MR. McMINN AT RAGLAN.

Waikato Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1465, 22 November 1881, Page 1 (Supplement)

MR. McMINN AT RAGLAN.

This candidate addressed a meeting of the Waipa electors in tho Court-house, Raglan, on Saturday evening latt. There were about 35 peraras present. Mr La Trobe occupied tho fhair. Mr McMinn in commencing his address said the views wbicji he had to givo expression to were Something similar to those ho had stated in the same room some threo years previous. He distinotly denied the right of any candidate arrogating to himself the distinctive appellation of the Liberal candidate. It was hard to say where the line, was drawn between the so-called liberals and the other party. He had never heard of > fluch ft party in the House as the Conser- * rative, and was certain that there were M liberal minded rion following Mr Hall •s were following f}ir George Grey, and for a candidate to arrogate to himself the vj title "liberal" was presumptuous 'n is •^opinion. Hia definition of liberalism traa that system of government ' \ which the ideas of a majority of the people of the country found force and expression in Hie laws and regulations under which they were governed, and he thought he was as worthy to be called a liberal as any other candidate. As the other candidates who were out for election had not expressed any opiniou as to their compeen, he would not be the first one to do so. The first measure of any importance to be brought before the House next session was that of local selfgovernment. It had been proposed by the present Government to make the Legislative Council elective, and that was in its tendency very liberal indeed ; but notwithstanding their having introduced this measure if they did not practically oppose its adoption, they did not carry it. This measure he would support for various reasons. He could not see the reason why men should be able to super- » vise the actions of the Lower House and ' not be responsible to the people in any shape or form. This he considered ultraConservative, and a principle which they should try and stamp out. Local selfgovernment was one very weak point in the programme of the present Government, and he hoped the measure proposed by Mr Hall in reference to this subject would be carried ouc. The next question was, were they to have two local bodiesroad boards and county councils ? Road boards were formed with the intention that they should be local governing bodies, and they .should therefore be called upon to undertake .any local government in force in tho colony at the time. The Highways Act was as Rood an act as could possibly have been devised, and was superior to all others of a like kind. When the bill was being passed it was thought that county councils would be developed in the country sooner or later, and suggestions were asked of the different boards then in existence as to what form the council should take, and how it should be constituted. It was suggested then that the county councils should consist only of the chairmen of the various highway boards, and this scheme lie himself endorsed, and up to the preseut he had not seen any reason for changing that opinion. In the matter of public works, coanty councils were very useful, inasmuch as they saved the road boards a considerable amount of trouble and expense, and if these councils were formed in the way above suggested considerable expense would be saved to the country, and tho members would undoubtedly be the representatives cf tho people. The road boards, he thought, should take over the duties of the school committees, and a combination of offices such as this would undoubtedly keep down local expenditure. The settlers who formed one body could form the other, and the meeting called to transact the business of the one could transact the business of the other. In'many cases, as thpso boards were at present constituted, members who lived at a distance found when they atteuded a meetiug there was nothing for them to do, and they consequently got so tired of going to fruitless meetings that they remained away altogether. This state of things would bo avoided if a combination of offices such as that advocated took place, as there would always bo something: for the members to do. Ho was not aware that this idea had been broached elsewhere, with the exception that he himself had advooated the principle iv that vory room some six years before,and now thought it worthy of earnest consideration. He j was opposed to the present system of rating, as he did not consider it to be well adapted for country districts, and was in hopes of effecting a change. The Waste Lands Boards he hoped to see done away with as soon as possible. Ho did not •cc what grounds there weio for the Gorornment to form a waste lands board. This was a body to which was entrusted very important functions, and ho believed that the local government sjheme which he proposed might bo worked into the constitution of it also. One waste lands commissioner who |fc understood his business thoroughly and would be appointed by the Government should be imported into the body to direct its actions, for in tho matter of disposing of the Crown lands mistakes were very likely to occur if the business was not done in a proper manner ; therefore a Government officer to see that the details of the business were faithfully carried out was desirable, if not altogether indispensable. The opening of Crown lands for sale should be decided by a waste lands board 'composed of the chairmen of the various county councils. If this constitution would not be entirely an unmixed blessing, in any case it would be decidedly more preferable to having four or five men appointed by the Government. He could not see for what reason they were appointed, and they were to his mind one of the most irresponsible bodies in the country. As regards education, they were aware that at present both the •Board of Education and the school committees wore purely elective. He was on the whole, satisfied with the Education Act as it stood. There was one weak _ point however in the act with which he " did not altogether hold good, and that was the compulsory clause. The Committe had the option of enforcing the compulsory clauses, but in very few cases had this particular clause been enforced. He had had a little to do with school committees in his day, but had never found a member of the committee wilb'ng and ready to carry out the compulsory clauses. It was desirable he thought to do away with that optional part of the clause, and that it should be made the duty and not the choice of the parents to have their children educated. The principles of the bill should just be the same as they are now— free, compulsory, and secular. Frequent reference had been made to tbo Education Act of the present day as part of the liberal programme, but it was not generally known that those who fctyle themselves liberal leaders have opposed the bill as at present constituted. The records of Hansard would shew them few tije wfrtav tytype4 out m 1377. &

