THE WAIKATO ELECTION.
Mr Whyte Returned Unopposed. Thi: nomination foi Waikato took place in tlic Couit-hou-o, Cambiidge, ye-^teiday, when thoie wai a Luge and representative attendance of elector-, front all p.uti of the di&tuct. The Ketiuning- Officer, Mi Seaiancke, pi elided. The Returning Ofticei havine; read the wi it M\d deposed of the u-ual formalities, called upon the meeting to nominate a fit and proper candidate for the Waiknto. Mr T. WolK said he had a light and pleasant duty to peifoim in the piopoaition he Wih about to make. It was that Mr Jchn Blair Whyte be nominated as a fife and pioper peihon to lepie^ent the Waikato in the foithcoming Pailiame'it. The be-,t wananty for hii action m piuposing Mr Whyte «•> to be found in the work which that gentlemen had done diumg the p;i-st two Paihamentb. The lesiuV of hi-, indefatigable labom •j on their behalf ci>uld lie testified to by the many gentlemen piebent who weie connected with the vauous load boaid^ and county councils thioughout the distiict. No one more than the^e gentlemen could better appreciate the amount of work which Mr Whyte had effected since he commenced to lepresent them in Pailianient. The value of the lepresentative man was not in what he .said, but what he did, and it was by what Mr Whyte had done for this district that they were to judge him. He then pioceeded to detail what Mr Whyte had effected for the town of Cambiidge, and the great confidence which the people of that district reposed in him. Every little matter of local concern vbich had been refened to Mr Wliyte never failed to receive his attention. As a gentleman and a fiiend Mr Whyte was well known to all of them. He could testify to the estimation in which their member was held atTeAioha, wlieie he was least known. Indeed, he might say that not only had the people of that diHtnct the gieatest confidence in him, but weie in every sense proud of him. He concluded by formally proposing Mr Whyte as a fit and proper person to represent their distiict in Parliament. Captain JEtuncinian in a few remarks seconded the nomination. No other candidate being nominated the Returning Officer duly declared Mr John Blair Whyte duly eleetcd to represent the Waikato electoral distiict in the ensuing Parliament. Mr Whyte on rising to address the meeting was received with loud and prolonged applause. It was with feelings of pleasure that lie met them on that occasion, though certainly late in the day, for the purpose of addressing them upon the topics which were now engaging public attention. He regretted that the state of his health prevented him addressing them sooner. Before proceeding with his address he wished to thank the people of Waikato for the uniform kindness and courtesy which they had extended to him ever since he became a representative in Parliament. Before entering political life he had been under the impression that no matter how honestly a man might strive to do his duty, still his actions would be severely criticised and his motives misconstrued ; whereas, on the contrary, the kind treatment he had uniformly received had rendered hia duties as a representative, although sometimes in themselves somewhat irksome, literally and without exaggeration, a labour of love. He thought it was hardly necessary to refer to the actual legislation of the past ; his views upon that were indicated by his actions, with the exception of the e/ents of the past shoit session. As they all knew, during that session Government had been defeated, and he thought that this was-very much to be regretted, as at that particular juncture the North Island bad every prospect of being opened up by the main trunk line of railway, which would no doubt tend very much to induce settleinehtr(appTauße) " Although -not present during that sessionhe had made up hia mind'that considering all -the circupj&tances, how -faithfully the present Ministry, notwithptandijig,'6hat,he differed from them ,on;agr^atFraftny, Mints,;
preferred to a disorganised Opposition. While upon the subject of this vote he thought that perhaps it might be well to td refer to his late colleague, Mr F. A. Whi taker, as this was the only occasion of irnpntance upon which they would probably havebeenfoundindifferentlobbies. He deiired, however, to say that although upon this occasion they differed, he felt perfectly ceitain, from his experience of that honourable gentleman's character in the House for a period of five years, that he was guided by honourable motives, and that whether he (the speaker) was right or Mr Whitaker, wjs a question which could only be decided by time. However, he desired, on his own behalf and on behalf of his constituents, to thank him most heaitily for the cordial instance which lie had always, received fioin him in all matters effecting the Waikato : and he could only say that if he could woik as cordially with the new member for Wai pa as he had done with the late member, he would consider it exceedingly fortunate — not only for himself, but for the district which he (Mr Whvte) represented. He also looked forwaid confidently and pleasiue to be again associated with Mr W-hitaker at some future date in Parliament. (Applause.). They were all aware that the defeat of the Government had led to a dissolution, and this very fact, he thought, would help to show that tiiennial paihaments weie a mistake. He (the speaker)»when first standing as a candidate for election had promised to vote for triennial parliaments. This he did viewing it from the standpoint of inexperience, but now, having practical experience of the woiking of this Act, he thought