MR. KYNNESLEY ON THE BUDGET.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 691, 30 July 1870, Page 2

MR. KYNNESLEY ON THE BUDGET.

Mr Kynnersley said that, although he had only recently taken his seat in the House, he felt that he would not be doing his duty to his constituents if he was simply to give a silent vnto on so large an expenditure as was contemplated. He would not detain the House many minutes, and would confine himself to a few remarks on the leading features of the Treasurer's scheme. The whole scheme was too large for a young member to grasp at once. He was prepared to approve and support the borrowing of money for the construction of permanent public works in the shape of railways and trunk roads. He believed that railways were, at the present time, very much required; in the North Island, for military purposes, and in the Middle Island, for purposes of colonisation. It was not to be expected that such works could be undertaken out of the current revenue of the country. At the same time he did uot see why they should proceed to legislate for the next ten years. Homely proverbs were sometimes as applicable to a nation as to an individual, and in this case he believed that they should cut their coat according to their cloth. It applied just as much to national undertakings as to simple transactions. It was said, he was aware, that if they were to have railways, they should be constructed upon a large and comprehensive plan for the whole Colony. It was assumed by many that there was no use in making a few miles here and there through the Colony; but he thought that was all they required. What they wanted were merely the ends of railways to connect up-country centres of population with the nearest ports. He did not believe that there would be any great advantage in connecting Picton with Christchurch, or Nelson with Greymouth. Twenty, thirty, or even forty miles of railway at either end would be found of advantage, but those of 100 or 150 miles in length could be thought of in two or three years' time. On the subject of immigration he desired to say that he thought a modified scheme of immigration, on the plan adopted by Victoria, would be found very beneficial to the Colony. In Victoria about a shipload of well-connected immigrants were brought out monthly. Some such scheme as that would be found to work well in New Zealand. If two or three shiploads were brought to Auckland, two or three to Cook Strait, and a few for Canterbury and Otago yearly, that would be about the number which the Colony would take up and absorb. He understood that the railway scheme in connection with immigration would have the effect of lowering rates of wages, and of enabling the Government to construct the lines at a much less cost than they could be undertaken at present. * As long, however, as they had goldfields in the Colony they would find that that could not be the case. They had then 30,000 miners in the Colony who were the finest body of working men in the world, and who could construct the railways and roads as well as any im-