regards taxation, he had been at one time a strong supporter of the land tax, but he considered the property tax a very great improvement. Three years ago he had considered that taxation should be in the form of a property tax or an income tax, aud since that time he had seen no reason to change his opinion. They were doubtless aware that a great amount of money was paid away in salaries which was never reached by the property tax at all. He would give as an instance one gentleman who resided in Auckland, and who received from the country a salary of £5000 a year ; still he never contributed anything in the way of taxation, unless through some little personal property. The 10 per cent, reduction might be done away with, with the view of substituting it with an income tax on salaries ovei: a certain amount ; though he was aware the latte^torocess of increasing the revenue would nolnrecoup as much to the treasury as the former would save it. The civil servants should be obliged to ensure their lives in the Govcrment Insurance Society. There was a question connected with taxation which he desired to touch upon, and that was protection. He had hitherto been a strong supporter of free trade, but looking at the tendency of this and the tendency of protection, and comparing their respective advantages and disadvantages on the commercial welfare of the country, he thought it an open question, but personally lie was .strongly opposed to protection. If free trade weie an established principle throughout the world, then ib would be in his opinion more acceptable and more advantageous than protection, but in the present state of affairs, when England stood alone in the field of fiee trade and all the other powers adapted a stiingont protection, he thought it would be foolish for them to bind themselves to such a policy altogether. In the matter of Public Works lie would refer to the Railway Construction and Lands Act passed last session that enabled private companies to construct railways. In his opinion it was preferable that the railways should remain in the hands of the Government, as at present, but it had been said in support of the other theory that the Government had not got the money that private companies could command. lie for one would be glad to see a railway running up the valley of the Thames, but he was afraid that this line, like several in the South Island, might in time be brought under the Public Works Act. These had been pushed along for some time until it was found that the prospects were so exceedingly bad that the Government had to take them off the hands of the companies. It was to be considered that when a railway was run through a tract of land, as in the case of the proposed Thames Valley line, the expense of construction was not alone recouped from traffic, but also fiom the increased value of the land, and the extensive grants of land which the company in this case was awarded would bf considerably increased in ■\aluc by the construction of the railway. He thought it should have been the unceasing effort of the existing Government to have had the line run through from Te Awamutu to Wellington as soon as possible, for it was not at all improbable that the line down the Thames Valley would supplant the one by Te Awamutu, and if both were constructed it was hardl}' possible that both would pay, and he would unquestionably be sorry to .see the lino of a private company monopolising the whole of the traffic to the detriment of a public line. He would next lefer to railway charges for the tiansport of goods. It had been proposed that ceitam classes oi. goods, such ns mdiniies, seeds, &c, should be carried free of freight, but he could not sec why that should be, though he thought for home articles substantial reductions should be made. The working expenses of the railways must be paid in some way or other. Up to about a year ago, the linos thioughout the colony were paying only J } per cent, on the capital invested, but since then tilings had improved considerably, and as the working expenses had been curtailed, the return was now about 3 per cent. The money borrow cd for the construction of New Zealand railways could not be less than at about 0 per cent, and from this they would see that the lemaining 3 per cent, had to be paid out of the revenue of the colony. Certain articles ho thought should be conveyed at a reduced late such as artificial niamue. They would understand esery cwt. of manure that went up the Waikato, went back again in the shape of produce. The question of protection again crept up here. Was it desirable that manure should be protected at the expense of the farmers ? The rate of freight at the present time was certainly higher than when theprcscntGovernmententcred into office, and he thought himself perfectly justified in making that statement, inasmuch as credit had,been claimed for the present Government for reducing the freight, and this they certainly had not done. He had always held the opinion that the best system for disposing of the waste lands of the colony was that which existed in the time of the provincial governments. The plan then adopted was successfully carried out for many years, and he thought it would be for the best upon which the system could be based in future. As to native lands, he would endeavour, if elected, to have the lands passed into the hands of men hi small blocks without the intervention of outside parties, and that the land should pass through the Government as much as possible. In the matter of the Patctere lands, the purchase of which the Government had entered upon, it would have taken 'close upon £1,200,000 to complete the purchase, and he did not believe that there had been any underhand movement intended in letting these lands pass into the hands of private parties. He had read the correspondence and communications on the matter, and was convinced that nothing of the kind had taken place. The great excuse for taking off the proclamation was that the land was not, in many instances, of first rate quality, and that it required a large amount of money to complete the purchase and negotiations. But, again, it had been argued that a large portion of the purchase money would not have to be paid for many years to come. The fact of the lands having passed through Govern uvent hands would save a great amount of dissatisfaction in the matter of private negotiations; and there was a general feeling that lands passing through private hands did not give satisfaction. He was therefore in favour of native lands passing through the hands of the Government,without the intervention of private individuals. Before the lands passed from the Government hands he thought the necessary roads should be first surveyed, and the land cut up into small blocks, and then passed into the bands of the public in that way. In the homestead system there was one greal objection. The roads were not surveyed before the land was isold, and this, as thej