that on the whole it wa? not a good thing for the country, inasmuch as it to a great evte'it took away the independence of members of Parliament, and was the cause of too frequent elections. This, it must be admitted, was very detrimental to business, ci eating stiife, and caused a gieat deal of' needless .expenditure, public and private Regaiding the politics of the future, he would fii.it touch upon NATIVJ, LANDS as it was, peihaps, the most important matter affecting the North Island, and, in fact, the colony, generally. In his speech at Ilawera the Piemier first intimated thnt the Government intended to resume the pie emptive light. Now, he (the speaker) might as well at first say that so far as he was personally concerned he wished the pre-emptive right had never boon given up by the Go\eminent ; inasmuch as he had been induced to speculate in native lands, with the 'o^ult that he had been com cited fiom a compaiatively rich man into a poor man. Nevertheless, when this intimation was made he felt that it would be his duty to i oppose resumption of the pie emptive tight out and out. The pie emptive light piopeily so called was simply puichase of native land by the Go\ eminent, and the Government only. This couise meant eithei a sudden stoppage to all settlement, 01 the resumption of land pm chased by the Ciown on a large scale, the latter necessitating a loan for the pin po.se. This, he felt ceitain, the colony would not consent to, and even if it did the evils connected with the pui chase of land by the Government weiesowell known as to make necessity no description on his pait, especially to a Waikato audience. But if anyone wished to understand fully the evils referred to he would tefei them to Mi Biyce's .speech in the Hansaid of 18S0, on the subiect. Of couise they weie all awaie that up to recently negotiations for the put chase of native lands had been smiounded with many evils, and those e\ils wen 1 by gencial consent consideied to be owing to negotiations for puichase of land pluvious to its having gone thiough the comfc. Thoiefoio, la.st session acts weie passed, and for which he voted, whereby this was put a stop to. He, theiefoie, thought that these new acts might have had a fuithcr tnal bcfoie fre^h legislation was enteied upon. However, the Government ha\e now n.timated their intention of bringing down a bill whoieby n.itivc lands will be offeicd foi s\le thiough the medium of Waste Lands Boards only, the Government acting as agents for the natives, but letaining the right, to puichase in ceitain case. Now, although theoretically theie was httle to be said against this bill, hefeaied that piacticilly ib was sinlounded with difficulties ; nevei thelos, the colony had fiom end to end declaied in its favoai. It wa> also the opinion of many who ought to be competent judges that this method would aftoid small settleis an oppoitunity of buying at fhst cost, and thereby induce settlement. (Applause.) He was also of opinion that perhaps the veiy fact of us becoming known that this large extent of countiy was about to be offeied, . 01 would be offeied foi s ile, would bung about an influx of people desiring to make homes foi themselves in New Zealand Foi these leasoiia it was, he though, the duty of wise men to cndeavoui to make th s measure as woikablo as possible. Howe\er, he feaid that settlement by this nieasme would be found to be a \eiy slowprocess indeed, for the following leasons :—: — The natives would ceitainly for the fust few years object to bringing their land under the opeiation of this act. Again, any one who had had experience of the deiays connected with the survey, and the putting up to auction of Government lands knew how months and even years vveio sometimes wasted. Then, also, one who had practical experience of the working of the Lands Department, and of the delays connected with that, and of the very mi pen taut fact that neatly the whole of the present land revenue of the colony was swallowed up in administration, must dread theiesult of endeavouiing to deal with a new landed estate, at piesent owned by the natives. To all this must bs added the delay in ascertaining the title. It must theiefoie be evident that large additions would be lequued to the lcspective statts of the Survey and Lands Departments. This he did not believe the House or t l ie countiy would consent to, at all events to a sufficient extent. It was said by the advocates of this scheme that the colony would reap the benefit of the rise in value given to these lands by the main tiunk railway. Now, he would like to know how this was to be brought about. If the natives refused to sell, as they piobably would, how were they to compel them? and if they compelled them vvheie was the money to come fiom? Would the country vote a loan for that purpose ? Then again, it was pioposed that part of the proceeds should be vested on behalf of the natives. This appeared at the fiist glancp most philanthropic ; but in his opinion if it was the wish of the Government to improve the Maoris off the face of the earth, the best plan certainly was to make them, as by this pioposal," a race of pensioners. All that the paternal Government ought to do was to see that the natives did not denude themselves entirely of their land, but that sufficient only should be kept to provide them with homes. In other respects, he thought they should be legislated for similarly as Europeans. He also feared that this system, especially that part conferring the right of puichase upon the Government, was capable of great abuse in the hands of unscrupulous men. However, the country