight that out, The Chairman : If yea do not keep quiet I shall ask the : meeting to put you out 1, Cries of turn him out, sit down 4c). What the colonies were to do in this matter he was not prepared to say, There were symptoms that the strong representations sent Home were having their effect, He did not think the Bill for federation would pass the New Zealand Parliament; it would be sufficient at present to show that the colonies would not put up with the Frenoh Government depoiiiting their filth on tie various Wands which lay close to their shores; if remonstrances wero not sufficient, then -it might be found dwirable to go a step further, and federato tho colonies. 'Federation under any circumstances would take place someday. It was extremely.ridiculous that they should each impose import duties on the products of the other. Unity or federation would do away with this state of things, and to New Zealand it would mean a great opening for extending her trade, arid developing'her vast capabilities. Tho recent great drought in New South Wales pointed to what New Zealand might become to the sister colonies. He would next refer, to the deficiency inthe.estimated reve-. nue, As the quarterly returns came in it became apparent the Government would' have to face a serious deficit.' There were two courses open—retrenchment and reduction of expenses, and increasing revenue as far as.pos; sible, In the direction of economy, they were aware that the Government had been amalgamating and reducing in the Civil Service- departments, but. with what results could not be said till it was'announced to Parliament. With regard :to increasing the revenue,.the Government, in his opinion, did the only thing they could do in raising tho railway tariff. Sometime ago the' Government had reduced this tariff, notably on grain,: but finding -the •■revenue from railways was much- less than it ought to be, had raised the charges again,and fordoing this -had been most unjustly rillified- in Canter-, bury particularly, where! it had been made a pretext for an.' agitation for separation of the two Islands,' The people had treated Major Atkinson and Mr Rolleston in a most disgraceful manner when they stood before them to explain their actions, and he thought Canterbury people would live to be ashamed of the action they had taken. They did not face the question,' but" merely howled abuso, He was glad to notice thefeeling against the change.was not gerioral; but was principally a selOsh agitation of the Canterbury people, who .has-been really most benefitted by (the,railway; The only mistake the Government had made-was ; in.lower-' ing the tariff in the first place. .With' regard to the timber traffic, he .could, perhaps,; hot say. more than,' He, ; : had' said in the Daily in answer to Mr Coleman Thillips. Let Mr Phillips prove that■ timber could stand a higher tariff before he talked of imposing one. He (the speaker) had had ample proof

slnSe 1 the tariff had been altered that, even theTyjdight, increase madewire .timtor%efttened a large and increasingly branch of the trade, and beeilj; iixcreaaed more, a very otinen' would have'-be'en jmployttent-and for what 1 •'•Merely to be able" to say,, that the; Qowmjnenfc had treated allilike, toUio irioreSd railway tariflf question: -were the rail* ways.being'.raarijijged as they ought to be 1 I) i'jHer, agfeed; -nrith the pe'r'wa\ the public sfebuhl.• intf t 'ttpon lug jedJUpa and' betttr prMticsl iii»najeii*ni'of thoir lhm much and too much politicrti interfererica 'in. railway tatters. (Applause,) He thought the sooner the qxam,plo of tictwift was copied, and the railway put imdor the control of a non-political Board the better for.- the poctets and eonvsnieneO of the public, (Applause.) Mr Eicliardson whoso word carried greatrweigtit iri railway matters, ana who was formerly Minister of Public Works was strongly of opinion that the public paid far, too.much for their railway convenience. In Victoria railways paid five per cent, here they never went beyond : j63 18n per dent, and this year only showed .between two or three per cent. -It was therefore very plain that the time had come:when it was necessary to make ;a move in the direction he bad pointed, out. The increase on grain; however; concerning which bo much had'been said, only amounted to one x penny "per bushel for 30 to 70 miles, and less distance one half-penny .per bushel.'..-'"With regardto the cry of "Separation" now again revived, he could see very little in it. A separate management had been tried under Sir and the expenses of Government had gone up to 76 percent and: the; revenue from railways had gone down. When the system was altered to the present onotbe expenses dropped to, 59 per cent. He could see no advantage in separation from this point; of- view (applause). Politicians had •'been,, saying a great deal and theorising ' to' a large extent as to the causes,of the decrease in the revenue and the depression of trade. To his mind, the causes were not far to seekV Importers had been overdoing it, and..something like a million was looked up-i.i stock, which should be circulating through the oolony. Then there had'been, a falling off in w601,\ which formed, half of the. total exports of the colony, or three and a half (millions annually. Also ingrain, whleli a million,'the two artlcleji making two-thirds of Ih'e export's, "The redaction m the return on wool alone, was estimated at £400,000 ft year, and he thought the estimate too lofri■•'; With, regard to grain, the fall in •prices'-caused a reduction of about £330,000; 'Then there were the rabbits, ;the loss caused by which was estimated, by one competent to judge, at one "and a half millions a year. This latter'dra'wback, he was very glad to sayV'iWoiild soon.be a thing of the past, ; ;as;tbo jest-,, was. being.gradually mas'terea".