MINISTER FOR JUSTICE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2560, 22 July 1909, Page 5

MINISTER FOR JUSTICE.

SPEECH AT DUNEDIN

(Per Press Association.) DUNEDIN, July 21. The Hon. Dr. Findlay addressed a large meeting here this evening on the now ideals of democratic Government, and the question of death duties. The Minister said that New Zealand was far in advance of most other countries in the matter of progressive legislation, and the ideal which he and others kept steadily in view was higher civilisation, morally, physically, and intellectually. The chief function of the .State was to meet men and women and make them fitter for effective members of our social system, giving them freedom of opportunity. Let us have national wealth, but let it go hand in hand with the decrease of national want. A feeling had gradually grown up that the State should be kindly and beneficial, and should tend to uplift the people by raising the individual standard. They should begin at the bottom, "with prisoners in gaols, and make them better citizens, and also with the lowest elass, and determine how the waste of health, wealth, and -work could best be restricted. The waste of work was a most important' matter for the State. They ely had an epidemic of unemployment, and while this represented loss of wealth, it meant greater loss in the shape of demoralisation of character, arising from the feeling of despair, and resulting in intemperance, inaptitude, and loss of fitness. The Government should aim to bring within reach of willing workers the means to equip themselves to earn their livelihoods. The speaker also, referred to the waste of capital, which was essentially loss to the laboring interests. The waste cf capital in New _ Zealand was exceedingly great. This could be changed, in large measure, by intelligent bankruptcy accounts. To obviate to some extent tbe waste of wealth by non-use, tlie Government' was about) to come to the aid of the laborer without capital, by placing liim on land tor which, under certain conditions, lie would not be asked to pay rent for lb months. The State must find some means whereby people's leisure time could be employed. Let it; find music and art, and proper theatres, art galleries, etc. Thrift should be encouraged. mere was no more difficult or dangerous path for State . action than artificial interference with t-he< distribution of wealth, but it was the State’s duty to enforce, if possible, a more equitable and lair distribution or wealth. A start had been made already. and more wuoid be done by aitering the death, and taking care ’that where one made money it should not pass into the hands of a man who had not made it and who squandered it idly. The waste from misuse and non-use of land was probably greater here than anywhere else. Unemployment was often beyond the control of the agencies of the Government, but there should be no unemployed class in New Zealand.. Unemployment was a national question, and must be attacked by systematic and proper radical methods which would uot bo merely palliative, breaking of the death duties, he said they may serve two purposes, revenue to the State and the distribution of wealth. The desirability of this was agreed on by the men' of different schools of political thought. There was a growing current opinion iu favor of this view, which, he believed, would also tend to lessen the evil of wasted wealth and idle viciousness of life which frequently followed the inheritance of large fortunes. It was a defect in the New Zealand duties that they were paid in no uniform graduation or rate, as was shown bv the fact that an .estate of £SOOO pays £175, and one of £SOOI pays £3oo. The graduation should proceed on a uniform slowly ascending scale, like the graduated land tax, with a surtax on the share taken by any one individual when it exceeds a certain amount. The limit of total exemption was t-oo low. Where a remote relative, particularly outside New Zealand, takes ail intestacy, the tax should be greatly increased, and the exemption of cliraitable gifts, now frequently tbe subject of litigation and uncertainty, should be on a more satisfactory footing. Some provision should be made that where property is left, or passes on intestaev, to persons other than near relatives, the wealth these persons already own should be first ascertained, and if they are already wealthy, an additional rate should be imposed on the value of the property so left or passing to them.