having declared so emphatically in favour of a scheme of this sort, it became the duty of wise men to make it as workable as possible, and if his fears pioved groundless, no one would be better pleased than himself. The c«lony, as they were all aware, was now in a state of great PEPBE&feIQN, and that depression prevailed, he was sorry to say, in Waikato, although not so much in the City of Auckland. As regards Waikato, he thought it was very much owing to our own extravagance. Anyone who was resident in the district eight or ten years ago must recollect how nearly every third day was either a race day, a murket day, or a, review day, and the balance of the time made up \ cry much by running about the country on fancied business. Then a good deal of this depression was owing to amateur fanning, everyone thinking himself able to farm if he could do nothing else. In fact, it was only recently that it dawned upon the community that farming like shoemaking was a trade which must be understood, and must be attended to. Our creed should now be as in Canada, that every farm should own a good farmer. Then again settlers generally had bought too much land in proportion to their capital, This they did wisely enough, calculating on b,eing able to sell part at an advanced price when they wanted njoney. This some did, and had been able to get on very well ; at the same time, however, capital in largo quantities was rolling in, prices for land went almost too high, and at the same time fresh mortgages were perhaps too easily effected. The effect of this was thafe, afterwards when people were obliged to sell, buyers' had disappeared, Now, however, he thought a better day as regard farming " was dawning upon . Wai^ kato, the farmers were attending more olosaly to their business, and were turning their attention' to products which could not be produced as easily elsewhere. He also felt that toe i -,5 * f \ c^ J&IRECT STEAM,, SERVICES "'- , , ly^ now^fajriy J ; eert^
for our frozen meat. He also felt ceitain that when it bscame known in the older countiies that by means of these floating hotels, which almost might be described as floating towns, it was possible to reach New Zealand comfortably in thiityor forty days, a large influx of men and money nmst certainly ensue. They were also awaie no doubt that there was a large DEFICIENCY IN THE REVENUE at the end of the last financial year, stated by theTreasurevto be £152,000. This wasnofc a pleasing fact, but when it was borne in mind that we were annually laying aside £250,000 at. a .sinking fund in reduction of our national debt, this was not so s>crious as it appeared ; and that, in fact, we were d-)ing inoie than paying our way. He was also led to believe that by reorganisation in the Civil Seivice the Government saw then way to saving about £40,000. They were iilio aware that, in order to leduce the deficiency, the Government had raised the giain rate^ ; however, before going any fui ther into that matter, it must fir&t be admitted that the geneial management of the railways was undoubtedly in a very unsatisfactory state. The cure for this in the opinion of many was in the appointment of a non-political boaul of management. However, he thought that it would be as well, bofoie taking this step, to watch the result of that btep in Victoria, as he feared theie might be considerable difficulty in the appointment of such a board, and in lemoving them if the plan weie found to woik badly. Meanwhile, we had a Minister who was. responsible and answerable to the House for the conduct of the department. Reverting to the raising of thegiain lates, he thought that, whether the Government \\ ere right or wrong in this matter, they deserved credit for having done so at the cost of a loss of political suppoit, resulting, as it afterwards appeared, in their defeat. Of course, it might be leplied to that, that they (the Government) should never have loweied the rates, especially for tlio purpose of securing political support. It was said that they had done this, and he did not know whether it was the case or not. The Government declared that they did it for other reasons, and on the whole made out a, veiy fair case. Still, if the Government had been guilty of taking such steps to secuic political suppoit, the people might loly upon tins -that theii conduct in the mattei was simply a ieile\ of the political moi ality of the constituencies themseh o-. So long as constituencies continued to ) etui 11 membeis pledged to insist upon ceitain local and sjlhSh lequireinonts, and if lcfuMidto withdraw their suppoit, they might depend upon it that governments would bo to a ceitam extent actuated by .similar motives. However, he thought that the time was coming when the people would be sufficiently educated up to consider these questions fioin a colonial and national, instead of fioni a local nnd selfish point of view. While upon this subject, it might be ah well to lefer shoitly to the question of