would see, was a great barrier to successful settlement. In many cases when roads were laid off through a piece of laud before it was settled on, they were seldom laid off where they ought to be, and consequently they often heard of local boards closing roads all through the district; whereas, on the other hand, if the roads were cut first, and men allowed to choose a piece of land to the extent at present allowed under the homestead system ; 50 acres well surveyed and cut up according to the nature of the country, would be infinitely more valuable than 60 or 70 acres as at present. There were any amount of the 50 acre blocka in the Waikato not worth anything. A great many of them were aware no doubt that a lot of roads had been closed in that part of the province, a great many of wKich he believed would in all probability have to be re-opened. He thought advantage had been taken at the present time of closing roads that would immediately be very much required. The suggestion he would make in this case was that road boards should have power given them to allow the right of reflunring the use of the roads &o closed, at any time they may be required. The majority of the roads surveyed were put in the -worst possible position and the people of Raglan wore fully cognisant of the fact. It was one of the first questions he had brought before the Government, and the reply he got w;is that they had the law in their own hands and that they should clo^e the roads as they liked. But they knew the troublo of closing roads and taking fresh ones in their stead, and he could assure them that it was a serious matter to take them by force even according to law. One of the candidates before them teemed to consider that he had a vested right in the seat for Waipa and he would not have referred to this only he (the candidate) had asked for what reason he should be turned out of that seat. If a requisition were going round he would have been entitled to ask that question. Ho could tell them there w<is no member for Waipa at the present time and therefore any man had a perfect right to go before the electors and solicit their suffrages. The question had been asked what have I done that I should be turned out. "If he (the speaker) were wanting to answer that question he could give very strong reason indeed. They had a perfect right to do what they liked in electing a representative, and the object ho had in view was that Waipa bhould be represented by one of their own settlers. (Hear hear, and Applause.) If) was a scandal if they could not get ono man amongst them fair and honestly. Speaking truthfully he considered the late member for W.iipd not the representative of WuipiT,, but the representative of large moneyed companies and the agent of extensive land jobbers. Ho thought it very proper that those who had had experience in the matter of highway boatd I*,1 *, county councils, and other local bodies for years, and bad taken their share iv all the work and toil to be met with in a new country, had tho best light to aspiro to represent their interests in Parliament. The man who had not risen step by stop, and had not been a member of any of tho local bodies of the place, but who aspired to the honor of being their representative without in any way showing himself worthy of tho position, was not fit to be the member for Waipa at all. With this view he came before them, though some of them might think as he had a very few votes last year that it was presumption on his part to come forward again. He was well aware of how his unpopularity had been bt ought about, but did not think he ought to be ashamed of what ho had done, and of which he wag accused when ho, some few years ago, sought their suffiapes. At the close of the candidate's address the following questions were put :— Mr Masters asked his opinion as to the late retrenchment policy of the Government, Mr McMinn said he thought it was a rather hard case the way in which the Government carried out that scheme, but said the proposition he made with regard to an income tax on salaries over a certain amount would meet that case. He also thought the pension list might be curtailed as much as possible. Mr Hoisey asked what was the reduction made in the honorarium last year, to which Mr McMmn replied that it had been reduced ten per cent like the rest. A vote of thanks to the candidate was proposed by Mr Masteis and seconded by Mr Brettagh, and carried unanimously.