MR BUCHANAN'S ADDRESS

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3647, 28 October 1890, Page 2

MR BUCHANAN'S ADDRESS

A Good Reception. Mr WO Buchanan,, one of the candidates for' the ; Wairarapa Beat at the forthcoming ejection, addressed his; constituents in the Lyceum Hall last evening. The hall was crowded to the doors, over tlnee hundred persons being present. Tho ch lir was occupied by the Mayor (Mr B. Fairbrother) who briefly introduced the speaker, and asked for him a patient hearing.

Mr Buchanan, who received with cheers, apologised for. having inadvertently fixed his meeting on tho same night that nn important meeting was being held in tho Presbyterian churob. ■' When he had addressed them\at tho hwt election the Stout-Vogel Government had been three years in office, -They had come in with the sound of trumpets, and promised the historical leaps and bounds,, but when their term had expired they found they had'a deficiency of, nirtiiy. thousand pounds. The only way they could see out of the difficulty, was to impose.- further taxation. But this' proposal had fortunately been thrown out when the peoplo wore appealed to. Ho need scarcely remind them of the many things that were discussed at tho last election. Tho main difficulty was the financial one, -When the House met after the elections', the StoutVogel Government went out ot power,. Tho majority was against them,, and Sir Bobert.Stout himself was not returned to Parliament, The latter fact he sincerely regretted, as although he was.opposed to him in politics, Sir Robert Stout was a man of very great ability and. one who would do good service to tho colony,. He then referred to the saving tho present Government had effected when . it camo to power, It, bad nmongat other things, paid off the deficiency of the last Government, After making increased payments tliey bad a surplus of not less than £36,000. The slate of tho country was very different now to what it was three years ago. Its credit in the Homo market bud been greatly improved. In 1837 the credit of the colony at home stood at its lowest ebb, but now New Zealand £IOU debentures stood at £lO7. Tho Government had been blamed for not taking steps to prevent the Exodus of the People. Many had contended that the exodus waß the result of the mal-adniinistration of the land. But personally he wondered that the exodus was not greater, £600,000 per annum had been coming into the colony for some years in borrowing alone. • When they realised that the sum of £3,250,000 had to be expended in interest on publio and private debts, that borrowing had ceased, and that the adjoining colonies were expending largo sums of borrowed money, it was a great wonder thoy had not lost inoro people, Thoy should all be proud of this grand little colony, which had turned the corner, faced the interest referred to, and could produce a Burplus, The present Government was far from faultless, (in fact he had on many occasions voted against it), but they should be grateful to it for having pulled the colony through its finaucial crisis (appliuse). He did not mean to say that thoy had brought about the present improved financial condition without

. TAXATION. . . Eetrencliment had been effected and taxation and customs duties increased, But not wi tb standing there was £15,000 less paid in customs duty during the last year than in 1885. Although tho customs taxation was £IOO,OOO higher than in 1887 it must be accepted as satisfactory to know that solittle money was taken out of the pocket of tho colonial taxpayer, Ono reason for the decreased amount of the oustarns was that less whisky and beer was drunk in tho colony than in past years, During the past year more than £IOO,OOO less than fire years ago had been derived from this source. (A voice: How mu3h on tobacco ?) He did not support the

JtEDUOXION IN THE. ESTUrATUS, because ho believed that the salaries from tho Governor downwards were reduced lo their lowest reasonable limits tbreo years ago. Public servants in New Zealand were paid much less than in the adjoining colonies. When the "skinflinters," as they, are called, proposed a further reduction in the salaries of old and faithful publicservants, he had opposed it as he always would such an unjust proceediiig(hear,hear),The'Opposition had taken the credit to themselves ot reducing tl)e estimates by £40,000. But he would flsk, how was this done f About bulf-a-doaen supporters of the Government had said that unless a reduction of £50,000 was made they would withdraw their support, The Opposition had taken advantago of this. It bad been said that Mr Ballance supported tlieso reductions, But ho would point out that this gentleman was looked upon as even more extravagant than Sir Julius Vogel, He had said three years ago that the Government had only tie ■ saino taxation as in 1867, and more taxation was desirab]e, The Opposition had taken advantago of the proposals of the Government,, He would point out, however, that salaries were reduced very little comparatively speaking. Out of ■. }oB salaries tnero vfero only • 25 •• in ; which twere reductions made, 12 of hese being in the Lands Department, One gentleman in the Lands Department who bad his salary reduced was the Commissioner (Mr Marchant) and another the Under-Secretary (Mr Elliotte). It was admitted that these were twooftbemostable servants the colony, possessed. Such reductions as these which were made without discrimination, were discreditable to the public men of the colony. It was disgraceful that public ravants should bo treated in such a haphazard way (hear I hear I), During the past three years the . Railway Commissioners