* had suffered, thoughl'piu/va small item of fc oxport—some .£60,000 per annum. Politicians might-'dlspute and set up a land tax against a property tax, and attribute the depression to the one or the want of the dtlieiybut it was a foolish waste of time, when the causes of depresion were'so plain before them, They had better'turn their attention to developing the country, putting their railways on a better footing to stand competition with American lines which carded wheat a thousand miles for sixpence a bushel, while they had to pay that for one hundred miles, Let politicians teach the town and country to work together, for one could not be prosperous nor yet depressed without the other sharing in the s&ms effect. In fact one depended upon the other. (Applause); Now, in discissing the deficiency in the revenue, he had suggested a Railway Commission as in Viotbria for properly managing their lines, and he thought they might go a step further and- plaae their Civil Service under a non-political board, (Applause.) He believed if this were doneasaving 0f.£30,000 to £50,000 could be effected. .Another item suggested for reduction had been the Aimed Constabulary, He thought a caving in-this branoh could be effected, Still, he must say that the Hon Mr Brycq had managed his department so well ;ihafc tins : matter, could safely bo leffcjto Jiiru; He'(Mr Buchanan) advocated cutting off the subsidy from the Sah Francisco mail service, and transferring it.or a less sum to the two Companies, whose private enterprise had 'conferred: upon New Zealand a boon thai two. years ago few thought to have seen, vk> a fortnightly service between; New 1 Zealand and Great Britainiv .(Applause). : The cc»b ofchari. table..,aidJrid'hospitals could also".be vory.raateriaily;reduced asunder Governwcnt'- management, This was a very expensive-item, and be thought it shouldibe.placed r under the control of local bodies Whether the funds should be raised: wholly ;by voluntary contributions or „bya small special rate, he ;was not then prepared to. say, but that the matter required placing on a more decided footing was palpably Tb'e education vote, too, was a heavy, item. Last year, it amounted depreciation of buildings and sundry matter this was 'Verj;-; considerably increased. ; The average attendance at their schools was 58,000... In:; Victoria the average ■was'-120,000,■;•'and-the .vote only £500,000.- Surely they could in some way carry on: education and keep it free, secular, and: compulsory at a less expense.. (Applause). ; Ho thought it; could .be. done. ' One. way. was to..colonise the valuable reserves in;the -South Island, which were taken;'/from:.the. lands of the C P)wy' b) the" old Provincial Government), and now .devoted to higher education. .This was'unjust as the land belonged:to.the whole'colony, and the prcjceeds should bo devoted to reducing the cost of premary (not secondary) (Applause), ; He wished it 'cleirly;; understood, that he would advocate ho" change -which would alter the present system of education. He #as riwas.always, infavorbf education being tree, secular and ((applause;) He then referred to"thd

Property Tax■:'•s (against;an -Income i and-LandTax. had i said -'lie would abolish- the Property ■Tax, bill ho did not say'iwhat he would ; substitute,; ::(lid ; not say : he would inovdaadthe'o^stpms,;;' Togel's too' wtse/fdryou I)" ?He '(the speaker) would not. consent, to. an in- , crease in the customs, and would W in favor of the Property;Tax;till*ft ' fairer impost could be placed before him. The Property l Taxwj| i; fairer than'aXimd'Tax,:because lt'.jto"ucliecl all, whether.: they reaped >tie| benefit; from the. land or otherwise.. ■He : then alluded to Mr George's, book, Progress and Poverty, quoting statistics which proved that, progress to the wealthy, had not meant of date years poverty to' the poor" Wages were'no'w 50, to 100 per cent higher now than 50 years ago, and Lours ofwpuk were. shorter.' The coat of living had been reduced on every article' except wnt and meat] Statistics proved that. Mr George's reasoning was based on an utterly false* foundation. -.With rogard to.the views of members of the Government on land tenure he differed entirely.' The History of tlio world proved the freehold title the best. Under the'inducements held out of freehold, tenure OpW to all,', Araerjcfl had secured a population of 53,000,000, and now fed a great portion of Britain and Europe., .America possessed four million of /farniV under five acres. Where should fliey goto .find such results where \ the land was nationalised ITo Egypt \ To India 1 He thought people sliould) neyer be satisfied with less than frecliold.tehure when it could be got, and grave thought was required before taking tlie slightest' step towards land .nationalisation.