migrants who might he imported from England. The latter would go to the diggings as soon as they arrived in the Colony, and the construction of the public works would be left to the miners. Generally speaking they could not regulate the rate of wages in the labor market, as long as there were Goldfields, inasmuch as the discovery of a goldfield in Victoria would draw laborers to that Colony, while the discovery of a goldfield here would, in the same mariner, attract large crowds of immigrants from Australia. The honorable member for Heathcote referred to the example which was set by Queensland. The railway works and immigration scheme, carried on there very extensively, had resulted in utter stagnation and depression of trade throughout the whole Colony ot Queensland. He looked forward to the scheme, if carried out in its integrity, that at the end of five or six years, after the works had been constructed, after fchay had doubled the debt of New Zealand, there would be 50,000 men unemployed, after the stoppage of the public works for want of funds, clamoring at the door of an empty Treasury. The only part of the Colonial Treasurer's scheme that he could cordially agree with was the proposal to supply water on the goldfields. He only wished the proposal was larger. He thought the £200,000 could be very advantageously employed on the West Coast Groldfields alone. He was certain that the. money might be employed in bringing water on to hundreds of square miles of the Nelson Goldfields, an auriferous country that would find remunerative employment for thousands of men for the next ten years. He was glad to see that the Colonial Treasurer had stated, " I woujd not shrink from declaring that if the existence of the present institutions of the country are inconsistent with the promotion of public works and immigration, and a choice must be made, I would infinitely prefer the total remodelling of those institutions to abandoning that stimulating aid which, as I believe, the condition of the Colony absolutely demands." He should not take that opportunity of expressing his very strong anti-provincial opinions, but he expressed the sincere hope that the Provincial Governments might have nothing to do with the carrying out of the railway scheme, or with the water supply to the goldfields. He might state that the proposed capitation allowance would be exceedingly unfair to the goldfields, because of the very large proportion of adult males; he thought it would be altogether unworkable unless an annual census were taken at considerable expense to the Colony. If the census were taken overy three years, there might on any fresh discovery be a rush of ten thousand men, directly after the census had been taken, from one Province to another, and one Province might be receiving a large portion of the revenue which might equitably belong to another Province. The capitation allowance scheme could not be carried out fairly unless it was based on the adult male population, and unless the census was taken annually. He knew the present system was unjust and unfair to some Provinces. Marlborough, for instance, suffered from it. It would be much better to make some special allowance than to have a scheme which would be unfair to any of the Provinces. As a representative of the goldfields he might be excused if he made some remarks upon the protective tariff proposed. He looked upon New Zealand as a great mineral country, and that all other interests and industries in the country were secondary to the mining interests. In support of that view, he might say that the value of the export of gold only was equal to all the other exports iu New Zealand combined. They could not find any industry or interest in New Zealand that could compare with the mining interest. He was certain the agricultural interest would not, or if it could, there could be certainly no reason for the proposed protective tariff. The pastoral or wool growing interest was not in such a prosperous condition as the mining interest, or if so, there could be no reason why there should not be an export duty onwoolas wellasongold. The miners had not hitherto taken any great part or interest in politics in New Zealand, for they had been content to believe that they had been dealt. with with some regard to justice. It was the opinion that miners were a wandering race of people, and they were not entitled to the same consideration as other classes of the community ; but he might state that so long as the miners were in New Zealand, and so long as they were bearing a large share of the taxation of the country, they were entitled to the same representation in this House, and to the same consideration generally, as any other class of the community. After they had left New Zealand, it would be time enough for those who were unfortunate enou'h to remain in New Zealand to legislate for themselves. So long as the miners were in the country and paid their taxes they were entitled to representation in proportion to taxation. He hoped, as the representative of a large mining community, he would be excused if he entered into the subject of the protective tariff at greater length than previous speakers had done. On the West Coast of the Middle Island they could get better goods at a less price from Victoria than they could from Lyttelton, the freight was less and the insurance was less. He would, therefore, ask why he should be compelled I

to agree to transfer the money from the pockets of the miners of the West Coast to the pockets of the farmers of the East Coast. The miners were very inadequately represented, so much so that he had to represent the people of the Province of Nelson, who contributed nearly three-fourths of the revenue of that Province, while the people who contributed the other fourth returned seven members to this House. There was no export duty on any other product but gold. The miners bore a greater share of taxation than any other class in the conimunity; but there was a limit to their endurance. Even in Victoria, when a protective tariff was adopted, the export duty on gold was abolished at the same time ; and if that were done in New Zealand, the miners would have less reason to complain than they have now. He would ask on what principle it was proposed to introduce immigrants from England, while by increasing the taxes on the goldfields, they were driving away the experienced skilled miners whom they have already in the Colony. The miners when he left the West Coast only ten days ago were complaining very loudly about this proposal for a protective tariff. He should be very sorry to see the present contented and prosperous condition of the goldfields give way to dissatisfaction and agitation, as he had no doubt would be the case if this protective tariff were carried. The miners w T ere not unreasonable, they only asked for justice, or at least for a more moderate measure of injustice than that which the Colonial Treasurer had proposed. He was prepared cordially to support the proposal for a water supply to the goldfields ; and he would agree to the railroad scheme on a more moderate scale, and to an immigration scheme on a very moderate scale. He objected altogether to capitation allowance as unfair and impracticable ; and he protested most emphatically, in the name of the ten thousand of the mining community whom he represented, against the protective tariff which had been submitted to the House, as an unwise policy, and as unjust towards a large portion of the population.