had been appointed, and tho railways of tho Colony handed ofcr to them, Some might say they wore hotter with tho Government. In many instances he admitted tho Commissioners had not noted as he would have liked, but on the whole he believed the change was beneficial. The railway servants were now treated in a more just manner, and political patronage could not prevent energetic men from rising in the service. Anpthoc important measure introduced during the past three years was the ; Military Defence Bill. .Within the next few years the Oolong would We two warships in its own WtPVili' 'tkjjfwburd he a benefit to all, Then there was tbeappqintjhen't of three delegates to attend the Federation Convention shortly to he held in Australia to consider the important question of federation. He was pleaoed to. know that IJew Zealand had docided to join in this federation) whiob'he earnestly

hoped would bo brought to a success ful issue. "Tho • hadib been passed by tho present House; Under its operation.tho pubho nomination of candidates for Parliament would be done.awity with; and henceforth the same process would be gone through as in the election of local bodies, Any two electors could nominate n candidate. Each candidate would have to deposit £lO as a guarantee that his nomination was bona fide, and this" amount would bo forleited if ono tenth of the number of votes of the 'successful candidate were not polled, Further, seaincn would be permitted,, to vote by telegram. For instance if a seaman who' was registered in Wellington. happened to ,'be in Auckland on'tho day of tho election, he could telegraph his vote quite .as as if ho was in the Empire city, They would nil agree that tho _ School Oommitieks Bill, which had been passed, was agroit improvement on the former measure, The proceedings which '••' allowed plumping had frequently returned persons who were very undesirable, Tni& was now done away with, and each man was permitted to record only one vote, . Another provision was that any man during; the day of election could'drop. his vote into the ballot box, and not wait till the evening, Theso were two important improvements. An amendment had also been made in tho Companies Act, whereby wages due would be made a first charge upon the assets of a Company. Hitherto this *as only in private matters. Another Bill passed was the amendment to tho Babbit Act,

This was an important question. Like other small matters the rabbit wan very formidable in its numbers. He here road the report of the Committee appointed by the House to consider tho rabbit question, which recommended the Government to continue the importation of stoatsand weasels in largo numbers, and to supply wire netting to farraors' on easy terms, A greot division of opinion existed on this question buthe was ready to speak out his own honest opinion. This might be unpalatable, but ho was determined to speak what was right in the interests of the colony (applause). The Committeo appointed by the House consisted of the most practical men who could be found, some of whom were small farmers. He maintained that the question was one for small farmers as well as large (A voice: No) The loss to the colony through the pest was approximated at £2,000,000 per annum, Surely, then, it was a national question, If the natural enemy was going to injure anybody there might be grounds for objection. But this was not so. Last year the colony exported twelve and a half million rabbit skins. From the fact that every five rabbits ate as much grass as ono sheep they gathered that the loss to the colony was L 2,000,000 per year through the pest, One of the amendments in the Act provided that wire-notting fence should bo made legal the same as any other fence, That is, a man who erected a wire-netting fence could call upon his neighbour to pay half the cost of its construction. This clause he strenuously opposed, because he knew the people of the Wairarapa district would rise against it, They could not afford to pay the half cost of a. wire netting fence.. The olausewas thrown out in the Lower House but was re-introduced in the Upper in a different form. Then in different parts of the district persons had been fined for failing to destroy rabbits on their property. He was aware that owners of 100 acres in some cases had'been fined L 5, whilst owners'of thousauds of acres had been fined only LI, Feeling that this was most unjust bo had introduced a clause which provided that the fine should be made in proportion to the area held (hear,, hear,) Another measure important to tho district was the