EDUCATION. We had now bestowed upon the colony a suffrage which was piactically univeisal, and it theiefore became necessary that those to whom they had given the light to vote should be educated sufficiently to enable tlitin to e\erciHc that light intelligently. He therefore thought th.it the present Education system hhould not be mteifeied with fiutherthan in endeavomingto make the money voted go as f.u as possible. Ho wati decidedly of opinion that the cost of Education should come out of the geneial levonne, as that was the only means whcieby all, be they childless 01 bachelors, could be made to contubute. Eveijone in the connnunity leaped the benefit, and should beai the cost of seeming wise legislation, and, as natural consequence, law and oidei. He ceit.unly thought that the Education vote should not be looked upon as a means of making up deficiency in the lovenue. He also thought that a system wheieby at the piesent moment 120,000 childien weie being educated, and educated well should not inteifeie. While upon this subject it might be well to read a few sentences addiessed by Mr DeLatour to the electois of Newton. He is lepoited to have said, " Why v a« there such a scramble for wealth and power, and such a gunding of the weak and poor.'" Again, "Then the system of bon owing was entoied upon, the iesult of winch was that the poor starved themselves to death, only to heap buidens upon thenisehcs while aiding the wealthy." Now, imagine a clever man addiesMiig such baldeidash to the lai»est constituency m New Zealand, especially in the city of Auckland He would ask, Wheie'was this gnndmg and starving to death of the weak and pooi? Wastheie ever a community moie unifoimly inde pendent than the people of New Zealand ? and amongst whom wealth was moie evenly distubuted ? And was it not a fact, and veiy piopeily so, that the woikmg classes had reaped a full shaie of public woiks c\penditme ? Was it not tine, aKo, that owing to this expcnditme work had been plentiful, and wages sufficient, vv hei eby they bad been enabled to m.ike homes for tliemeelves and accumulate in the savings banks of the colony, sufficient to tide them over any tempoiary depression which might oveitake the colony ? In his opinion in a few years' time when the piesent Education Act has had time to show its icsiilts it would be impossible for any political man to talk such nonsense to an audience who by that time will be able to judge foi themselves as to the real iequnements of the colony. Such language was, in his opini'in, calculated _to do veiy much harm indeed, by setting class against cla^, and railing antipathies which otherwise would not e\ist. The best of this peihaps lather gum ioke was when he (Mr DcLautom) proceeded to give hi.s cmc for this gunding and starving to death of the weak and poor, viz., the imposition of a land tax for the puipose of, as he said, getting at what he called the unearned inclement. Now as 1 cgard.s this unearned inclement, he (Mr Whyte) wanted to know wheie it was V Was it not a fact that in Waikato, and m New Zetland geneially, farms could be bought for less than the cost of impiovements, to say nothing of the ongnial purchase money .' Then, again, if it be true that some land was now woith, without expenchtuie upon it, say, £n an acie, which oiigmally cost 100, in most cases that land had changed hands, and if an attempt weie made to get at this inclement the tax would fall upon the wrong man. We had in our dibti ict, at all events, a very sufficient land tax in the shape of the fern. The advocates of the land tax said that it would help to prevent the accumulation of land in the hands of a few, The danger of this, he need haidly tell a country audience, was very slight indeed, and if it existed at all it was nothing as compaied to the danger which threatened the whole world, viz., the accumulation of money in the hands of the few, whcieby certain lings were even now in New York and London able to control the prices of nearly everything, including the necessaiies of life. A great apostle of this land tax, Sir (xeoigc Grey, was one of a class, and he said it in no offensive sense, who deiived a large part of their income from money invested on moitgages and other securities yielding from seven to ten per cent. ; in the case of timber companies and similar undei takings as high as fifteen and twenty per cent. In other words, that £1000 in this country yielded as great an annual income as £2000 would in England. Now, he would just ask, why should this increment escape taxation ? Was it earned in any sense of the word ? Was it not o wing to the energy, enterprise, and industry of others? Of couise the question of the incidence of taxation is too great to be dealt with on an occasion like the present, still he had thought it necessary to refer to it shortly. In doing so it was necessary to refer to a gentleman had figured rather prominently in the history of New Zealand, viz., Sir Julius Vogel. Although not a worshipper of this gentleman he was not digposed to join in the wholesale abuse which was heaped upon his head, and in fact _he saw no reason why his undoubtedly high talents should not be utilised by the colony provided always that he was associated with strong men whose interests were bound up with the colony, and would therefore act Us a restraining influence upon his plunging propensities. This gentleman, it is reported, proposes to repeal the property tax, and to increase the customs duties. This course, viz,, indjrecfc taxation., has always b>3n a favourite one with politicians, because it. has beon found that people submit irore readily to it, and will murmur less about paying £10 in the shape of customs duties than they would over 10s of direct taxation. Now, he thought that it would be much wiser,, indeed, - for the colony in the interests of ovepy one, rich and poor, rather than do this to repeal fche £500, exemption? under the property tax. This might be an unpopular thing to Bay, but h.e. felt .sure that on reflection everythoughtful man would concede that be^wag vight.^ (Applause.) The exemptions in his opinion, wire- altogether opposed •to .the Dririciple.of^theprQperty 1 tex,- which '-wwi ' that all' realised -prope?ty Y which cud not?
