MR W. C. BUCHANAN'S MEETING.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1727, 4 July 1884, Page 2

MR W. C. BUCHANAN'S MEETING.

Mr W. 0, Buofanan addressed the electors of Wairarapa South last evening in the public hall, Carterton, which was filled with a large and attentive audience. ? Mr JR. Fairbrother occupied the chair, • and in introducing the candidate expressed a hope that he would be accorded f an attentive hearing. - Mr Buchanan, who was received with applause, said it seemed only like yester- 1 day since he had met them in that hall, ) previous to the short session which had iust closed, and they would recollect that he expressed his opinion c then that Parliament would be dissolved j at an early date, and it had become a , matter of history that this had taken f place, He would in the first instance) lay before them a brief account of what had taken place during 'the short session just closed. It had, very soon after' the House met, become evident that the ' Opposition would make an effort to defeat ' them and bo oust the Ministry from office. Immediately after the Governor's address the Opposition tabled a want of confidence motion. They saw by Ihe accounts | they had read in the papers, evidence of the dissensions then life in the ranks of the Opposition. Mr Steward, one of the Canterbury members was chosen to hfing forward the hostile moiion instead of their acknowledged leaders, so ; that the jealousies of the many, heads i of the Opposition might be got ■ over, and so that they might succeed | in carrying an adverse motion. Mr i Steward said that in bringing forward his I motion what he wished to see and | what those who voted with him wished to see was an immediate appeal to the country. The Ministry were dofeated and advised the Governor to dissolve Parliament, and his Excellency granted their petition. For the purpose of throwing the blame upon the Ministry of putting the country to expense by a double session in one year, another member of the Opposition tabled a motion tha] while willing to grant supplies for a 6 reasonable term this House is of opinion | that the Governor should not have granted 1 a dissolution without allowing the formar lion of a new Ministry, It was plain j something else must have arisen which had made the Opposition eat their own [. words and oppose what they had i been the first to bring before the j' House The tact of it was the only thing i they were really unanimous upon was in 1 turning out the Government. ■ There s never was any other real ground of I concert between them, and what took place afterwards between them thoroughly proved the wisdom of the Governor's e decision in granting a dissolution, The 1 House went into Committee of Supply to Y vote the supplies for the two months that 6 would elapse before Parlioment would be 3 called together again, When he was last before them he had said there would be 1 ft 8 ritODABiE DEFICIT of the actual deficit proved to J £152,000, the deficit was principally made up from-Oustoms 1123,000 and Bailways £56,000. He doubted whether it 3 very much interested them going into the n details of figures as he had recently gone through them, but if so, he would bo veij happy to return to the question later on. p Another question dwelt upon in the n Financial Statement was r LAND REVENUE. The Bale of Crown Lands of cash and deferred payments had fallen short of the estimates by J-43,000, the estimate being 1275,000, and the sales of cash sections ;® realising £163,755, tlje deferred payment sections only reaching Ihe sum of £68,000. He had previously told them 3 lie was very much dissatisfied with the high price put upon the Crown Lands by tlio Government, as it tended to chock settlement. In fact a great many wouldbe flettlorfl had hep, prevented from I purchasing through thie caqse. As ' recorded in (ho Financial Statement the public debt of the Colony was £32,307,000, and this less tlio sinking , fund made the nett amount £'29,574,000 There was still £877,000 of the last million loan unexpended. It was j, gratifying to know that people outside n the colony had faith in them, notwithi standing the depressed state of things, d' Tliia could be seen from the fact that y while the first million of the three y million loan fetched 19812s sd, the lust J- brought the gratifying price of £IOO 6s Gd, 1- and actually over five millions had been applied for when the loan was placed upon the market. After touching upon ® ihe expenditure under tho Roads and Bridges Construction Act and land purchase, he roforred to [ e THE RAILWAYS. r They would havo noticed that Major Atkinson in his Financial Statement dwelt ll£ strongly upon the fact that tho renewal , of plant, &c., would necessitate an expenditure of one million annually, This was a very serious matter indeed. Their railways only yielded 12 10s 2d e interest, and they found that waß gradually decreasing. Two years ago the net it amount was £3 18s 2d, and for the year ie ending March 3lßt, 1882, it was about £1 If leas, and March, 1884, was only £2 10a ie 2d. The returns were j