Sheep Act, one phase of which had come before them on Saturday last regarding wool branding. It might be asked how sucb a clause became inserted. To relate the whole facts would tnko too long, all bo could say was that ho opposed it in every possible way. Another clause provided that no poreon could earmark a sheep without lushing to the Government inspector for the Government punch. Thisolause they succeeded in getting thrown out, together with the clause relating to the hours for driving, So muoh lor the meassres which had been passed, He was sorry to say that the hills which ought to, have passed exceeded in number those which wero put through, One measure which was not passed hut should have been was tbo Charitable Aid Act, This district and others in the colony found themselves linked to the larger centres, and compelled to contribute towards tho support of the poor of the cities, Last session he had introducedn measure to relieve this injustice but it bad been Btopped in its journey through the House by stonewalling, Then again tho Labour Bills, were unfortunately not passed. This was owing lo the labour difficulty which existed at the time, One Bill known as the Truck Bill, which made it unlawful for any person to pay wages in any form excepting by money or lawful cheque, had been introduced, Under this Bill no employer could pay wages in goods or such like, Great complaints had been mode that people were now compelled to take goods in payment for wages. This was what the Truck Bill, which got no further than tho Lower House, was for. It was impossible to get it further. Then there was the

Factories and Shots Act, in eoiuo of tho clauses of which he did not believe. For instance, one clause provided that all shops should be closod at six o'clock in the evening four days in tho week, It was not right, he maintained, that a man who toiled till six o'clock in the country could not come into town after that hour to make a few purchases. At the same time ho believed in the appointment of inspectors to visit the factories and see that every man was fit to work in them. (A voice; An office for Bomeone.) The

Employers' Liability Bin, (A voice: Ah, tout's the Bill) made ic compulsory on employers to assist men'who were injured at their work. But evon this Bill was put off owing lo the labour dispute, It was rery wrong that it should be held over, The'.-. Builders' Lien Bill would empower any man working in a building to enter $ lien''upon. t|ie same, He knew of people who got buildings erected, but when the time came for payment the money was not forthcoming. This slate of things should be put an end to, Several |o ther, flips jiad not pasned., but he

would not trouble his hearers iutihor with them. He would.say however, that the conduct' of somo of tho members during the, past three years, had been such as to,: bring the House into disrepute. He alluded to the STONEWAIiUNG, TACTICS. •-■•■• It was unable to" trausact any business of importance owing to this obstruction. After last elections the Government had a working majority, but in consequence of stonewalling uothiug had been done during the last two sessions,' If he had tho honor of again being returned, tho first thing he would U6O his best endeavors to do would be to put an end to stonewalling (hear, hear,) Anotllcr very important question was tho INOIDENOE OF TAXATION, In the first place there was the Property Tax, The opinion was held by many in this and other districts that the properly tax was unjust because it 'taxed the improvements made by the industrious man whilst it did not tax the idle. Ho had represented tho district] now for nine years, and all would agree that he should at any rate bo a supporter of the working man. It would be easy for hiin to say" Yes/let us do away with the property tax and have a land and income tax," This might be a popular change to many. Ono. objection to the property'tax was,that it taxed industry, How was it possible, he asked, to do otherwise! They could not tax the idle, How did this tor affect a man earning weekly wages ? Why, in Customs duties • he contributed towards the tax, Then there were the land owners., Thpy were also taxed for their industry. Were they not ambngst the hardest worked people in the colony ? They did not excape the tax, The more a man increased his incomo by industry,- the' more he was taxed. He was entirely, unable to see how the property tax was a tax on.industry more than any other tax. Supposing aland and incomo tax were imposed"; for every £1 worth of improvements exempted from taxation iho towns would get 9s 6d, and tho country ss. This would be ono result of the change from the property tax. Again, about £30,000,000 was invested in mortgages in the Colony, about twenty millions of which was invested in tho country, and the remainder iu the towns, How would a land tax affect these mortgages ? The mortgagor would escape, and the actual occupier would have to pay, It was the same in 1879, and it would be bo again. Further, what about the man who had just taken up land in the Forty mile Bush ?_ How would the land tax affect him ? All his money would be nvested in uniniproveed land, upon whnJi the land tax would bo vory heavy, By the property tax L 355,000 a year was raised, by the duty on tea and stigarj L 200,000, odd on clothing kc, L8G5,000. together this made L 925.000 a year. It wa3 proposed to do away with these taxes and supply, the revenue with a land and income tax. He submitted that not even a tithe ef this amount could bo raised by a laud tax.. The Stout-Vogel Government, wbon it oame into power, promised to introduce a ) Rn il and income tax, hut they did not do so because they found it would be impossible to find tho money to replace that raised under tho property tix Sir Robert Stout at Napior the other day had deprecated any sudden change in the fiscal financial policy, and urged that the land and income tax- wofe not sufficient to meet the loss sustained by the doing away with the property tax. If they took every bit of unimproved land in the I oolonyalltheycouldproducdatldintho & would be £238,000, What could i tboy getoutofinoomol They could i not tax a man on tho value of his ; land or improvements. All thoy I could tax was'the income derived by i the personal exertions of lawyers, i doctors and such like. He quite > agreed with this but he asked, what ! would it yield? Only £40,000. ' They therefore h,ad but £278,000 to i replace the £900,000 of the property tax, Of course the land tax might be increased. Instead of Id in the £ > they could place a tax of 2d or 3d on I the land, But this would be the i ruination of hundreds. It would i shift the burden from tho back of the , wealthy man in the town on to the ' shoulders of the industrious country i settlers, He would not be found : deserting the country settlers in this > way, (hear! hear!) Could no* thing be done to make tho tax I fall lighter on the country settlers! i He thought there could. At present ' everyone in the Colony was exempt up to £SOO, and for this there was no reason, Why should the monied man > be exempt at all ? The amount that i would be gamed would be no less than £57,000 a year, if every owner of i property were not exempted on the first £SOO. He should propose to do away with tho tax as it now stood, and in the case of small holders make a larger exemption, while those who i had large properties should pay tax on tho whole amount. The small settler got little out ot his improvements, the bare necessaries of life, and it was therefore an injustice to tax him where he had no return, At present thero were lying in tho banks flora six_ to eight millions of money which was shown by tho returns (a escape taxation, becauso bankers were not compelled by law to show how (they .stood. If they were obliged to give accurate roturns so that this large sum might bo taxed, it would be a further source of revenue,