which it was qnito proper to exempt incomes up to a certain amount. As up to that amount it all went to purchase the necessaries of life. All above that amount m ght bj ranked as spent in luxuries, and was therefore a fit subject for taxation. In advocating this course lv claimed to be consistent, as when in 1880 it was proposed by the U-overnmeiit to exempt personal effects, that is to say, furniture, pictures, plate, jewellery, &c,, &c, chiefly owned by the rich, he opposed it waimly, contending that these were ab>ve all things the luxuries of the rich, and therefore ought to be tt\ed. At first sight the doing away with exemptions might appear to pie-s heavily upon the poorer classes, but when reduced to figures he thought this impression would disappear. For instance, under the piesent t,i\, a man who had accumulated £100 worth of property would only have to pay 0s 3d pel annum. No one', he thought, could say that that would press very heavily upon any one, and yet thise small contributions would amount to no less a sum than €135,000 a year. It was estimated that undei the piesont £500 limit, foity thiee million pound- woith of propoity escaped taxation, and he thought that taxing that was a very much better means of laising the levenue than by increasing the Customs duties. Moreo\er, it must be borne in mind that the cost of collection would be almost nil, the returns being ah eady furnished to the Government, and the requisite machinal y being in full working older. Another point upon which he thought the property tax ought to be amended was where it pressed heavily upon widows and otheis whose income was derived from small sums of money invested, as in these cases it became, in fact, an income tax in its most objectionable form ; inasmuch as it taxed means which were absolutely lequired for the purchase of the common necessai tes of life. Taking money as being worth say seven per cent, it amounted to an income of over a shilling in the £. In this matter ho thought that some provision should be made. While on the sublet of tho lepoal of the exemptions, he might state that this was no new view of his, as he had advocated it publicly in Cam budge m ISSO, when he aKo stated his belief that no woikmg man who had accumulated £100 woith of piopeity would object to pay his small contnbution ; and, ni fact, stated his belief, which is still entertained, that, on the contrary, he would bu proud to do so. Regarding the question of \XNK\UIOX, it had been proposed by some that the colony should annex certain islands in the South ttoas. Whatever he might think of the policy of annexation hy the Imperial (tovci mnent, he thought that such a -top on the part or New Zealand would be simpy folly. Asieg.uds FLDIHIU'ION', he thought the question ought to bo approached with the greatest of caution, and that the cost, both directly and indiiectly, should be \eiy caiefully enquired into bofoic committing the colony to any such scheme. He could not conclude without lofen ing shortly to local pablic works. When one looked round the district and observed how, at a \ery early date, it would be possible to so b} tiain on the one i side to Rotorua and Thames Valley, and Te Aroha, and on the other side to Te Awnniutn and Auckland, it would be admitted that the districts of Waikato and Wai pa had icrson to remember with gratitude the Hall. Whitakor and Atkinson Mimstiy. Mr Whyteconcludcdhisaddiessas follows: — Now, gentlemen, before sitting down I wi-h again to thank you mo»t sincerely and heartily foi the honour which you have done me this day, and al*o for the manner in which it was done. I can .issuie you that your unanimity will -tiengtheu my hands \ery much indeed. It will also strengthen mo veiy much in the House when it is known that I base the whole of alaigeoiK-tituency.it my back, and am not watched suspiciou-ly_ by a large minontv, who find fault with my actions and misinteipiet my moti\e-. [ eumot also help alluding to the manner in which lepio-i'iitative men from all pails of the distiict, on the shortest notice, and at great peiM>nal inconvenience, were present at a meeting in Hamilton last Satin day, for the pmpo-e of showing then apprcciatron of my humble eti'oits on tlicn behalf. Although, gentlemen, I cannot help thinking that the sentiment 1 - then given utteiance to -weieto a \ery laige evtent dictated by the warmth and kindliness of then own natures, I must say that such an evidence of good feeling does one a gi cat deal of good, warms one's heart, and spur.- any man woithy of the name on to do his utmost for such kind friends, to seive their faithfully, and so to conduct himself publicly and pmately that they may nevei have leason m e\er so slight a degree to be ashamed of him. (Loud chceis.)
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Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1877, 17 July 1884, Page 2
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4,799THE WAIKATO ELECTION. Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1877, 17 July 1884, Page 2
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