Being an average of £2 10 2

The mileage had gradually increased until it now at about 1,4Q0 miles. The question of working the railways was in his opinion Becond to none, there being between eleven and twelve millions of pounds invested in railways, at a oust of five per cant, giving an actual loss upon the year of When last before them, he spoke against the borrowing which New Zealand had indulged in for the last few years, and he had doubted the policy of borrowing the one million oil the Wellington-Auckland line. His expression of opinion on that question had caused it to be said he had gone against the interests of the North Island. The case stood thus: The

WELLINGTON AIJD AUCKLAND LINE had recently been surveyed and a report thereon laid before Parliament. There were two routes submitted, one was to start from Marton and go \yest of Lake Taupo to the junction of the Auckland line, a distanoe of 210 miles. The other is to go from Stratford, New Plymouth line, to Te Awamutu, a distance ot 140 miles. The estimate for eaoh was £7OOO per mile, the central and longest one and. a half millions, and the other one million, The line from Marton to Ta Awamutu was nearly all in (he hands of the natives, and they need not expect much traffic in that direction for years to come, The survey ors were considerably obstructed, and had a great deal of trouble to complete the survey of the line. It was well-known to them all that in dealing with the lands of the natives it was impossible to expedite matters with anything like speed. It was very different to America where lands were opened up, railways made, and towns built all in the space of a tew weeks, That being the case, and supposing the succeeding Parliament borrowed the. money for the purpose of

malting the line, the interest on the i money would commence from the day of a borrowing, and the work would take .five .or six years to carry through, , and interest and wear and tear of plant would be going on without j. any material traffic to repay it. There j was a good deal of pummice land j to be crossed, and the work would also be impeded with snow, but even if the land \ were good and in the hands of the i Government, they could for a long time c expect nothing but working expenses; 1 not any interest whatever, no matter 1 which route was taken, It was not as if there was a settled population already there, who had a right to olaim that the J country should be opened, They would only be enhancing the value of the Native j lands, There would be no goods traffic , from to Wellington by rail— i the water traffic rate would stop that— ] and the passenger traffic would be next to | nothing- That being so, and taking.into i account the fact that there was a loss of ' £250,000 in the present working expenses : of the lines, and that when the present throe million loan was expended and the Manawatuline completed, they would have other outlets for spending money, they should pause ere increasing the burdens of the country,—(Cheers)—Those who best knew him were aware that lie was not one to stay the progress of the country Many things would induce him to vote for the line, namely, the doing away with the Native difficulty and the opening up of the country, but he failed to see that in the present slate of the country they would be justified iu borrowing the money. The time would come when they oould do it, bub as provident men they must hold over their hand, If the North Island borrowed money for the purpose the South Island would immediately clammer for the construction of their various lines, viz,, Picton to Hurunui (which was purely a sheep and cattle ' district, with water carriage competing . alongside), or Ohriatohurch to the West Coast, arid the Otago Central line, which ' could only settle population to a very limited extent, and which, ought not to | be considered for years ! SYSTEM ON TAXATION. I Both in the House and out opinions • varied as to the incidence of taxation, i Some being in favor of a property tax, i others for a land and income tax, i The late Government had been more I favorable to a Property Tax than any 3 other form. A valuable return had been I lately published showing the number of i property tax payers to be about 25,000 in i number, of whom 8000 pay uuder 25s f per head, also 3000 who pay under 10s c per head. In other words one half pay ! considerably un.ler £3 por head, which > wss a sufficient, answer to those who 3 raised the cry of the taxation of the poor ' man, as it taxes those who "have" and t passes over those who " have not," He 3 considered every man should pay in prot portion to his power, (Loud cheers.) a There were complaints and just ones of the system of yaking properties, one man might be rated at £IQ per acre and his neighbor at but that could not be brought forward as an argument against the principle of the Property Tux. A I radical change was wanted in this direction. (Hear, hear.) The very best men procurable should be obtained as , valuators, and plenty ot time given them 1 get through, not to have it hurried as at present it was done. He would do his best to ainond the system in this respect. Another objection to this Tax was stated to be that under this form no sooner j does a man get a little property 0 together than his improvements are taxed g but that under the Land Tax jt would not s be so. Efe would give an illustration to 1 show differently, Say a man (as in old d times) bought 100 acres of land for LIGO a by and by he improves it and makes it e worth LlO per acre Saving an increased y family he sells for SIOOO, and buys—say „ aores at 1$ per acre. What does the n Ijand Tax do for h|m ? It means that g yesterday he was taxed on 100 acres for LlOQund to-day he k taxed an IQ9O aores g for LIOQO. The Property Tax does not j, do this. The Land Tax aloo spares the 0 towns at the expense of the oountry-* lands on whiah they had euch difficulty i 9 in getting people to settle on. e FINANCE,