"Valuations. Ho bad pointed out to the Government and to the Commissioners that the present system was a bad one, ' When valuators went to work ono man was often taxed too highly and another not nongb,;. becausp valuators had not time enough allowed tliem to do thejwork properly. This district was a largo one, and instead of two months, at least twclvo should be given them in which to do their work, Only the best men in tho Colony should be employed, and proper payment givon them. This was a reform upon which electors should insist. Ho would now ask their further attention upon the subject of Land Settlement.

Id 1888 the present Government bad made several important changes in land administration, and it was now possible to obtain land under Ihe deferred payment system, tho thirds of which could be used immediately for road making under the Loans to Local Bodies Act, Very nearly doublo tho land had been taken up under.-"'this system „ than had been . taken during the previous session which was another evidence of thesoundncss of the colony. Mr Ballance had been telling them that

DuanmsJi was rampant and 'thaflaml v \vas merely being taken up to eventually pass into the hands of large holders, The evidence lately called bfeore the Waste Land Court

did not show'this. In the given by the Land Commissioners it was stated that duinmyiam wus rare. He was in favor of the Victorian system, under which applicants were oxamincd by the Land Board, and tho most suitable applicant was chosen, He had no faith in the ballot, but at the simo time did not wish to go book to the old auction system, because settlers were led to give more than they could afford undor' excitement, imd : revaluation became necessary, In 1876 fifteon out of 100 persons owned land to-day 23 out of, every 100 did so; The number of persons owning from, 5 to 10 acres had: doubled, under 20 1 acres had increased 50%, under 30 acres 14%, and under 50 acres,fiO per cent. This was a most satis:factory answer to those who stated that the. land was, being sold in large areas; For the. las 1 , few weeks their attention had beea engrossed by the , ; Strikes . ? ; " v ■ and it was indeed a mournful spectacle to see steamships liud ;:p and trade at a standstill.. ; He had: been abla to congratulate - them ,on • position tho Colony had attained during ■ 'the', last;; thfee years, .. but now this disaster had- come, Freights had gone upj everything was • dearer, and ithad been estimated that , one steamer alone had losb«L6000 . through delayin' "Wellinjgtdiii' "Ho might give an instance, The' Wellin- •. ton Freezing Company alone had spent, LIOO a week more since the commencement of the strike on fuel,' because th'ey had to bum wood instead of coal. (Uptoar aiidf cheers), He quite understood and sympathised with their expression of feeling. They the Wairarapa settlers, supplied the wood, and they mupfc not think he begrudged them a single shilling of their j harvest. But these things were a serious loss to the colony which every settler would feol he was afraid for a long time to come. He felt sure that when the straggle commenced neither workmen oremplovers expected such,a, result, -He was not going to say who was to Blame, but he believed the struggle was now nearly ended. He was not against on the contrary. Properly directedV unionism was beneficial to employers V and employed, but he did not see why men should he forced to come out. because some dispute occurred in Queensland about which they knew nothing; Tho time would come when men would take an independent position, and if the interests of labour required it. would come out, but not against their own : wish and inclination as in the present instance. A deal of blame had beon attached to him bccauso he had voted against the