— (Applause).—Another point .against Mr George was the fact that the sons relieved in 1883 in England were only one half the number tlu.i required ft sistance in 1849, :and in the same country fifteen.millions per annum wore now expended on free education and other objects for itho bonefit of the laboring classes, "who, he freely confessed, had been-too long deprived of their just share of the revenue of the country, , (Applause.) He next referred to borrowing, and said Yogel's proposals meant going deeper into debt at once. | He (Mr Buchanan), however, said, No, ; Let I them pause awhile. They 1 had now borrowed quite, up to what was a safe point, and railway extension;should be suspended—except -.where small gaps were required to connect alrejuly nearly completed works-till" the; colony's resource? had had time' to, accumulate a little. : " Mr Montgomery ad vocated the total'. cessation lof borrowing, which only showed his business incapacity, an there were necessities' to be provided for which; could hot be met any other way.. = A;great,,deal had been said by southern members about'the railway there paying four per cent, while those in the -Ijorth' Island only paid two, but be pointed out there were also, lines in the South Island that did not pay anything, were worked at a loss, also that Canterbury .grain was carried on North Island lines, and finally that tho railways were ail in one colony, and not twp colonies (applause), In the present -uncertainstate of political affairs it : would probably be very difficult to do.as one wished without getting involved in other questions. For instance, -the question of borrowing might be tacked on to the question of Sopnration, In that case he should fight for the unity of the colony, even if he bad to sacrifice his views on the borrowing' quostion (applause), Mr Montgomery's policy was land fcajf and financial," separation of the two islands. Sir G. H re y had had nothing more to purpose than:to take tho. unearned increment, Why did ho not do that when ljo had' tha , power ? Ho strongly censured Sir G. Grey • for his lemarks on the- early settlers of Canterbury, and said' , ifc would be well if overy inan would, closoly watch Sir George Grey's ; proceedings to,.detect his hidden intentions. Sir Julius Yogel had sa'id'tho colony was suffering from want qf-.confidence. He held it was suffering from want of oash, (Hear!) If Sir Julius Yogel thought- he .was likely to repeat his former experiments he would be mistaken, and might as well, remain in private life. (You hope so!) No, he did not. He should welcome 'Sir Julius Yogel to tho House as a valuable member of it, ' . Thero ■ were troublous times before the present Government. He had given it a general support, He, however, differed from, them on tho laud question, and on borrowing, and should 'retain -thj. latter view whatever pai'ty was-in' power, with tho qualification he had made concerning soparation.and necessary expenditure, He i.bo at variance with tho presen't ! ,'Govcrnment on one ortwo other questions, but no ono could 2et a party entirely to suit his own views, •Hb'ask'ell'Jiis constituents to trust him, wliHtever- changes might take place. ; He'jiad.uotbing to gain from place or power. Their interests were identical -with his own, and ho Would work ins best for their welfare ' an'd'"'.'fcr. all New Zealaud, (Ap|di(u,se;) Tlie bright side of tli,o u depreission cloud could be shown by a fe\V;figures, and he quoted statistics showing that New Zealand land produced the greatest averages of grain and wool of any. country in the world, Thit its population was steadily-increasing; large numbers coming here from; Australia, and asserted Now Zealand would prove the host country ; in'tho "world to settle down, in. -There.; was no fear for the future of New, Zealand. The existing depression was nothing, In \ few years it would have passed away ind they would look ; back with astonishment at being alarmed, at'such 'a trifle. He concluded them iot to listen to the tongue of detraction vhich would no doubt bo heard luring coming events. Believe nothing igainst him till they had him face to ace when they could, him to tnswer to his shortcoimngs, which, lossibly would not bo "a.few':"(loud ipplause). He; thanked tiiem : tor istening to him so patiently, and sat lown amid prolonged, applause, I

Mr Bassetfc asked Whether Mr Buchanan was in favor of moralf trainin* in schools. Children wore taiigjib, .drillybiit notmotala.''"""'"'"•''""".' 'M' Mr Buohanan believed : (w be before