Tlie depression of the Colony was too rau«h of a reality to be doubted, but if they looke.l it inlthe faoe they would see it was not, in comparison with what they had already gone through, so bad as stated. Was the present Government really to blame for the present depression ? The Government had to take over a legacy of debt of 32 millions sterling from their predecessors. In 1879 the Crown agents in England were nimble to rajse the cum of L 25,000 for tlijs colony except by giving a personal pledge, although the Ministry had passed the raising of a five million loan, and eaoh £IOO debenture sold fur a little over £80; but the amount subscribed on the three million loan was clear evidence that those outside are not of opinion we are in such a desperate condition. There was great credit due to the late Government for its prudent measures. The depression was not caused by maladministration, but by the low price obtained for our exports—wool and wheat. Ip) (psxiqN, On last addressing them, he had stated his objection to Lsnd Nationalisation ; he had advocated most liberal terms for would be settlers, and had voted in this direction. He had told the Government that he would set his foot down upon all attempts to deprive the would-be settler of his freehold, Those who had flippantly taken up this cry had never senoualy considered this question, nor what would become of the country in the event of nationalisation. He believed it} the good old English freehold titles. JDDOATION, l'he expenditure under this head is more than the country can well afford. Ho was satisfied there was a great deal of wasteful expenditure goiug on. It would not do to provide education in the higher classes for the children of people who could well afford to pay for it. He would use his best endeavors to cut down expenditure in this direction. A great many valuable endowments have been given for higher education, that should have been given for primary education, There was also room for a reduction in the expenditure on the primary classes without impaining the system. (Cheers,) He would conclude his remarks by referring to tlie

PARTIES 01 NEW ZEALAND, when tlie new House .was elected there would certainly be from 30 to iO of the old members not returned, possibly some of the present members of the Government might be exoluded. The House would not be at all in the some position as its predecessor. Suoh men as Ormaud, Ballance, Yogel, Stout, Wakefield, and others would be most important factors in forming the new Parliament. In the past he had given a general support to the present Government. The real question at the time for him to decide was which of the two sets of men would carry out the policy of his constituents. He had always steadily and constantly kept before him the wishes of his constituents and on tho eve ot another election they had to decide whether his opinions whicb he had at various times put before them were in accord with theirviews and whether they would trust him to carry them out. He had thanked them over and over again for their confidence, he had honestly worked for them and spared no pain or time in serving them, (loud cheers) He again placed himself at their disposal and left himßelf in their hands as

in the past. He would he happy to answer auy questions that might ba put to him (prolonged cheers.) In response to the invitation, Mr Phillip Goodin came forward and asked excitedly whether the candidate had got paid for what he had done, aud upon obtaining an answer in the affirmative, said: 11 Then we aint got to thank you for it!" Mr D, Watson said what'the district Wanted was a local representative, , not one who went in for the colony at largo; that cry was played out. If they appointed a man for their own benefit they expected to be studied.