EIGHT HOUBS DILL, . His reasons were that the Bill could not be made applicable to all classes, and endless complication would ensue. Eight hours a day was the law of New . Zealand by tlie desire of the and'that was stronger than any statute on the books. Those who knew him would understand that ho had no wish to lengthen the hours of labor and had no objection to voting for an Eight Hour Biil except that he did not believe in a hard and fast rule. Mr Bradlaugh had said lately in England that Parliament was not tlio tribunal to regulate the hour's of- labor, and Mr Gladstone, had: expressed his opinion in the eamo way (hear, hear,) In conclusion' he would a few words as. to his •• . FUTURE POLICY. , . ■ He should advocate the opening up of lands by the construction of roads and bridged, and the olearing of; Bay one tenth of the land before settlement.' His reason was that settlers fn bush country very often could not find room to place their modest cottage, and often had to wait two years before they could get on the land. Further, he would advocate that the first two years of settlement should be rent free, (applause),' No return could be obtained in less tlmn two years from bush land. Every aero possible should be bought from tlif natives, borrowing of the most restricted nature only should be carried on, and for no other purpose than roading and bridging,thuspursu* ing apolicv of sober financo.He had in the past been a supporter of the present Government, but in the future he would not pledge himself to support any party or any set of men, Mr Buohanan thanked those present for their attention, and expressed his willingness to answer questions, (applause). _ Questions Mr Calliater asked if Mr Buchanan was in favor of increasing thfaf property tax on absentees.. Mr* Buohanan said the proportion was not at all largo. He regretted absenteeism, but was not in favor at the present time of a special tax on absentees.

Au Elector: Do you think it fair, for us to pay taxes for you to get rid of your rabbits, Might aa mil ask us to buy you a buggy ? . After th questioner had explained that ha meant the importation of stoats and weasels, Mr Buolianan informed him that ho was one who had asltod Government to do so because the rabbits were breeding on Government' lands and overrunning the adjoining lands to the ruin of settlers. A man might as well set firo to his house without any thought for his neighbour. The Government had paid Ll.pOO for. stoats and weasels,, kt tie,settlers had paid far more, Tlio 'natural onomy _ seemed to bo the only way to cope with the evil, and tho lower end of tho valley had been cleared and enriched during the last six years by the importation of weasels,; The expenditure in this direction by the' Government had been a benefit to : the colony at large. Asked how much the natural' enemy had coat tho colony to importjy Mr Jiuclunan said that for this district LIOOO and for tbo South Islaud HOOO, At the same time thy must remember that the colony derived about L 200,000 from Crown! Lands and that tho expenditure litfd not been in tho interests of private * sottlers.

Mr Buchanan said lie objected to the. Law Practitioners Bill, because allowing unqualified persons to practise would be against the publio safety. A chemist must obtain a diploma before he dispensed medi* cine, and it was only proper.thata solicitor should pass an examination. Hewas.not able to tell exactly the respective amounts raised jw capita in England and America by taxation, but could tell them that Preetrada ' England paid less for the iieoessarita . of life than America; In answer to MrAcheson, Mr Buchanan said that if he paid 1 per cent on the unimproved value of his land at 10s per afire, instead of .the property tax as at fireseiiji, lie should ]mvo to' pay abpiii ' one: fourth of" wh'iit lie 'tfas r npw paving. These were allthe questions, 1 and after a vote of thanks had been • assed and responded to, the meeting