stated) in free, secular, and compulsory education (applause), 4 Mr J. Lawrence asked why Mr Buchanan did not tell them anything new? How was.he going to meet the deficiency in the revenue 1 . Mr. Buchanan thought that a fair question. la his speech in-dealing with this portion ho had omitted one itemJnlis notes.:' That was'if the varions ; SRTingß...d|d not cover the deficit, another, farthing would have to be placed on the Property Tax till tho revenue recovered its equilibrium. He would .be: no r party ~tO:an increase . in the. cnstpmat idiities.! /He gave .them nothing, new, because there was give, and he was not ashamed to follow in any man's footsteps if he .approved, of the course he was taking.—(Applause). -■■■■ .Mr-Parker said ho expected to hear this other farthing come out: Did Mr Buchanan, approve, of striking off the £SOO limit and making all pay according to. their means ?--(Hear! hear!) , .Mrßuchanan: In theory you may be fight, but it was found in all conntries a limit had to; be fixed to taxation, and I do not believe "in taxing a man; 'down to his ;las» /shilling (applause), and do not ilitkd' to vote for the reduction'of :the 'limit.—(Loud apprise.) : Mr\Bootli moved, That'this'meeting accord tb&' member, Mr a hearty .vote of thanks for attending , there that evening, and for his able and statesmanlike address. He was a friend of Mr Buchanan's, but would not for that reason be deterred from snyin» they had made him their member, he had made himself ,& successful settler, and if was apparent they were making him a good speaker. (Laughter). Ho (Mr Booth) had heard no address superior, or perhaps equal to that they had listened,to. that evening. They did not want smooth things said to them.they wanted what they had had a plain statement which all could grasp. He then gave an amusing sketch of the reason of Mr A. Bennett's interruptions, provoking, roars of laughter. ,He concluded by : saying tlinr' a was prepared to give his ™" fi ''" Jffcf " A support to Mr Buchanan, handß they might safely leave their interests,. (Applause.)' He was glad ..to-find ..him so sound, on the property tax and customs. A poor man receiving only £IOO a year; contributed £l3 to the customs, which was quite enough ; for him to do. It would be a vmy .' , dangerous thing to iutorfefo with the custom's duties, One of' the health- , iest signs to bo.scenin the colony was , the fact that directly there wasadcpression the first thought was retrench- . nwntl- (Applause.) He concluded l.y . earnestly impressing upon, them the [ ""l'ortance of setting their facesagainst any increase of the customs, (Applause.) [ In answer to Mr Pnrtridgej Mr BuAanan said he was not in , favor of any further freo immigration i at present, and informed him that the L voto for this was exhausted, and he would oppose any borrowing for tho ; purpose. (Applause.) - , \ ~ Mr Burton Boys, who was recoived ~ AVlth . considerable applause, said he was . not in the habit of paying compliments, i but he felt bound to endorse many of , the remarks that had fallen from Mr , Booth. Their member was a man who I -'had read the signs of the times, and his L views had broadened out beyond his , party; if ho followed the course , he was now pursuing there was no few ,of him losing'the confidence of die , ejectors, (Applause). He (Mr Boys) , did not bjlievo in Major Atkinson. A I strong opposition was required to oh- ( tain healthy government. Sir Julius r Vogel had hit the nail on the head ) when he said a . groat deal of • the depression was duo to (he , laws. They were .■over-governed, , and required decentralisation. 1 Hedis««roed with Mr Buchanan re iho . Property Tax. He had been a reviewer and knew the valuation was very mi- ' just. Ho preferred an Income and Land Tax, which would break down t the large mvners And prevent the rise of a spurious nristocnicy in the colony. : Improvements should not be taxed. . What reduction was Major Atkinson , making? Ho was cutting abouc the , lower stems and leaving the higher ; branches to flourish. Did ho abolish „ the useless Upper house Did ■ . ,ie . m,uce of departments t-No. . Did he reduce Ministers' salaries ?-No. He believed members of the Lower I Houso sho "l'l be paid, but they should , not bo allowed free railway passes , when out of session.. (Applause;) He ■.behoved in the small local affairs boiw. [ managed locally, and the House only attending to National affairs. It w.,s .impossible to predict what would bo tho . resujt when the people were appeal-id , to-| But ho felt sure that the Atkinson . party would bo weighed in the scale* and found wanting, (Applause). Ho , voto of i (Applause). " Jtir "^ ' ;■' Mr Booth then rose to speaSLn , X,? 0 " 6 ?' »»»« 'VColemnu PWiips? (Loud laughter) , Whis htlo craze like other men, andl be was welco , (Q ..-to.it If Mr Phillip 3 had had to pay for any timber recentlv'he would ; knmy.that.tho railway .tariff-on timber ad been increased. The white pi 110 trade, which was becoming very'important, and was removing a vast amount oft.mber that otherwise would • , h ™ M to , be felled <md burned off : and. was aso bringing Australian money into.the district in return, m Uad.been nicreased 4|d in the 100 ft. Tho very day Mr Philli„ 8 > letter appeared his firm had had to my an ber sent or export. Of course the price would havo to bo increased to their.oMtoDiMß,.- and might cause loss ,c^•■Mr:-H B V-i rttat . l^ utterly ohildish, and only showed that ho.knewasffluchabout the timbertrade aahedidaboutmostthingsandthatwas very httle—(Loud applause). .marksinreplytoMrßoy S ,and th, put and carried with W'?^- Mr Buchanan t hen moved a. . cordial vote of thanks to: Mr brotbr for the.admirable manner in .' ;whchj»e;had conducted the meeting,