Mr Sandilands asked if the candidate knew what the population of the colony was, and if so, amount per head each man, woman and child was taxed f Mr Buchanan said there appeared to be from the most recent information obtainable about 560,000 of a population, The rate of taxation, was, as far as his memory went, between £3 aud £1 per head—say, £3 0s 8d (especially the Gs 8d), : He would liko to say to all that it was very gratifying to know that there was a decided decrease in the rate.

In reply to Mr Parker, he said it was impossible to furnish him with the information as to how many people travelled onraK' colonial railways without paying their No such return was in existence. He knew the present Minister of Public Worts had done very good work in cutting down to a very large extent free passes on the line, even the Premier having been refused by him on one occasion a free pass. Mr £)riscoll drew the attention of the candidate to the evident unfairness of the present system of rating, the bona fide settler on the land being rated and taxed on his improvements, whilst the absentee or non-improver escaped with a bare tax upon his acreage. Mr Buchanan pointed out the impossibility of plaoing men upon the land who would improve it. There was no royal road compelling any man to be industrious. If the speaker could suggest any other system improving upon the present, he would be happy to hear him at the close of the meeting. In answer to Mr Dnscoll, he stated that he had not made use of the expression in the House attributed to him that ferrets did noliarm to small tarmers. What lie had said was, that he did not know of any part of the colony where .men had suffered-so much from tho rabbit nuisance aa the small farmers of the Taratahi and Opaki Districts. He thought it a matter of improbability in many of the districts to keep down the rabbits by any other means than that of introducing* tlidife natural enemies. "People with all < comforts of town should have some pity for their struggling country friends who had | ruin staring tbein in the faoe if they were not protected from the'rabbit peat. The Crown lands of the colony, instead of as now only producing two to three thousand a year could be vastly increased if it were not for the rabbits. Surely that snould prompt the to be very careful how they cond&nned those who were trying their level best to combat the evil. Mr Polling said that the opening up of the waste lands of the Crown, either leasing or selling, or even giving away the lands, would very soon get rid of the evil complained of. —(Cheers.) _ In answer to several voices re the destruction of ferrets, Mr Buchanan stated that when the ferret pest became a pronounced reality lie would be as earnest in getting rid of it as in the case of the rabbit. That as long ;as he considered his constituents desired that _ Parliament should be of triennial duration he should take no steps! to alter it, Al;oas regarded the abolition'of free passes on railways, he was in favor of granting them to members whilst they were travelling on ihe business of the country. Mr Booth, who was received with cheers proposed that this meeting accord a cordial vote of thanks to Mr W. C, Buchanan his able and interesting address of tlftW evening, and for his services to the colo>'iy i during the last Parliament. Ho would say ( that if there had been one man in the House, who had been true aud redeemed hi 3 pledges to his constituents it had bsen their awn member. He was a decided success in his own private affairs, and he had displayed equal zeal, skill, and prudence in managing their public affairs. (Loud oheers) He eulogised the action of Mr Buchanan in pushing the interests of the district by his support and encouragement of the meat , freezing and cheese factories. (Cries of 'Hj'' '* What-abwit the Waiohino toll-gate? "How about the timber trade?" . caused sumo amusement.) He concluded by moving the resolution before them, and trusted they would re elect him to the office lie had filled with so much honor to himself and credit and benefit to the district. The proposition was seconded by Mr Callister and carried by acclamation. Mr Burton Boys said lie had waited until the close of the meeting to say a few words to them as a fellow elector. When he was before them as a candidate for Parliamentary honors he aad laid down a platform wliiuL was honeafc, though rough, good plain cojjn* nial timbfr, and lie still adhered to It was only out of personal respect to his friend Mr Buchanan ho was not now in the held. No doubt if ho hid a run at his bach ■ ie woijld have been in the House long B »o hut the time would coae when brains would be chosen before broad acres. So far as he was concerned the candidates should havfl a fair field and no favor. He thauked those who had asked him to come forwaid, and said whoover went into the • House this time he would give him fair notice that ho would contest tho next election, and let them see that this was not pocket constituency to be conferred at tho pleasure of a few.—(Cheers.) In conclusion he proposed a vote of thanks to the chairman, which was carried unanimously,

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